main street and replied that since the Trust Territory -already condoned ‘saa drinking and betel-nut chew- ring, perhaps it could most dramatically appeal to tourists if the Coneress of Micronesia passed ; t law legalizing maryuana, The Cong s has not even = ° considered that sowsibiliee, but Tourists have been drifting in, drawn by war- Banat Cle. Veterans of the Twen- tieth Air Fores, which dropped the atomic bombs, have alsa been coming back far nostaleie reunions, AN ANY tourists are attracted ta i Micronesia by its coral reefs, which are of unexcelled variety and beauty. Recently, theugh, these have time memories or hy a belief, now with- Come ence of so enemv—A canthaster blancs, the ¢TYOUNW T= of-tharns scarlish, T his predatay31S EVI, f, aut foundation, that, despite the presmany Americans for sa many years, parts of Micronesia ree main strikingly beautiful and compara- unspoiled. tively Ta 1968, thirteen thousand tourists vistted the Trust Perritory, and in 1969 twenty thousand. Currently, they are coming ar the rate of three thousand a month. Many of them are Japanese, and mast of these go to Saipan after taking advantage of bargain air fares beaween Vokvo and Guam. (The nature of the recent transformation of Guam, once a claistered enclave of the United States Navy, may be adduced from the names of two recently built hotels: the Fujita and the “Pokvu. The career of a nisci American living on Guam , whoa deec- ade ago served as interpreter far ovo Japanese soldier stragelers captured the jungle, has now came full errele: on pehoalF af rhe Guem Teartst Comiissis, he mans an airport mnfermiation counter ostabtished as a comven- tence for Fapanese visitors. y One af Sauipaiv’s fancier hotels, the Hfiv-fourroom Royal Taga, which boasts aire conditioning and suroininis pool, booked months in advance by fapanese businessmen anal Japanese honevmoecners, (Phere are new four hundre and hotel rooms im all of the “Prust Der ritory with sul more under canscruction. } On Saipan, there thirty feature He unul October, bogsesiaentvefour yenrs after the Inst of thousands of Japanese soldiers and civilians, in deancover the Stares conquest ¢ tnt spanaver the United Goauiec® States of fair ishuadl doaped co dean Front U6 ' * " PLOLOL TONITE, 1 whieh . thee . [t ett UPON It, and lec its own malign white stomach suck out the poison. With this stemmich the suurfsh also cngarges the. living polyps that give coral its bright colors; where a herd of acanthiasters has graved, the devastated coral left behind as dead swehite, “Vhese starfish travel aloug the floar of the ocean, and they move almost three-quarters of mile a month, They can stay alive for six months without eating, bur when they eae they ent hearulys a bir acanthaster can kill Afi years of ceral rowel ty a aielie. A female ¢can dav rventv-four milbon eggs ata clip. Tn normal emies, most of these ceees are gobbled up as larvae by the very coral polyps thee would consume tf thes hived or thes are kept to became adults, in bounds bv severnl species at shell- fsh—prineipally the triton. But samething tins happened, AH oche was froin Australia to Plus ad, to upset the eco- lowdeal Galanee —-perhaps the blasting: of coral fa dred#ime operations, crating | witches of dead coral ) where Iarvae can safely settle; perhaps toa much tritan-lniting; perbesos the pollution by man of atoll lazoons, which has ctintiactted natural predators, In anv event, photo- Hive aminunition orl eres alte thre pub scaborne ture on its back, place the affected part graphs not of beaches or palny trees or sunsets but of a ruined Japanese hospital, a rusty tank, and the Japanese jail where Amelia Bar hare was said co have been held cnpuve before she disappeared. Within the past couple OL years, Japanese delegaHens to Saipan hase unveiled two memorids ta the war dead) one ot them In a meuntatneus area called ) Marpi, which wasn't declired clear of aio develop as many as twenty-one arms. Tes back is coated with sharp, poisonous spines a couple of inghes Jong, and step on itis to risk infection and fever. The best first atd is to curn the crea- of the war. Phe souvenir pust- sale from grow to uwo feet in diameter and can ether than crumbhas remnants on attack Wyo in both looks and behavier. are few stehts for touriscs ta see cards under the proviferation of acanchasters lies caused cong caring blolo@ise sehr bets studied the animal in Afteronesia to Say thac it IS os potomuedly disastrous for tae corel island as canunuous forest fires are toa, watershed,” adding, “And the carals yorobably will require a doneer tine ten recovery than docs a) foresc.” | Thevee creatures canna be chapped to dendh: if Veep cert eke ante Perr plecesy veouend: uoowidh four sturtich, Shart oad oasssaline cthenr seach nardes of shirtinyp or tritons—which mice Lie ec ves met ooutoof hed aad cause perder coo loica ni shite f-=tie best mgttod) devised sOonat ter cep swath them 3s to have underwater divers inject them, one by one, with formalin. Tn the Jast couple of years, this labori- ous hypodermic war has been waged throughout Micronesia, “People scoft at our worries about the acanthaster, but who has ever seen a phenomenon of this sort beforef?? Peter Walsen, the Trust Territory’s chief fisheries man, sant to me. “We may be witnessing a unique hielogical catastrophe, [ don’t think the reefs will collapse—which, of course, would mean the end of the atells——bur as long as the starfish multiply so fantastically we've got to try to stop them, if you assume adiving Tee to be pref- erable to a dead one.” The island of Timian has offered a ten-cent bounty per starfish, and the United States Congress has appropriated four and half million dollars ta fight the battle. Many Miicronesians, disagreeable as they conskler the crown-of-thorns starfish te be, have been taking dus new tribulation philosoplically. They have survived frightful typhoons and (ightening pestilences and occupation by four foreign nations; they suspect thac they can also survive whatever thy acan1 thaster may be up to at the MONICHL ¢ ‘They point our that the creature itself isn’t news it was known to be in existe ence before the United States was, (Linnaeus deseribed it in 1758.) Th- deed, some Aficronesians even profess to Know how the puzzling acaatinester first came to their area, Onee upon a ume, it seems, in whit are now the Marshall Islands, an frog of Arno agreed to swap some of his fishing se- crets for some of the navigational crets of an roy of Wotte. The Wore man owas deceitful and heerally AVY bum steer; he passed the Arno mania along same false navigational lore, Whereopon the cnraged) Arne ready, pretending to teach his) fellow-clief how ta cateh edible fish by calling them Into dus nets, taught him stead haw to sumunen the crown-af-thorns. “Phas the Weotye reef went dead, Vhere are: some older Micronesians today wha be- 1 Neve that of discussions between they United States voverament and the Bae ture Political Status Commission reWEA Al aM MApasse, the trad ities chiefs can get together and, provided | they forswear such duplicity, use ticir Hidde powers ta werk out oa suitible . . and sensible destuiy for then people. -—-I0. J. Rate, [r. 1