In many places along Roxas Boulevard, including some very fine eateries, one notices a stench of garbage and human waste exuding from the waters of the Bay.

The old Dewey Boulevard used to be the favorite Sunday stroll, with children peering over the rocks to watch the fish. Whole families would ride the Matorco up and down the traffic free boulevard. Just before sunset, young folk would sit on the transat lounge chairs eating balut and barbecue and watch the sun turn to orange and red and quickly fade below the horizon leaving everything in dark. Do you remember those days? If not, ask your parents, or better still your grandparents.

But in those days, there was never any stench, no pollution. And the bay was full of fish.

As Manila and Pasay increased in population and commercial establishments over the years, especially along Roxas Boulevard, this pollution has worsened and to solve it, could take millions, but also miracles of decision-making.

But at the other end of the Boulevard, at the end of P. Burgos Street near Luneta, one can find hundreds of fish from the depths of the untainted ocean. They live in large tanks filled with filtered and regenerated sea water.

I thought I had seen all the clown fish there were to see. Here I found six species and color schemes I had never seen before, also in sizes that defied the imagination.

A favorite of the kids were the starfish, which staff would pull out of the water and place in a small basin, for children to see and touch. They look so soft in the sea, one could not think of their having coarse rough skin, and in such beautiful colors.

There were several species of fish, of weird shapes and exotic colors, and large angel fish, that I had never seen before, what a spectacle we’ve been missing. Oh, but here comes the well known shark, about four meters long, a score of them swimming with other fish, and a diver who is trying to control the traffic but gets roughly pushed around by the bully sharks and mantas. These sting rays would soar all over the ocean floor, their mouth gaping wide and like a vacuum cleaner suck in all the little fish. The diver tried to feed them fish about the size of a small red snapper. He had to be quick or else he’d lose his hand in that vacuuming manta’s mouth!

A sad display was a reconstruction of sewage pipes and drainage just off the shores of Manila Bay where the tourist hotels and restaurants empty their daily waste directly into the sea. The sign board boasts that oysters, clams and some scavenger fish and shrimps can indeed survive in these polluted waters. Would you like to dine on a sewage soaked oyster omelet? Or deep fried garbage prawns? The lessons of this Oceanarium are clear. Let’s not lose Manila Bay to garbage.

The entry price for this ocean paradise is 400 pesos, a reasonable $10 for visiting tourists and balikbayans returning from their dollar earning adventures. But for the masses of our homeland, 400 pesos is a day and a half wages for people that pay for 35 pesos for a kilo of low grade rice. If the Oceanarium were intended for all, its accessibility in price should be for all. Or, unless this is in operation already, there should be special rates for schools, say a big discount price per bus of 50 school children. For the learning opportunities for young children here are immense.

On the other hand, I can’t say that all the fish are happy here in these ‘golden aquarium cages,’ but they do have fresh, clean water and healthy feeding and loving visitors.

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