Reef Caviar on Toast

While traveling in the South Pacific, I heard anecdotes about a small, but reputedly delicious, sea creature referred to as palolo or balolo. It so happened that I was in Apia, capital of Western Samoa, in mid-November, during the brief time that palolo fulfill their genetically programmed and lunar-inspired imperative to swarm to the surface of the sea to spawn. At this time, they are captured by swarms of larger creatures—Pacific Islanders.

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