Fil-Chi research in Benham Rise to study climate-driving ocean currents

The Chinese institute that was officially allowed to explore Benham Rise will measure ocean currents that scientists believe drive regional climate pattern, said the University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute (UP MSI), its local partner for the research cruise.

Oceanographers from the Institute of Oceanology of Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOCAS), aboard the research vessel Ke Xue and joined by a team from the UP MSI, are particularly interested in ocean current properties to further understand the climate-driving Kuroshio, said the UP MSI in a statement Thursday night.

The statement also said that studying major ocean current system dynamics is "complex and requires extensive resources," hence the "importance" of international collaboration.

The Kuroshio current is a northward moving body of water formed by a westward counterpart that splits off the Philippine coast, said the UP MSI.

“The Kuroshio is responsible for the transport of heat to the rest of the North Pacific and therefore is an important driver of the regional climate and even the El Nino and La Nina cycles,” the statement said.

UPMSI Statement by gmanews on Scribd

Ke Xue, the vessel, is estimated to operate within the Philippine Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) for “about three to six days,” said the statement.

It appears the Kuroshio and Mindanao Currents have long been a topic of interest for the UP MSI, as it said it collaborated with US scientists on two research cruises from 2011 to 2014, where they found the need for longer-duration measurements.

“Studies with long-term measurements can only be achieved if resources from different countries are combined and shared,” the statement said.

Measuring the currents and temperature structure “over a long period of time” will help scientists understand the Kuroshio’s role on climate and assist them in developing predictive models, the statement said.

The statement said the IOCAS first engaged in talks with the UP MSI to discuss the current endeavor in 2016.

“This collaboration also supports our initiative to develop a national oceanographic program that can help address societal demands in understanding the changing climate and ocean processes in partnership with both local and foreign collaborators,” the UP institute said. 

Research details

The UP MSI revealed the scope of the newsmaking study as it detailed that it “aims to measure temperature, salinity and current distributions in several locations along a line (transect) at 18°N and 8°N” at the country’s northeastern seaboard, where Benham Rise is located.

The research cruise also aims to to deploy instruments at the western edge of the said transects that will measure ocean currents and their various properties “continuously for an extended period of time (e.g. at least a year).”

But time constraints have prompted the cancellation of transect and moorings at 8°N transect, the statement said.

The UP MSI previously collaborated with oceanographers from countries including the United States, South Korea, Japan, China, and Taiwan along the Pacific seaboard to advance its study of major ocean current systems “as early as the 1980s.”

Enjoying United Nations-awarded sovereign rights over the area, the Philippines gave the IOCAS a permit to survey the country’s eastern seaboard, which includes the potentially resource-rich Benham Rise (Philippine Rise).

This move raised questions of what the Philippines is to gain from the endeavor, especially as the study will be led by a group from territorial rival China.

To justify the act, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said such a “capital-intensive” study is too costly for a Filipino-only team.

But Filipino scientists spoke up on social media to refute his remark as they revealed previous marine science research endeavors by Philippine teams.

Maritime law expert Jay Batongbacal said Roque’s comment was “completely wrong, based on ignorance and a serious disservice to Filipino scientists in particular and the Filipino people in general.”

But Roque, a law professor, said the issue may have been a matter of “miscommunication.”

The Department of Foreign Affairs has been urged to disclose the details of the agreement. —LBG, GMA News