Lions?
Wow, over 100 tons of Tridacna shells
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TheShrimpNibbler
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Oops, I meant lion fish. I didn’t realize that I hadn’t included the fish part.
stevieduk
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oh no, thats so bad, but one thing springs to mind, they ought to pile all those shells in a line, back in the nearest bay and create a new piece of reef. new coral ect will soon take it over, at least something good will come out of it
Jon Fishman
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Are these things endangered or threatened or anything? I’m having a hard time seeing how “devastating” this is........ the oceans are pretty darn big.
You should see how many oysters I can eat.
You should see how many oysters I can eat.
Dr. Dendrostein
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Reminds me of over harvesting in Callyfornia 1920-1960's the abalone , piles and pilesSad. Looks to be they were illegally harvested. This article is from Oct 30, 2019 and I didn't see any stories on this before I was just surfing the web today. Amazing number of shells in the video.
adam finley
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Nope but if situations like this are allowed to continue too happen they will be just like everything else that’s exploited. There’s a difference between harvesting and exploiting. Harvesting is usually done in a sensible sustainable way and exploiting well they follow no rules and everyone ends up paying the consequences in the end.
erk
Valuable Member
I read the article and I did not see anything about fossilized. Even searched the page to make sure. These are the remains of illegally harvested clams.
I imagine this is just the processing center and the people operating it were paying fishermen a hefty sum to bring in whatever they could. The fishermen probably complied because it helped supplement their income. Hence the reason it went on for so long.
This is sad not because of the harvesting of clams, people got to eat. But by being illegal, this means the clams were over harvested from a specific area. It will take several years to rebuild the clam population in the region so that they can be sustainably harvested once again. The main population affected will be the local fishermen and their families. The people running this operation will pick up and move to the next area.
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Look like the shells are T. gigas shell. This is really sad since this is an extremely endangered species in the wild. Those huge clams took may years to growth to that size. They are so majestic in the wild.
Oops sorry. Here is an article with more info that mentions they were fossilized.
Foreign buyer behind P2-B worth of giant clams seized in GenSan: DENR
Authorities are searching for a foreign buyer of some P2 billion worth of giant clams found in General Santos City, an environment official said Wednesday.
news.abs-cbn.com
erk
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Oops sorry. Here is an article with more info that mentions they were fossilized.
Foreign buyer behind P2-B worth of giant clams seized in GenSan: DENR
Authorities are searching for a foreign buyer of some P2 billion worth of giant clams found in General Santos City, an environment official said Wednesday.
I read another article from Africa that was about the same thing. The people were arrested, but if they are digging up fossilized clam shells, then what is wrong? It seems like either fossilized means something different in this context or the media outlets are confused. They make it seem like clams are being massacred.
I sort of wondered that myself so I looked it up. Fossilized giant clams are actually a thing. Who knew?
Well, it's probably not good to remove 120 tons of anything from a small area of the ocean. Imagine how much damage could be done with dredging all that up. You certainly couldn't do that here in Florida without jumping through a lot of hoops. On top of that, tridacna are endangered. The Philippines need to sign off on a CITES certificate.
But they are long dead, right? It's not much different than laws about ivory. Ivory was banned to protect elephants, but if you happen upon a dead elephant you still can't harvest the ivory. Same thing with rhino horns.
Oh...and a bit of trivia. The world's largest pearl came from a tridacna in the Philippines. It's 75 lbs and worth $100 million. I'm not sure if that was out of a living clam or not. The fisherman who found it had kept it under his bed for ten years. He had forgotten about it! There have been pearls found in fossilized clams though.
PhreeByrd
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These clams did not come from one place. They were harvested from several provinces around the islands over a long period of time.
The story and video indicated that these are giant clams, so they are not harvested for food, at least not for human consumption. Giant clams are protected by the Philippine government, although they are not endangered or threatened (yet).
So yeah, I agree that the story is worth noting. But the knee-jerk reactions about how horrible it is to take these from the ocean is a little bit melodramatic. The article did not even state as fact that these clams were illegally harvested.
I wonder how many tons of clams have been harvested to supply the ornamental aquarium trade.
The story and video indicated that these are giant clams, so they are not harvested for food, at least not for human consumption. Giant clams are protected by the Philippine government, although they are not endangered or threatened (yet).
So yeah, I agree that the story is worth noting. But the knee-jerk reactions about how horrible it is to take these from the ocean is a little bit melodramatic. The article did not even state as fact that these clams were illegally harvested.
I wonder how many tons of clams have been harvested to supply the ornamental aquarium trade.
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T. gigas is endangered, and there are boat that go around ad harvest them but they usually leave the shell in place, just take the meat of the clams. These are fossilized shells of long dead clams. If this is the case I couldn't care less.
MnFish1
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Something doesnt make sense - each clam weight 80 lbs. How did they get like this without 'anyone' knowing. The video also has a virus lolSad. Looks to be they were illegally harvested. This article is from Oct 30, 2019 and I didn't see any stories on this before I was just surfing the web today. Amazing number of shells in the video.
MnFish1
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Where does it say that 'in the article'. ? Because 'fossilized' clams shouldn't be protected by CITES? or? (BTW - I couldn't open the video entirely - it interrupted in the middle saying my 'flash player needed to be updated'
Don't bother with the video because it's not in English. I already posted another news site with the information. If you don't believe fossilized clam shells fall under CITES,
The Controversy of the Giant Clam
Drops in the Bucket are simply items that should be on your bucket list!
axonjaxon1950.blogspot.com
Basically, the rub here is that these are fossilized remains of animals currently on the CITES list. If they were megalodon teeth there would probably be no problem. And getting the proper permits for fossilized clam shells is probably not a big deal either.
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On further consideration, where can one get thousands of fossilized Gigas clams. They don’t concentrated in one place. Best hunting and digging in wide ranging area one may come up with a few. I am now sure that these are harvested shells, killing of live clams harvest both the shell and the flesh.
If this is the case it is s really sad. These are such majestic long live animals that were killed for a few dollars.
I am sure the person who wrote this article did not mean “fossil” as how we understand it.
Addendum
Just read the link above. These are fossilized clam shells.
If this is the case it is s really sad. These are such majestic long live animals that were killed for a few dollars.
I am sure the person who wrote this article did not mean “fossil” as how we understand it.
Addendum
Just read the link above. These are fossilized clam shells.
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