Giant Clam, Kosrae, F.S.M.
- Thread starter Gilligan
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DennisW
Contributor
Cool
OMG, I love these things, It is just a shame that something so beautiful can be so delicious.
Tell us about the Tridacnia farm, what were they farming them for, to restock the reef, or for market sale??
I know they are a very traditional food source in polynesia, how is it in Micronesia?
Tell us about the Tridacnia farm, what were they farming them for, to restock the reef, or for market sale??
I know they are a very traditional food source in polynesia, how is it in Micronesia?
astrl
Contributor
Very cool! I would love to see one of those.
astrl
astrl
OP
Gilligan
Contributor
cancun mark:
The Giant Clam Farm on Kosrae sells the clams when they are one year old. The locals in turn plant them in the ocean in cages until they are two years old and measure approx. 5 to 6" at which time they harvest them for food.
The Farm also places some of the clams on the reef not too be harvested. Our guide worked at the farm so he knew where the larger ones were located.
Gilligan:
Thats cool, I know that they were starting to resurrect the more traditional form of clam management in Tonga, Samoa and Fiji over the last fifteen years.
The villagers would collect a stack of the largest clams they could find, then place them in plain view on the reef in front of the village, not to be harvested. This meant that they were guarded by the whole village and created a constant flow of spats, seeding the local area near the village.
This concept was called the "grandfather" method of sustaining the population, in fact when they started it up in Samoa again, they actually spelled out the word with the clams...
The other advantage of having this resource in front of the village is that in times of extreem hardship or potential starvation (during hurricanes etc) they could use it as an emergency food source.
Personally I think we have a HUGE amount to learn from traditional resource management techniques such as these. Few people know it, but Polynesia had a higher population before European contact than it does now, which makes you wonder why there are sustainability problems. If you look at the loss of intensive farming techniques like this one and others like terracing hilsides to farm Taro, its no wonder we are having problems.
JM2C
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