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
