Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Then They Ate It

Aloha! Welcome! Click on photos to enlarge. . .Meet Megamouth
"Where facts are few, experts are many."
Donald R. Gannon

Hawaiian Skies are Eloquent
"There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line."
Oscar Levant

The great neighborhood rivalry

"When you come to a fork in the road, take it."
Yogi Berra

In Roman times, a piece of amber the size of your thumb could buy a slave.

"I would rather not know how to write and have something to say than know how to write and have nothing to say."
Enrique Tessieri






In 1976 a large, previously unknown fish appeared in Hawaiian waters. It defied classification, so scientists conveniently invented a brand new family and genus of sharks. The gentle filter-feeder's main feature (and aren't ALL labels just stereotypes?) was a W I D E blubbery mouth, so meet Mega Mouth Shark 01.



In the past 33 years, only 39 others have been encountered. Until last month. . .



People in the so called "third world" have a pragmatic joie de vivre that modern wage-slavery has all but eradicated in more "developed" places. This was part of my thinking when my life blew up and I chose to take my chances in Hawaii.



I had read something by Mark Twain, a great lover of these islands, to the effect that if the malihini (new comer) has no money that they can just "...herd with the natives."



Of course, in today's Hawaii (alas) that is called "being homeless." But I digress. . .



Fishermen in the Philippines could barely believe their good fortune when they discovered a 13-foot long, 1,100 pound megamouth struggling in their net off Burias island. Mabuhay, Megamouth number 41!



The shark was brought to the village of Donsol (185 miles southeast of Manila) in Sorsogon province, where local officials documented and photographed the catch.


The fishermen kindly allowed investigators to sample the shark's stomach contents which revealed that it had been browsing on shrimp larvae. They also listened politely to requests for the "specimen" before doing the entirely reasonable thing. . .




They ate it.

A L O H A! Cloudia

22 comments:

claude said...

When I can see a coconuttree in a blue sky, that makes my day !

Anonymous said...

What else would one do with a megamouth? ;)

the walking man said...

The "right" outcome of all work is either, food, clothing and/or shelter. Seems to me the Phillipinos had it right.

Reader Wil said...

What an interesting guy is this enormous shark( 4 meter!) I can hardly imagine how big!

Akelamalu said...

Oh wow that's interesting - a new breed of shark. Of course they had to eat it, otherwise the catch would have been wasted! :)

Bhavesh Chhatbar said...

That was quite obvious!

Temple of Dwarkadheesh

Dave King said...

Reminded me of someone I know - vaguely. (Megamouth, that is.)

Elizabeth said...

I liked the Tessieri best!

Anonymous said...

Few facts, Many investigators.
Well said.

Junosmom said...

Well, that is the reasonable thing to do, but also may be why there aren't many left LOL. Wm and I watched a documentary about the coelacanth, a fish thought also to be extinct. It is amazing all the things yet to be (re)discovered!

Loved your quotes and would make one my own, but I can't claim genius level!

David Cranmer said...

Megamouth is one scary dude!

Charles Gramlich said...

Yeah, the reasonable thing. That's a lot of good eatin'

Daryl said...

This was the natural order of things .. you catch a fish to eat it ... works for me ... sorry, scientists go find your own

Deborah Godin said...

Delicious! And what else could you do when the gods give you the gift of a feast...

namaki said...

wow ! you certainly have energy !! ;-) I like that post ! it's very infornative ;-)

Elizabeth Bradley said...

Shark is tasty.

Feisty Crone said...

Wow! Megamouth looks mad :)

Cloudia said...

Thanks everybody!
YOU
made my day ;-)

ALOHA

magiceye said...

loved the punch line and the images fo course as usual are brilliant with superb quotes

Glennis said...

I guess it fed the whole village as its huge, but it would be better swimming free producing many more megamouths!

Bubblewench said...

wow.. that's a big damn fish! Love the pic of the sky! Puffy clouds!

Sepiru Chris said...

I find the destruction of sharks very unfortunate. And Shark meat is rarely tasty. Ammonia runs through the meat so bringing it up to your nose is like going by a public urinal that hasn't been cleaned.

So, generally, people discard shark meat, or soak it in in numerous, repeated milk baths, to reduce or eliminate the ammonia odour and smell.

Shark harvesting sites are characterized by a large pile of fins, for the Asian market, and dead carcases bobbing in the water, rolled off the dock.

Good for crabs, bad for both public health of that village, though, and for the ecology of the seas.

Anyway, eating this shark likely was a significant drain, not boost, to the village's resources, with the amount of milk they would have needed.

And the Philippines is definitely second world, not third. But, I digress.

And, I enjoyed this post, and your raising the subject. Not so sure how thrilled I am with some of the reactions, though.

Aloha, Cloudia.

Tschuess,
Chris