Philippine Sea
The Philippine Sea, located in the western Pacific, is a significant marine area known for its extraordinary biodiversity and ecological importance. Covering approximately two million square miles, it is bordered by several countries, including Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines, and features notable geological formations like the Philippine or Mariana Trench, the deepest point on Earth. This sea encompasses part of the Coral Triangle, hosting over 500 coral species and an impressive array of marine life, including more than 2,824 fish species, a variety of shellfish, and five of the seven known sea turtle species.
Despite its ecological wealth, the Philippine Sea faces numerous environmental challenges. Overfishing, pollution, habitat destruction, and the impacts of climate change threaten its biodiversity. The region is recognized as a biodiversity hotspot, but ineffective resource management and high poverty levels exacerbate these pressures. Additionally, the effects of global warming, such as rising sea levels and increased storm intensity, further endanger the marine ecosystems. The urgent need for improved environmental policies and international cooperation is critical to protecting this unique marine environment and ensuring its sustainability for future generations.
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Philippine Sea
- Category: Marine and Oceanic Biomes
- Geographic Location: Asia
- Summary: The Philippine Sea has been identified as a world center of marine biodiversity, but mismanagement of resources, lack of environmental law enforcement, and a high poverty rate have meant that ecology often takes a back seat to economic pressures.
Lying to the east and north of the Philippine Islands, the Philippine Sea stretches across some two million square miles (five million square kilometers) of the North Pacific Ocean. North of the sea is Japan; to the northwest is Taiwan and the Sea of China; due west and extending southward is the Philippine Archipelago. To the south lies Papua New Guinea; Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands are to the southeast. Several seas—including the Celebes Sea, Sulu-Sulawesi Sea, South China Sea, and the East China Sea—are adjacent to the Philippine Sea but separated by various islands.
Because of geological formations resulting from plate tectonic activity, the sea floor is marked by faults and fractures within the Philippine Sea Plate. One of the most significant features is the deep-sea trench, the deepest point on Earth, labeled the Philippine or Mariana Trench.
Because the Philippine Sea is located in the tropical climate zone, it is hot and humid all year, averaging around 80 Fahrenheit (27 Celsius). It also has some of the warmest sea surface temperatures in the world. This part of the Earth is an area of intense tropical convection, a dominant heat source for global atmospheric circulation. It contains complex ocean current systems that link the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and is intermediate between the Asian monsoon regime to the north and the Australian monsoon to the south.
Biodiversity
The Philippine Sea is home to a vast aquatic ecosystem. More than 500 species of hard and soft coral lie within its waters. The Philippine Sea includes part of the Coral Triangle, which consists of waters off Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands, and East Timor. Near the apex of the triangle lies the Sulu-Sulawesi Sea, containing an ecosystem home to over 2,500 species of fish.
About one-fifth of all species of shellfish in the world live in the Philippine Sea, which is also home to sharks, moray eels, octopi, and sea snakes. The Japanese eel, tuna, and various species of whales regularly spawn in the sea waters.
While much is still unknown about the Philippine Sea's marine diversity, at least 5,000 species of clams, snails, and mollusks live in these waters, along with over 900 species of bottom-living algae, 1,200 species of crabs, prawns, lobsters, and shrimp, and 600 mollusk species, as well as hundreds of species yet to be identified.
Of the seven known species of sea turtles, five are found in the Philippine Sea At least 2,824 marine fish species have been recorded in the Philippine Sea, over thirty of which are endemic to the Philippine Sea, including phallus miraclefish, luzon ricefish, Philippine silver perch, freshwater sardinella, Schoppe's barb, and dwarf freshwater goby. More than 1,700 are reef-associated fish species, with 169 pelagic and 336 deep-water species.
In addition to live species, there is fossilized evidence of extinct snails. The area around the Philippine Sea is also home to 86 species of birds and 895 species of butterflies, 352 of which are endemic to the Philippines.
Human Impact
The Philippine Sea is recognized as a center of marine biodiversity because of its wealth of marine ecosystems. However, global environmentalists have identified the Philippine archipelago as a region of environmental concern, and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) labeled the area a biodiversity hot spot in the 2010s, noting more than 700 threatened species in the region due to unsustainable methods of harvesting fish, among other problems.
The Asian Development Bank estimated in the mid-2010s that in some areas of the Philippine Sea, the quantity of marine organisms had declined by as much as 90 percent. Major concerns were raised at the national and international levels about the lack of responsible management of marine resources. For much of its history, the Philippines was exploited by colonial powers, and the local population was unable to make decisions about protecting the environment. Even in the twenty-first century, the situation remained complicated by China's control over the adjacent Western Philippine Sea (South China Sea). Chinese interests often do not align with those of the Philippines, leading to frequent tensions. There is little regulation of either commercial or local fishing in the area, and Chinese fishermen are among those who have been known to use dynamite, which destroys fragile ecosystems.
The waters and coast of the Philippine Sea are vulnerable to a host of environmental practices that combine to damage ecosystems in the area. For example, only about one-tenth of sewage in the entire country of the Philippines is adequately treated. This means 90 percent is deposited elsewhere, mostly into the sea. Furthermore, the coastal mangrove swamps that are important fish breeding grounds are being stripped to provide wood for development. Abandoned mines, meanwhile, have been responsible for highly toxic mercury seeping into surrounding waters.
Habitat loss and degradation, increasing pollution, destructive fishing on both commercial and local scales, and over-exploitation as a result of expanding markets for marine products are all damaging this complex ecosystem. Compared with several other Asian nations, including Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia, the Philippines was ranked the highest in reef degradation and the lowest in taking action to protect its fragile reefs. Environmentalists accuse the government of being swayed by the fact that the fishing industry employs more than one million people and comprises a significant portion of the Philippine economy. Another environmental concern for marine life here is the red tide algal blooms that first came to the attention of scientists in 1983. Believed to occur naturally but also influenced by environmental changes, including rising sea-surface temperatures, red tide is a high concentration of algae that depletes oxygen levels in water and releases toxins that are poisonous to some fish.
Climate change significantly impacts the marine and coastal ecosystems in the Philippine Sea by warming, acidifying, and raising sea levels. Rising global temperatures challenge and could even eliminate many coral-dominated reef systems. By the 2020s, 98 percent of the reefs in the Philippine Sea were threatened, and 80 percent were at a high to very high risk. Global warming increases the variability of monsoon events and creates more intense cyclones and typhoons. There was an urgent need for improved management and cooperation between countries surrounding this sea to conserve and protect their resources against this swarm of threats. From 2000 to 2020, the sea level in the Philippine Sea rose by 12 centimeters (5 inches), three times the global average, leading to coastal erosion, flooding, and land loss. In 2024, the Philippines and the Philippine Sea experienced a record-breaking typhoon season and deadly heatwaves that caused floods, landslides, water pollution, and floods that destroyed crops and infrastructure critical to life in the region.
Bibliography
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