ologist Probes CI
p. 59 · Read in the full issue
earlsheli Farm
tn Gordon Russell, in Rarotonga earlshell oysters are as ive about the facts of life as te who crave their nacreous ngs and the pearls that some sparkle in their vitals. But is no sense of restraint or re for modesty in the manner in marine biologists set about Ing their secrets from them.
IE free to drift, settle, grow id procreate in the cool depths coral caverns, or be trans d into a galaxy of lustrous buttons, today any pearlshell may be wantonly wrenched its holding, dragged to the ;e, medically examined, ired inside and out, tagged, ;o a stake, immersed for ob ;ion. ently Mr. J. S. Hynd, Director 3 CSIRO Fisheries Laboratory, iday Island, made 28 separate irements upon some 1,500 >hells brought up by machine ;kin divers from the Manihiki ng lagoon, Northern Cooks, sed to pearling in 1956 on ace of over-fishing, Manihiki n, through a series of. Pacific circumstances, was singled out promising site for a pearlshell and in 1957 Mr. Ron Powell, ries Officer to the Cook Islands
Administration, set about establish ing marine nurseries and incubators to further this plan.
At the instigation of the South Pacific Commission, Mr. Hynd, to whom the world is largely an oyster, flew east this year to lend to this venture his extensive marine biological experience in this speci alised field.
As a result of Mr. Hynd’s visit, Mr. Powell is now self-contained in the matter of measuring, staging, tagging, and keeping accurate data upon the pearlshell within his farm.
The whole lagoon is in process of survey and sounding, new and superior methods of spat collection have been introduced, the main marine enemies to progress have
been established. In the meantime there is considerable evidence of recovery from overfishing in this lucrative lagoon.
The Fiji Assistant Medical Officer’s Association conducted a medical seminar in Suva at the be ginning of September, the second such seminar to be organised. Last year the subject was “The Preven tion of Tuberculosis”. This year it was “Social and Preventive Medicine”. Lecturers included Dr, W. H. McDonald, Dr. C. H. Gurd, Dr. G. Hemming, the Rev. Wright, AMO A. K. Manulevu, and Mrs. S' Parkinson. Some 40 AMO’s at tended.
Mr. J. S. Hynd.