Various coral life forms can be seen underneath the vast seas of Kinablangan and Saoquigue both situated in Baganga, Davao Oriental. Both are, in fact, part of Baganga Bay Protected Landscape and Seascape which is one of Davao Region’s Protected Areas as well as of the Baganga Mangrove Swamp Forest Reserve (BMSFR) which was declared as such under Presidential Proclamation No. 2152 in 1991.
As BMSFR is envisioned as a legislated protected area that will undergo a wider and substantially more effective environmental conservation approaches, the reserve was subjected to a Protected Area Sustainability Assessment. With this, the site’s habitat condition are regularly gauged along with constant diversity assessment of coral reef, seagrass beds, reef-fish community structure and mangrove forest.
Apropos to said conservation effort, a team of divers from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-XI headed by Regional Executive Director Bagani Fidel A. Evasco conducted a diving activity in Kinablangan and Saoqigue as part of the agency’s underwater assessment as well as ecotourism site discovery and dive exploration.
Observed during the assessment were various corals such as the branching forms of Acropora spp, Porites sp. and the massive eye and brain coral reef colony. In addition, a lizardfish and two tiger cowry were also observed. But one noteworthy discovery about the site is its several “cleaning stations” manifested by the banded shrimps and the blue-streaked cleaner wrasse, photos of which were captured by Director Evasco himself.
- Details
- Parent Category: News & Events
- Category: Press Releases
- Published: 31 August 2022