After receiving our grant, it was obvious the project needed a lot of reworking, drilling equipment and marker buoys had to be purchased second hand, and the protective barrier marking the sites, was remodelled down to four buoys per site. The remote location of El Nido also posed a logistical problem for our budget, as drilling equipment, and buoys had to be acquired from Manila and the nearest city, sixty kilometres from El Nido. Import tax and shipping costs here are the highest I have ever seen and quite unreliable.

After a lot of what can only be described, as haggling and begging, with port officials we had just about retained the original plan for six sites. The unexpected non arrival of free drilling equipment promised by the D N R [department of natural resources]  also made a huge unexpected dent in our resources. However after a long three month wait for the drilling equipment to turn up and a good offer from a bankrupt commercial fishing boat owner, selling used net buoys and welded chain, things were looking up, in fact we even had a small buffer for unseen expenses, which was immediately used to repair the cheep drill we had imported.

With all the materials ready to deploy it was time to see just, how many people would turn up to help out. This turned out to be the least of our concerns, with people queuing up to help many of them local fisher men hoping to help improve the future caches and there way of life, and some looking for a fun day out and free diving.

Now every thing seemed to be going our way, along with excellent weather the project also benefited from, free boats, diesel, cement, diving gear, tank fills, sport divers and hard working fun loving fishermen. Work turned in to play and the entire operation went with out incident. The only problem was that  I seemed to be the only person able to use the drill even with instruction its some thing that needs practice and patience letting the drill do the work and not trying to force the bit into the drilling medium, seem to lead to most of the problems people had trying to use it.

The project has been a complete success with most boat traffic avoiding the zones and fishermen observing the fifty meter buffer zone from the boundary. As fish seek safety within the zone some infractions are expected, but with regular patrols and fines for repeat offenders, the areas are shore to flourish.   

Now that the basic out line for the zones has been set out I wish to apply for a grant extension, in order to improve the visibility of the no take boundary. Making infractions easer to enforce and deterring boats from taking short cuts across the sites. Now we have a drill we also need to place marker buoys at all of the twenty dive sites around El Nido. All of which are suffering from anchor damage, and dangerous diving practices, involving the use of propellers while divers are still in the water.

If this report is published I wish to thank, Cash Goodwing for his excellent underwater photography, the DNR for the use of there equipment, Rodriquez Fernandez for the use of his boat and skills, Mark Bose, Edwood  Numuller, Nina and Sue, all the fishermen for there labour and humour, and The Ocean Foundation for the grant making all this possible.

Signed

Mr C Holland.