Introduction 



A superficial glance at a chart of the waters of the 

 Philippines will reveal the great extent of the coral reefs. These 

 vast , rough groxinds have heen of great value to i'ilipinos in that 

 there have "been derived from them fishes and other products that 

 have contritruted significantly to the national economy since pre- 

 historic times. Today this great resource is in jeopardy. Ill- 

 advised fishing "by meeois of poisons and explosives has endangered 

 the existence of these areas as producing units. If allowed to 

 continue, such practices will probably exhaust them in the fore- 

 seeable future. It is the purpose of this paper to s\jggest means 

 by which these places can be exploited and at the same time con- 

 served for the future of the nation. 



This leaflet was originally issiied in limited edition 

 and distributed throiighout the Philippines by the Fish and Wildlife 

 Service in cooperation with the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and 

 the IMited States Information Service. 



The Eeefs of the Philippine 



si/ 



Four kinds of reefs are found in the Philippines. The 

 majority of them are along the outlying coasts of the individxial 

 islands and fall under the category of fringing reefs. These 

 rarely exceed three miles in width and generally e^ctend less than 

 one mile from the shore. 



Barrier reefs occur rather sparingly in the Philippines. 

 They are exemplified by the Bohol Barrier Eeef in the northwestern 

 coast of Bohol and the Tawitawi Barrier Eeef in the Sulu Archipelago. 



Atolls are found mainly in the Sulu Archipelago and are 

 small. The Sta. Ctut. Banks located in the southern coast of Zamboanga 

 Peninsula, the Apo Eeef off southwest Mindoro, Peral Bank and Tumindao 

 Atoll in the Sulu Archipelago are some of the important examples in 

 the Philippines. 



A fourth type of coral reef known as a "shoal reef" is 

 also common in the Islands. It is characterized by being a patch 

 of reef below sea level at variable distances from the shore and 

 surroundpd by water 20 to 40 fathoms in depth. This type is , in 

 effect, a fringing reef of broad development on a shelf or submerged 

 bank. Shelves such as the Polillo Shelf on the east side of Luzon, 

 the Visayan Shelf between Panay and Mas bate, the Palawan Shelf 

 surrounding Palawan Island, the Leyte-Samar Shelf east of Leyte, 

 and the Sulu Shelf west of Mindanao contain such reefs and are out- 

 standing examples. 



1/ 1931 I'austino, L. A., Coral reef of the Philippine Islands. 

 Philip. Jour, of Sci. 2 vol. kh 291-307. 



