Farming the Endangered Tridachna (Taklobo)

The taklobo is a natural indicator of our planet's health. It is now a threatened at the threshold of the endangered list. Out there in its natural habitat one could hardly find a taklobo. Soon only its fossil can be found as a relic in the museum or in the church as receptacle of Holy Water.
Dr Abe V Rotor

The taklobo is now a threatened species. 
Graduate students from the University of
Santo Tomas visit a taklobo farm in Masinloc,
Zambales, 2010.

Taklobo shell as holy water receptacle.
Mount Carmel Church, QC

One way to spend a summer is to visit marine projects such as a Tridachna or taklobo farm. Farming the sea includes seaweeds such as

Caulerpa or lato, green seaweed, ar-arusip in Iloko
Porphyra or gamet, red seaweed, also known as nori in Japan
Codium or pokpoklo, green seaweed
Gracillaria or guraman (Ilk), brown seaweed
Eucheuma or guso, brown seaweed

Fish cage culture of grouper and mullet has become popular in many parts of the world. And now, genetically modified salmon which lost its homing and free range characteristics by crossing genetic materials of unrelated species.

The earliest attempt to farm the sea is by building fishponds, converting estuaries and swamps into fishponds. But in large and open shallow areas, fish pens and cages, became more feasible. Prawn, milkfish, catfish, tilapia are among the common species raised.

Shellfish like oysters and green mussels are grown in the estuaries, and the traditional way of using bamboo and rope on which the juvenile shellfish cling to has not changed. Perhaps the most sophisticated marine farming is pearl culture, where pearl formation is induced.

Today, farming has spilled over seas, estuaries, rivers and lakes, after conventional frontiers have been conquered, threatening ecological balance, and pitting farming and environmental conservation as strange bedfellows. Runaway population, growing affluence, advances in science and technology are all aimed at the so-called Good Life. We are wrong.

The taklobo is a natural indicator of our planet's health. It is now a threatened species . Out there in its natural habitat one could hardly find a taklobo. Soon only its fossil can be found either in the museum or in the church as receptacle of Holy Water.~

Ipon or Dulong - a rare delicacy, but is it worth catching it?

Old folks know exactly when ipon arrives, by the phase of the moon and coolness of the Siberian High. The news spreads like wildfire, and soon people crowd the fishing grounds and market. For ipon is a delicacy of the Ilocanos.

Dr Abe V Rotor

Ipon (Glossogobius giuris). It collectively includes the fry of anchovies, gobies, including commercial species. Top photo: newly caught ipon (it is eaten raw fresh with onion and ginger). Lower photos: ipon cooked dry or with broth (sabaw) spiced with tomato, ginger, onion, and green or bell pepper). Ipon tamales (wrapped with banana leaves) is a popular recipe. So with ipon bagoong. Try ipon torta for breakfast. Juvenille and adult ipon are best cooked in sinigang with liberal amount of tomato and onion, and green pepper - and served piping hot, picnic style. (Note: The fish caught with ipon are susay (Ilk), shallow water dwellers at the estuary.)

Ipon reaches maturity to become one of the many species of freshwater and marine fish, such as these two specimens. When we were kids, we used to catch them with tiny fishhook and throw net (tabukol). Or we used seine net (lambat) across the river, and dragged it upstream, trapping the fish in the process. Local folks have a way of classifying them like ipusan (long tailed), butubot (big bellied), birut (juvenile ipon), and bunog (closely similar to but quite bigger than the specimen in the lower photo). The fry of many more species may be part of the collective migration upstream called ipon-run. By the time the run is completed - or disrupted - the survivors are on their own, or they form smaller schools, this time of their own kind. I believe that among the survivors are those that become sidingan (spotted), malaga (samaral), banak or purong (mullet), kapiged (relative of the malaga), and others like ar-aro (martiniko), bagsang, gurami, and carp that either go farther upstream or move down to the sea, while others remain at the estuary where freshwater and seawater meet in varying and changing levels according to the tides and river flow.

When I was a kid I used to call ipon fairy fish, because of its similarity with fairy shrimp or alamang. This enigmatic fish when caught measures only half centimeter long, arriving in schools at the mouths of rivers like the mighty Banaoang River in Santa (Ilocos Sur), and Bauang River in La Union. 

Here the natives know exactly when it arrives, by the phase of the moon and coolness of the Siberian High. The news spreads like wildfire, and soon people crowd the fishing grounds and market. For ipon is a delicacy of the Ilocanos.

Dulong or ipon appears as a composite school, mainly fries of anchovies and gobies, Family Engraulidae and Family Gobiidae. There are also different species which later become distinct after some time. But the enigma of the ipon remains.

For example, what trigger spawning and migration? How effective is collective survival? When does weaning take place? Where? Or do members remain in school until they are adults, and continue on to produced the next generation? Do they occur proportionately with the amount of food in the area?

If this is so, then we may offer some explanation to the annual population explosion of anchovies (dilis or munamon Ilk) along the coast of Peru which is the world's number one supplier of anchovies and fish meal. This area is characterized by upwelling, that is, upward current that brings back to the surface nutrients that was washed to sea. These are mainly guano droppings of migratory birds that feed on the anchovies. Here in the photic zone - the depth sunlight can penetrate the water - plankton abound that trigger the biological engine of food web. It is so powerful that half of the world's fish caught comes from this region. Indeed the Peruvian coast constitutes the highest marine biological density and diversity in the world.

Here the population density is such that when fish kill occurs as a result of warming of the sea surface caused by El Niño phenomenon, the water turns black which navigators in early days called tinta agua. The hull of passing ships become black as if painted with coal tar.

Unlike Peru we do not have rich upwelling for anchovies aggregation. In fact we can hardly trace the dulong-anchovy cycle. If we do, these are in pocket areas where we fish anchovies for local consumption, which is mainly for food.

On the first day the newly hatch fish enter the estuary, they are transparent and very tiny. You can hardly count how many individuals make 100 grams. It is at this stage that ipon is best eaten fresh with ginger, tomato and onion (kilawin). Ipon caught on the second day onward is usually made into bagoong, or cooked into torta, tamales (wrapped in banana leaves), or sinigang (broth). Old folks believe that ipon make them healthy and live long. They also believe in its aphrodisiac power, and why not? Spawning stimulates sex and growth hormones.

On the second and third day, as the fish continues to travel upstream and gain in size, they acquire spots, their body turning gray, and eyes and other body parts becoming prominent. By now their number has dwindled as fishing continues, and predators - other fishes, and birds - have their fill, and soon the whole school is thinned out and finally dispersed, with a measly number surviving to maturity. Here there are no longer traces of the ipon or any other species mixed in the school.

But this explanation coming from direct observation and testimonies of old folks is inadequate to tell us what really happens from spawning, migration to dispersal, movement from sea to river and back. We don't know the extent of distribution in the countless river systems in the world, the diversity of species of what generally is called ipon or dulong.

In 1992, a bill was filled in Congress to prohibit the catching of dulong, ipon, or any similar kind. I had the chance to read and comment on it. The rational is that ipon is actually a complex spawn aggregate, which contains the young of commercial species. It is the potential loss of these species the proposed law intends to prevent. It's like the law prohibiting the harvesting, sale and transport of bamboo shoot (labong). One shoot which is valued at 10 pesos grows into a pole in year's time with a value of 100 pesos.

But ipon fishing is a age long tradition, and tradition is very difficult to break. Even then, it is important to unlock the mystery of this fairy fish so that we can assign it into the ecosystem where it rightfully belongs, before satisfying man's fancy and unending appetite.~

Acknowledgement: Photos www.briancoad.com;  Wikimedia 

Practical pest control methods

Dr Abe V Rotor

 Golden apple snail (Pomacea caniculata) is the number 

one pest of rice plants today in the Philippines. They lay 

pink eggs in clusters above the water level ensuring 

viability and high survival. 

1.  Snails (kuhol) are controlled with tubli, makabuhay and other plants.

Before the introduction of chemical pesticides our native kuhol was a good source of viand in the ricefield and seldom did it turn against growing rice plants. Almost simultaneously in the sixties the golden kuhol or apple snail (Pomacea caniculata) was introduced with the promise that it is a better gourmet, and that it could even be exported.  It did not turn out that way, and with the resistance this exotic mollusk developed having left behind its natural enemies, it emerged a maverick, now the number one pest of rice plants infesting two-thirds of our total lowland ricefield area of no less than two million hectares. Agriculturists have lately turned their attention to phytochemicals to control golden kuhol.  These are the plants they have confirmed to be effective.

·         Derris philippinensis (derris or tubli)

·         Manihot esculenta (cassava)

·         Chrysanthemum morifolium (chrysanthemum)

·         Capsicum anuum (pepper or siling labuyo)

·         Tinospora rhumpii (makabuhay) - Photo, below

·         Azideracta asiatica (Neem) 

Except for siling labuyo, the leaves and stems of any of these plants are either crushed or chopped finely and applied directly on the ricefield, controlling the water level up to three to four inches so as to allow the active ingredients to spread out and reach the pest in all of its stages. Where there are two or more of these plants growing in the area, farmers may use them in any combination, either alternately or simultaneously.

2. Incense rids chickens of lice.  It also calms them down. 

I learned this practice from my father when I was a farmhand. We raised native chickens on the range.  In the evening, we would occasionally smoke the fouls in their roasts under the house. “That would rid them of lice (gayamo’ Ilk),” my father assured me. “And pick a cull for tomorrow’s dinner,” he would add. 

I would sprinkle powdered incense into live charcoal and you could see the column of smoke rising and filling the roasting area.  You could hear the fowls cockle feebly, slowly loosen their feathers and pry their wings as if to allow the cloud of smoke to bathe them. Soon they are lulled to sleep or go into a kind of trance; you could pick them up without any sign of resistance. Without this calming power of incense, the slightest move you make on a roasting chicken would send it squawking in the night.~

Biological Control - Preying or praying mantis (Mantis religiosa) is the number one executioner in the insect world, a friend to farmers and gardeners. 

  

Moths: Masters of Camouflage and Mimicry (Part 1)

Dr Abe V Rotor  

Art of Camouflage 

Your artful disguise 

makes you invisible and free;  

Nature's given prize
of camouflage and mimicry.

Kite Moth

It is not only that birds follow the sun

that the sky is filled with colors and laughter;

it is your body symmetry copied for fun,

that children believe they own the sky

and make imagination their best teacher,

even in their dreams to fly.

STOL Moth

If your wings are for short takeoff and speed,

and your long antennae and infrared eyes 

defy the darkness of night, then I believe

someone has copied you in steel that flies. 

Jade Moth

If I freeze your beauty

and wear it on my heart,

I rob Nature, her grace apart; 

a star dies, so with art.

False Eyes

Whose eyes these are, real or just mask?

Why grotesque and cold, the children ask?

Unmoved, you simply sleep and wait 'til dawn,

and they ask again if they were your own.  

Stealth Moth

Man copied you but for another purpose;

peace and quiet you live, his intent is not,

but to rule the sky fiery by day and night; 

cheer up, for imitation will never be right.  

Falcon Moth

You are on the ceiling all alone

and the toad looking up

thinks of you a falcon;

in make-believe it's good to be up

with reverse role as predator;

everything's prey on the floor. 

Footprint Moth

If these two sets of footprints

lead to opposite directions, 

did you depart when  I needed you most?

What goodness did I lack?

"My child, you were alone 

and lost and I brought you back."

Hidden Mirror on the Wall

No, it's not Paleolithic painting,

but hidden mirror on the wall:

Bless you creature in slumber waiting 

the light of the world to fall,

then seek a beacon in the night

where a pen draws its might.

Atlas Moth

Thought you could put one on Hercules,*

from the burden of the world you're free; 

so thought too, the dinosaurs in spree;

bigness is no guarantee no less;

birds fly on wings and hollow bones,

flies need not four wings but two,

none but the water strider glides best - 

be humble, bigness is weakness, too.  

* In Greek mythology, Atlas played trick on Hercules to take 

over him carry the globe; but Hercules was smarter, 

and the task fell back on poor Atlas.  

Moths: Masters of Camouflage and Mimicry (Part 2)

Dr Abe V Rotor

Ghost Moth

From visibility to invincibility;

first, keep low like ice in thaw; 

then, keep shape with the scape, 

wear some spots, add many dots;

last, you're ghost to any host.

Chameleon Moth 

Where comes the trigger I know 

are hormones by signal flow, 

masking colors, painting a view, 

to match a perfect scenario.

Lion Moth

You look like a lion without mane,

and that's why you look tame;

how in the world can you scare 

with your lonely, friendly stare. 

Prominent Moth

(How can you be prominent?)

Who would like you a frass lying still on crust,

feigning inanimate to pass the day in fast. 

Vesper Moth

You, who keep the faithful in vigil,

wearing a white stole over a holy robe - 

would being pious save you long?

Beaks and jaws simply don't care,

much less the order you belong

Tiger Moth

It is the tiger look that you seem respected,

else the mourning signal you send;

but whose view but the cruel beak instead

whose judgement lies your fateful end.  

Tapestry Moth

What you designed, man now claims his own,

yet it was your ancestors' pride before his dawn;

conditionally you gave, for a prize you crave,

by copying his art you may be saved. 

Poison Eater Moth
Moth feeding on the nectar of Lantana (Lantana camara) 
a poisonoius and obnoxious plant

What secret have you on hemlock you thrive,

which once robbed the world of a great mind?

Come to where there's li'l left of faith and pride;

bless you little moth, a messenger divine.

Battered Moth

Wings chipped, scales rubbed,

antennae curled, finish scrubbed;

eggs laid, leg cut, coat creased,

grounded, mission accomplished. 

Wood Moth

You look beaten like an old wood,

weathered by rain and tear and sun,

yet full of life and in good mood

like a seasoned timber's stand.

Klan Moth

With robe and hood you come and pause

in dignity, a racist you hide;

reminder of the Fuhrer's cause,

the ignoble Ku Klux Khan's pride;

but if you're a true ambassador,

please bring tidings to every door.

Furry Moth

Gather the dust and clothe your frame;

Wake up at dusk and play the game;

and feigning dead and devoid of spark,

your enemies take \you for just a bark.

Moths: Masters of Camouflage and Mimicry (Part 3)

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Sphinx Moths: 

Polymorphism or Diversity?

These three Sphinx moths have strong basic morphological characteristics, including size and color that at first glance one would not suspect their differences.  The shape and position of their antennae are different, so with their "hoods".  Another difference lies in the markings on their bodies and wings.  In some cases a pair of eyes (lowermost photo) appears real to a would-be predator.  

Markings and Transparency

Two ways to mimic and not be seen,

opaque and part of canvas;

or translucent as if you're not there, 

and let the enemy pass. 

The Art of Taking Off

Either it flaps or glides on the wind that a moth flies.  It can be both, Left photo shows a gypsy moth preparing for takeoff with wings drawn up.  At this stage, the predator is puzzled of the sudden transformation into a bright and large abdomen, while the moth flies and escape.  A hawk moth (right)  spreads its wings side wise and prepares to glide.  Without a favorable wind current it is a clumsy flyer.  Because moths are nocturnal, navigation relies mainly on the sensitive antennae and two compound eyes. 

From Dropping to Monster

This Geometrid moth lies prostrate like a dropping of a bird or rodent in order to escape its enemies. Then it begins to stir as it senses danger, its antennae now beginning to rise, and its wings start to split open ready for takeoff.  There is a close relative of the moth (not in the photo) which has a unique defense mechanism.  It twists its outer wings upward and inward, exposing a monstrous look to scare the intruder  

Children's Art Workshop: Painting and Drama

Dr Abe V Rotor

Of Brush and Colors

 I am what my brush and colors take me, 

to where the boundless world that be;\

beyond the sky or in the depth of me 

beyond the boundaries of what I see.   

Art Workshop 

To each his or her own now, and time to waste,
if idleness in art means any less;
and growing up a matter of chase and haste,
heed not, for the clay is still fresh.

Children's Art Exhibit

It's open house to view our children's art;
Amazing!  And who wouldn't agree?
For the young fills something on our part,  
We who were once talented and free.

Ribbon Cutting on Exhibit Day

Ritual we may say, or just ceremony,
Cheap on today's print or TV;
It's all about money and personality.
Save the young while still early.

Early Masterpieces 

When is pride humility?
Showing to the world beauty,
Handmade, and telling it good
As a good child really should.

Deities of Nature - A Drama Skit

Good spirits - they are deities of Nature,
living in forests, rivers, lakes and seas,
keepers of our land, air and water pure,
working night and day, at ease and peace.  

Best Artist Award

Single out the best, make them meek,
with medals to wear and to keep;
that others may also strive to seek,
what they may have failed to reap.

Art Instructor (Author as organizer and art instructor)

Give me your children's gifted hands
to hold the brush this summer;
and paint the glowing rainbow's bands
that bring in a sudden shower;
make the canvas come alive from the sands
of time, to a beautiful flower.

(Children's Summer Art Workshop, Filinvest Homes QC, 1996)
Workshop Graduation 

It's not an end, but a beginning,
From one chapter after another;
For life has no end nor beginning,
In one's own lifetime to another.~