Tubbataha Reef
The name Tubbataha Reef called an archipelago of two atolls in the central Sulu Sea. They belong to the province of Palawan in the Philippines.
Geography
The two atolls around six kilometers away from each other lying together form the largest coral reef in the Philippines. They belong to the community Mapun. The name Tubbataha comes from the Samal. In its implications, he refers to a large reef which protrudes only at low tide from the water. According to another interpretation, it is intended to mean " resting place of the mantas ". The reef is located in the middle of the Sulu Sea, about 160 km southeast of Puerto Princesa, the capital of Palawan.
In both coral atolls roof has a width between 100 and 300 m, is almost completely under water at high tide and forms under strong ebb a closed form over water. At its center lie flat, sandy lagoons that form an ideal abode for stingrays and turtles. Fall outwards coral walls in stages up to 1000 m, a few kilometers to over 2,200 m from.
Tubbatawa North Reef is 17.4 km long and up to 5.5 km wide. It has a total area of 80 km ², and the lagoon is up to 24 meters deep, according to other sources up to 33 meters. The Ringriff is closed, and there is no boat entrance to the lagoon. The atoll has two islands (North and Central Islet Islet ), are also some black rocks constantly afloat. The few thousand square-foot main island of North Islet (also Bird Iceland or Tubba Tawa Iceland ) at the northeastern end of the atoll with a height of 1.2 meters is covered by grass and guano. At low tide, some sandbanks come to light that are each about 90 feet long.
Tubbataha Reef South is about 8.0 km long and up to 5.5 km wide. At its southern tip is the 1.6 meter high South Islet, with an old lighthouse still in operation, the extremely faint light is not suitable for navigation. In addition, BlackRock and other black rocks and Sandcays lie to the north of the atoll constantly afloat.
24.5 km north west of North Islet is the Jessie Beazley Reef.
Geology
The 500- km long and 30 km wide, Cagayan de Sulu back shares the Sulu Sea in the northwest and southeast Basin and connects the reef islands of Cagayan, with the neighboring islands Arena and Cawili and Tubbataha and Cagayan de Sulu northeast of Borneo.
Presumably, the atolls of Tubbataha by a collapse in caldera (underground magma chamber ) have emerged on the edges of a now almost 100 m high limestone roof is formed by the tiny coral polyps over thousands upon thousands of generations and produced the first steep section. This hypothesis is supported by the just south of the archipelago extending Sulugraben poking east to the Negro Graben - the north leads to the Manila trench on. Especially in these disorders could have occurred by plate tectonics and subduction volcanic activities.
Mariner National Park
The Philippine President Corazon Aquino declared on 11 August 1988, the reef and the surrounding National Park Tubbataha Reef National Marine Park. In order for the commercial fishing and the collection of coral have been banned, which, however, only slowly, then in February 2000 was to enforce almost completely and comprehensively through the establishment of a permanent ranger station on a southern sand bank in the northern atoll. In 1993, the National Park has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. The protected until now stretches from 8 ° 44 ' - 8 ° 57 ' North and 119 ° 48 ' - 120 ° 03'. In early 2005 the northwest lies Jessie Beazley Reef was incorporated with a diameter of 500 m and a 10 m long at high tide and 1 m high sand bank. While it is still the fish and even anchors allowed, from 2006 to this also be prevented. On 23 August 2010 the reserve was under the guidelines of Republic Act 7586, re-classified in coordination with UNESCO and since then reported as Tubbataha Reef Natural Park. The Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park is one of the six conservation areas of the Philippines, which have been designated as Ramsar sites.
7% of the entry fees go directly into the budget of the Greater Municipality Cagayancillo in Cagayan Islands, as the Tubbataha Atoll is managed by her. In Cagayan Archipelago, there are also excellent dive sites.
Flora and Fauna
In 970.30 km ² of marine natural park located on an area of approximately 100 km ² coral reefs. This makes it the third largest contiguous coral reef system in the Philippines, which (again) is largely intact due to its remote location and is calculated in the hit list of dive magazines of the 10 most beautiful world. The French diving pioneer Jacques -Yves Cousteau visited this reef as a single twice.
However, it is not a pristine, unspoilt reef. Especially the mid to late 1980s was poached extensively with cyanide and dynamite and all other legal and illegal fishing methods; not only, but also by foreign trawlers, which mostly came from the People's Republic of China, Vietnam and Korea. In addition, damage from trawls, leashes and anchors. The consequences are still obvious, although large areas of coral rubble are now well overgrown. The walls, especially in the deeper regions have hardly suffered. In the waters of the reef can be observed approximately 500 different species of fish like the white tip reef shark, rare black- tip reef sharks, gray reef sharks, eight species of marine mammals (among dolphins ), large tuna and mackerel, grouper, Napoleon wrasse, jewelry lobster, stingrays already rare but not uncommon. On the islands of the reef itself Nistgelege the soup and hawksbill turtle found. Rare guests, but the chance is certainly present, are manta rays and whale sharks. There are also about 374 species of soft and hard corals, sea grass meadows and an endless supply of microorganisms. A stir in places the subjects of countless huge sea fans, many soft corals indicate good water quality.
20 to 30 metric tons per Quadratseemeile be accepted as a general indicator of good status of a reef Scientific biomass. According to a survey Tubbataha has 87.2 to offer, on the second place in the Philippines there is Puerto Galera / Mindoro Northeastern far behind with 26.24 t again.
Completing the inventory by 44 species of birds, many of them nest on only 300-500 m wide island in the northern atoll with sparse vegetation; here is an absolute prohibition order. The area is mainly used by terns ( Weißkappennoddi, Anous minutus; Eilseeschwalbe, Thalasseus bergii Noddi, Anous stolidus; ; Sooty Tern, Onychoprion fuscatus ) inhabited and brown boobies (Sula leucogaster ). Occasional visitors are albatrosses and Arielfregattvögel ( Fregatta ariel ).
Diving
The magnificent underwater landscape with its species richness has also attracted many sport divers. Although the reef can be visited because of the rough sea from mid- March to mid- June and the arrival by boat from Puerto Princesa takes 11 to 15 hours (depending on boat and weather conditions), the attractiveness for the divers is increasing more and more. Nevertheless, the atolls reach just less than one thousand people per year. The underwater visibility, depending on conditions 15 to 40 m, and on some days - especially in May - up to 45 m.
In the Tubbataha atolls sudden, extreme, dangerous for inexperienced divers vertical and horizontal flows occur ( " washing ").
Incidents
On 17 January 2013, the USS Guardian ( Avenger - class ), a minesweeper of the U.S. Navy ran in the Marine National Park due, destroying about 1,000 m² of coral reef.