In their aim to protect and rehabilitate the vast fishing grounds fronting this town, officials, environmentalists, fisherfolk and members of civic groups have banded together and built a massive artificial reef, which they sank to the bottom of Lamon Bay on Tuesday. Touted to be the Philippines’ biggest, the concrete, man-made reef is about 4 meters high and 21 meters in diameter, and weighs some 85 tons. It is supported by hundreds of concrete-like balusters joined together in several sections.

The different sections were assembled on land. The steel bars were welded and cemented together.

On top of the artificial reef is a two-inch concrete slab showing an exact replica of the official emblem of Rotary International, the world’s first service club organization.

The giant emblem—a gear wheel with six spokes and 24 cogs with the name of Rotary International written on it—was painted with the club’s official royal blue and gold colors.

“We believe that our artificial reef is the biggest in the country, based on the records we found in the Internet. And for the record, it is also the biggest Rotary emblem in the world,” said Greg de Gracia, a known advocate of the Lamon Bay protection and rehabilitation.

De Gracia, a Rotarian, conceptualized the idea of building the giant reef with the Rotary emblem as model. The club maintains a 5-foot-diameter emblem in its headquarters in the United States.

“The artificial reef is a labor of love by all sectors of the community—local officials, civic groups and the fishermen themselves. Most of the fisherfolk volunteered to work for free,” Oscar Chua, past president of the Rotary Club of Atimonan and chair of the artificial reef project, told reporters.

The fisherfolk organization from the coastal villages of Balubad, Lubi, Talaba and Kilait (Baltak), which De Gracia heads, played a prominent role in the project.

Putting artificial reefs in the Atimonan fishing grounds had long been a dream of the fishermen because of the natural absence of mangrove areas in the vicinity. A mangrove forest is the natural breeding ground of marine species.

“Our catch was getting smaller every day. We could not do anything as the illegal fishers were protected by politicians and influential persons in local government. But when we formed the Baltak fishers group to protect our traditional fishing ground, the situation started to change in our favor,” Anado said.

Seeing the plight of the poor fishermen, the Rotary chapter, in partnership with the municipal government, embarked on the project.

Soldiers from the Armed Forces’ Southern Luzon Command, headed by Col. Nestor Añonuevo, joined in by building several sections of the reef.

The cost of constructing the concrete reef reached P1.2 million, Chua said. “It could [be] more than that if not for the bayanihan work by the fishermen,” he said, adding that the Rotary Club of Madera in the United States provided half of the project cost.

De Gracia, owner of the De Gracia beach resort where the giant reef was constructed, said the project was started in November last year.

The proponents collected more than 1,000 sacks of styrofoam and rubber pieces to serve as floaters. A sack full was bought at P25 each. The indigenous floaters were tied under the water inside the different sections of the reef.

“The long coastline of the Lamon Bay in Atimonan and nearby towns had been cleaned of styro and rubber debris because of our buying frenzy. The project provided extra income to coastal residents,” Chua said.

Local government officials, blue-shirted Rotarians, fisherfolk’s families and soldiers were in high spirit at the formal launch of the artificial reef.

However, despite the assistance of military divers to pull the reef into the open sea, where it would be dropped, the effort failed due to extreme low tide and shortage of floaters to keep the massive concrete above water.

On Aug. 11, De Gracia said the group was able to float the reef at around 6 a.m. and successfully dragged the huge structure to its target drop site four hours later with the help of big fishing boats.

Help also came from bus operators and concerned citizens who lent steel, plastic drums and other floaters to make the giant reef float.

Military divers and fishermen entangled the floaters from the concrete to submerge it.

“The reef finally made the touchdown at around 2 p.m.” De Gracia said.

De Gracia said the goal of the proponents was not only to provide an artificial breeding ground for marine species but transform the huge reef into another diving site for local and foreign tourists.

“The divers can swim around the maze of balusters. The center of the reef can also serve as a wedding altar for romantic divers,” De Gracia said, chuckling.

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