Let's Save the Endangered Giant Clam (Tridacna gigas)

 Let's Save the Endangered Giant Clam (Taklobo)* 

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature School on Blog [ avrotor.blogspot.com ]*

Former Professor, UST Graduate School

Author and his students lift a living specimen of the Giant Clam 

(Tridacna gigas) from its natural habitat during an on-site study

off the coast of Masinloc, Zambales.

 

A seven-kilogram Tridacna gigas is examined by students in 

Environmental Science from the UST Graduate School

Natural habitat of taklobo at 6 to 14 feet on coral reef 

of San Salvador Island, east of Masinloc, Zambales.

Facts about the giant clam, Tridacna gigas.

1. In the Philippines it is called taklobo. It is the largest living bivalve mollusk and one of the most endangered clams.

2. It lives on shallow coral reefs of the South Pacific and Indian oceans, up to 20 meters deep.

3. It weighs more than 200 kilograms (440 pounds), and measures as much as 1.2 m (4 feet) across. It has an average lifespan in the wild of 100 years or more.

4. Although larval clams are planktonic, they become sessile in adulthood. Growth is enhanced by the clam's ability to grow algae in symbiosis. The creature's mantle tissues act as a habitat for the symbiotic single-celled dinoflagellate algae (zooxanthellae) from which it gets its nutrition. By day, the clam opens its shell and extends its mantle tissue so that the algae receive the sunlight they need to photosynthesize.

5. T. gigas reproduce sexually. They are hermaphrodites (producing both eggs and sperm), but self fertilization is not possible. Since giant clams can't move across the sea floor, the solution is broadcast spawning. This entails the release of sperm and eggs into the water where fertilization takes place.

Let's save the giant clams. It's better to be assured they are alive on the seafloor than to have their fossils in our home.~

 

Tridacna in its natural habitat - lighted seafloor.  Right, Tridacna graveyard. 

Shell is highly prized for locally and for export.  Collection and selling 

of Tridacna shell is strictly prohibited. 

 

Mrs Cecilia Rojas Rotor, author's wife. poses before a giant Tridacna shell as holy water receptacle in Mount Carmel Church, QC

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*Why are giant clams endangered in the Philippines? Giant clams, which can weigh up to 200kg and live for more than a century, face an existential threat from illegal poaching – and very likely organized crime – which has spiked in the last few years across Philippine and Indonesian waters, conservationists have warned. Internet Apr 26, 2023

References: Living with Nature by AVRotor; Marine Biology: An Ecological Approach by JW Nybakken; Wikipedia.

 Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio 738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday

Junkyard Art: Life resurrects from the junkyard - through art.

  Junkyard Art

Life resurrects from the junkyard 
- through art.  

Dr Abe V Rotor

The useless, the forgotten, the eyesore, or simply junk,

they become beautiful pieces of art:

A neo-renaissance movement with ecological message,

redeeming man from morals defiled;

Monuments, big and small, they speak of human frailty

turned ingenuity.

Fine art and craft, artist and artisan, formal or informal,

they make no difference, they are one;

Aesthetics defied, the ugly becomes beautiful, its depth

from the inner self, fountain of joy.

Monsters tamed, they live in the park, now have a home,

no longer outcasts in the graveyard;

They speak, "You gave me life, I'll always be your friend."

Music Reborn 

Bring back music from the dead but not a dirge; 
it is rejoice.  
Music is the language of renewal, of rebirth. 
It is Grieg's Morning, Beethoven's Pastoral, 
Handel's Alleluia, Abelardo's Mutya ng Pasig.
It is God's voice.

  

 

Man, the Genie

Rising from the confines of his ingenuity,

like giant Gulliver among his little kind;

Man reigns over earth with his technology,

sans happiness if ever he could find.

 

Requiem to the Park

Whatever happened to people's park,

Nothing roams around but ghosts;
Empty chairs, empty kiosks,

Leafless trees, blind lamp posts

Eerie, man seems lost.

Ecological Message

Too much glare from the hole in the sky, the thinned ozone layer.

 The air is heavy and thick, it is suffocating. The earth is burdened,

like an overloaded spaceship, poorly kept and manned.   

Function to Dysfunction Immortalized in Art. 

Anti-thesis of peace, methodology, dialectics and law;

of dreams and goals, plans and programs - ultimately, 

disregarding the cycles of Nature, immortalized in art. 

 

Metal Sunflowers 

A replica of Vincent van Gogh's painting of Sunflowers in our times, 

sans fragrance, freshness, and daintiness - yet proud and bearing; 

to the bold and courageous, unafraid to face and follow the sun.  
   

  

Wind with a Face

Imagine where the wind blows, clouds in many faces changing, 

treetops swaying, leaves rustling with the passing breeze. 

Make it funny, make it queer, copy nature 

in man's folly and cheer.  

Fairy Tale Alive

Disneyland brought dreams alive;

many times children would laugh or cry. 

Castles in changing view, ever new, but nothing

compares with the castle in the sky.  

 Picasso Revived

Abstract art in collage, once whole and true;

but who argues about life today tired and rue? 

NOTE: Acknowledgement - These photos, discovered from an old file, were taken way back circa 1996.  It was an exhibit I attended upon the invitation of a student of mine from St Paul University QC who was then connected with Pylox Philippines. ~ 

Where has the fisherboy gone?

 Where has the fisherboy gone? 

Dr Abe V Rotor

By the stream under a tree (wall mural detail) in acrylic by the author

By a stream on a rock ledge many a dream grew with the water flowing, the clouds rising, the breeze whispering in a nearby tree, its shade creating images of art and fantasy.

Hours lazily passed, but how short was a day fishing, from sunrise to noon and back again when the fish would return, the bamboo pole suddenly becoming heavy with a big catch.   

Other boys join the cheer, the louder the bigger the fish was, or fading with a whimper when it got away, and it was always "the big fish that got away," an adage of every fisher folk.

Away from town, away from school, away from home for a while - this freedom in innocence and adventure, the elders would call laziness, stubbornness and aimlessness in growing up.

Boys don't know the difference grownups want them to be, but wait for their own time, when childhood yields to the demands of the world, the world though big is "prison" to grownups. 

They too, were children before - the "man in the boy" comes later when there are no more big fish to catch, the tree has overgrown the rock ledge and other boys are longer around. 

Like birds migrating and returning, season after season in Vivaldi's refrain, and Mozart's lament, life goes on in rhythm, but time couldn't wait, while dreams sought for reality. 

There are many fish in the world, the biggest to catch always a dream - fame, ideas, wealth, sacrifice, honor, popularity - aiming at these to the end, in triumph, surrender or defeat. 

Years later a man in gray hair appeared, he saw a familiar boy fishing, his thoughts seemed far away, his fishing pole bending to his excitement, then snapped - it was the big fish that got away. ~

I Brought Nature Home

                                       I Brought Nature Home 

                                                Dr Abe V Rotor

My Garden Pond at Home, wall mural by AVRotor, 2010 QC.
Closeup of Oscar fish

I'm with Nature reading the morning paper,
     whatever news it brings for the day;
I'm with Nature with brewed coffee piping hot,
     rising in mist, whiling time away. 

I'm with Nature, with a bit of the mountain, sea,
     of rivulets, streams and lake;
I'm with Nature, clouds rising on the horizon,
     white and dark, into rain they make.

I'm with Nature, the ocean spreading out
     in a grasp from shore to its end;
I'm with Nature, in the sky of deep azure
     birds fly free to heaven.

I'm with Nature, confined yet boundless,
     by lianas, the lowly bryophyte;
Dissolving the old prison walls and bars,
    that for years barred my sight.

I'm with Nature, from sunrise to evening,
     writing my life in a poem,
While Midas touches everything to gold,
     save where I brought Nature home. ~

In Pursuit of Happiness - A Self-Assessment

 In Pursuit of Happiness  - A Self-Assessment 

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog

Gross National Happiness (GNH) Index has recently gained a place in measuring the level of development of a country by inputing an elusive parameter which is happiness.  GNH Index can be downsized for local application, individually or by group or community that is closely knit.

Relationship is still the Number One source of happiness

However, the standard development index remains: Gross National Product (GNP) Index, the annual total value of goods and services generated by a country within and outside its shores, as differentiated from Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which is the total value generated within the country only.

This was modified to include Human Development (HD) Index, in order to determine how a country's wealth and earnings are used for the  welfare of its citizens in terms of health, education, housing, and the like.

Parameters of Happiness of GNH Index:

1. Psychological Well-Being

2. Health

3. Time Use

4. Education

5. Cultural Diversity

6. Good Governance

7. Community Vitality

8. Ecological Diversity and Resilience

9. Living Standards

10. Family

11. Spirituality

12. Sense of Achievement

Enjoying the beauty and bounty of Nature 

Quaintness of living (Bannawag Magazine staff) 

Individual perception of course, varies, so that it is suggested that a kind of self-evaluation be conducted using the Likert Scale: 

1 Very Poor, 2 Poor, 3 Fair, 4 Good, and 5 Very Good. 

Compute the average by adding the values of all the parameters, and divide the total with 12.  This is the general perception of happiness of the person concerned. What is equally - if not more important - is in being able to find out the main source of happiness, at the same time, the least. This exercise therefore, is aimed at re-affirming our sense of values in the pursuit of happiness. So does a community or country.

NOTE: The Gross National Happiness Index was coined by the fourth king of Bhutan, a small country on the Himalayas, claimed to be the place where "the fountain of youth can be found."  Anyone who has seen the movie The Lost Horizon -  better still read the novel - will certainly wish to live here. Bhutan started using GNH as a broader measure of national progress than GNP, following an old Eastern philosophy.   

Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Mc Melly C Tenorio

738 DZRB AM Band 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday

Oh, Youth! A Prodigal Son you have been. (In celebration of UN International Youth Day, August 12, 2023):

 UN International Youth Day (August 12, 2023):

Theme - "Green Skills for Youth: Towards a Sustainable World."

Today, the world is embarking on a green transition. The shift towards an environmentally sustainable and climate-friendly world is critical not only for responding to the global climate crisis but also for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A successful transition towards a greener world will depend on the development of green skills in the population. Green skills are “knowledge, abilities, values and attitudes needed to live in, develop and support a sustainable and resource-efficient society”. - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres

Oh, Youth! A Prodigal Son you have been!

(Original title: Doom of the Youth)

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog (avrotor.blogspot.com)

Also open Naturalism -the Eighth Sense

Young Ka Hsaw Wa from Burma receives 2009 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Pursuing  Non-Violent Defense of Human Rights and the Environment, Cultural Center of the Philippines, Metro Manila. Below, youth in gay and abandon, a stark contrast.

Haste is waste, you hurry things up in bundles of abandon and pleasure,
Instant in many ways, coffee to relationship, condominium, cars, food -
All for the flesh and Freud, little of Jung, nil of Gandhi, and so forgotten
The Great Teacher. Rage, rage! Is it a revival at the Waterfront
Where life is aimless, a rebel without cause? Is it cause without a rebel?

Oh, youth of pride with little treasure, like pyramid on the sands of time
Where the sea is advancing, drought at the other end - is this your pedestal?
Even at the top of your juvenile empire and endless view of the horizon
There's little to see with pride in your heart, cold, wooden and numb;
Myopic is your gaze, while the Keller's vision sleeps - the inner eye.

By the books you read, Internet you spend the best hours of your day
And in night's company with Bacchus and Venus in a raucous  crowd
You are trapped, trapped in the Good Life, while the world wobbles
In Global Warming, in neo-Nostradamus' prophesy - gentle is disaster
When the youth is Rip Van Winkle snoring with the roars of the world.

And the generations, three under a roof no more, they are now apart 
Here and across the seas, atop high rise, severed by the glitter  of gold,
And the bonds of promise breaking up from obligation to liberation,
Orphaned is the fruit of love, Narcissus by his side, proud, untamed.
Oh, youth abandoned, seeking light from the pool, reflecting  but your own.

And in your study the world is different, idea and truth reign  supreme,
Outside its walls - a noosphere, a jungle of fast lanes and empty palms,
Music and noise into pop and rock, fashion of beads and sack, lights neon
In the night subduing the stars, the sky falling with acid rain and smog.
Rage, rage! But the youth can't hear, he is muffled, wired and  mired.

And your culture a mélange like blood in your veins, mixed, transient,
Homogenized all in the name of globalization and post-modernism
No longer shared by the Bushmen, the Goths, the other races of old;
Natural gene pools dissolving. Oh, youth you don't heed the danger
If culture dictates, no longer genes adapting to a changing world.

Oh youth, the gate is open, the hearth is waiting, your father by its side,
A Prodigal Son you have been, searching for the Golden Fleece for nought,
Hear, hear, the advice of the sage, while the bomb of capitalism ticks,
Silence is deep in danger, listen to it, don't follow Icarus, or the gods -
They have Mount Olympus. You have none, you are only human. ~

Half of the people on our planet are 30 or younger, and this is expected to reach 57% by the end of 2030. Survey shows that 67% of people believe in a better future, with 15 to 17 year-olds being the most optimistic about this. Internet

 

Music in the Trees in Wintertime

   Music in the Trees  in Wintertime

Brisbane, Australia 

Each leaf a note with the wind and in falling to the ground, a firefly beams with flashes of notes, crawlers in cadence of their own, and the treetops like the grass sway in cantabile, the winter wind chills in vibration, the germinating seeds whisper - all in keeping with the baton of Nature.

Dr Abe V Rotor

The Woods in Brisbane in Wintertime, Painting in acrylic 

by the author. July 2023

How I love to paint the trees on the backyard of my daughter's family house in Brisbane, just across a railing to a park, kept in its natural state which I call "woods", reminiscent of Robert Frost's description of woods in his poem, to quote, "the woods are lovely dark and deep."

But the woods here are sparse as they undergo hibernation in winter, because in the Southern hemisphere the seasons are exactly the opposite of ours in the northern hemisphere, when summer to us is winter in Australia, owing to the inclination of the earth's axis.

When I, my wife and son, took a vacation in Brisbane the temperature was less than 10 degrees Celsius on the average, with occasional gusts of wind and drizzle, and fog that would shroud the trees, rivers and lakes, yet as a whole the climate was invigoratingly fresh, though quite cool.

There with paintbrush and acrylic colors, half lying on the lawn, I tried to capture the scene on canvas, the sun overcast revealing the undergrowth as temperate trees are  mainly deciduous, save the evergreens mainly gymnosperms -  cypresses, and pines, like agoho that we know.

The birds came to greet us, I supposed, or they were attracted by the music of my violin as I played some popular and semi-classical tunes, including our Kundiman.  Isn't music universal, understood differently by all creatures, not only man but animals and plants - and the minutiae, as well?

Each leaf a note with the wind and in falling to the ground, a firefly beams with flashes of notes, crawlers in cadence of their own, and the treetops like the grass sway in cantabile, the winter wind chills in vibration, the germinating seeds whisper - all in keeping with the baton of Nature. 

I viewed my painting for a long time, long enough to meditate on its rendition, not for its incompleteness or simplicity, for after all, there's no end at aiming perfection, and it is the viewer who completes what the artist may have missed.  Such is the mystery of art, it reflects upon us beyond our comprehension in awe and reverence.  

* The earth's vertical axis tilts by 23.5 degrees, equivalent to an angle of 66.5 from the orbital plane. The earth maintains this tilt throughout its revolution. This is known as the parallelism of the earth's axis which explains the reason for the occurrence of seasons alternately occurring in opposite phases between the northern and southern hemispheres.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: The painting hangs at the sala of the home of my daughter, her husband, and their two young children who joined me, their Lolo, in this rare adventure with nature.~