September 9th, 2007 - Transit, the last full day
Packing up, looking back, and looking forward.
September 8th, 2007 - Transit
Honolulu just keeps getting closer. Sunset Pics
September 7th, 2007 - French Frigate Shoals Day 2
Our last field day has been hard to write about. Mainly because I don't think any of us are ready for our trip to be over. Thankfully, the field portion of the trip ended on a good note.
Our day started with a trip up to the north end of the atoll, searching out exposed habitat. What we found was a surprisingly big north swell, especially this time of year. The size of the waves was big enough to keep our zodiac inside the atoll. We kept looking but did not find any good habitat behind Tern Island. So, we went back to La Perouse since it was the best and most extensive habitat we had seen so far, and because we knew there were Opihi (limpets), one of our highest priority species.
The diving was a slight downgrade from yesterday considering the swell made a decent surge and lessened the visibility. We still had a fun and productive day. We found several small caves and swimthroughs, and even got a chance to see an endangered Hawaiian Monk Seal in the water. This young adult was very curious as to what we were doing. He kept swimming down to us, cautiously and giving that look that a confused dog gives you.
It was definitely a new experience for me, and a bit strange since you are not allowed to interact at all with them legally. You just have to sit there and if anything move slightly away. It was also strange since I have little experience with seal behavior. I had no idea what the little guy was going to do next.
Today's dives also led us to some cool sponges. Something you don't always see in Hawai'i. At least, you don't see them anywhere other than piers and docks.
Our second dive was focused on helping out our lab's fish collection. Our goal was to collect 10 Bigeyes. One of the other researchers, Derek Smith, and I ran into a couple of instances of what some people joke as "The NWHI tax." I had one fish taken by a Hawaiian Grouper and a scorpionfish while Derek had an Alua pick off one of his fish. Despite it all, we still came up with 7 samples.
Our last dive was exploring the base of La Perouse. We didn't find many inverts, but the unique rock structure was cool to dive on. Lots of large boulders, and little pathways. We even found a Whitetip Reef shark sitting pretty in a little cave. A cool dive and unique way to end our trip.
All the other away boats ended their days at La Perouse and we returned to the ship in formation. Negative Ghost Rider, the pattern is full.
September 6th, 2007 - French Frigate Shoals
This is our last field site of the cruise. Luckily, we awoke to small swell, light winds, and glassy seas. Given the spectacular weather, we were given full reign over the southern half of the atoll. Our first dive was at the famous Rapture Reef. The visability wasn't great, but the fish schools and biomass was stunning. The sheer numbers were unbelievable, just not as picturesque as we had hoped.
After that, we dove near a place called Disappearing Island which turned out to be our most productive collection site. Although, we had our first encounter with uncooperative wildlife. A large male Alua (Jack) was not happy at all with us on his reef. He would bite at fins, regulators, and samples while constantly swimming around us. He would also keep bumping me on the shoulder as he circled, especially when I lagged behind the group. Despite his objections, we closed out several collections and still had a good dive. The amazing thing was that he followed us to the boat and even bit our propeller twice, while it was moving. Big, bold, but not too bright.
Our last dive was at La Perouse which is a 150ft pinnacle sticking up in the middle of the atoll. This was one of the best dives I have ever done. Not only were the conditions perfect, but the site offered tons of physical structure, a diversity of wildlife fishes and tons of cool inverts and a high diversity of coral species. The pictures say more than I can describe, but this was the kind of reef you idealize. This day and our day at Midway are by far the highlights of the trip.
September 5th, 2007 - Transit Day
Drills, food, computer time, movies, etc. Prep for the field tomorrow! Saw coral spawning in the water.
September 4th, 2007 - Transit Day
Drills, food, computer time, movies, etc.
September 3rd, 2007 - Labor Day (Transit Day)
Today I slept in, deservedly. Then spent most of the day editing pictures, updating the website and entering all the sample data that we had collected. The whole ship celebrated the holiday with a little karaoke and jam session party on the back deck. Check out the beautiful sunset that we had.
September 2nd, 2007 - Midway
Luckily, all the research teams made great progress at Pearl and Hermes, so we could take a one day trip up to Midway which is the second to last atoll/island in the chain. It is also the site of The Battle of Midway which was the turning point in the Pacific portion of WW II.
It was refreshing to actually see land; it has been a while. Midway is strange that it has a lot of buildings and tree, so it feels slightly out of place all the way out here.
The diving though was spectacular. Everything just seems bigger and better. The corals, the reefs themselves, the fish, the schools of fish, and even the aggregates of invertebrates. Check this out:
How many Red Pencil Urchins can you find?
Luckily, we had a 8 person dive team to do as much collecting as possible during our one day. We closed out our quotas in several species, which is awesome.
We got to see another shark tagging and I got to see a Galapagos and a White Tip Reef shark on one of our dives. It's nice to see the apex predators.
We also had a fun little photo shoot on our last safety stop. Pics
September 1st, 2007 - FIELD DAY 3 at Pearl and Hermes
Due to some heavy surf and winds preventing the launch of the zodiac, most of the invert collection team was stuck on the boat. However, I got to the chance to go with one of the other research teams on one of the bigger away boat, HI-1.
This research team was focusing on one particular patch reef in the lagoon and had already spotted some Red Pencil Urchins out there. My job was to tag along, help out, and collect as many as I could.
The weather was quite intense in the morning. We got dropped of the boat and faced some heavy seas with a decent wind chop on top. Not quite Victory at Sea, but you get the point. Once we were inside the lagoon, the seas were much calmer.
The site was pretty much a enormous mound of Porites compressa, and on first glance I wasn't expecting to collect much. After further inspection, I actually found a pleasant surprise, a small cave with about 6 spiny lobsters hiding in it. The challenge was to sample each one of these lobsters without mistakenly sampling twice from the same individual. With my dive buddy Michelle scaring them out of the hole, I was able to grab a few antennae. It sound simple, but this was actually about a 15 min operation. At the end, I sampled at least four individuals and got a couple more than may have been doubles. Not too shabby, considering I couldn't actually get inside that tiny cave. I found another lobster later in that dive, and this thing was huge, at least 1.5 feet in length may be longer. I grabbed one of its antennae and tried to pull it loose and instead it pulled me into the cave! The antennae was so big I couldn't break off a piece and he quickly slipped down a tiny hole out of my reach. It will forever be the one that got away, but I could not believe how had it pulled me.
The second dive was spent collecting the Red Pencil Urchins, and I actually got quite a few. All in all, a dismal looking morning turned into a pretty good day, at least for this third of the invert team. I even found a rare species of coral.
August 31st, 2007 - FIELD DAY 2 at Pearl and Hermes
After getting a feel for all of the field operation protocols, we
felt confident that our second field day would be very productive. We
did three seperate dives covering multiple types of habitat. We spent
time turning over rubble looking for hermit crabs and brittle stars.
We also covered spur and groove habitat (large rock formations) looking
for larger more mobile species, like the Crown of Thorns Sea Star. Our
final dive of the day provided some spectacular views. It was a drift
dive in about a 4 knot current. We struggled to sample the Crown of
Thorns that we saw, but we also saw a lot of large fish, including a
galapagos shark, some really large Alua (jacks) and even some rainbow
runners.
The extra treat of the day was getting in the water with a Tiger
Shark. Normally, Tiger Sharks can pose a significant threat to humans
in the water, but one of the research teams had caught one to place a
tag on it. We happened to be in close range and they invited us to
come check it out. While the shark was secured, I jumped in the water
to take some photos, a very rare opportunity.
We came back to the boat tired, but with our collection bags full. It was a great day, even with the lousy weather.
August 30th, 2007 - FIELD DAY at Pearl and Hermes
Today was our first field ops day of the cruise. We were in the water from 9-4 doing two dives and one snorkel. It's a life changing experience diving out here. You are truly in the middle of no where with no land in site and yet you dive down and see incredible coral reefs. The weather turned out to be perfect as well, a warm sun with a gentle breeze. We have already made substantial progress on our sample collections. What an incredible day.
