{"id":1282,"date":"2011-06-13T14:06:54","date_gmt":"2011-06-13T13:06:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bvblog.wpengine.com\/?p=1282"},"modified":"2023-08-23T13:32:56","modified_gmt":"2023-08-23T12:32:56","slug":"reading-the-stars-under-belo-sur-mer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/en\/reading-the-stars-under-belo-sur-mer\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading the stars under Belo-sur-Mer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Brian Jones, Community Research Coordinator, Belo-sur-Mer, Madagascar<\/p>\n<p>It was early May when we were planning our upcoming activities for the next two months, what with the pending mid-June departure of Charlie, our fearless leader and project coordinator here in Belo-sur-Mer and Thomas, preparing to lead a turtle festival turned travelling road-show throughout the Velondriake Locally Managed Marine Area in early June.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThe last show is over around the 8<span style=\"font-size: 11px;\">th<\/span> or 9<span style=\"font-size: 11px;\">th<\/span>, so Thomas will sail back here on the 11<span style=\"font-size: 11px;\">th<\/span> or 12<span style=\"font-size: 11px;\">th<\/span> and then go to Morondava . . .\u201d<\/em> Charlie was saying when she was cut off.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cOhh that\u2019s not going to work\u2026\u201d<\/em> said Eloi, our skipper and ex-fisherman, shaking his head.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWhy not?\u201d<\/em> I inquired.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cBecause, there\u2019s going to be bad weather on the 11<span style=\"font-size: 11px;\">th<\/span> and 12<span style=\"font-size: 11px;\">th<\/span> of June.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cHuh? Why do you say that?\u201d<\/em> I asked sardonically.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cI saw some stars come out last night\u2026 bad weather on the 11<span style=\"font-size: 11px;\">th<\/span> and 12<span style=\"font-size: 11px;\">th<\/span> of June.\u201d <\/em>Eloi stated wisely.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cNo seriously\u2026 come on now\u201d<\/em> as I notice a pensive look come over Thomas\u2019 face. <em>\u201cWe\u2019re not going to let our activity planning be influenced by what sounds to me like borderline witchcraft, now are we?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t get me wrong; I put plenty of stock in \u2018traditional ecological knowledge\u2019 and these Vezo fishermen will always be infinitely more in touch with nature than anyone like me from the west. However, to suppose that one can predict a storm a month and a half in advance, based on the appearance of a certain formation of stars (and besides, even my poor understanding of astronomy tells me that those stars were probably always there, and have been for quite some time) when highly-paid meteorologists in the developed world, with state of the art equipment, repeatedly fail to accurately predict where a snowstorm\u2019s going to hit two days in advance is unbelievable to say the least. Add to this the fact that we are approaching what is typically an 8-month dry spell where absolutely no rain falls on the entire west coast of Madagascar and the word \u2018questionable\u2019 promptly springs to mind.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/reading-the-stars-under-belo-sur-mer\/rickard-yngwe-april2006165-3\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1296\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1296 lazyload\" title=\"Rickard Yngwe april2006,165\" data-src=\"http:\/\/blog.blueventures.org\/media\/Rickard-Yngwe-april20061652-385x129.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"385\" height=\"129\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 385px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 385\/129;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>So, imagine my chagrin when now, in the early hours of the morning of the 11<span style=\"font-size: 11px;\">th<\/span> June no less, I have been awoken by violent winds and now listen to my coconut-thatch roof being pounded by rain and the herd of my neighbour\u2019s goats clamouring for shelter on my porch.<\/p>\n<p>Eloi isn\u2019t surprised, I\u2019m sure. He probably already had the buckets placed under the leaks in his roof so he wouldn\u2019t have to get out of bed. He\u2019ll be waiting to see the expression on my face tomorrow morning as he bails the rain-water out of our boats.<\/p>\n<p>Good thing Thomas opted in advance to take the cross-country bus.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Brian Jones, Community Research Coordinator, Belo-sur-Mer, Madagascar It was early May when we were planning our upcoming activities for the next two months, what with the pending mid-June departure of Charlie, our fearless leader and project coordinator here in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":85,"featured_media":28415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[200],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-belo-sur-mer-madagascar"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Reading the stars under Belo-sur-Mer - 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