Bolinao Clam Pride
I’m currently in Bolinao, in the Pangasinan province in the north of the Philippines, on the main island of Luzon about seven hours north of Manila. I’m here because the University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute is here, and I have the chance to do some really interesting research about the behavior of gobies, small marine fishes.
I’m also paying attention to the other research going on here, of course, and one main focui of the UP MSI is the conservation of giant clams. These animals are massive bivalves, with adults weighing up to 500 kg. These clams are endangered (like so many large animals world-wide), and hence UP restocks wild populations all over the Philippines.
What’s nice to see is that in Bolinao a certain regional pride about the clams has set foot. With so many clams in the ocean a lot of dead clam’s shells are available, and many restaurants and businesses use them as decorations. Even the church has a big clam draped below the feet of St. James, the patron saint of the town:
I do hope that this Bolinao clam-pride makes people aware a bit more that the ocean is not an unlimited resource which provides unlimited fish and can take unlimited rubbish. Here are a few more impressions of the clams all over Bolinao, alive underwater, and dead & as decorative shells on land.
I had tried to get a picture like this for a while now, but either the light at the place was horrible, or the little kids were shy & uncooperative. His dad convinced this young gentleman to pose for me. A clam so big that a human (albeit a small human) can sit in its shell!
Glaiza among the clams near Silaki island. This is where the adult clams are placed. Several thousands of them sit in shallow water in the Lingayen gulf.
This is a video I made about the efforts made at UP to breed giant clams:
A giant clam body orifice, with the amazing patterns on the mollusk’s mantle.
