[Coral-List] coral eggs...

[Nancy Daschbach]

Talofa Shashank:  Your Samoan friend was not referring to coral eggs, but to
palolo, the epitokes of a marine polycheate worm. These critters expel their
motile epitokes during lunar phases (one week after the full moon, although
it can span a few days; actual timing of the mass spawning varies across the
Samoan archipelago, starting at dusk in the eastern end, and dawn on the
eastern end. On my island, Tutuila, they spawn in the middle of the night) in
October and November, and they are collected by avid waders with homemade
palolo nets. It's a local delicacy! The outer casings of the epitokes
dissolve in a couple of hours and the eggs and sperm do their thing.

Nancy Daschbach


shashank Keshavmurthy wrote:

> Dear listers...
> Greetings!
> My question this time may sound crazy...I want to
> know if coral eggs are delicacy in some parts of
> the world....do people eat coral eggs??? Now, the
> origin of my question lies in my discussion about
> corals with one of my friend form Samoa.  He said
> that during the spawning season, corals eggs are
> collected and it is a very tasty food.  Is it
> true? I will wait for some facts about this form
> whoever knows for sure about people consuming
> coral eggs or is it just that my friend do not
> know what corals are.......
>
> shashank
>
> =====
> "the role of infinitely small in nature is infinitely large"-Louis Pasteur
>
> Keshavmurthy Shashank
> Kochi University, Faculty of Agriculture
> Lab. of AQUa. Environ. Sci. (LAQUES)
> Otsu 200, Monobe, Nankoku-shi
> 783-8502, Kochi, Japan
> alt. id: shashank at cc.kochi-u.ac.jp
> phone: 81 090 8285 9012
> _______________________________________________
> Coral-List mailing list
> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list

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-------------------------------------------------------------
Nancy Daschbach
Sanctuary Manager
Fagatele Bay National Marine Sanctuary
PO Box 4318
Pago Pago, AS
96799
011-684-633-7354 (phone)
011-684-633-7355 (fax)