The country, along with other countries in the world, is silently battling another difficult foe, the destructive forces that will eventually make our once thriving oceans and seas, dark, empty and dead.

The Philippines has one of the richest seas on Earth and it is slowly flowing into the brink of danger. Most of endemic fish species have been endangered and some have long been extinct. The once abundant coral reefs are gradually falling victims to man's oblivious behaviour towards nature. One of the most obvious factors that contribute to this unfortunate fate of our seas, is illegal fishing. May it be using of dangerous illegal ways of fishing, overfishing, fishing in restricted areas, illegal transferring of fishes, it still affects the life that is supposed to make our seas and oceans healthy.

Overfishing has been a major culprit that has been ignored. This deliberate act of catching fishes that doesn't even meet the market specifications will gradually drain our seas of fish. Small fishes are supposed to be left out into the ocean to grow but they often ended up in ships being transported to other parts of the world, illegally. Now there is a fear that the country might not have enough to fish in the coming years. And that is not far from being possible as there were news of fish shortage in the past years.

The most obvious however seemingly unsolved among these factors is pollution. Look at our rivers and imagine them flowing right into our seas. It makes you feel thankful because you are in the highest part of the food chain. However the realization does not bring us as far as telling ourselves, as a thinking animal what should we do to protect those that we also benefit from. Maybe at times we thought about it, but we still manage to throw our garbage in improper places. On the other hand, large scale pollution can't just be attributed to individuals, some industries managed to sneak in and throw their wastes without caring where those wastes go.

Now what can we do about our dying oceans? Aside from not contributing to the pollution, we can also spread the information. Now that you have read this, you have a responsibility to let other people know about the state of our seas. There are global actions regarding illegal fishing and violations of ocean conservations that you can participate in. There are also online petitions that will help urge the government to immediately address this concern. Defending our seas is a battle and sadly, losing this battle is not an option.*