Empowering Resilience For Livelihoods and Aquatic Biodiversity
Covid-19 Fundraising For Coastal Communities Suffering Extreme Weather Events
"In many regions, 90% of people who depended on tourism such as scuba diving have returned to fishing for their livelihoods, many want to, but don't have the resources to buy fishing gear or boats."
Wilma's Story
Wilma is one of many single parents in the Philippines living in areas once vibrant with scuba diving tourism who has reached out to ReefScan for help.
Many women on remote islands which were once popular tourist destinations are jobless and struggling to feed their families due to COVID19. Once employed in the tourist sector, they now seek alternative livelihoods which they can undertake while looking after small children.
COVID19 has caused economic shifts from employment to subsistence livelihoods where food is scarce and preserving commodities like fish in increasingly warmer tropical weather and extreme weather events is essential and transporting goods further afield is more commonplace due to declines in local demand from tourists.
However, in many cases, women do not have the resources to kickstart novel businesses which reduce food waste by having facilities such as ice-making freezers to keep their stocks fresh, so ReefScan is actively assisting them to develop novel strategies for their business models and reduce post-harvest losses.
While you might think "there are plenty more fish in the sea," reducing post-harvest loss reduces the need to go and find more fish on a daily basis, and so reduces pressure on aquatic biodiversity. It also enables higher returns for better quality products and increases food safety, nutrition and hygiene.
Thanks to your kind donations, Gina is now fully operational producing ice on a remote island in the Philippines.

ReefScan Fundraising Updates
Gilly Reached His Target!
Your kind donations raised over £500!
You helped Gilly buy an anchovy fishing net so that he can feed his family. He was a guide on the famous dive destination, Malapascua, but has had no income for 8 months

Felimar Reached His Target!
But the cost was more than expected due to the scarcity of materials so any extra donations are very much appreciated!
Your kind donations raised over £900!
Felimar was a Divemaster on Malapascua, he is currently spearfishing to feed his family and needs to raise £800 to buy a fishing boat so he can fish in deeper water for skipjack tuna.
They are fishing for whatever fish they can catch,
with whatever fishing gear they have got
to stay alive and feed their families!
"90% of people on Malapascua Island who depended upon the SCUBA diving industry have returned to fishing for their livelihoods, many want to, but don't have the resources to buy fishing gear or boats."
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Scuba divers working in ecotourism who were once fishers, are now jobless and have been asking me for help as their families are starving due to Covid 19.
They were once fishers, but now they have little or no fishing gear from their past careers so that they can feed their families.
"I clean because there is no work...."

In the past months, I've tried to raise awareness on social media about the plight of these ex fishers, however, no help has come.
Last week, I received a message asking if I could raise funds for a fisher to buy a net and lamps to fish for anchovies.
Unfortunately, despite the communities on Malapascua island being previously dependant on tourists seeing sharks, some of the fishers had already started fishing for sharks.
Help me, to help them, and raise funds for them to fish for other species, as they have asked me.


One fisher caught a 120kg Tiger Shark last week.
71kg of meat was sold for 30 pesos a kg, just $40, the fins cannot be sold and are useless to the family.
Although the meat is much lower in value to most other fish such as tuna (150 pesos a kg) sharks are valuable at this time of crisis in terms of food security.
Three more sharks ranging from 100kg to 180kg were also landed in three days.
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Your kind donations enable these people to receive help directly to fish with compliant fishing gear so they can feed their families sustainably.
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Your money goes directly to them, with no complex administration, bureaucracy or corruption to hamper the process.
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All interventions are carefully assessed to ensure the optimum sustainable use of biodiversity resources and the imperative needs of the people asking for support.
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You will see the results posted here and on social media as a guarantee that your kindness has been effectively and directly delivered.
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We will start with one net, but ReefScan is already rapidly assessing the increasing needs of these communities, so look out for future projects!
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Fishers have asked specifically for anchovy fishing gear.
Many anchovy nets were damaged in Typhoon Ursula in December 2019, just before the Covid 19 lockdown.
- Anchovy fishing nets are fine mesh and are easily damaged.
- The technique for fishing anchovies is extremely specific to lunar cycles and currents.
- Fishers go fishing at night to sit drifting in tidal currents soaking their nets in the surface waters.
- A kerosine lamp is used to attract zooplankton to the area directly around the boat. In a short time, the water is full of zooplankton and the anchovies soon follow to feed.
Covid 19 adds an additional pressure to the ever increasing impact from climate change these coastal communities suffer in the Philippines.
Super typhoons make landfall with increasing frequency and magnitude every year.
Supporting Coastal Communities and Aquatic Biodiversity
