Palolo in American Samoa 2019
Palolo experience in American Samoa
Stayed up til 3am waiting for palolo at Fatumafuti over the weekend.
Everyone was camped out on the beach, or in their cars, and on the sea wall.
I couldn’t even count all the boats that were out. It was like a floating village!
Some people got lucky out on the boats but we left the shore with empty nets
still waiting for the big one…
here are some scenes from that night.
It’s interesting that there have been reports of big uprisings of palolo in Samoa, Fiji, Vanuatu, but we had a seemingly smaller season this month. I think Manu’a had better luck than here on Tutuila.
This is all third hand information since all I know is that where we were at Fatumafuti, and along the coast, we didn’t get any palolo.
I asked around and nobody seems to know for sure if they come from the reef flats or the reef slope in deeper areas. I’m wondering if the weather plays a role in it too. This year had the calmest weather for palolo season… usually it’s all windy and the swells are bigger. Maybe not having as much movement in the water keeps the palolo from coming to shore. Who knows, I’m just conjecturing over here 🙂
