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People and the Sea Activity Report 2022

HEALTHY SEAS BEGIN ON LAND Few phrases have described People and the Sea’s vision so well. These 5 words summarise why we work so hard to engage everyone into each of our actions. Protecting the ocean, marine life, biodiversity and ecosystems has to be planned, discussed, and most of all, agreed upon by all people […]

Coral Reef Monitoring Summary

This document is a summary of the ‘CORAL REEF MONITORING REPORT’ of People and the Sea. It presents the main results and conclusions of our Marine Habitat Survey Programme, analysing data collected since 2015 on the reefs surrounding Malapascua Island and the wider municipality of Daanbantayan. The PDF version  of the full report is available […]

People and the Sea Annual Report 2021

As the 2020 Annual Report was published, we never thought that a year later we would be writing again about a year having to deal with the COVID pandemic. But here we are. Needless to say, it has continued to prove a challenging time. The PepSea team have continued to work with dedication and energy […]

People and the Sea Annual Report 2020

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY As the COVID pandemic started to take hold in March 2020, our volunteeroperations had to be suspended. Like many countries around the world, the Filipino government imposed a system of ‘lockdown’, designed to halt the spread of the virus by limiting social interactions. For Malapasuca, these lockdown measures forced a stop to travel, […]

Sustainable Fisheries Report 2020

Icon for our Sustainable Fisheries report with positive human impacts for the sea.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Sustainable Fisheries Programme was added to the core project activities of People and the Sea in 2019. It offers a holistic approach to achieve the goals of marine conservation in Malapascua Island. Many families still rely solely on fishing as their primary source of income, despite tourism having quickly developed over the […]

Typhoon Ursula Assessment Report

Download our typhoon assessment report, with implications for their affect for the Philippines.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Early on the morning of Christmas Day 2019, Typhoon Ursula (orPhanfone) passed through the Philippines with wind speeds ofup to 175 km/h, leaving a trail of destructionin its wake. The Visayas, and the north of the Province of Cebu in particular, were among the most impacted landscapesand communities. But typhoon Ursula did not […]

Quantifying threats to reef-building corals in the Visayas

A study into marine water quality and ocean pollution based in the Philippines

ABSTRACT Coral reefs are large marine ecosystems, ecologically viable for more than 25% of marine species and habitats. Scleractinian are of the most important. These are reef-builders characterised by their ‘hard’ structural exterior of polyp colonies – marine invertebrates on their skeleton thriving off of calcium carbonate stored in oceans from successive colonies. The significance […]

Tool Use by Four Species of Indo-Pacific Sea Urchins (JMSE Journal Article)

Download Icon for Urchin Tool Use reseach journal paper

INTRODUCTION While somewhat late in making it to the People and the Sea website, here you will find the full manuscript of our first, peer-reviewed scientific paper to be published in a recognised journal. The research, led by Glyn Barrett (a previous Lead Science Officer on-site for People and the Sea) and Klaus Stiefel (a […]

Marine Habitat Mapping with GIS (MSc. Project)

Front cover image on marine habitat map research project

INTRODUCTION The goal of creating a habitat map is to identify the distribution of different type of habitats within a defined area (Nicet et al., 2015). The term ‘habitat’ in ecology brings together all the species, their biocenoses* but also their biotope*. Marine habitat maps are required to provide a better understanding of the marine […]

Crown-of-Thorn Population Assessment (MSc. Project)

Image of Masters Research on COT front cover

ABSTRACT Crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci L.), or COTS, is a predatory starfish that feeds on corals across the Indo-Pacific. If the COTS population density increases sufficiently for their feeding rate to exceed the average growth rate of the coral, this is referred to as an ‘outbreak’. These outbreaks are a major cause of coral mortality […]

Coral Reef Monitoring Report

Coral Reef Monitoring Report 2018 download icon

ABSTRACT This report summarises the findings of data collected from January to December 2018, as well as historical data collected since 2016 through the reef monitoring activities carried out by People and the Sea in the Municipality of Daanbantayan, Province of Cebu, Philippines. The collected data include benthic cover, hard coral lifeforms, coral impacts and […]

PepSea Crown-of-Thorns Work Summary

Download icon for PepSea Crown of Thorns work summary

INTRODUCTION People and the Sea has been monitoring the coral reefs around Malapascua since the beginning of their activities on the island in early 2015. Part of that monitoring includes recording the abundance of coral predators such as COTs. Hence, People and Sea has three years of data showing the evolution of COTs on ten […]