Invading SILAQUI ISLAND, Bolinao: Home to a Million-Strong Army of Giant Clams - the Tridacna gigas

(photo credit: Hector Lillo)

In the many endeavors I would be pursuing from here on end, we will be dwelling on the ideals of ECOTOURISM.  It is a form of sustainable tourism within a natural and /or cultural heritage area where community participation, protection and management of natural resources, culture and indigenous knowledge and practices,
environmental education and ethics, as well as economic benefits are fostered and pursued for the enrichment of host community and satisfaction of visitors.  Such is our ecotour of the town of Bolinao, Pangasinan.  My first marine expedition for 2015 is this visit to Silaqui Island, a barren, thinly populated rock in the northern tip of Santiago Island in the the Lingayen Gulf and within the jurisdiction of the municipality of Bolinao, Pangasinan. Inconspicuous to many, the waters around this island is a marine sanctuary and home to a humongous army of giant clams, the Tridacna gigas.  

The name itself strikes an intimidating impression but on the contrary, these giants are as gentle and docile as a baby.  Seeing these gentle giants in such magnificent numbers, with a population of almost a million is a breathtaking site seldom seen by any individual.  The opportunity to see them up close and personal is something I will not allow to pass since I may not have the chance to visit this place again in the near future.  

I was at the helm of my class of Environmental Science students of De La Salle University Dasmarinas on a scoping exercise for our class in Environmental Impact Assessment.  We were all excited in this trip because Silaqui Island is not your typical usual site for a vacation.  We will later find out  why.  However, since this is an educational field trip and not primarily for pleasure, I will be narrating the events in a more informative and educational way. I hope that this story will give justice to the field trip as an in-situ exercise for EIA field studies. 

 The Bolinao Field trip is an itinerary challenge because instead of a 3 days-2 nights tour, I streamlined it to an overnight stay.  We left Cavite at midnight and had 3 stopovers along the way where we intend to have breakfast at Alaminos, Pangasinan.  We have 2 Toyota vans and the travel was relatively uneventful.  However, we arrived too early in Alaminos and decided to continue on to Bolinao and have our breakfast there.  

The municipality of Bolinao is a quaint backward town in the southern tip of Lingayen Gulf.  It has no popular business establishments for burgers, pizza, medicines, theaters,milk teas and coffee.  But I prefer it this way because the place still retains its rustic identity and that this undeveloped nature itself preserves and protects it from the damaging effects of urbanization and exploitative claws of business enterprises.  

Saint James the Great Parish Church, a Catholic church is the most prominent historical marker in the town square.  Beside it is the Bolinao Museum which is currently closed at the moment. Religious statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint James humbly stands fronting the churchyard.  The next day before our departure, we will be returning to this place to buy some pasalubong items for our loved ones back home.

After breakfast, our next stop was the Bolinao Marine Laboratory where we were oriented with the breeding program of Tridacna gigas, "the giant clam".  The facility is operated by the University of the Philippines-Marine Sciences Institute and primarily used by UP students but can also be used by other researchers from different institutions which have a formal arrangement with UP.

These are dried specimens of different species of giant clams. Much as we would like to ask or buy the shells for souvenirs, we were politely reminded that it is best just to marvel at the sight of these humble creatures and just take pictures of them as souvenirs as these gentle giants are propagated to be used for seeding in coastal areas which are in dire need for rehabilitation.

We were led next to the outdoor hatchery of the facility where they raise and nurse in-vitro corals, sea cucumbers and of course, giant clams.  

They draw salt water directly from the sea which they use to nurse the young ones in a closely monitored environment.

The marine laboratory is also actively involved in coral reef restoration thru in-vitro culturing of corals.  The tank here shows young corals in a nursery being propagated and when they have reached a particular age of maturity, they will be transferred out in the sea to allow them to establish a foothold on the seabed and propagate naturally.

Another project that the UP-MSI is actively engaged in is the breeding and culturing of sea cucumbers such as this one I am holding.  These crawling creatures also have a very important role in the ecosystem and economic value as its meat is highly sought as a culinary delicacy especially the Chinese, who strongly believed in its medicinal properties.  Did you know that sea cucumbers are one of the few animals that are not afflicted with cancer?  Hmmm.  That's the very reason why they are harvested from the sea.  Not primarily for food but for its therapeutic properties.  However, indiscriminate harvesting of these gentle crawlers has started threatening their existence.  If we do not implement programs on the management of this important marine resource, we may never have the chance to maximize its potential in finally eradicating the deadly disease that has eluded a permanent cure. 

Now it's time to head out into the open sea for an up close and personal encounter with the giant clams.  We were led thru the dressing room where a wide array of diving equipment are stored and used by researchers whenever they are conducting field studies in their respective areas around Bolinao bay.  There was one researcher who was busy preparing for this morning's dive.

The adjacent room here is where they fill up the breathing tanks with compressed air.  Contrary to many people who are not into diving, the breathing tanks are not filled with pure oxygen as this gas is actually toxic when taken pure.  It's even combustible when exposed to open flame especially when it's pressurized.  It's only filled with ordinary air that is pumped thru this compressors and fills the tank to a specific pressure.

   We actually went out first on a countryside tour of Patar, which is another part of Pangasinan, where we enjoyed bathing on a long stretch fine light brown sand that glistens white under the sun, so when taken by a camera it creates a white sand appearance on the picture. But that story will be featured in the next blog I will be writing.  Anyway, here we are on the second day, early in the morning ready to cast off for Silaqui Island.  I decided to change the boat ride for the next morning so it would not be too hot while out in the sea.  The Research Assistant, Mr. July Koreano of the Bolinao Marine Laboratory gave a short orientation on the do's and don'ts while snorkeling in the marine sanctuary.  After the briefing we had our posterity shot and casted off!  Everyone was excited in this trip, even Hector Lillo of Exploria Tours was eagerly excited to see the giant clams as well.

The journey to Silaqui Island is not a straight path but the boat had to navigate its way through the shallow waters of the bay along a navigational path free of corals and submerged fishpens.  Much of the bay is actually used for marine aquaculture for growing milkfish or "bangus" and other economically important fishes. 

Some areas are being used for a variety of underwater research so the boatmen have to be very careful in avoiding this places otherwise the set-up might be disturbed and the data being collected might be ruined.   

Finally, Silaqui Island is on sight, everyone aboard is excited as a seafarer very eager to reach land after spending several months at sea.  We had seen a couple of live clams back in the laboratory but this time we will be seeing more than our eyes can feast on.  Even our Hector Lillo, our tour guide from Exploria tours is as eager to jump in the water and swim up close with the clams.  He shared with us that not long ago when he visited Coron, Palawan, giant clams can be seen while diving and locals would always bring one clam to the surface for picture taking and eventually be sold to the tourists for eating.  Gone were those days now because you won't see a single giant clam in Coron anymore.  Such is the terrible impact of tourism in that beautiful place but if the practice still continues, there won't be any marine creature to gaze on while diving.  That is why tourism should focus first on minimizing the impact to the ecosystem before addressing customer satisfaction or else there won't be any place left for the tourists to visit.

When we finally reached ground zero, there was no need to persuade everyone to enter the water, everyone got their gear on and began to swam in all directions.  There was a feeling of euphoria in the air as the moment cannot easily be described in words as the magnificent sight of the silent giants came into view.

There is a portion where an in-situ nursery for young clams are placed and as soon as they reach their size of maturity, they would be transferred out of the basket and will be allowed to assimilate with the general population.  For now they have to be monitored inside the basket where they enjoy some protection from predators.

This is what these beautiful creatures look like up close.  Their anatomy looks like a landscape from an alien planet with all those bright neon colors to attract prey and the texture so weird it will make you hesitate to touch them.

Aside from the giant clams, there are also sea stars and sea urchins roaming around.  The sea bed has indeed started to succeed as a stable ecosystem as the biodiversity of different marine species begin to increase.

This is a full view of the giant clam with the two orifices visible.  Did you know that these bivalve mollusks are hermaphrodite, meaning that the two sexes, male and female are present in a single organism. Very interesting trivia indeed for a layman.

This is the close up of the genital orifice of the Tridacna gigas. Many science-fiction movies were inspired from the volcano-appearance of orifice of these creatures that can really induce a spine-tingling effect of an audience.

These spectacular underwater pictures taken from a Canon digicam fitted inside a Canon waterproof casing would not have been featured in my blog if not for the shots of my good friend and an experienced dive enthusiast Hector Lillo from Exploria Tours who facilitated this trip to Silaqui Island.  For your touring needs in and around the Philippines, you can contact him thru https://www.facebook.com/exploriatours

To cap the underwater excitement, one of the boatmen brought a giant clam up to the surface for us to have a selfie shot with the gentle mollusk.  The boatman cautioned us not to insert your hand or finger in between the shell to avoid the unexpected to happen.  The selfie moment was a memorable experience indeed.  It also gave us a clear picture of how big the bivalve is.  There is even a coral attached to the hinge part of the clam.

The boatman also caught a small octopus and apparently the poor mollusk will end up on the boatman's family dinner or drinking session.  The boatman who is also a fisherman did not fish for today but instead used his boat to ferry us so this is probably his only catch for today.

After a tiring but exciting time snorkeling with the giant clams, we decided to drop anchor and explore Silaqui Island.  The group upon landing looks like a crew from a shipwreck marooned on a deserted and barren island.  Our first impression was not of excitement but of disappointment when we realized there are no white sand beaches along the entire circumference of the island.  Nothing but barren rocks, jagged cliffs, shallow coast, grassy seabed, sharp spiny dried brushes of vegetation.  All scenes of desolation as the beach is littered with carcasses of sea urchins, shells and even a cat skeleton who probably died of starvation on this barren rock.

This is the view atop the northern end of the beach where you can see the dried vegetation in the foreground.  It was very difficult and dangerous trying to reach this spot because the ground was jagged volcanic rock that a careless trip will surely result to a nasty gashing wound on your foot.  The brushes are so dry and spiny that our clothes always got caught and almost torn away while pushing our way into the dense brushes.  We don't have a bolo to whack around the bushes and blaze a trail to the top.  After having a few shots, we just went down again and explored the other end of the beach as well.

At the other end of the island where jagged cliffs abound, my students were looking for a spot to do some serious cliff diving.  Unfortunately with all the cliffs around, there wasn't a single spot deep enough to jump in.  Anyway, still eager to try, one of my students Jerry, was bold enough to jump in.  You can just imagine hearing the laughter of everyone when he landed on knee-deep water.  What a bummer!

Silaqui Island is a rock whose coastline had been eroded by the continuous pounding of the waves until these undercuts were formed along its rocky base. 

 The best thing we probably did in this island was just to admire the natural undercuts like these where eventually a cave can be formed thru the years.  But that would probably take another thousands of years for natural wave action to cut through the rock deep enough to form a cave.

We have learned a lot from this visit to the marine sanctuary of the Tridacna gigas.  Swimming up close and personal with these gentle giant molluscs and seeing their increasing numbers grow to such extent is a promising sign of hope that there is still a chance for us to restore the beauty and natural wonder of the sea especially that our country the Philippines is known worldwide as as the "Center of the Center of Marine Biodiversity"!  We owe our thanks to the dedicated marine biologist in the Bolinao Marine Laboratory for their passionate and zealous efforts to help coastal municipalities in capacitating themselves to practice sustainable marine and coastal resources to ensure that future generation will still have the opportunity to enjoy nature as it is supposed to be.  Wild and Free!  Judging from the smiles of my beautiful students, despite the tiresome schedule, this trip is definitely one for the books!

Swimming up close and personal with the giant clams is just one of the many adventures we had in this Bolinao environmental field trip.  We still have lots of stories to tell in my other blogs, so feel free to visit my blogsite and read all the stories of my adventures of different places, people and wildlife! Till next time this is your DocFun-the Doctor of Fun and Adventure!