Citation: Agaton, C.B.; Guno, C.S.; Labog, R.A.; Collera, A.A. Immediate Socioeconomic Impacts of Mindoro Oil Spill on Fisherfolk of Naujan, Philippines. Resources 2023, 12, 102. https://doi.org/10.3390/ resources12090102 Academic Editor: Benjamin McLellan Received: 31 July 2023 Revised: 25 August 2023 Accepted: 28 August 2023 Published: 1 September 2023 Copyright: © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). resources Article Immediate Socioeconomic Impacts of Mindoro Oil Spill on Fisherfolk of Naujan, Philippines Casper Boongaling Agaton 1, * , Charmaine Samala Guno 2 , Russel Añonuevo Labog 2 and Angelie Azcuna Collera 3 1 Department of Community and Environmental Resource Planning, College of Human Ecology, University of the Philippines Los Baños, Los Baños 4031, Laguna, Philippines 2 College of Teacher Education, Mindoro State University, Calapan City 5200, Oriental Mindoro, Philippines; charmaine.guno@minsu.edu.ph (C.S.G.); russel.labog@minsu.edu.ph (R.A.L.) 3 Center for Human Development, University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines, Cagayan de Oro 9000, Misamis Oriental, Philippines; acollera@ustp.edu.ph * Correspondence: cbagaton@up.edu.ph Abstract: In February 2023, an oil tanker carrying 5660 bbl of industrial fuel oil sank off Naujan in the Philippines, causing an oil spill in the waters of Oriental Mindoro and nearby provinces. The disaster affected fishing communities as well as marine ecosystems including the Verde Island Passage, which is at the “center of the world’s marine biodiversity”. This study assessed the immediate social and economic impacts of this oil spill on various communities of the Naujan coast. We conducted semi- structured interviews and employed a narrative analysis to explore the lived experiences of fisherfolk after the oil spill and to understand the socioeconomic impacts. With the prohibition of fishing and other aquatic activities, the participants lost up to USD 1300 of income per week from fishing. The participants had no other source of income due to the lack of other skills or an opportunity for an alternative livelihood in the community. While the government provided food packs and financial assistance, the participants found these insufficient to sustain their basic family needs including food, utilities, education, and health. Traces of oil were also found in the sources of potable water affecting their daily household activities. The fisherfolk, who live in communities that are vulnerable to natural and human-made hazards, had their subsistence, food security, and human well-being highly compromised. The findings provided recommendations for government interventions to mitigate the impacts of an oil spill and other future disasters, considering social, economic, and human ecological perspectives. Keywords: resource management; water resources; socioeconomic impacts; fisherfolk; oil spill 1. Introduction While there has been a remarkable decline in oil spillage into the sea [1] due to the stricter measures set by the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships in 1973, as modified by the Protocol of 1978 or “MARPOL 73/78” [2], the marine pollution hazards of tankers and pipelines, carrying hundreds of thousands of tons of oil, remain. In the last five years, the most notable oil spills include those in China in 2018 [3,4], Russia in 2020 [5,6], Mauritius in 2020 [7,8], Venezuela in 2020 [9,10], Peru in 2022 [11,12], and, most recently, in the Philippines in 2023 [13,14]. Despite the numerous studies conducted to evaluate the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of oil spills, a comprehensive analysis of the immediate and long-term effects from a human ecological perspective remains challenging. Oil spill disasters affect various components of human ecological systems. Lingering oil can cause adverse impacts on the environment and natural resources, particularly in sheltered areas like estuaries, deltas, fine-grained wetlands, and coastal ecosystems [15]. Sensitive habitats such as coral reefs, mangroves, and salt marshes could be at great Resources 2023, 12, 102. https://doi.org/10.3390/resources12090102 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/resources