7742- Thank You the Island Way

Whenever I visit the U.S. Pacific Island Jurisdictions, I am treated like a king. The islanders really know how to make you feel welcome and go the extra mile to make your stay really pleasant. In the States, our partners do the same for us, taking us around to see the sights, maybe go shopping or to a baseball game. They also really pay attention to the effects of the time difference and jet lag.

One of our long standing project officers will be resigning in a year or two. This means slowly letting go of the PIJ project areas. He has been a champion for the Pacific for more than a decade working out funding and resources that our people can not live without. I am glad that I had at least 3 years under his guidance and experienced immense support for the work that I do. It was my Guahan counterpart, Bernie that had the brilliant idea to take Thom and his wife, Yolanda, out for dinner and to thank him with gifts island style.

Thom had no clue what was going on. Here's brilliant Bernie pretending that we were nervous about our presentations and that we needed some time with Thom to prepare. It was nice to surprise him.

One of the things I'll always remember for is his affinity for taking lots and lots of pictures. We decided to go to a Mexican restaurant called Jalapeno Jack's.
Bernie and the crowning of the king! She was having a hard time maneuvering Thom's fro!
...and our queen. The mwarmwars were from Palau and the leis from Guahan. The mwars were made with artificial flowers since real ones wouldn't have checked out of customs but they were really beautifully made.

The Guahan folks: Bernie, Thom, ate Liz and Yolanda.
James is from Yap, Federated States of Micronesia. The last time I saw him was in 2007 in Pohnpei.
Dr. Zach and Roy with giving some gorgeous shell mwars and necklaces from the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Dr. Zach is based on the main island and Roy is from Ebye.
Roy and I were in Chicago in 2008. It was the first time to see snow for the both of us!
Our couple lookin' smart!
I gave Thom the higam hima: Hacha that I made. He was really appreciative and said he'd make a make a shadow box for it. I also gave away some CNMI quarters.
I gave Yolanda a necklace I made from Spondylus. I shaped one as an alahas and kept one in the natural shape of the spiny oyster.
Hana and Alene from the Republic of Palau gave a beautiful painting of a Palauan chief's house, coconut crafts and some trochus shell and pearl necklace and earings.
Yolanda was excited about a woven pandanus bag from Guahan. I didn't get to take pictures of the American Samoan's who gave tapa cloths to the couple. I think I was caught up in the celebration that I forgot to record the moment in pictures.

At the end of our dinner, a woman came up and asked if we were celebrating a birthday and if we were from Hawaii. I had to explain to her that it was a change to an era, a changing of the guards for all of us in the PIJs. Good luck, Thom. God bless you and Si Yu’us Ma’ase.

Ti napu.

The Beachcomber

Beachcombing

I didn't plan on doing some beach combing the other day and it was a pleasant surprise that the excursion turned up some real good specimens for my shell collection. I was sorting, cleaning, bagging and tagging my specimens when I realized that I have never posted an actual beach combing blog. How funny is that? Anyway, this is what your Beachcomber does when he can in his free time: beachcomb for shells for a biodiversity working collection.

You can get a permit at CNMI Division of Fish & Wildlife if you want a shell collection. Also remember that the wildlife and natural resources of this world have been entrusted to us for protection and preservation. We all must account to the future for how we handle resources today and if you decide to collect shells it must be done lawfully, conservatively, recognizing that destruction of the marine habitat, by whatever means, is the true enemy of the sea and its creatures. You can read and take the Sheller's Creed.

Abalones (Family Haliotidae) get quite big in colder waters, but in the Marianas they are quite small. Their modest size do not detract from the beauty of these shells though as you can see from the nacre or mother of pearl in the opening where the animal used to live. These are Haliotis clathrata, common name Lovely abalones (Reeve, 1846) and you can find them between 10-60 mm in size.
Here are two samples that are new to me! Part of the dream of all beachcombers is to discover something new and undescribed and be able to name it yourself! Well, my best friend actually found the one that looks like a sundial (most likely of the Architectonicidae family) so she will have to name it! I will have to check if it is Heliacus caelatus as described by Hinds (1844). Here are new limpets to my collection that have a nice yellow tint to them. These gastropods or marine snails are usually found attached to rocks with the exposed surface covered in encrustations. When the animal dies the shell gets polished by the water, sand and waves and they show off wonderful architecture and amazing patterns of color. They're in the Patellidae family.

Found some cool spines of Eucidaris metularia (Lamarck, 1816), the Ten-lined sea urchin. Although I have never seen them in the water, their spines are a pretty good clue that they are around!

Another candlenut or kukui (Aleurites moluccana). I still haven't found a live tree on Guam and the CNMI! Could the seed have traveled the seas from Polynesia? Or from Malaysia or Indonesia? It's possible but I am still crossing my fingers that there are trees here.
I found some Star sand and what I call Halo sand. They are foraminaferans (or forams for short) which are actually marine protists that are big enough to see with the naked eye. The circular Halo sand are Marginopora vertebralis, calcareous and they contribute to the sand makeup when they die.

Some Japanese islands are famous and are marketed to tourists for their star sand. We should too since they are pretty abundant in a lot of our beaches. Read about the star sand legend here. I'll be sending some samples to Bev and Greg since the two have become psammophiles (sand collectors). They are putting together a nice Leica camera and and an old microscope together. I hope I can send them some of my microshell collection to photograph as well that I can show you.

Thank you for letting me share again.

Ti napu.

The Beachcomber