One cloudy afternoon last June, I skipped a dive during the extended transition trip from Tubbataha to Batangas of the Discovery Fleet’s sleek, comfortable dive boat M/V Discovery Palawan, so Angelique Songco, the indefatigable Protected Area Superintendent of Tubbata Reefs Natural Park, could entrust me to her veteran Marine Park Ranger Segundo “Seconds” Conales of the Tubbataha Management Office (TMO). Seconds took the Discovery Fleet’s operations head and photographer Yvette Lee, photographer Andrei Voinigescu, and myself for a quick spin by TMO speedboat around the little strip of land known as Bird Islet. It was a rare treat, as no visitors are allowed within a hundred meters of the place to leave the residents in peace. We got close enough to see the seabirds’ new manmade digs—bamboo structures in different forms, with gradations like stairs or shelves, and with several little “units” already occupied. Although the small forest that once existed there was gone, despite the Rangers’ replanting efforts, it was heartening to see much life—mothers were herding their chicks along the beach. “We should build apartments for some 2,000 birds,” Songco reveals. “We’re about halfway there.” More will come up as well on Tubbataha’s South Islet, where the construction of a new lighthouse, a Coast Guard facility required for navigation in the area, was recently completed, and will help prevent the island’s further erosion.

Honasan, A. B. (2019, August 18). Tubbataha: ‘We must build apartments for some 2,000 birds—we’re halfway there’. Philippine Daily Inquirer, p. C5.