These gentle “sea cows” share the Order Sirenia (mermaid) with manatees. They graze in the underwater meadows of tropical sea grasses but are not complete vegetarians. Every once in awhile, they munch on a slow moving jellyfish, polychete worm, or sea squirt.
I discovered that the shy curious Dugong is attracted to surfboards. There is a nice little right point break near… (nope, not telling, he he he), where Dugongs pop their big noses out of the water, investigating you and the surfboard’s dugong-like silhouette. Gentle, graceful marine mammals, it IS like meeting a mermaid.
They are traditionally eaten in this area but are now protected. Being endangered and charismatic aquatic mammals, they bring significant tourist dollars to Busuanga. 30+ Dugongs now swim in the waters around northern Palawan and this year there were 3 calves.
Everything seems to lean towards something and long for water and for a break in the heat. This heat is impressively oppressive. Walking feels like physically pushing oneself through warm chunky soup. Everything agrees to move slower.
A quick rain shower washes the heat and clears this humidity away. It is relief in its purest form. You begin to crave the water and the cooling affects of the storm but like a bizarre addiction, it will be a short lived pleasure. The moisture will evolve into torrential rains that raise the rivers, anger the ocean and soon take over and drown the whole country in brown. The silt and dirt from the towns will flow over the reefs and there will be many casualties both coralline and human. It happens every year.
When I was smaller, between 300-400 cm, my dad let me sit shotgun as “copilot” in his little 6 seater. Before the prop started whirling at full capacity, we always did a checklist. Seatbelts – check! Head phones – check! Fuel – check! Wings – check! For every worthy adventure, I feel a checklist is in order. My checklist for CrowdFunding:
Despite being slow out of the gate, I have the distinct feeling of already beating the odds. My field site is in a remote corner of Busuanga on the north side of Palawan in the Philippine Islands. Beautiful pockets of coral reef and amazing fishes are abundant. Electricity and internet…. not so much. There is a handy solar panel that fuels my trusty little MacBook Air and at night sometimes we splurge and turn the generator on for an hour or more! Oh the melodious sound of power, drowning out the crowing of inbred roosters in the night. yes, the night. Dreams of coq-au-vin.
Electricity – check!
There is one lonely cell phone tower that everyone uses. You Load up with prepaid phone cards. If too many people are texting or calling at one time… well, you just have to wait your turn. The other feature on my phone is “Radio”, which I think means it streams the local Filipino station into headphones. Note: get headphones.
Phone – check!
A Dongle and MORE phone load for internet capabilities on your computer. This lets one squeeze out slow emails and leaves one with memories of what it felt like to download.
Internet – check!
iMovie, a fascinating program that enables one to put together homemade footage into a wonderfully cheese filled SciFund project PSA. My laptop has become irritated and exhausted with iMovie. Their abusive relationship has been up and down the last few days, it is apparent that they are asking too much from one another. I suspect Miss Mac has more important things to occupy her space with. The heat and power situation has tempers running hot. It ended with a 9 hour stint of “Finalizing Project”.
Video – check!
We beat the heat, the humidity, and the 3rd world rural resource availability.
The insects buzz in the dry tropical forest. Cicadas. The Tuko Tiger Gecko calls out his TuuukO! Tuuuk-O! The soft lapping of the bay up and down the shore. The peeping of the chicks, crowing of the roosters. I finally found a local coffee that is palatable to my foreign taste, 6 hour journey to the little town. Totally worth it.
There is a small village on the other end of the beach, hidden behind the mangroves. At a glance you would think you were completely alone.
Morning is when the kids paddle by on narrow bamboo rafts to go fill their water jugs for the day. They sing as they push their way across the water. The acoustics of the calm water elevates their innocent little voices. A homemade songs without an end. Is it just to pass the time? Is he singing about the village, the ocean? Family, the canoe, the fishing? There is something so dear and pure about a childs voice, regardless of the language or culture. It warms the heart every time.
Today one little boy is completely without clothes, it must be laundry day. From working at the school, I know a lot of kids only have 1 pair of clothes. He can’t be more than 6 years old. This is not like back home, kids sent to school with a lunch box full of neatly plastic wrapped food. No bike helmets, no training wheels, no bike, no coloring books or reading, no cartoons or baseball teams. Just the ocean and your family village. This little one paddles by early every morning to get water and bring it home. He then fishes the reef with his little brother in mid morning. They float over the reef on their small bamboo rafts dipping their heads in the water searching, searching, foraging for food. giggling.
Mermaid Scientist 