Tropical Storm 04W

9 July 2007, 4:07 PM:





A tropical storm watch is happening. Here's the graphic as of late Sunday,
8 July (don't bother to click):

Gleanings from Silliman Marine Laboratory.

Two days of discussions at the University of Silliman Marine Laboratory. I presented what has been much in my thoughts lately: my long slumbering study of Millepora sp(p). reproduction and zooxanthellae. I will mention a few issues that came up in discussion, besides Millepora sp. studies (needing to be taken up separately).

Reportedly, another of the numerous interesting aspects of the biology and ecology of Millepora spp. is that Sepia sp. only attach their eggs w/in Millepora colonies. Millepora is felt by some persons to be a hardier species than most corals to deteriorating environmental conditions. This runs contrary to a comment heard years ago, that "Millepora is the first to go."

Another thing I heard was that lowest daytime tides are in February: did my hearing betray me? Another comment was that highest tides are in June and December, making sense to me as in Micronesia highest tides are in December.

I was priviledged to sit across from Nida Calumpong, director, for lunch after Alan Verde and Ann Cleveland's seminar on Clownfish and Anemone trophic interactions. Nida now calls herself a botanist; however, she cut her teeth on (if I got this right) Dolabella sp. sea slugs---the topic of her dissertation. I had a similar experience, as in Chuuk Lagoon, my studies of traditional zoological knowledge led me further and further off the expected path, into botanical knowledge.


Tamban and Barringtonia.

In the Caroline Islands an occasional event is a terrible plankton bloom, said by some to be a harbinger of breadfruit season. During such a bloom, called in some places "bubbles," and called by other names in various places, sardines called senif in Chuukese, Herklotsichthys sp., can be poisonous to eat, sometimes a few fishes in an ice chest full. Such blooms need to be studied; I don't know that they ever have. I have been told various things by people in various places in the Caroline Islands: in some localities, it is reported that the smell is so terrible that noone can stay in the area; in Pohnpei according to Ahser Edward, a Marine Biologist, people who have fallen in the water during these blooms have been known to die.

When the topic of Ciguatera came up, Nida shared some very interesting information, including that Tamban (Cebuano) sardines, which may be Herklotsichthys sp. may be poisonous to eat.

Because I studied calendrics in Chuuk Lagoon, and had shared with Nida that I had needed to learn the plants because Caroline Islands fishermen and farmers use plants' blooming or other significant events as markers of various marine events---aggregation of a fish species, or drift log season (also associated with a star), or shark hunting. I was more than intrigued when she shared that one learns to avoid Tamban when Barringtonia is blooming. At that time. These shards of information are more than suggestive.


Dolabella sp. toxicity: ciguatera?

Nida Calumpong also reports that Dolabella sp. (?auricularia) are eaten, and are sometimes toxic: this may be ciguatera! I recall that certain sand-dwelling dinoflagellates are associated with Ciguatera: is this a possible avenue? I was amazed that Filipinos also eat the eggs, packaging them in vinegar in Tanduay bottles, calling them "poor man's caviar". I didn't catch whether the eggs can also be toxic. I was amazed because we used to eat these eggs in Chuuk, calling them Chuukese ramen. I don't know of any incidents of toxicity.

Back to Maynilad (Manila) --- 7 July 2007

Back to Manila from Dumaguete.

Our plan is for museum, aquarium, zoo, planetarium, and library visits.

Silliman University Marine Laboratory

On July 5, we visited SU Marine Lab. William was full of questions about the aquaria:

• Why don't other fish besides the clownfishes go to the anemones?
• Why do clownfish stay close to the anemones?
• What are the (gastropod molluscs) that clean the glass?
• More

He was with his Mother at the time. I hope we can visit together so I can talk to him about these questions. It's obvious: William needs an aquarium.

I learned that in the PI, Millepora spp. are considered as weedy, hardy species that outlast the scleractinians. This runs counter to the suggestions of a coral researcher from Israel who stated "Millepora is the first to go." I learned Millepora are common on the NE end of Sumilon Island, off of Cebu.

Tides

Xtide is a fantastic tide prediction program. I have been using it for over 10 years to produce tide calendars for Saipan and Chuuk Lagoon. Harmonic constants are coefficients for a location, that can be plugged into the tide prediction equation to generate predictions as a function of time. Harmonic constants used to be readily available for a few locations in the Philippine Islands for Xtide; however, in recent years apparently political and legal forces have conspired to make such constants less readily available for various places. If one had an old version of Xtide, he might generate tidal predictions---at least baselines, not expected to be accurate---for the PI, but not anymore for new versions. I am attempting to obtain Harmonic constants for sites in the PI.

Harmonic constants are generated from a tidal dataset for a year, from hourly tide data for any site. It should in theory be a relatively straightforward matter to generate constants from tide data if a tide logger or tide gauge is present at a site. Once a set of harmonics is available for a site, if a single month's data is available for a nearby site, it is often possible to generate offsets, or corrections of minutes and heights, for nearby sites: the primary site with existing constants is used as a reference point, with differences added or subtracted for secondary sites.

In short, I have not found tide predictions easily available for the PI.

Here are some links:

Cebu tide predictor (using an older version of Xtide!)
Bohol tide predictor (using another method).

Manila tides are also found on line.

Mobile Geographics : search or browse

Cookie crumbs for Philippines constants:

UK Hydrographic Office (look under Singapore, Japan)
Easy Tide (6 day free use?)


Here's a question: Where is the office of the Hydrographic authority for the Philippines, and are they willing to allow the use of existing constants.


NEW INFORMATION, 6 July:
Cebu is the reference station for the region. Offsets for Dumaguete are available. Unverified offsets are 0.8 or 0.9 FEET, and +30 min. I have also learned that the Coast and Geodetic Survey (C&GS) of NAMRIA is the authority for hydrographic constants. I hope to visit NAMRIA in Manila.

If you wonder about strategic advantages, read about the Battle of Tarawa.

Here is the tidal prediction for bohol for today:

Dumaguete

We arrived by fast ferry from Cebu this morning at about 10:00. Staying at the La Residencia al Mar, maybe for one day or two, then hope to find a more economical option.

More to come. One of the searches of all time: tidal harmonics for the Philippine Islands.


By the way, a tricycle from Cebu!

Cebu --- 2 July 2007

Cebu. We arrived on The Princess of the Earth this morning.

Visited Fe's sister at the Schoenstadt Mission House in Talisay, a few miles from Cebu City.

Nuf sed for now.