ATIMONAN, QUEZON—It was a labor of love and showed the power of the bayanihan spirit.

In their aim to protect and rehabilitate the vast fishing grounds fronting this town, officials, environmentalists, fisherfolk and members of civic groups have banded together and built a massive artificial reef, which they sank to the bottom of Lamon Bay on Tuesday.

Touted to be the Philippines’ biggest, the concrete, man-made reef is about 4 meters high and 21 meters in diameter, and weighs some 85 tons. It is supported by hundreds of concrete-like balusters joined together in several sections.

The different sections were assembled on land. The steel bars were welded and cemented together.

On top of the artificial reef is a two-inch concrete slab showing an exact replica of the official emblem of Rotary International, the world’s first service club organization.

The giant emblem—a gear wheel with six spokes and 24 cogs with the name of Rotary International written on it—was painted with the club’s official royal blue and gold colors.

“We believe that our artificial reef is the biggest in the country, based on the records we found in the Internet. And for the record, it is also the biggest Rotary emblem in the world,” said Greg de Gracia, a known advocate of the Lamon Bay protection and rehabilitation.

De Gracia, a Rotarian, conceptualized the idea of building the giant reef with the Rotary emblem as model. The club maintains a 5-foot-diameter emblem in its headquarters in the United States.

“The artificial reef is a labor of love by all sectors of the community—local officials, civic groups and the fishermen themselves. Most of the fisherfolk volunteered to work for free,” Oscar Chua, past president of the Rotary Club of Atimonan and chair of the artificial reef project, told reporters.

The fisherfolk organization from the coastal villages of Balubad, Lubi, Talaba and Kilait (Baltak), which De Gracia heads, played a prominent role in the project.