Science Vol. I: Before the Science

D has been mentioning to me that some of you reading this blog might want to actually hear about why the Fulbright Program felt it was worth paying for me to work in the Philippines for 9 months. On the off chance that she is correct, I am going to try to fill you in on my research and try not to be a boring scientist in the process.  So I present to you "Science Vol. I"! (Disclaimer: Science Vol I. contains very little science).

Vol I: Before the Science

Before I jump into what I have been doing over the past three months, it occurs to me that many of you may not know exactly what it is I study, and more importantly, why anyone should care about it. If you have seen me give a talk before, feel free to skip ahead.  Otherwise, here is a brief overview of my research:

Currently, I am focused on coral-reef fish, fishing-induced evolution, and Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).  Let's quickly go through these individually, and then I will explain how they come together to form my research project.

Coral-Reef Fish: 

These guys.

If you are thinking to yourself, "Didn't he just say something about 'fishing'? Who fishes for those type of fish?", allow me to refer you here:

To the Bolinao People's Market

Where you can find Dory

And her friends...

Ready to be eaten.

Coral-reef fish are widely consumed throughout southeast Asia, and the Philippines is certainly no exception. Although the pictures above were taken in Bolinao, a rural area about 7 hours north of Manila, tropical fish are a common sight even in the city (you can see a multitude of parrotfish species in the Fish Market video posted in our first blog).  Additionally, species that aren't eaten (in this case, Nemo), are still harvested from reefs for the aquarium trade.  So the takeaway here: humans take reef-fish off of reefs. 

Fishing-Induced Evolution:

If there is one thing that you need to know about fishing, it's that humans are really, really good at it. Now while this is of course beneficial for people who eat fish, it is not so good for the fish themselves.  

Obviously.

The result of human fishing efficiency is, of course, the rapid decline of any fish population that we choose to start eating.  Combine that with a growing human population that requires more food, and the issue is pretty clear.  Decreased fish stocks, however, are really only part of the problem. 

The second part of the problem is that not only do humans like fish, but we like BIG fish. When we go fishing, humans tend to preferentially remove the largest fish from a population, leaving only the smaller fish to reproduce.  At the risk of getting technical, doing this over and over again across generations creates a strong "directional selection" pressure, which results in each generation of fish being smaller and smaller in terms of body-size (and simultaneously reduces the age at first reproduction).  So because of the way we harvest fish, we actually shape the evolution of body-size and reproductive age in these populations (hence "fishing-induced" evolution), and not for the better.

Here's the big issue: fish that have smaller bodies and mature earlier produce less offspring.  And by less offspring, I mean ALOT less offspring. For example, take Red Snapper (Lutjanus campechanus). It would take 212 42cm female snappers to produce the number of eggs one 62cm female snapper generates!

For reference, THIS is what that looks like!

So due to fishing, not only do we now have a much smaller population, but that population is made up of small, young individuals that can't produce nearly as many new fish.  If this loop continues unchecked, it can lead to the complete collapse of a fishery and the near or total disappearance of exploited species. How do we deal with this?

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs):

AKA Fish Sanctuaries

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) have become one of the most common tools for coastal marine conservation (as of 2010 there were over 6,800 worldwide).  The premise of an MPA is very simple: it is an area of ocean (most often containing a coral reef) that is actively managed in some manner. While the term MPA is associated with many different types of enforcement, I deal primarily with "no-take" MPAs, in which fishing is completely prohibited. Although not their specific purpose, MPAs may prove critical in dampening the effects of fishing-induced evolution.  

By taking away size-selective fishing pressure, MPAs should stop the progression of fishing-induced evolution.  It is also possible that protection will actually allow the process to reverse, producing larger fish that mature later.  These fish will therefore produce significantly more offspring, potentially creating a sustainable fishery.  

Where it Comes Together:

At this point, however, this is hypothetical.  Whether or not MPAs actually stop and/or reverse the effects of fishing-induced evolution is what I am here to try to find out.  

So how is that going? Well.....

What I Have Been Doing Thus Far:

Unfortunately, in order to answer the questions I am asking, I have to do the one thing that is specifically not allowed inside of MPAs: sacrifice (a fancy scientific word for "kill") fish.  I will get into the specifics of why this is necessary in a later blog, but for now just trust me that it is.  Anyway, beyond the seemingly contradictory nature of "killing fish to make sure we are saving the fish", the nature of the work inevitably means there is a whole lot of red tape to get through before I can actually begin to gather data.  So, for the past 3 months, my primary piece of scientific equipment has been:

This guy, complete with pay-as-you-go phone card!

The Samsung GT-E1272, in "Noble Black", complete with dual SIM, FM radio and T9 predictive texting.  I mention the phone, and specifically the T9, because the Philippines runs on text messages. The country is the "texting capital of the world", with over 1 billion text messages sent every day. This is partially due to the large disparity in cost between texting and calling, with texts usually costing only about 1 peso to send, while phone calls start around 8 pesos a minute and get much more expensive if calling a land line from a cell phone, or even a cell phone on a different network.  As a result, everything important that I have done since I have been here has happened via text, and all of my texting has been done using T9.  For those of you that remember using T9, if you look back on it with fond nostalgia, let me assure you, you are remembering it incorrectly.  

Anyway, back to the red tape.  The people receiving my dozens of daily text messages have been a wide variety of officials within 15 different municipalities in the provinces of Zambales, Pangasinan, and Batangas, which combined contain about 50 MPAs.  

The black dot is Manila.

The idea has been to send a text to anyone and everyone that may be able to get me a meeting with the Mayor and Agriculture Officer (who often handles the MPAs) of each municipality.  Sometimes this works, and I am able to set up a meeting and everything goes smoothly, sometimes this sort of works, and I am able to set up a meeting, and then that meeting doesn't occur, and sometimes I just have to show up to the municipal office and hope for the best.  I have used the last method more times than I care to admit, which is always an adventure because despite the farthest municipality (Bolinao) being only 160 miles away, it takes about 7 hours to get there. 

On one of these bad boys.

This is because long-distance travel in the Philippines takes place primarily via bus.  In my best estimate, I have spent about 75 hours on buses since I arrived here in November.  The buses come in 3 main forms: "ordinary fare", with bench-style seats and no air-conditioning; "air-con", with slightly more comfortable seats and air-conditioning set at a point where a sweatshirt is required; and "deluxe", which is an air-con bus with slightly more legroom and a bathroom on board.  In my experience, air-con buses are the primary means of travel from the city to the provinces, while within-province buses are usually ordinary fare.  I have yet to have the pleasure of a deluxe ride.  

Once I have made an appointment with a Mayor (or decided to try to show up), traveled hours and hours by bus to the province, and made my way via jeepney or tricycle to the municipal hall, the real work begins: convincing the Mayor to let me conduct my research.  This usually involves either giving a presentation or handing out pamphlets that describe my research and why it is important to local officials.  

Me being convincing (I know because they said yes).

Brochures and letters describing my research.

Municipal Hall of Anda, Pangasinan

Municipal Hall of Bani, Pangasinan

Municipal Hall of Santa Cruz, Zambales

In many of these communities, fishing is not just a livelihood, it is the primary means of basic sustenance, making the creation of sustainable fisheries critically important. This fact is certainly not lost on local leaders, who thus far have been very open to my research, and I have finally obtained almost permits for almost all of the MPAs (37 out of 54!) that I need to begin my field work.  

Speaking of my research, you may have noticed that I have not mentioned exactly what I plan to do once I have obtained all of my permits.  For that you will have to wait for "Science, Vol. II" (sneak preview below).

The Day-to-Day

Before we get into this post, just wanted to remind you that on the right hand side if you enter your email our blog will send you an email whenever we make a new post so you know when to check back with us.  Also, we found that if you click the photos you can enlarge them and do a sort of slideshow of all the photos in the blog.

I've been here over a week now and am settling in to our life here and wanted to share some of the quirks of our day to day with you all.  These are things Robby has become well accustomed to by now, but I'm finding interesting and at times pretty delightful.  To start: food.  Our apartment has a grocery store on the bottom floor, and two more within a 5 minute walk in either direction.  Additionally, there is no shortage of street vendors along the way selling all sorts of fried foods and kebabs of meat as well as women under umbrellas waving down cars to buy their ears of corn. There are a bunch of kids who play outside our apartment building who ask us for money every time we pass.  They often ask our names as well.  Evidently one of the other Fulbrighters fell for this ploy and is now greeted by name every time he passes.

This is the entrance to our apartment, with the SaveMore grocery store and Robby carrying our clean laundry (it's in a bag, don't be too impressed).  The apartment door is manned by someone who always greets us with a "M'am/Sir" as we approach.  The people here are extremely polite.  At the end of any interaction, you will almost always hear "salamat po" or "thank you po".  The term "Po" is a courtesy or way of being polite (at least in the local dialect).  Sort of like "thank you kindly".

Close quarters on Katipunan Ave.

When walking anywhere from our apartment we have to walk along Katipunan Avenue.  There is sidewalk in places, but mostly you're walking through "parking lots".  These are areas just large enough for a car to fit in, though often with its back bumper only a foot or so from the edge of the highway. 

Each parking lot has a security officer (or 3) who has the unenviable job of trying to stop traffic with nothing but a whistle so that cars can get into and out of parking spaces from Katipunan.

Walking along Katipunan, cars moving in and out of parking spaces are not the only obstacle we face. People on motorbikes will often drive right up on the sidewalk as they weave through traffic.  Tricycles (motor bikes with little side-cars attached) also park along the sidewalks. Something to note about the tricycles, they have Loyola Heights written on them.  Loyola Heights is our barangay.

Think (essentially):

Province = State

Municipality = County

Barangay = Town/Neighborhood

So we live in: 

Province: Manila

Municipality: Quezon City

Barangay: Loyola Heights

 
The tricycles generally don't leave their barangay, even to go to the one right next door.  It would be like one not driving from Reston to Herndon. It may not be the most convenient, but they just stick to their own little neighborhoods

Back to the food.  The grocery stores have everything we've needed, but good luck finding it.  Things are often not in the same place from one visit to the next, and you may find the same product in two different aisles on opposite ends of the store so you end up having to shop around within the store to find the best deal.  It can take awhile, but while you're shopping the music selection is the best!!  Well, it's driving Robby a little crazy, but I'm loving it.  On my last grocery trip I was shopping to all 90's music, every boy band you could imagine and the employees singing right along with them, completely unabashed.  I turned down one aisle and the guy stocking shelves was singing "I want it that way..." saw me, smiled, and kept going.  Amazing.  Filipinos are some of the happiest, free spirited people I've ever encountered. Easily the most fun I've ever had grocery shopping.

While they have everything we need, it often takes a different size/shape than we're accustomed to (tiny little onions!)

Cooking has been a bit of a challenge.  We don't have an oven, just this wonderful two burner plug-in "stove".  

Our typical breakfast: eggs, hash browns and what Robby calls sausage (I call it a hot dog).  

Two nights ago one of the burners decided to stop working so now we are down to one.  We may try to buy a new stove today, or just give up on the kitchen and eat out.  There are tons of restaurants nearby and you can get a meal for $5 a person (or less), so not a bad option.  The first time we went out Robby pointed out the table settings; evidently, Filipino's use their spoons as knives to cut through their food so the settings consist of a fork and spoon, no knife.

According to Robby it's more of a pulling than slicing action

Unbeknownst to us there was construction happening the floor above this restaurant so I ate with my noise canceling headphones in while Robby decided to get artsy with his photography (below)

Perfecting the "macro" setting on the camera

A few days ago we ventured down to Cubao to visit the farmers market there.  The farmers market is in a town center-esque area which has no less than two giant malls situated a block apart.  The mall culture here is insane.  Robby has stepped foot into 3 of the worlds top 10 largest malls, all without leaving Manila.  The farmers market itself was a big building that housed the fish market Robby made the video of (see our last blog), as well as stalls where vendors were selling fruits, vegetables, meat and rice. 

At first, I was hesitant to take photos, but Robby assured me it was fine as long as I asked before taking them.  Well, it turns out that Filipinos LOVE Americans.  Everyone was more than happy to allow us to take photos, often posing for them with their merchandise and a few even wanted photos of us with them.
  

Filleting station

Couple of catfish

Some catfish were still alive, slithering around in a few inches of water (in metal tray above)

Little squid

Cutting up crabs

"Self-fillet and save!" 

Tray full of salmon heads

Robby's best guess = ribbonfish

So many squid!

Filleted for your inspection

Across from the fish were the meats, which were definitely a departure from what you would find in your neighborhood grocery store.  Just a warning: the displays can be a bit gruesome if you're not accustomed to seeing just how your favorite cuts of meat are prepared.

Whole goats

Actual sausages

Short ribs, with a side of pigs feet or head if you so choose (look closely)

Set of lungs and a liver

Freshly killed chickens

We knew they were fresh because these guys were still alive in the back

Though we passed on the surf and turf options we couldn't resist buying some of the fruits and veggies.  The stalls had piles of everything you could imagine, some of which we couldn't identify.  We shopped around and were quoted anywhere from 150 pesos to 350 pesos for the same vegetable ($3.33-$7.77/kilo), some vendors definitely tried to take advantage of our obvious non-local status.  We bought four mangoes and found that they were nowhere near as tasty as the ones at our local grocery store.  They tasted so different I'm convinced they were imported.  I saw stickers on the lemons there that said USA so it is hard to say what was and wasn't local here.

Piles of veggies

By far our favorite food here is mango.  I've never had a fruit so delicious and juicy, it's like eating candy!  We've each eaten a whole mango almost every day since I've been here.

All the fruit you could want

Some other things worth mentioning about our day-to-day.  To do laundry we have to take it down the street to a laundry mat where they wash and fold our clothes.
  

Our laundromat and "Mr. Quickie". Yes. Mr. Quickie. 

They charge you by weight so you put all your cloths in a bin and pay per kilogram (minimum of 5kg/wash).  

I also wanted to mention that from our balcony, beyond the highway, there are also mountains that can be seen on days when the smog isn't hiding them.
  

Mountains!

You can also see the University of the Philippines, Diliman (UP).
  

Starting about where you see the big patch of green is UP.  It stretches all the way to the church you can see in the back center/right of the photo.  Everywhere you see trees and greenery essentially is the campus.  It's massive, I explored the campus for two hours the other day and still have plenty left to check out. The area just before the campus begins is, for lack of a better term, a "slum".  In Robby's experience, it is not uncommon for impoverished areas to be interspersed within those with higher incomes.  The stark juxtaposition between the two really hits home the wealth disparity in the country.

In other news, some of you may have heard the Pope is in Manila.  They are expecting millions to turn up for his prayer today in Rizal Park (where we went in the first blog).  We were considering going until we read an article where the government was recommending all security officers and persons attending the mass to wear adult diapers due to the lack of port-o-potties to accommodate the volume of people expected to turn up.  Between that and the hours of traffic it would take to get there and back we opted to pass.  The Pope is also meeting families at the Mall of Asia, as I said malls are big here.

The area right next to the UP campus is called Teacher's Village (or UP Village). It's a bunch of small streets that you sort of wind through while passing shops and, more importantly, many many restaurants.
  

Typical street

Teachers Village trikes

We ended up in this "food truck" like spot that is open seating with the perimeter housing little stands selling anything from pizza to bbq to dimsum to shwarma to mexican pita (whatever that is).  We settled on a chicken shwarma sandwich and hummus and relaxed for awhile.
  

There were stands underneath as well as to my right and behind me, around 10 different options

San Miguel (the local beer and our blog title) is only P40-50 (~$1.00)! 

Yum.

On the way back we passed several basketball courts with boys playing in flip-flops, pivoting as if in sneakers (extremely impressive to watch).

 I don't know if this qualifies as a fun fact I'm leaving you with today, but it's fact none the less. Well, 2 facts actually.  Fact 1: Mangoes have the same oil - urushiol - that causes the rash you get when you touch poison ivy.  Fact 2: I am highly allergic to urishiol.  So, those delicious mangoes I mentioned earlier have left me with oozing bumps lining the sides of my mouth.  Good times.  On the up side, the flesh of the fruit is safe, so now Robby has to cut them up and serve them to me whenever we eat them. Service at its finest!

Of course you get a visual, this was just the beginning.