The marine biodiversity in Sandy Cay situated in the West Philippine Ocean (WPS) is currently in a "debased state" due to overfishing, environmental change effects, and island-building exercises in the WPS, a specialist said on Saturday. During the Saturday News Gathering, sea life researcher Dr. Jonathan Anticamara illustrated the marine biodiversity encompassing Sandy Cay. Sandy Cay is an area contiguous Pag-asa Island, arranged in the region of Kalayaan, situated inside the West Philippine Ocean.
"Pag-asa Cays have under 10 coral and fish species per 100 sqm cut across that we studied, and the majority (of) the noticed corals and fish species are little in sizes," Anticamara said during the introduction of his group's evaluation. "A considerable lot of the corals here in this island, including Pag-asa Island itself and the cays, are presently debased. By debased, I imply that a significant number of the corals are currently little, a ton of the enormous corals are dead, and there's not much of live corals per unit region any longer, so there are not many leftover," he added.
Anticamara referenced that the coral rubbles on Cays 1, 2 and 3 should be visible during elevated tide, where the trash are unloaded on enormous live coral states. In September 2023, specialists found expired and divided corals on Sandy Cay 2, a training supposedly commonplace of China before starting area recovery endeavors. "The heap of sand and rubble on Pag-asa Cays 1, 2 and 3 have numerous qualities that are abnormal for normally shaped coral or sandy boundary islands, showing that these are conceivably result of island building exercises that are seen in WPS, however with some level of vulnerability," Anticamara said.
Jay Tarriela, representative for the Public Team for the West Philippine Ocean (NTF-WPS), quickly credited the "debasement" of Sandy Cay to China. "Assuming you will ask me now, who is our suspect in doing these unlawful little island recovery in Cays 1, 2, 3, 4? There could be no other country that we can pinpoint, it's just Individuals' Republic of China," said Tarriela. In Walk, a gathering of Filipino sea life researchers supported wounds following detailed badgering by a Chinese Naval force helicopter close to Sandy Cay.
Supposedly, the helicopter flew at low height over the blending shoals and the researchers for a span of ten minutes. The disturbance produced by the helicopter scattered perished corals, bringing about cuts and scratches on the Filipino analysts. China states sway over almost the whole South China Ocean, a crucial course for more than $3 trillion in yearly sea exchange, enveloping regions likewise guaranteed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei.
Certain regions inside the Philippines' selective financial zone have been assigned as the West Philippine Ocean. In 2016, a global mediation court in The Hague decided that China's cases needed legitimate defense. Beijing excused the decision.