Giant clams find new home in Albay Gulf

HEEDING the advice of a marine biologist, a private foundation seeded a part of the Albay Gulf with 100 giant clams taken from Bolinao town in Pangasinan last year, hoping that this would improve the biodiversity of a dive site.

Seven months after, the clams (Tridacna gigas) are alive and thriving, reveals Arlie Juarez, recreation director of Misibis Coastal Care Foundation (MCCF).

In 2009, Juarez scoured the diving site of Misibis Island Resort near the Sula Channel and found not a single giant clam. He was told by marine biologist Gerry Reyes, director of the Philippine Commission on Scuba Diving, to seed the area with giant clams as these play an important role in the marine environment.

Giant clams filter wastes that settle at the bottom of the sea and make underwater conditions more conducive to marine life.

“In just a short period of time, we have already observed the emergence of new life in the dive site, including those of other species of giant clams and fishes,” Juarez says. Colorful fishes, including the clown fish popularized by the animated movie “Finding Nemo,” are seen often.

While the largest bivalve mollusks generally have a very low survival rate of 2 percent when transplanted, Juarez says he is overwhelmed by the fact that all of the 100 Bolinao clams seeded at a depth of 20 meters are alive. From 40 centimeters in size when they were seeded in October last year, the clams have grown to 55-68 cm, he says.

Juarez says transporting live giant clams hundreds of kilometers from its source is a very delicate procedure and costly, too. They bought the 100 clams at Bolinao Marine Laboratory run by Marine Science Institute of the University of the Philippines.

Each of them was carefully taken out from the hatchery, wrapped in a cheese cloth, placed in a plastic bag filled with sea water, then pumped in with oxygen, before packing them in Styrofoam coolers, Juarez says.

It took six hours to transport the giant clams by land and by air to reach its final destination in Cagraray Island.

MCCF plans to establish its own giant clam hatchery in Albay to increase the stock, and provide livelihood for local fishing families living along the coasts of the island.