A FLAT PLACE

With my dive buddies, Ramon and Dennis Nakpil in tow, the early morning fog and mist-filled ridge of Tagaytay all the way down to Batulao highlights the cruise en route to our dive excursion. Sadly, the once-scenic ridge in Luzon, Tagaytay has transformed into a horrific carnival and fast food row complete with candy colored street lights. Fortunately

though, past the Cavite–Batangas boundary only a few new residences have mushroomed saving the pleasantry in driving through. The rolling hills of sugarcane along Nasugbu, the 97-year-old Central Azucarera Don Pedro plantation, the WWII-era trucks hauling the harvests, the scent of molasses along Lian’s bridge, the small sugarcane hills towards Matabungkay, and the grass airstrip on the estate of Don Santiago Zobel and the Ayalas all seem to have been frozen in time. The only things that could be construed as “modern” were the air-conditioned buses that ply the Manila-Calatagan route, a bank ATM, and a branch of the ubiquitous fast food chain Jollibee in Nasugbu.

FLATS

We made a quick stop at the junction of Matuod and Lian’s national road to meet-up with our guest diver and friend, Ed Hontiveros.  Ed is an architect by profession. He and his sister Maan have supported De La Salle University’s Marine Biological Station in Matuod for decades. They work as volunteer research divers helping monitor the marine ecosystem in and around Talin Bay.

After an easy 2½ hour drive, we reached the main town of Calatagan, whose name translates to “a flat place”. The Sto. Domingo de Silos church built in 1913 greets visitors driving entering the town proper. Noticeably, there are more residences and sari-sari stores standing than before as well as a handful of resorts, but no fast food chains. The end of the road wharf that used to accommodate a small cattle barge and a few outrigger boats or bankas is now five times as large, heavily built to accommodate midsized “roll-on roll-off” ferries transporting passengers and goods across the islands of Mindoro.

Calatagan does not describe its own rather hilly landscape as much as it does its underwater terrain. From the inner shores of Pagapas Bay, around the 120-year-old Cape Santiago lighthouse or Punta de Santiago, Lian and all the way up to Nasugbu, the flat sandy substrate is quite consistent, varying only in reef formation.

The Punta de Santiago lighthouse stands 20 meters away from the bluff of the southern most point of Calatagan. It has a 15.5 m

high brick tower topped with a relatively new Japanese-made aluminum lantern. Around which, is a balcony supported by Spanish-designed wrought iron angular grills similar to those in the Capones island lighthouse. Named after its land donor Don Santiago Zobel, Punta de Santiago’s tower can be reached via a cast iron spiral staircase. Its beacon serves as a guide for ships plying the Verde Island Passage between Luzon and Mindoro to and from Manila. For decades, even with this navigational light, Calatagan’s shallow reefs have caused several ships to run aground especially during the stormy months of July-September.

Barrier tidal reefs spread parallel to shore all the way up to the Matabungkay and Nasugbu areas. The reef provides tide pools between the mangroves and the open sea that keeps marine fingerlings safe from large predators, allowing them to grow bigger and stronger before swimming out
into the deep.
 

In the 1950’s, approximately 133 hectares of mangrove trees could be seen in Pagapas Bay alone. In the early 90’s only 27 hectares were left. Although Pagapas Bay and the whole municipal waters of Calatagan were declared a Marine Reserve, today the shoreline of Calatagan continues to lose its mangroves, some of which have been replaced with either fish ponds or private beach properties clearing away corals from their frontages, to allow room for more recreational areas or ponds using the same corals as walls or dikes.

HISTORY

Calatagan also has a special place in our country’s history. As early as 1958, archaeologists have found many traces of pre-colonial trade in Calatagan. The Archeological Division of the National Museum made burial site diggings in Kay Tomas (part of the former Hacienda de Calatagan, acquired by the Zobel de Ayala family in 1829) and Pulong Bakaw.  They unearthed 14th and 15th century ceramics such as glass bracelets, bowls, and vessels from China made during the Ming Dynasty, Celadon and Sawankhalok vessels from Thailand and Indo-China, as well as Annamese vessels from Vietnam. They also discovered locally-made pottery such as earthenware jars, plates, basins, pots, and other vessels with different patterns made by incisions and impressions. One of the more famous jars found was called the Calatagan Jar or Bangang Kalatagan, which has inscriptions in the Philippines most ancient script, Baybayin.

Other than the National Museum, a few of these artifacts and replicas can also be seen in a resort in Kay Tomas, whose frontage was once a mangrove area.

FISHING GROUND

Since we were not aware of any dive resort in Calatagan, we rented scuba cylinders from Milton Pedrigal the day before leaving Manila. Milton is a good friend and one of the old salts in the diving community who specializes in rebuilding and repairing scuba compressors.

Finding a boat for diving in Calatagan was quite a task. Luckily, Ramon managed to find our aging boatman, Mang Joaquin who arranged the most suitable boat for us. Though he no longer steers boats, his nephew was just as skillful. A relic of the past, only a Briggs-and-Stratton powered Bangka fit for three divers (we were four with 8 tanks plus gear) allowed us to slugushly access the sites. 

We set our base beside a nipa hut adjacent 

to Playa Calatagan, a leisure-commercial-residential resort. The frontage consisted of white sandy beach that stretched out flat to the intertidal zone ending in a natural barrier reef. It was the closest place for the boat to dock and load our gear. 

We made our first dive near the dead lighthouse or parolang patay. After missing the reef for almost an hour, we finally found one and were surprised to see a few healthy reefs with some juvenile groupers, gray sweet lips, and a juvenile turtle. Dennis and Ed missed the reef and spent their bottom time swimming on the sandy bottom. Not all the corals were as colorful; some were covered with brown algae.

Since we didn’t see any access to a nearby shore, we decided to motor back and have lunch in our base. Under the coconut trees, on a bamboo table and benches we exchanged pleasantries as we ate our meal and enjoyed the cool sea breeze and view.

Reef clusters or pulo-pulo are quite abundant in the deeper reef of Calatagan. Though a bit hard to spot, they are located several meters out from the barrier reef and extend past 90 feet deep almost a kilometer away from shore. Flat sandy beds are quite common.

Decades ago, gargantuan predators such as the marble grouper or kalatang (or super large lapu-lapu) dominated the reef together with the square and moon tail or secilla groupers, hunchback or apahap groupers. Red snappers, huge moray eels, sweet lips, sting rays, and cuttle-fishes hopped from one reef to another in seek of their prey.  Spiny lobsters such as the green, blue, brown, curacha, and the pitik also lived communally in the area. Green turtles can often be seen surfacing to take a breath of air if not resting on a reef. Large needle-nose fish, flying fishes, jacks and mantas would from time-to-time jump out of the water escaping from a predator, while a few sports fishers/anglers would also wait out at sea for a jack or a king mackerel to take a bite off their baited hooks.

According to the 2006 initial samplings made by the University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute, the water circulating within the Verde Island Passage corridor distribute spawning areas and settlement sites in certain months of the year. The western part of Balayan Bay including Calatagan’s Pagaspas and Punta de Santiago area have high densities of fish eggs and larvae. Even higher concentrations can be found around Tingloy, Verde Island, the islets and shoals of Calapan and Puerto Galera.

OVER FISHING

Even with the intervention of coastal resource management groups along the Nasugbu, Lian and Calatagan shores and the presence of the Bantay Dagat, the effects of illegal fishing have taken its toll in Calatagan’s reefs. Empty coral heads and the presence of brownish slime encapsulating sections of its reef give it a ghostly aura.   

Regarded as sea guardians by the local populace, the Bantay Dagat (lit. “Sea Guard”) are made up of civilian volunteers tasked to keep a 24-hour watch on Philippine coastal waters up to 15 kilometers from shore. Equipped with patrol boats, they are only allowed to protect municipal waters as mandated by law. Calatagan’s Bantay Dagat has a base near Punta de Santiago where they also provide a dive guide and a few diving equipment for hire for those wishing to tour the several artificial reefs in front of the Madrigal’s beach house.

The Calatagan Artificial Reef and Fish Sanctuary was established in 1999 by Vicente Madrigal Warns with the cooperation of the Barangay Bagong Silang and help from volunteer divers. In response to the rampant blast and cyanide fishing occurring in the area, the project was conceived as a tool for community awareness to protect and preserve their marine ecosystem and for the artificial reef to serve as a new breeding haven for both new and displaced marine faunas.

We decided to make our second dive on the artificial reef site. As we descended past one of the buoy markers, one could see a strange looking dark and massive object at the bottom. Once the view became clearer, you get to feel as if you’re landing on a Mayan-pyramid. The main artificial reefs truly looked like one, measuring around 13 meters tall on its apex and 10 meters wide at the base the monolithic structure is a pile of molded

blocks made of mortar mixed with discarded corals with interconnecting open canals from one reef to another. Each hallow blocks had tube entrances leading to its inner chamber. There were also some four foot hallow pyramids littered on the sandy bottom. Young coral encrustations and small reef fishes have already taken foot on these man made structures.

After the dive we headed back to our base. We took turns in bathing, one pumping by hand the cold deep well water outside the hut.

The end of the dive brought us mixed feelings. The unexpected sighting of a variety of marine life and seeing the artificial reef was a treat. On the other hand, we were disappointed to see traces of dead coral heads and wondered if the remaining reefs and surrounding ecosystem are being monitored.

TREASURES

After decades of skipping out on Calatagan in our dive destinations list, we found some of its marine resources in a much better state than Matabungkay and Nasugbu areas. The effects of fish pond expansion, its discharges and resort development should be of great concern to the community.

Hopefully, the communal guardians and residents will continue to work in unison  pursuing their mission in helping Calatagan’s reefs, tidal flats, mangroves, and interconnecting natural resources to recover, and bring back its myriad of marine treasures for its people and future generations.

Amidst all the changes it has undergone, Calatagan is still a quiet provincial town. Whatever transformations its settlers and migrants wish to make, it must be tempered with a continued proactive concern and respect for their coastal environment.