Aloha! Welcome! Click on photos to enlarge. . .
Meet Megamouth
Meet Megamouth 
Hawaiian Skies are Eloquent 
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
When I can see a coconuttree in a blue sky, that makes my day !
ReplyDeleteWhat else would one do with a megamouth? ;)
ReplyDeleteThe "right" outcome of all work is either, food, clothing and/or shelter. Seems to me the Phillipinos had it right.
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting guy is this enormous shark( 4 meter!) I can hardly imagine how big!
ReplyDeleteOh wow that's interesting - a new breed of shark. Of course they had to eat it, otherwise the catch would have been wasted! :)
ReplyDeleteThat was quite obvious!
ReplyDeleteTemple of Dwarkadheesh
Reminded me of someone I know - vaguely. (Megamouth, that is.)
ReplyDeleteI liked the Tessieri best!
ReplyDeleteFew facts, Many investigators.
ReplyDeleteWell 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!
ReplyDeleteLoved your quotes and would make one my own, but I can't claim genius level!
Megamouth is one scary dude!
ReplyDeleteYeah, the reasonable thing. That's a lot of good eatin'
ReplyDeleteThis was the natural order of things .. you catch a fish to eat it ... works for me ... sorry, scientists go find your own
ReplyDeleteDelicious! And what else could you do when the gods give you the gift of a feast...
ReplyDeletewow ! you certainly have energy !! ;-) I like that post ! it's very infornative ;-)
ReplyDeleteShark is tasty.
ReplyDeleteWow! Megamouth looks mad :)
ReplyDeleteThanks everybody!
ReplyDeleteYOU
made my day ;-)
ALOHA
loved the punch line and the images fo course as usual are brilliant with superb quotes
ReplyDeleteI guess it fed the whole village as its huge, but it would be better swimming free producing many more megamouths!
ReplyDeletewow.. that's a big damn fish! Love the pic of the sky! Puffy clouds!
ReplyDeleteI 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.
ReplyDeleteSo, 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