07.24.08 kulturnatib

Fish meal

Science fiction writer, Isaac Asimov once said that the most exciting phrase to hear in science is not Archimedes's “Eureka!,” but, “That's funny . . . .”

I call this the Asimov moment, which, I had recently. It wasn't a moment of scientific discovery. Instead it was simply happening upon something that made me not only say, 'that's funny,' but actually had me in stitches, laughing and thinking there is really nothing beyond man's imagination that he would not do.

The picture and the accompanying article recently in the newspaper that I regularly read that triggered my Asimov moment immediately reminded me of a friend, Paul Foley, who, soon after we met him, we baptized as Poloy.

He was a footloose, maverick environmentalist. For most of the time he was in the Philippines he was advocating the cause of the Thresher sharks off Malapascua, an advocacy that didn't win him too many friends.

He was developing a theory, which he was writing into a masteral thesis, that the particular and peculiar behavior of these sharks, that make them the singular most compelling attraction to Malapascua, especially for divers, was a learned one.

This behavior involves the sharks making their way from the deep, 230 meters, off the sides of Monad Shoal near Malapascua up to a shallower depth of 20 meters, in coral reefs, where they have a symbiotic relationship with a small fish called cleaning wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus) that eat dead skin and bacteria from their bodies and even from inside their mouths.

The wrasses set up what are in fact cleaning stations that attract not only sharks but other big fish as well.

The sharks do this with enough regularity and promptness to establish a growing tourist industry in this tiny island north of Cebu.

Yet, as Poloy theorized it is this same industry with its largely unregulated growth fueled mostly by diving activities that will, as they become more intrusive into the thresher sharks habits and habitat, eventually lead to the de-learning of the very behavior that made it an attraction in the first place.

It was from Poloy that I first heard about the cleaning wrasse and, in fact, about thresher sharks and in particular those in Malapascua Island.

Now, from the newspaper article it appears that another cleaning fish, not the wrasse though but the Garra Rufa is being employed by a spa in Washington D.C., for pedicure and other feet cleaning duties.

This fish is also known as doctor fish because in outdoor pools of some spas in Turkey, where they are indigenous in river basins there, they are used to feed on the skin of patients with psoriasis, although caution has been advised on claims of causing a cure by this method.

While this could be the first instance of such a fish spa in the U.S., where the owner, John Ho, is hoping to establish a network of Doctor Fish Massage franchises, the use of this fish has been spreading to other parts of the world, including in Asia, since 2006.

I don't know where Poloy is now. Last I heard from him he was in Australia. Maybe he has heard about these fish spas or now spa fish. Maybe this can bring him back to Malapascua. To study if the cleaning wrasse can be adapted to cleaning feet instead of sharks. For what? To bring in more tourists?

Well, again, maybe not.