Integrated energy company Semirara Mining and Power Corporation (SMPC), through its Semirara Marine Hatchery Laboratory, bred over 151,000 giant clams during the first half of the year, already exceeding its full-year production of 112,378 giant clams in 2015. 

This is in line with the company’s goal of protecting marine biodiversity around Semirara Island. 

An endangered marine resource, giant clams are a significant bioindicator for determining the health of coral reefs because they can survive only in a safe and unpolluted marine environment. 

For 2016 alone, SMPC is spending around P30 million for its marine biology and other environmental initiatives. 

“We want to spawn and reseed more giant clams not just around Semirara Island but also in other parts of the country so we can contribute to marine conservation and reef rehabilitation,” said SMPC president and COO Victor A. Consunji. 

SMPC has been reseeding endangered giant clams since 2006. In 2011, the company began spawning giant clams and last year, it transported one hundred pieces of giant clams to DENR – Batangas Province, for reseeding in the Verde Island passage. 

The Verde Island passage is considered as the world’s “center of the center of marine shore fish biodiversity”.