錢超群 (C.C.Chien)

Tunghai Bio-10 Reunion at Galapagos
Aug 5-17, 2008 by C. Chien 敦之

Forty years after our graduation from college and one hundred seventy three years after Charles Darwin set foot on these volcanic islands, Galapagos, we as students of biology tried to follow his footsteps to understand how these places inspired him to propose the evolution theory and explain the diversity of species by nature selection.

To visit Galapagos as a biologist is somewhat similar to the Christian and Moslems make a pilgrimage to their Holy Land. After months of preparation through the effort of Labbish and Hsiaolin, only six classmates and their families made the trip. I know that Hsiaolin encountered some difficulties because of last minute cancellation. However, to my surprise, three out of the 6 schoolmates who came were my roommates. How exciting can that be! Actually the make of the ship passengers is quite unusual. Half of the 32 passengers are from physics, the other half are from biology. In between we have a group of four that is chemistry related. These groups are also coming from different parts of the US Continent. This makes a wonderful combination. Age wise, the physics group is the most senior group. The biology is the most junior group. The hysics
group is also the most well equipped group. They not only brought the video and telescope camera, they also dressed in an ultraviolet sun light protected space suit. I am delighted that someone will be sure to take the most fantastic pictures for us.

The M/V Evolution is a medium sized boat which I believe it is converted from a Korean fishing boat. The captain of the boat informed us that it is from a Japanese fishing boat. But, it is easy to still find traces of character left on the boat from those two Asian countries. I am grateful that Chien’s family is able to make the last minute change with the Yau’s family for the cabin, so my family can stay closer together. Sailing through the Archipelagos, the size of this boat makes it an ideal transportation from island to island and also makes it easier to get on the pangas ride. However, in the open sea, it is still a bit of rocky. Most of my family members and other passengers begin to feel the sea sickness especially when we sailed to Genovesa. I was thinking what it would be like on the Beagle; especially after outing on the sun scorched lava rocks. The salty air is mixed with the intense foul smell of the feces from the Sea Lions and Marine Iguanas.
Without drifting sea breeze and flying sea birds, these islands would be indeed like “an infernal regions”. We are so lucky to have air conditioned boat and well prepared food. What a luxurious treat! When Darwin visited Galapagos, he was only 26 years old. In these primitive lands I still think perhaps only the youngest and strongest can survive and enjoy the fun throughout the trip as you can see through most of the photos and DVD. Half of us, three out of six as you can see from the reunion pictures required a stick/cane for support. Thanks to Angela’s ankle brace, otherwise my wife, Maelin would not be able to finish the rocky journey. Some of us snorkeling in the open sea will understand the intensity of the equatorial sun and the choppy current. The scenery of black submerged larva rocks has equally matched the sight of the land above the seawater. The Sea Turtles and Sea Lions swim so fast and yet near your body as if they tried to intimidate you. How dare are we, the human creature, to invade their territory. Certainly, those a few daring young ones snorkeled in their territory would understand the unpleasant sting by the sea urchin, which prompted them to leave their territory. I do not think anyone will try to contest with the beach master bull sea lion as he fiercely protected his clan, or trying to step over the Iguanas occupied rock for enduring their hissing and sneezing.

Actually, Darwin was very fortunate for there are only limited species of animal and plants through out the Archipelagos. If he has been in Amazon, he would have been lost by the diversity of the different species. There are three different types of cacti when we visited different islands. The lava cactus was the pioneer plant on this virgin volcanic ash land. Their color matches the landscape quite well. Certainly the three different Mangroves also helped to establish their foothold along the seashore for different life to anchor later. They are also quite
remarkable as with their desalination ability. The ubiquitous Scalesia finally brought most bare land into greenish color on most of the old islands on the south west side of the Archipelagos. The three major ocean currents, Humboldt, Cromwell, and El Nino have significant effect on the life on the island. They brought the most needed fresh water – rain for the plants and animals. Despite of years of human expansion, these places are still dominated by those Sea Lions and Marine Iguanas.

At the twenty-first century, human eventually come to realize that the vital importance of the conservation is to maintain a balanced and a sustainable growth on the earth for the survivor of Homo sapiens on the planet. The extensive slaughter of the Tortoises and the intensive cultivation of the land can only worsening the human survivor in the long run. We hope we did not leave any dirty footprint on these islands. We certainly retained many interesting images;
the graceful flying Tropical Birds, the clown like dance by the Blue-footed Booby, the cotton candy like young chick, the Sally Lightfoot Crab just like the cooked dishes ready for your banquet and the male Frigatebirds displaying the scarlet gular to attract female. Their courting image would be the best emblem for the pirate’s flag instead of the human skull. (The rigatebird is also known as ‘man of war’ bird due to its piratical habits.) We sure missed the Olympic opening ceremony. However, somersault by Tu-Nan and the tumbling movement by Thomas was a great performance. There are also many memorable things during this reunion. The manner of always quietly and slowly eating each dish by Hsiaolin would entice you to enjoy your meal on the boat, and Wentien, like the star from the film” Key Largo” was seemingly in deep
thought for figuring his telescope camera to catch the jumping tuna fish and flying birds, so that he would leave his wife Yunyun to contemplate her next journalistic project. Labbish did it again as during my Amazon trip; he departed earlier from our boat to keep “lonesome George” company at Charles Darwin Research Station (CDRS). Certainly it would be nice for him to bring his family and Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln Nyeu with him so that he could have someone skillfully
to build a dream house for him on Santa Cruz next to CDRS. It surely would be more desirable not to be a lonely fisherman all the time. Again, Thomas was sincerely dipping into his God’s message in the lobby on the boat as he always did in those college days while he was my roommate. The only difference was this time someone preaches to him on the DVD. Vicky and Joe know their place well and always retired early to their cabin in preparation of the next day’s outing. They left the argument to the ghosts of the creationist and the naturalist. Who cares about how big those little birds- Finch’s beak? Those Mocking Birds are still the Mocking Birds when we left Galapagos! Oh, if life is a perpetual memory, let that memory be itself. 人生的旅程 ,不過就是片断的經歷 所累積成在時空中的軌迹罷了。

Hopefully you all have already shed your skin like the Lava Lizard and are now well situated in your destination. (An adaptive radiation so to speak)

Finally, let us hope---- May the black Marine Iguanas guard those islands forever!

Passengers on the Evolution
Biology group—
Chao’s family: Labbish Ning Chao and wife, Lein-Fang Han, son, Don Sister, Mrs. Polly Ching Chao Yau, son, Ryan; daughter, Crystal
Chen’s family: Wen Tien Chen and wife, Yun Yun Yeh Chen
Chien’s family: C.C. Chien and wife, Maelin. Son, Christopher; daughter, Audrey
Chang’s family: Hsiao-lin Chang and husband Tu-nan Chang; Daughter, Angela Chang; Son-in-law, John Austria Angela’s Parents –in-law, Edward and Lorna Austria
Wang’s family: Thomas T.S. Wang and wife. Rebecca Wang
Yang’s family: Vicky Yang and husband Joe Yang
Chemistry group: Lincoln Ting-Ken Nyeu and wife, Tzih Lin Nyeu Sister-in-law, Maria Fong and her son, Daniel Fong
Physics group: Dr. Shiang Fan Liu and wife, Dr. Nai Li Huang Liu
Dr. Russell Keith Bardin and wife, Dr.Tsing Tchao Bardin
Dr. Gee-Kung Chang and wife, Sharon