The fascinating secret lives of giant clams Mei Lin Neo
Back home, my friends call me nicknames,
such as “The Giant Clam Girl,”
“Clam Queen,”
or, “The Mother of Clams.”
(Laughter)
This is because every time I see them,
I talk nonstop about giant clams all day,
every day.
Giant clams are these massive
and colorful shelled marine animals,
the largest of its kind.
Just look at this shell.
The biggest recorded individual
was four-and-a-half-feet long
and weighed about 550 pounds.
That is almost as heavy
as three baby elephants.
South Pacific legends once described
giant clams as man-eaters
that would lie in wait on the seabed
to trap unsuspecting divers.
A story goes that a diver
had lost his legs
while trying to retrieve a pearl
from a giant clam.
I thought, “Really?”
So out of curiosity,
I did an experiment using myself as bait.
(Laughter)
I carefully placed my hand
into the clam’s mouth and waited.
Hmm …
I still have my hand.
It seems that these gentle giants
would rather retreat
and protect their fleshy bodies
than feed on me.
So much for those killer clam myths!
Unfortunately, the reality is,
we are the giant clams' biggest threat.
Considered a delicacy throughout
the Western Pacific and Indian Oceans,
giant clams have been traditionally
fished as seafood.
Fishermen are particularly interested
in their adductor muscles,
which are organs that hold
the two shells together like a hinge.
Just for their muscles,
giant clams were almost
hunted to extinction
between the 1960s and 1980s.
Clamshells are also popular
in the ornamental trade
as jewelry and for display.
In the South China Sea,
fishermen went out of their way
to collect fossilized clamshells
by digging through large areas
of coral reefs.
These were later carved and sold
as so-called “ivory handicrafts” in China.
Giant clams, dead or alive,
are not safe from us.
It’s a “clamity!”
(Laughter)
(Applause)
With the spotlight on more
charismatic marine animals
such as the whales and coral reefs,
it is easy to forget that other
marine life needs our help, too.
My fascination with giant clams
got me started on conservation research
to fill in the knowledge gaps
on their ecology and behavior.
One of the discoveries that we made
was that giant clams could walk
across the seafloor.
Yes, you heard me right:
they can walk.
To find out,
we placed numerous baby clams on a grid.
Now watch what happens over 24 hours.
We think that walking is important
for getting away from predators
and finding mates for breeding.
While it can hard to imagine
any movement in these enormous animals,
giant clams up to 400 pounds
can still walk,
they just move slower.
During my PhD, I discovered
more secrets about the giant clams.
But there was something
missing in my work.
I found myself asking,
“Why should people care
about conserving giant clams?” –
other than myself, of course.
(Laughter)
It turns out that giant clams
have a giant impact on coral reefs.
These multitasking clams
are reef builders,
food factories,
shelters for shrimps and crabs
and water filters,
all rolled into one.
In a nutshell,
giant clams play a major contributing role
as residents of their own reef home,
and just having them around
keeps the reef healthy.
And because they can live
up to 100 years old,
giant clams make vital indicators
of coral reef health.
So when giant clams
start to disappear from coral reefs,
their absence can serve as an alarm bell
for scientists to start paying attention,
similar to the canary in a coal mine.
But giant clams are endangered.
The largest clam in the world
is facing the threat of extinction,
with more than 50 percent
of the wild population severely depleted.
And the ecological benefits
of having giant clams on coral reefs
are likely to continue
only if populations are healthy,
making their conservation paramount.
So I stand here today to give a voice
to the giant clams,
because I care a whole lot
for these amazing animals,
and they deserve to be cared for.
It is time for the giant clams
to step out of their shells,
and show the world that they, too,
can be the heroes of the oceans.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)