Pirate sea cucumbers

Blue skies, warm sunlight and glassy water made our long transits between sites enjoyable, but a few rain clouds made the dives a little chilly (particularly the 78 minute dive!). We saw a big pod of dolphins feeding near the reef at our first site. There was nice coral diversity, too- we had big colonies of Pocillopora and Acropora.

The Lei Triggerfish

We found the amazing pirate sea cucumber at our second site......rarely seen in these parts!

As always, we had a lifeguard on duty.....

And at the conclusion of our third dive, Russell celebrates that we only have one day of diving left on the NWHI cruise!

1.5 days of rest

We were supposed to have two rest days as we transited back to French Frigate, but the ship went too fast and we made it here early- sigh. So, we had half a work day today and we conducted one dive survey. Coral cover was good, but nothing in comparison to Lisianski (Molly, our invertebrate girl, says Lisianski is like Alice in Wonderland).

I did enjoy one day of rest and I got to sleep two mornings in a row!

So, you might be wondering what we do on rest days. Well, there are movies to be watched, books to be read, hats to be made (three of us are knitters), ping pong challenges to win (or lose), cruise reports to write, fire drills to practice, abandon ship drills to run, and most importantly...........demonstrating the proper use of hard hats and personal flotation devices!

The Sassy Siamese Scientists

Best Diving Ever!

I felt like I have finally gotten a taste of what Pacific reefs have to offer! Our sites today were amazing (and magical!)- there was so much coral cover that we didn't have time to finish our surveys and I got tired of counting! There were huge colonies of pillar coral, Porites evermanni

and huge plates and bowls of Montipora capitata.

There were lots of big ulua (the biggest and bravest that I've seen) and a few sharks. One colony was home to about 30 damsel fish who darted in and out as the ulua passed by.
I think that Lisianski was worth the wait and was a great reward for all the hard work we have been doing!

We are now in the home stretch (literally, only one week before we reach Honolulu). We get two days of rest while we transit to French Frigate Shoals. YES, I get to sleep in!

Sweet Lisianski

Porites evermanni
It's getting close to the end- only three dive days left! We are at Lisianski and the coral is beautiful! There were huge colonies of Porites with rocky outcroppings and sandy channels. We had Kudos in our lunch too!

So long Pearl and Hermes

We spent our last two days at Pearl and Hermes- I think this is one of the prettier atolls! One of our dives yesterday was chocked full of life! We saw a monk seal, a spotted eagle ray, two manta rays, some angry ulua (they turn black when aggrevated), a bait ball and some tuna, and a shark! It was on the south end of the atoll where periodic upwelling occurs- where the colder water meets the warmer water, there is a shimmering effect and there were lots of small fish circling around. There was a destinguishable difference in water temperature- I decided to swim back to the warmer side after only a few minutes!

Today was a little shorter, so I actually got the majority of my work done prior to dinner! That's exciting!

We are off to Lisianski next........

Stephanie and Morton the Moose (or is it a giraffe?)

Heading South

The Benthic REA Team- Scottie (our coxswain), Elizabeth Keenan, Russell Moffitt, Molly Timmers, Cristi Richards, and Jason Helyer! We Rock!


So, I didn't know until I looked it up today, that I have been diving on the northern most coral atoll IN THE WORLD (no wonder the water is so chilly!). Kure atoll is a 6 mile atoll with one 192 acre island, Green Island. The atoll has seen a number of shipwrecks and was used by the US Coast Guard for a number of years as a radio relay station.



We were invited on the island today by the workers in charge of taking care of the island- they have been here since May, just the three of them, so you can imagine that they were happy to have visitors! They work hard to maintain the island as a sanctuary-

Cynthia gave us a tour of the island- she's been working here since 1987! There are two permanent buildings and a tee pee for a bathroom! It has to be rough living out there- it's hot, there was a drought this year, and they live off canned food!

This is the freshwater lake that they dug themselves- where's the party barge?

There is a memorial on the island for the 900 men and women who have called Kure home while keeping a constant ear on the radio.

The island is home to many seabirds- we saw lots of Frigates and Boobies- they hung out in the few trees on the island looking a little too large for the thin branches.

So, we finished our surveys at Kure today and are heading south back to Pearl and Hermes. Six dive days left!

Kure Atoll- Day 2

The beautiful weather has returned and we did some great diving around the atoll today. We saw large spur and groove formations with large sand channels between ridges of coral.

One site was a field of Pocillopora meandrina.

As always, there were cool fish to see- like this lion fish!

Our oceanography team had a great day too- they saw a couple of pods of dolphins that allowed them to get in and play! For photos, check out my friend Kerry's blog!