whynot: etc: oh deer (that it shall fall to us)
Las ([personal profile] whynot) wrote2009-07-04 02:41 am

life began in the sea

First things first! [livejournal.com profile] zempasuchil and I are erasing each other's fic, and her erasure of my Merlin OT4 fic, The Ink Still Drying, is Then Sing. <3 Prettyyyyyy. HOORAY ERASURES.

My erasure is still in progress, because I spent the past week being TREMENDOUSLY BUSY. The week was equal parts awesome and equal parts stresssssssss. Here are some pictures and a couple of thoughts:





Favorite snorkeling moment: being ambushed by a school of like, a hundred fish who are apparently late for something. Fish to my left, fish to my right, fish below me, all swimming really quickly in one direction. It was surreal and amazing.




#1 communal conniption moment: After like A WEEK of hearing NOTHING except how we should protect our marine resources and use only sustainable fishing practices, what did we see en route from Bohol back to Cebu? Dynamite fishing! Everybody freaked the fuck out and rushed to one side of the boat to see, and the captain started yelling about the balance of the boat and the danger of capsizing. We called the coast patrol, but I mean, it's not like they can do much at this point. By the time authorities would have arrived, the dynamite fishers would be long gone anyway. But you can't just spend a week drilling this stuff into your head and not do anything when it's happening like RIGHT THERE.




This guy is teaching us how to measure coral reef cover using transect and quadrat surveying. By tracking the growth of coral, they track the recovery of the reef and the slow return of their marine resources, previously fucked over by destructive fishing practices. 'They' is the villagers. NGOs came down and did education campaigns, offered training et cetera, but the idea is that the villagers can do it themselves and stay actively engaged in the management and ownership of their resources.




I do wonder about the effectiveness of the patrolling, and how many arrests even get carried through to prosecution, and how many of those prosecutions end up in sentencing. 'Cos each village's MPA (marine protected area) is managed by the people for the people, and in a small village like that, everyone knows everyone. You'd be arresting your neighbor or your cousin. In a place with unreliable government and constant scarcity, the social contract has more sway than a legal one.




Hmm, what else was I going to say. I think my favorite version of the folk tale about how Bohol's Chocolate Hills came to be, but I have to wake up early tomorrow to pack and whatevs, so in lieu please have this condensed alternative version, as C+P'ed from Wikipedia: The last legend is about a Gluttonous giant named Dano that eats everything in his path. One day he came to a plain. He saw a beautiful young woman named Eng. To win her affection, he needed to lose weight. So he excreted everything he ate. In the end, his fecal matter covered the land and he won Eng's affection.

HEHEHE HE SAID POOP.



ext_2135: narnia: home sweet home (soraki) (watchtower (nialyind))

[identity profile] bedlamsbard.livejournal.com 2009-07-03 07:45 pm (UTC)(link)
PRETTY. It looks lovely.

[identity profile] marycontraire.livejournal.com 2009-07-03 11:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Pretty! Where were you?

[identity profile] twoskeletons.livejournal.com 2009-07-04 02:26 am (UTC)(link)
Bohol, Philippines. There was a Coral Triangle conference in Cebu and we went to Bohol for the field days. God, it was gorgeous. We spent a lot of time en route on boats, so there was ample time to admire the view.

[identity profile] animus-wyrmis.livejournal.com 2009-07-04 01:13 am (UTC)(link)
It's so *pretty*!
ext_3167: Happiness is a dragon in formaldehyde  (Default)

[identity profile] puckling.livejournal.com 2009-07-04 01:32 am (UTC)(link)
Oh wow. It's really beautiful where you are.

[identity profile] twoskeletons.livejournal.com 2009-07-05 04:18 am (UTC)(link)
Where I was for the past week. And now I'm back in the congested overpopulated city of my heart. See icon!

[identity profile] silentsighs.livejournal.com 2009-07-04 04:18 pm (UTC)(link)
ohmigosh so beautiful
ext_80109: (Mulan: Mulan: garden walk)

[identity profile] be-themoon.livejournal.com 2009-07-04 04:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Wow. I need to get some sort of job that lets me go to beautiful places like that. *googly eyes*

[identity profile] twoskeletons.livejournal.com 2009-07-05 04:20 am (UTC)(link)
Working with your government's fisheries programs is one of those jobs! Being admin's bitch is another one of those jobs.