Macajalar Bay is a deep water bay of the Bohol Sea, located north of the province of

Misamis Oriental Misamis Oriental (; ; ), officially the Province of Misamis Oriental, is a Provinces of the Philippines, province located in the Regions of the Philippines, region of Northern Mindanao in the Philippines. The provincial capital, as well as its ...

Mindanao Mindanao ( ) is the List of islands of the Philippines, second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and List of islands by population, seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the ...

Island, in the southern part of the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

Cagayan de Oro Cagayan de Oro (abbreviated CDO and officially the City of Cagayan de Oro; ; Bukid language, Binukid: ''Ciudad ta Cagayan de Oro''; ; ) is a Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, highly urbanized city in the Regions of the Philippi ...

, being the regional center of

Northern Mindanao Northern Mindanao (; Maranao language, Maranao: ''Pangotaraan Mindanao''; ) is an Regions of the Philippines, administrative region in the Philippines, designated as Region X. It comprises five Provinces of the Philippines, provinces: Bukidnon, ...

, is located in one of its deep-water harbors. Twelve of the municipalities of Misamis Oriental share a coastline with the bay.

Environmental degradation

Towards the end of the 1980s, the Northern Mindanao region experienced rapid economic growth due to a confluence of factors:

infrastructure Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and pri ...

growth, in-migration due to rising conflict in other parts of Mindanao and increased speculative capital investments due to development plans for establishment of a new

- Iligan Industrial Corridor. With these, the environment and livelihoods of local or traditional farming and fishing communities came under massive threat and dis-location. In the mid-1980s, Northern Mindanao emerged to become one of the three major growth centers in southern Philippines, with Cagayan de Oro as its commercial and industrial hub. The coastal city of Cagayan de Oro, fronting Macajalar Bay, became a major industrial port and an entry point for new migrants and settlers. From a 3rd Class City in the 1970s, Cagayan de Oro's population burgeoned to nearly half of million by the late 1990s. But rapid economic growth also spawned increased

land speculation In finance, speculation is the purchase of an asset (a commodity, goods, or real estate) with the hope that it will become more valuable in a brief amount of time. It can also refer to short sales in which the speculator hopes for a decline ...

illegal logging Illegal logging is the harvest, transportation, purchase, or sale of timber in violation of laws. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including using corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission, or from a p ...

, sea

piracy Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are call ...

, destructive fishing and mining practices, shipping and industrial pollution.The Dying Macajalar Bay (Sunstar.com article)
Today, the presence of many industrial projects in and around Cagayan de Oro, continue to spew large amount of pollutants into the bay.

References

External links

Task Force Macajalar

Cagayan de Oro-Macajalar Bay Lion's Club
Bays of the Philippines Landforms of Misamis Oriental {{NMindanao-geo-stub