#43 13th. July 2005

Hi, friends of Moalboal!!

I'm sorry that I can not send you this news letter a bit more often.
I'm not living in Moalboal at the moment, but hope to be back there
once I get rid of my urge to work.

Moalboal is growing rapidly. I left in September last year and this
time when I went back for a short vacation in May????wow, lots of
new buildings and resorts are shooting up. Eve's Kiosk has torn down
their whole 2 story building and is replacing it with a bigger
concrete one. Honda san (Japanese Instructor from Nelsons), Swedish
Micke (Swedish Iron welding shop) and BJ (Sea Quest dive shop) are
all building resorts just north of White house.

Diving in May was awesome. I firmly believe that diving in Moalboal
is getting better and better????.and that was after spending one
week in the Maldives just before I came.

BIRTHS, SOCIAL AND GOSSIP:

Old Anderson's restaurant up in town burned down in June.
There are two new dive shops; the Italian restaurant next to taboo
disco is now a Korean dive shop. Old Sub Maldives is now reopened as
Japanese dive shop owned by Katsu.

Benjim (dive master at Nelsons Dive shop) had a house warming party
together with his son's first year birthday party. The first year
birthday parties are big in the Philippines???.they know that if the
kid have made one year then the chances are good for living a long
life.

Pacitas have now taken over the Saturday night disco. No more taboo.
Lots of people there and right next to the sea

PRACTICAL:

A few budget airlines have now started to fly into the Philippines.
http://www.tigerairways.com , http://www.airasia.com ,
http://www.jetstarasia.com all fly cheap. Most of them land at
Clark as far as I know. I have not looked into any of them but if
someone knows about more airlines, give me URL and
recommendations???..that would be very helpful and I can include
that in the next news letter.

Hi amigos,

here is my secret-mixture of my eardrops!

glacial acetic acid. (eisessig) ------------5%

isopropyl alcohol (95%) -------------------80%

glycerin ---------------------------------------5%

distilled water. -----------------------------------10%

Add a few drops in each ear after every dive, many regards Uli

WHALE SHARK SIGHTINGS:

Lots & lots, one diver reported that he saw whale shark 7 dives out
of 10. Uncle Abe (owner Chili Bar) saw one 18 meter shark at 60
meters just on the house reef

PICTURES:

No pictures???..but if you go to http://www.ladylauren.net then captains
diary and then check late June ???..and you can see me with a newly
caught Tuna

LETTERS FROM ABROAD:

Hi Lars,

I was in Cebu early April to realize one of my recent dreams. For
the last few years I have been considering ways of replenishing
local coastal resources (or sea food!) To both improve diving
attraction and increase local food stocks. I was requesting my
family in Cebu to research various possibilities. Such as when I
asked you about Lapu Lapu breeding etc a while ago. Well a few years
ago I happened to visit my birth country of Papua New Guinea and
while there I met an old family friend who had a diving resort. He
was also ex-British Royal Navy! Anyway he told me about the ships
that he'd sunk in front of his resort...for dive sites. I happened
to ask him about Giant clams and he told me about his bad luck
story. He imported 36 Giant Clams from somewhere and had them placed
in front of his resort. In just one night, after several years
later, all his clams were cut out of their shells by local natives.
He was extremely disappointed to say the least. His Story inspired
me to try the same thing in Cebu where I'd like to believe the
locals are a bit more understanding. So I was always asking my
family to find out about the possibility of getting clams. It was
not until last New Years that my cousin Fred advised me of a Marine
Biologist at University of Philippines who could finally give me
some answers and who could also help organize acquiring some real
Giant Clams (Tridacnus Gigas). I spent the first 3 months of the
year mailing her extensively about getting the clams. At the same
time I was demanding my family to secure a protected marine area in
front of the beach house and to negotiate with local marine
sanctuaries to accept donations of clams. We were able to get
everything done just in time and in April I was able to personally
seed all the clams in two local sanctuaries and some in front of
Kawayan Marine. We managed to establish a marine protected area
(MPA) at the barangay level, but were later forced to re-apply for
the MPA at the Municipal level. Currently, my family elders are
still fighting for the continuation of our MPA where we have already
placed a large number of the biggest clams. They are having repeated
public hearings discussing the existence of our project.

Anyway, to prove to the people that we are very serious about this
project we are now supporting the local fisherman's union, Bantay
daghat and severeal small projects to increase their fishing success
eg making a payaw etc. Several livelihood projects are also being
discussed. I have organised a donation of live young Lapu Lapu, from
Bohol and may try Lapu Lapu breeding in the future. I will also be
organizing donations of various species of local edible shells which
have now disappeared from our local shores. Several lechons later,
everything that my family suggests for the local people doesn't seem
to be enough? I need more realistic ideas that will really change
their lives and stubborn minds. Do you know much about pearl
farming?

Apart from working in Japan to support my Philippine projects,
that's basically what I've been up to!

If you have any other good fishy ideas or know people/friends who
may be able to contribute, then please contact me!

Bon Voyage Amigos!
Steve

PS- please use coconutjungle@... from now on!

WELL, if any of you readers have any suggestions??send them to me or
direct to Steve.

GENERAL:

If anyone has any information that they think would be interesting
for people on this list, please do let me know and I will add it in.
If you know anyone that would like to receive this letter, please
tell him or her to send me an E-mail at the address below and I will
add him or her. I've found it to hard to do it through
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/moalboalmail

Regards, Lars Starner
starner@...

If you would like to know who I am (I don't know why) check out:
http://medlem.spray.se/starnerhome

Moalboal home page:
http://www.moalboal.org.uk

Copyright (c) Lars Starner 2005. All rights reserved