⌛ Philippines - the most diverse marine region on earth?

Can we post all articles/thoughts/opinions/links and arguments to support or counter this claim - "Philippines has the most bio-diverse marine life in the world".

Seems to be a claim of much interest, so post away!

 

Whats your trip with Osama Bin Laden?

 

what's your trip with Disney cartoon characters?

 

can,t touch this.. ?? !!!

Melvin Tincklediver, you know what is so funny now . I have blocked all KIDDO ,s post at my computer so I can only read SENSEABLE stuff from others including yours..
Hahaha... I can only imaginze why you react like this but never can be sure as I don,t know his post..

Is Bin Laden one of his Dive mates perhaps... just a wild guess....:D

 

Pickled Newt links

Hi Pickled Newt,

Just read those links that you posted on the other thread. First of all, many thanks for the info and made good reading! And it has also impressed upon me that Philippines is one of the most diverse marine areas on earth, which I didn’t doubt anyway.

But the ‘New Species Found In Philippines Waters’ - that’s in the Celebes Sea, which is also part of Indonesia.

And the ‘Philippines President Enacts New Conservation Policy’ – also refers to Sulawesi, part of Indonesia.

There’s also an interesting quote: "Several studies confirm that the central Philippines region, from Luzon to Mindanao, has more marine species per unit area than any other place on the planet," said Kent Carpenter

- This claim is per sq km, not in absolute terms – Indonesia is much bigger, covers the same latitude and very close to Philippines, but also stretches much further east and west all the way beyond Thailand into the Indian Ocean, so it has all those regional species on its books too (from Komodo, Sulawesi and Sumatra)!

Anyway, I have some more subsequent info on Raja Ampat to add to counter this claim in my next post…

The 2004 study by Old Dominion University and the Smithsonian Institute report to which you refer is also simply a geographical analysis of oceans and regions, rather than actual and specific coral and fish species counts – hardly the same thing, and not as statistically correct as on-the-ground counts.

I’ll get onto those in the next post… coming just now …

 

Corals and fishes in the whole world

Let’s just have a quick look at the overall parameters of the question:

Unesco state – the world has catalogued more than 800 species of reef-building coral and 4000 species of reef-dwelling fish.


The Nature Conservancy Coral Triangle website home page states that they do on-site conservation work in Indonesia, Philippines, PNG, Solomons and NE Borneo, so they should be a god source of info … let’s read what they have to say …

They state:

TCT is home to over 600 reef-building coral species, or 75% of all species known to science, and more than 3,000 species of reef fish.

Okay, so that’s the big cake that we’re looking to measure the slices of …

 

New Conservation International research from Raja Ampat

Just come across some exciting and current news on the web, and from credible sources (in fact the same sources Earl the scientist has been quoting).

On this site TerraDaily and CDNN - reports:

Sept 2006 - Two recent expeditions led by Conservation International (CI) to the heart of Asia's "Coral Triangle" discovered dozens of new species of marine life including epaulette sharks, "flasher" wrasse and reef-building coral, confirming the region as the Earth's richest seascape.

The unmatched marine biodiversity of the Bird's Head Seascape, named for the shape of the distinctive peninsula on the northwestern end of Indonesia's Papua province, includes more than 1,200 species of fish and almost 600 species of reef-building (scleractinian) coral, or 75 percent of the world's known total.

Off the coast, researchers found more than 50 species of fish, coral and mantis shrimp previously unknown to science.

Whoops there goes Earl’s brag about Indo having no endemic species (which was a total load of bull droppings anyway).

 

You've got him spinning like a top Earlmj!

 

Older research

Back to The Nature Conservancy website …

The Raja Ampat Islands. Scientific surveys of Raja Ampat by the Conservancy and our partners recorded the highest coral and fish diversities found on Earth, including 537 coral species— an incredible 75% of all known species —and 1,074 fish species.

And Ecological characteristics CTC :
- Very high habitat diversity.
- Raja Ampat has very high species diversity and a high level of endemism (Yes Earl, I can’t hear you. What were you saying? )
- It is the area with the highest biodiversity in the Coral Triangle (75 % of the world’s coral species found here), and 5-6% of all coral species found here have not been found anywhere else.
- Cenderawasih Bay is less well-studied, but may be similar to Raja Ampat.
- Biggest leatherback nesting areas in the world in the North of Bird’s Head.

Komodo National Park. The park is home to an amazing 1,000 species of fish, 260 species of reef-building corals, 70 species of sponges, 17 whale and dolphin species, two species of sea turtles, and the famous Komodo dragon.

(Note that these 1,000 species in Komodo will not all be the same species as in Raja Ampat – they are a long distance apart.

The Derawan Islands. Renowned by divers for their rich coral reefs and hundreds of manta rays, the Derawan Islands feature some of the most significant green turtle nesting beaches in Southeast Asia and a unique saltwater lake with four endemic, stingless jellyfish species. The area’s reefs are extremely diverse because of the influence of the Berau River on the coastal waters.

Surprised to read that the Solomon islands has 494 coral species!

In Philippines TxtMania states 500 coral species, others (including Philippine tourism website) state 488. Yes, I’m sure the counts will go up in the Philippines as more research is done, but it will in Indonesia too!

Then, on fish counts – In 2002 Gerald Allen (the same guy that does all the fish ID books), set a world record of 283 fish identified on a single dive in Raja Ampat – (BBC).

Seems to me that the only conclusion to draw from this research of evidence on the internet (maybe not 100% accurate, but evidence nonetheless), is that Raja Ampat has more documented fish and coral species alone than the whole of the Phils, and Indonesia as a whole (due to its size and wide spread location) would only add plenty more on top of those numbers. Philippines comes close but the current documented evidence clearly favours Indonesia.

That’s all I can find anyone care to do some more research? Would be interesting to read other reports …

Yes, I know it’s only info from the internet, but it’s a good source of accurate info if one uses credible sources. I’m not a self-proclaimed expert on this myself …

 

Time for BAY and GONE....

O well Mevlin Tincklespinner , at least we have fun , di ba.
Boy that guy is in real deap sh*t with his attitute.. Come to think ,some here think that I AM ARROGANT.. I am NOWHERE even NEAR that KIDDO and he keeps comming back like a nasty Mosquito .. TIME FOR THE BAYGON and a GOOD BYE GONE ................

IGNORANCE HAS A NAME.....and he is right under my ignore button :D :D

Good thing he did not post his picture here . we could recognize him in the streets ...Then again .. If you do she somebody walking next to his shoes.. IT MUST BE HIM !!