Dear Ross & All,

Point 1 and 2, 4 yes.

On point 3: There are many books and studies on the local culture. It
is enough to search the internet to find quite some interesting
literature on the Philippine government, society and culture in
general. Philippinos are not more lazy or hard working than most
other cultures, given the circumstances. But it is a country with a
large number of poor people, and such brings its difficulties.
Philippinos score very high in happiness and friendliness: they are a
very successful society in this way, which is possibly and probably
more important than the financial success. Japan is also, but this is
more my personal impression after many trips there, more successful
on the happiness than for example Europe. I did not see much in Japan
of a "hard-driving, money and achievement-oriented culture etc.... ".
Also, this forum is not the place to go in depth on these matters.

Back to shells:

Lumun lumun nets are the old tangle nets wrapped into a sausage like
bundle. These nets are 25 to 60 m long and about 3 m wide. The
sausage (called lumun lumun) is usually set along a slope and starts
often at a depth of 8-10 m and hangs down in the current to depths of
50 m. The nets are left there for periods of up to 3-5 months.
Veligers settle in the nets together with a multitude of other
organisms. When the net is pulled up it is a whole biotope already
and it may weight over one hundred kilograms. Then the shells are
sorted out and one gets "shell grit". The larger species, very few,
reach a couple of cm. The expensive species are pulled out by the
fishermen: rare Ovulids, rare Muricids, Cypraea beckii, rarely C.
rabaulensis. The rest is sold in bulk but local prices for this shell
grit are quite high, which is understandable regarding the work.

Tangle nets as new are different: these nets have small weights on
one side of the length and floaters on the other side. The rope is
very tin nylon. The net is set on the bottom and one rope links it to
a buoy on the surface. One rope is 160 m in length, but regarding the
inclination with the current the net with one rope is usually around
80 m deep. The current on the bottom pulls down the floaters and the
net is roaming around on the bottom. When pulled up in general there
are a few crabs, a few sea urchins, eventually a few shells. Average
1 good shell a day per net. Imagine the effort of pulling in 160 m of
rope with a heavy net on it every morning !

continued next email

Mabuhay from Mactan island, the Philippines.

Guido T. Poppe

Conchology, Inc.
Cebu Light Industrial Park,
Basak, Lapu-Lapu City,
Cebu, Philippines 6015

Phone #: +63 32 495 9990
Fax #: +63 32 495 9991

Websites: www.conchology.be
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                   www.mambele.be

Email: [log in to unmask]



On 10 May 2006, at 12:10, J. Ross Mayhew wrote:

> Thanks a lot for the great information, guys!!  To summarize briefly:
>
> 1) For marine shells,  only a small percentage of the total area of
> the Philippines has been collected very well - anyone looking
> outside of rather narrow bounds, will be almost certain to find a
> great many undescribed species.  Moreover, in many areas there is
> less pollution or habitat destruction than in many areas of the
> world, so most of the original fauna should still be present.
>
> 2) For non-marine molluscan fauna, even less territory has been
> well-collected. However, much of the primary forest has been either
> heavily or completely logged, so many species have either been
> rendered extinct or extremely depleted before they could be
> examined by researchers or owned by collectors.  Nevertheless, if
> one is willing to go to the few areas which still sport relatively
> intact old-growth forests, a great many undescribed species can
> easily be found, both in the canopy and on or close to the forest
> floor.
>
> 3) For some reason,  many Filipinos seem difficult to motivate when
> it comes to collecting in areas or by means where they would have
> to go "outside their comfort zones".... Question: is this a
> cultural thing? I have heard repeatedly from a variety of sources
> that Filipino culture is fairly "laid back" - the hard-driving,
> money and achievement-oriented culture of "doing whatever it takes
> to succeed", as is found more often in say, Japan or Hong Kong, is
> more or less severely repressed in the Philipines.  Why?  Any
> theories?
>
> 4) Many local shell sources do not provide accurate locality data
> with their findings, since they are mostly concentrated in a few
> areas and folks like to protect their best collecting spots.
>
> So, there are both excellent opportunities, and significant
> challenges in finding new shell-bearing fauna in the Philippines,
> but on the whole there are quite likely a surprisingly large number
> of species still to be found, if one has the means, the time and
> the motivation.
>
> Questions: -- What is a "lumun lumun net"??  Do they have any
> advantages over tangle nets?  How are they constructed?
>       -- How many tangle nets does the average "shell fisherman"
> have down at any given time?  What is the average rate of loss of
> these nets?  Are there localities where there is a significant
> build-up of lost nets on the bottom?  Do they entangle turtles or
> marine mammals sometimes?
>
> From the chronically damp - but not so cool now - wilderness of New
> Scotland,
> ross mayhew.
>

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