Ethical challenges in genetic research among Philippine Indigenous Peoples: Insights from fieldwork in Zamboanga and the Sulu Archipelago

The Philippines, with the recent discovery of an archaic hominin in Luzon and an extensive ethnolinguistic diversity of more than 100 Indigenous peoples, is crucial to understanding human evolution and population history in Island Southeast Asia. Advances in DNA sequencing technologies enable the rapid generation of genomic data to robustly address questions about origins, relatedness, and population movements. With the increased genetic sampling in the country, especially by international scientists, it is vital to revisit ethical rules and guidelines relevant to conducting research among Indigenous peoples. Our team led fieldwork expeditions between 2019 and February 2020 in Zamboanga and the Sulu Archipelago, a chain of islands connecting the Mindanao and Borneo landmasses. The trips concluded with a collection of 2,149 DNA samples from 104 field sites. We present our fieldwork experience among the mostly sea-oriented Sama-Bajaw and Tausug-speaking communities and propose recommendations to address the ethical challenges of conducting such research. This work contributes toward building an enabling research environment in the Philippines that respects the rights and autonomy of Indigenous peoples, who are the rightful owners of their DNA and all genetic information contained therein

Length-weight parameters of coral reef fishes from the Sulu Archipelago

This dataset includes detailed information on the LWR parameters and growth patters of 161 species from 60 genera and 21 families, making it the most extensive study of its kind in the Philippines. Additionally, we highlight the discovery of new total length records for 27 species and the documentation of the first LWR records for 73 marine fish species in the Philippines.THIS DATASET IS ARCHIVED AT DANS/EASY, BUT NOT ACCESSIBLE HERE. TO VIEW A LIST OF FILES AND ACCESS THE FILES IN THIS DATASET CLICK ON THE DOI-LINK ABOV

Abundance of Commercially Important Coral Reef Fishes in Tawi-Tawi

from Muallil et al., 2019: "Fish abundance was determined during the extensive surveys, which were done every three days as much as possible for a total of 94 sampling days from January to December 2018 at the public market in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi. In each sampling visit, all the fishes that were displayed on the stalls of vendors selling reef fishes where photographed from about a meter from the top of the stalls. From the pictures, all the fish were counted and identified to the species level as much as possible. To avoid resampling of the same fish, photograph from each stall was taken only once a day. Accordingly, all the fish that are sold within the day are fresh catches as vendors do not have cold storage to preserve their fish for the next day"THIS DATASET IS ARCHIVED AT DANS/EASY, BUT NOT ACCESSIBLE HERE. TO VIEW A LIST OF FILES AND ACCESS THE FILES IN THIS DATASET CLICK ON THE DOI-LINK ABOV

Raw data of length-weight relationship parameters of commercially important coral reef fishes from the Sulu Archipelago

This is dataset is composed of length and weight measurements of 164 species belonging to 21 families of commercially important coral reef fishes caught from the southern waters of the Sulu Archipelago in southern Philippines. Data were collected from 2015 to 2022 at the public market of Bongao, Tawi-Tawi, Philippines.THIS DATASET IS ARCHIVED AT DANS/EASY, BUT NOT ACCESSIBLE HERE. TO VIEW A LIST OF FILES AND ACCESS THE FILES IN THIS DATASET CLICK ON THE DOI-LINK ABOV

Commercially Important Coral Reef Fishes of Tawi-Tawi

From Muallil et al., 2020: "Species inventory was conducted by opportunistically visiting the public market (“tabuh”) and fish warehouses (“bodega”) in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi at least twice a month from October 2015 to December 2018 (Fig. 2). The public market is the only wet market in Bongao where common foodfish are sold. High value and live reef fishes are usually brought by fishers to fish warehouses or “bodega”. According to the warehouse owners/operators, fishes sold here come from nearby municipalities such as Simunul, Panglima Sugala, Sapa-Sapa, Tandubas, South Ubian and Languyan. Fishes from the farther Sibutu and Sitangkai municipalities are also reportedly brought to fish warehouses in Bongao. Fish at the warehouses are mostly shipped out of Tawi-Tawi by boat to Zamboanga City. Local buyers can also buy fish from the fish warehouses but at higher price than those at the public market. There are also anecdotal accounts of traders from Malaysia coming to TawiTawi or traders from Tawi-Tawi going to Malaysia to buy or sell fish, respectively. Bongao, Tawi-Tawi is less than five hours away by boat from the coast of Sabah, Malaysia. According to fish vendors and traders, all their fish were caught exclusively from the waters of TawiTawi as it would be impractical for fishers/traders from Malaysia and other provinces to bring their fish to Tawi-Tawi considering the distance and the relatively low market value of fish in Tawi-Tawi.All the surveys were conducted during daytime, mostly during the peak hours of the market from 7:00 to 11:00 in the morning. Sometimes, we proceeded to the warehouses to continue the surveys. However, fishes in the warehouses were not openly accessible for researchers as the fish are kept inside storage boxes. We could only do the surveys while the fish were still outside the boxes usually when fishers from nearby islands delivered their fish or when the traders sorted the fish in preparation for shipping. With the permission of the vendors, each fish was put on its lateral side and photographed from the top just high enough to capture the entire length of the specimen.Species identification was done using the following references, namely, Allen et al. (2003), Allen and Erdmann (2012), Gonzales (2013) and White et al. (2013). The names of the species were validated from Eschmeyer’s Catalog of Fishes online (http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatmain.asp) and their conservation status was determined from the IUCN Redlist of Threatened Species website (https://www.iucnredlist.org/)."THIS DATASET IS ARCHIVED AT DANS/EASY, BUT NOT ACCESSIBLE HERE. TO VIEW A LIST OF FILES AND ACCESS THE FILES IN THIS DATASET CLICK ON THE DOI-LINK ABOV

To Fish or Not to Fish: Factors at Multiple Scales Affecting Artisanal Fishers' Readiness to Exit a Declining Fishery

Globally, fisheries are challenged by the combined impacts of overfishing, degradation of ecosystems and impacts of climate change, while fisheries livelihoods are further pressured by conservation policy imperatives. Fishers' adaptive responses to these pressures, such as exiting from a fishery to pursue alternative livelihoods, determine their own vulnerability, as well as the potential for reducing fishing effort and sustaining fisheries. The willingness and ability to make particular adaptations in response to change, such as exiting from a declining fishery, is influenced by economic, cultural and institutional factors operating at scales from individual fishers to national economies. Previous studies of exit from fisheries at single or few sites, offer limited insight into the relative importance of individual and larger-scale social and economic factors. We asked 599 fishers how they would respond to hypothetical scenarios of catch declines in 28 sites in five western Indian Ocean countries. We investigated how socioeconomic variables at the individual-, household- and site-scale affected whether they would exit fisheries. Site-level factors had the greatest influence on readiness to exit, but these relationships were contrary to common predictions. Specifically, higher levels of infrastructure development and economic vitality - expected to promote exit from fisheries - were associated with less readiness to exit. This may be due to site level histories of exit from fisheries, greater specialisation of fishing households, or higher rewards from fishing in more economically developed sites due to technology, market access, catch value and government subsidies. At the individual and household scale, fishers from households with more livelihood activities, and fishers with lower catch value were more willing to exit. These results demonstrate empirically how adaptive responses to change are influenced by factors at multiple scales, and highlight the importance of understanding natural resource-based livelihoods in the context of the wider economy and society