A maritime affairs expert on Friday said Filipino scientists seeded giant clams in Scarborough Shoal in the late 1980s, only for Chinese fishermen to steal it decades later. Jay Batongbacal, director of the University of the Philippines Institute of Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea, said marine biologist Ed Gomez invented a process to breed giant clams after is overexploitation resulted in scarcity of most indigenous species. Reports showed Chinese fishermen mass harvested giant clams in Scarborough Shoal, undoing the work of Filipino scientists.

Batongbacal: Filipino scientists seeded giant clams, China stole it. (2019, April 27). Panay News, pp. 8, 10.