TODAY'S BEST

“The Gifts of the Seas”

It was a Friday evening of multicolored corals, rainbow colored fishes, enchanting seahorses, anemones, dolphins, and graceful sea turtles in an opening night of our art exhibit with the theme “Gifts from the Sea”, Friday November 7 at 6 pm in Sidlakang Negros.
This November art exhibit is sponsored by Peter de Vos and his wife Silke, owner of the beautiful and famous Amontillado Beach Resort in Bulak Dauin , Negros Oriental.
The art show features huge and small new paintings of four seasoned local artists namely Ken Concepcion, Raul Arbon, Susan Canoy and myself. All works vary in styles, from impressionism, realism to surrealism, with watercolor, acrylic and oil as the painting medium.
I would like to acknowledge and thank my friend Tommy Schultz, an American Peace Corp volunteer, for his permission that I may use his marine life photos taken in Apo island marine sanctuary and Palawan for painting references.
Among the marine life, I find corals as the most intriguing in the way they multiply. They begin their spawning frenzy a few nights after they were exposed to moonlight. If the silvery moon can spell magic on people, coral reefs are so enamored by the soft blue light emanating from the full moon that they release hundreds or maybe thousands or millions of sperms and eggs into the water later.
This was based on the study led by Oren Levy of the Center of Marine Studies at the University of Queensland, Australia recently.
The Journal Science said that corals don’t have eyes, but they have ancient proteins called cryptochromes which react to blue light. These same protein are also found in mammals and insects where they effect the circadian clock that regulates the daily rhythms of life.
The report said, “the finding indicates that the basic means used by mammals today to regulate their daily patterns was in use at the beginnings of multicelluar animals. This also supports the idea that these protein evolved under the blue light of the ancient seas.”
These breathtaking Coral reefs take several years to grow, home of thousands of species of fish that feed millions of humans. Yet some people destroy them in minutes.
Green turtles are amazing as they swim 2,600 kilometers just to reach a safe island where they can lay their eggs, away from humans who ate them. Their species are diminishing as they face eventual extinction. But most countries including the Philippines have already laws to protect them. They are usually found in Turtle island here in our country.
After the female green turtle lay her 100 to 200 eggs inside the hole she made in the sand, she then covered them and return to the sea. After 45 to 75 days, the eggs hatch during the night, and the newly emerged turtles instinctively head directly to wards the water’s edge. This few meter run is the most dangerous part of their lives. Predators like gulls or crabs picked off many turtle hatchlings and they never made it to the ocean. But some reached the water, guided by the moonlight.
Seahorses are also very interesting fathers. The males are monogamous and they mate for life. During mating, the female deposits her eggs into the male’s brood pouch, He fertilizes the eggs internally and carries the eggs until they hatch and releases them only when they are fully formed. These miniature seahorses is only 1.5 to 35 cm in height, has a short lifespan of 1 to five years, but they are terrific fathers.
These wonderful sea creatures are with us now, just few minutes or hours away from Dumaguete City. They live and breath like us. God made them for many wondrous reasons. Others remind us to be good fathers or parents. Others remind us of God’s faithfulness in any situation. He makes a way where there seems to be no way.