Fishers in the Philippines’ Batangas Bay are struggling to make ends meet and feed their families as nearby coastal areas are developed into a natural gas import hub, Mongabay contributor Nick Aspinwall reported in July. Families that have been fishing in Batangas Bay for years have been asked by local officials to leave to make way for the expansion of liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants in the area as the government eyes the development of a shipping “superhighway” for LNG, Aspinwall wrote. “They told me, ‘Do not be an obstacle to the development of this town,’” Wilma Abanil, a resident of the fishing village of Santa Clara, told Mongabay. The nearby Verde Island Passage is a known biodiversity hotspot and a frequent fishing location. But the construction of a large LNG terminal on the adjacent coast of Ilijan has seen armed security guards turning away fishers, who are prohibited from fishing within 300 meters (about 1,000 feet) of the terminal. Jaime Ulysses Gilera, a fisher, said he hasn’t been able to catch much fish, with the waters off Ilijan now inaccessible. He also said sediment from the plant construction have worsened the condition of the nearby corals, which are already bleaching due to climate change. According to Gilera, their fish catch has been reduced to just one-tenth of what they used to get 10 years ago. “There will be a domino effect in the marine environment,” said Jayvee Saco, head of the Verde Island Passage Center for Oceanographic Research and…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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