BIEN UNIDO,Philippines (PIA) — Local government officials in a Bohol town have resorted to using religious images to prevent blast fishers from further ruining the country’s only double barrier reef.

This solution was devised by the local government of Bien Unido, a fairly young town located in northeastern Bohol, some 108 kilometers away from Tagbilaran. The town, with fishing as the primary livelihood source for its 32,000 residents, is known for its devotion to the Holy Child and the Virgin of Fatima and, in an effort to keep dynamite fishers from further destroying the Danajon Double Barrier Reef, local officials led by Mayor Rey Nino Boniel, have submerged religious images of both religious patrons down in said reef.

The Danajon Double Barrier Reef, which extends from Tubigon to Bien Unido, is host to most of the inner and outer reef system of shoals, islets and shallow waters that provide sanctuary to fish and other marine life in the region.

Blast fishing has, however, endangered marine life and adventure divers who plunged into the depths to experience Danajon’s deep sea caves, caverns and walls, according to Alfie Fernandez, a marine protection and conservation advocate member of environmental group, Knight-Stewards of the Sea or Sea Knights.

“We recorded at least 20 blasts a day then,” said Boniel, who has been seeking an end to blast fishing in an effort to promote local tourism and attract divers to Bien Unido.

“There have been strict coastal laws implementation but it did very little to discourage illegal fishers who hide in islands and islets to evade arrest during anti-illegal fishing operations conducted by government,” he said.

That’s when he and other members of local government thought of using people’s devotion to the Santo Nino and Virgin Mary as a way to protect the fragile double reef barrier.

“Knowing our people and their fear of the sacred, we submerged religious images in the reefs creating an underwater grotto of the Lady of Fatima and an underwater coral garden guarded by a 14-feet tall statue of the Santo Niño weighing some four tons,” Boniel related.

Apart from this, the Sea Knights also helped by educating locals in Bien Unido regarding the sustainable use of coastal and marine resources through responsible communities.

The Sea Knights’ ultimate aim is to help empower the coastal communy and assist the local government unit in adopting environment friendly practices, building and strengthening linkages and relationships, promoting volunteerism and community participation, said Fernandez.

Both the private group and the Bien Unido local government also introduced alternative sources of livelihood to the local community such as seaweed farming. “This has reduced tension in the fishing town,” Fernandez said.

Today, Bien Unido has been declared the sea weed capital in the country, with an annual harvest of 73 tons, Boniel said.

Also currently, a series of training activities has been conducted in Bien Unido to equip the townsfolk with the basics in dive guiding and tourism.

Likewise, recently, Bien Unido was launched as home to the Bohol Yacht Club, a move which Boniel describes as “brilliant,” bringing as it does, the right people to the town to help protect the only double barrier reef in the Philippines.