Last Day At Wake

On our last day at Wake, we were able to go on land for a short, guided tour of the atoll. As much as the waters surrounding Wake were beautiful, the land portion was sobering. With heaps of rusted metal littering the landscape and the remnants of the 2008 category 5 Super Typhoon Ioke still visible, the atoll’s decrepit appearance mirrored its harrowing past. Evidence of nature’s destructive force was not nearly as potent as the WWII era relics found through out the atoll. From 1935 to 1941, Wake was a refueling point for Pan Am and at the beginnings of WWII, the atoll was inhabited by 449 Marines, 68 Naval personnel and 1221 civilian contractors. In 1941, a few hours after the Pearl Harbor attack, the Battle of Wake Atoll began. Grossly outnumbered by the Japanese fleet and with only 4 remaining fighter aircraft and the help of the civilian contractors, the Marines and Naval personnel were able to repel several amphibious assaults, sink 2 destroyers, 1 submarine and destroy 24 Japanese aircraft before being overwhelmed by an early-morning raid on December 23. After the Japanese victory, most of the military personnel and civilians were sent to POW camps in Asia. However 98 civilian contractors were detained on the island and forced into slave labor to improve the island’s defenses. After a successful American air raid on October 5, 1943, the Japanese garrison commander ordered the execution of all 98 prisoners. One man escaped the massacre and was able to carve the message ’98 US PW 5-10-43’ on a rock near the site of the prisoners’ mass grave. This man was later captured and executed.

Today there are approximately 150 Naval contractors living and working on the island, maintaining the airstrip as an emergency stopping point for trans-Pacific flights. ‘Downtown’ Wake is comprised of several cinder block buildings, a tiki shack and a few hammocks overlooking the turquoise waters of the lagoon. Its peaceful appearance belies the historical reminders cluttering the rest of the atoll and the surrounding waters. I am glad that we were able to visit, however even amongst our usually-lively group, there were very few smiles and most people seemed to be at a loss for words.

I hope you are doing well. Take care,
Cristi

Still diving and happy

Scrawled Filefish

Just a quick post to say that things are going well out here with lots of diving, pictures and data entry.  Our internet connection has been slow to non-existent for the past few days so that combined with a happily exhausted Cristi has led to the slim pickings of blog posts.  But not to worry, I thought I would put up a few pictures for your viewing pleasure until work slows down enough to write more.  Until then, I hope you are doing well and that life is good.
Take care,
Cristi

School of Big-Eyed Jack

Reef with Yellow Tang

Arc-Eye Hawkfish

Reef with Convict Tang

The Last Stand of the Bulbometopon

For the last two days we have been diving at Wake Atoll, one of the last major stomping grounds of the Bumphead Parrotfish (Bulbometopon). This fish is supposed to be found everywhere from the Red Sea and the east coast of Africa to the Line Islands, Samoa Islands and the Great Barrier Reef. However it is becoming increasingly rare due to its tastiness on the dinner plate. It will not be found on menus in the US but in places like Guam and Samoa, it is possible to see it in the back of pick up trucks on its way to someone's kitchen. It is the largest of the parrotfish, so named because the front teeth fuse to form something that looks like a beak. If you can imagine running into a fish with a beak that bites through coral, that is swift and agile like smaller fish, up to 5 feet in length, and with a large rhinoceros-like bump on its head, you can see that you would be somewhat in shock and wondering if you should get out of the water. Although it might have a reason to hold a grudge against humans, it is not a threat to divers and is actually an amazing sight to behold due to its rarity. On our second dive yesterday, we were graced with a school of over 60 of these celebrities of the sea. We were at 70' in a very strong current, doing our best to hold on, and this school casually passed through, against the current, as if out for a stroll. Quite impressive. So far Wake has been everything that we expected and more.
I hope you are having a wonderful evening eating tasty non-endangered things.
Take care,
Cristi

Where Are We?

You might be wondering, after 9 days at sea and not hearing anything about diving, where exactly in the world are we. Well, a good guess would in the Pacific but if you would like to know more specifics, we are ~ 2200 miles west of Honolulu. The brown dots are all the places we work on various cruises and the star is Wake Atoll. We have about 100 more miles to go before we arrive at Wake sometime tonight and begin our dive operations tomorrow morning. If the weather holds, we will be spending the next 5 days there before transiting 1500 miles southwest to Guam. There we will get a few days on land and a change of the science crew before starting our dive surveys around Guam and the Northern Marianas Islands. I am excited to get in the water tomorrow and I'm hoping that it will be calm enough to launch small boats in the morning. So far the forecast is for a 15 foot swell but we'll see what tomorrow brings. Wish us luck and good dive sites.
Be well, do good work...
Cristi

Manning the Helm

Today we were called to the bow to see a pod of dolphins feeding on a bait ball, which is a large school of fish that have been herded into a ball for the dining ease of predators. When dolphins are feeding, they generally don't come to the surface and you know they are there because you see shadows below highly agitated water. From the bridge this looked like a frothy mess of white caps covering an area the size of a foot ball field. The officer in charge of the bridge at the time, being a good fish loving carnivore, realized immediately that this was a dinner opportunity not to be missed and the ship took a small change of course in the hopes of pulling its fishing lines through the area that would presumably be filled with tasty morsels. However dolphins are not the dullest creatures to swim the sea and they soon realized that we were in the area, closing in on their choice of dinner locations. Another important thing to note is that as the ship is only able to make a maximum of 12 knots, dolphins can swim significantly faster than the good ship Hi'ialakai if they feel like it. Thus a game of keep away ensued and the dolphins rather easily out maneuvered our vessel while continuing to maintain the privacy of their feast. After about 30 minutes of this, the scientists and crew admitted defeat and we turned our hopes of fresh fish to another night. As things were quieting down and we returned to our original heading, I remained on the bridge watching the remnants of the dolphin pod move away. Evidently in need of further entertainment, the officer covering the bridge asked if I wanted to steer the ship. I must say that it has been some time since I answered a question so quickly and I spent the next 20 minutes or so manning the helm. That has been the highlight of my trip thus far and is actually much more difficult to do than I first expected. The ship steers like a car on ice and there is constant correcting to stay on course. But the ship has now been safely returned to the experienced hands of the officers and crew and we are again heading towards Wake Atoll. I will, however, be spending more time up on the bridge - just in case.
I hope you are having a wonderful evening. Good night and keep in touch,
Cristi

Mongolian Barbeque Night

In honor of crossing the 180th meridian, the Chief Steward prepared for us his famous Mongolian BBQ. This consists of a variety of uncooked vegetables and meats that you choose from the buffet line. You can personalize as much as you wish and then take your plate into the Galley. From there the Chief cooks your ingredients on the grill and adds trade-secret seasonings that result in an amazing meal. The most difficult part is not overloading your plate because of course it is very bad form not to finish everything that is on your plate. The Chief takes great pride in his cooking and notice is definitely taken when you don’t finish your meal. I’m hoping that this menu will be repeated on legs 2 or 3, but it is definitely reserved for special occasions and not a night to be missed. Thank goodness for International Date Lines. I hope you are having memorable meals as well.
Take care and good night,
Cristi

Entering the Realm of the Golden Dragon

Know All Ye by These Presents: and to all Pirates of the Yellow Seas and other Derelicts of Far Eastern Seas, Greetings:

Know Ye on the 17th of March 2009, within the boundaries of my Dragonic Realm there appeared the Good Ship Hi’ialakai.
Be It Known: That the said renowned vessel crossed the 180th Meridian in Latitude 21 degrees. And all her Officers and Crew have been duly inspected and found qualified by my Venerable Court. It is therefore, My privilege to proclaim, with all the authority of my sphere of influence, that Cristi Richards has been found worthy to be granted membership in my domain, the Silent Occult Mysteries of the Far East and be it further understood: That the above named is now a member of my August Retinue and is therefore entitled to all the Rights and Privileges accorded such personages.
Disobey this order under penalty of our Royal Displeasure.
His Dragonic Majesty

Introducing the Benthic Team

I thought tonight would be a good time to introduce my fellow benthic team members. As a group, we survey and monitor all aspects of the coral reef that are not fish or chemistry related. So without further ado, we have:

B - Kerri Grimshaw hails from the sunshine state of Florida and is so devoted to Key Limes that she special ordered a tree that is now growing quite well in her living room. Kerri is a coral biologist that Ben and I knew from the Florida Keys.

E - Stephanie Schopmeyer joined CRED last year from Georgia but is a transplanted midwesterner from Ohio. Steph is also a coral biologist and is the person that inspired me to start taking pottery classes from UH.

N - Sun Kim is a biologist joining us on this cruise from the University of Guam. He will be an invertebrate biologist, studying anything that is not a fish, coral or algae. He was the most eager member of our team to be the 'N' and will be my dive partner while we are at Wake.

T - Rodney Withall is a Canadian algal biologist who some how found himself in Texas (not the good part) prior to coming to Hawaii late last year. Rodney has an addiction to chocolate milk and (in his own words) claims to have invented sock-suspenders even though he never wears socks.

H - Russell Reardon also comes from the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, is a connaisseur of guitars and key lime pies (of course). He will be filling the role of invertebrate biologist during our dives at Wake.

I - Russell Moffitt is currently an invertebrate biologist for CRED and is a cowboy ninja living in Hawaii with a hippopotamus named Stella (he used to break horses, is a black belt in karate and has a very large gray dog).

C - And if you haven't guessed who the C is you might be reading the wrong blog. But nice to meet you anyway.

So that is our team for this part of the trip. We have a crew change when we arrive in Guam on April 1st and then again in Saipan around the middle of April. But that is all for tonight. I hope you are doing well and that spring weather comes your way soon.

Good night and take care, Cristi

Ship repairs on the open seas

This morning I watched as a rainstorm approached and enjoyed the quiet of the morning pedaling away on the stationary bike on deck. After breakfast, it was the same routine as usual, including computer work and prep for the upcoming dive days, until we were interrupted by what sounded like a metallic bumblebee the size of a Volkswagen just outside of the dry lab. You see the ship's crew is never idle when we are out at sea and when all other work is complete the Chief Boatswain (person in charge of all aspects and running of the decks) sets everyone to work needle-gunning. That is everyone that is part of the ship's crew. I am not sure who originally invented this method of rust removal, but needle-gunning surely was originally a cruel sort of punishment. The crew go out with handheld grinders and power tools that look like basting brushes made of steel fibers to blast away what ever spots of rust have crept up. As the noise was dampened only slightly by earplugs, most of the science party went in search of quiet areas, which can’t actually be found on a 200’ ship. We were also scheduled to complete our neurological exams that serve as a baseline for normal functioning in the case of a dive accident. I'm happy to say that I am cleared to dive although my hearing was not quite up to par (I wonder why). So there is one more step out of the way before we get in the water at Wake and now I am hoping that the crew won't need to be needle-gunning for all of the next five days. But thankfully, even if they do, they keep the ship running and not I.
With that I will say goodnight and best wishes, Cristi

Leaving Honolulu and on to Wake Island

The 2009 Research Season has started and I am currently three days out of Honolulu on the NOAA Ship Hi'ialakai. We are heading towards Wake Island for 5 days of dive ops before continuing on to Guam, Saipan and the Northern Marianas Islands. We started the cruise with 15-25 mph winds out of the north and 12-15 foot waves while we were heading west. I soon found that this translates into a very rolling ride - as in bracing yourself in your bunk so you don’t roll into the wall, standing in the shower holding on with one hand, both feet sliding with the waves and noticing how everything around you is stainless steel and hard, pointy or both. I can only imagine what it’s like for ships that really go out in rough seas. But today brought slightly calmer weather and some sunshine. People are either getting their sea legs or are sufficiently dosed with the proper meds so that the dry lab (where most of the computer work goes on) was slightly more boisterous than it has been. As for me, I am very excited that I made it through the day without having to crawl back in my bunk. I spent a good bit of time catching up on computer work, enjoying the very blustery weather on the bow (I said the weather was better, not great), and my first ever games of ping pong while on a rolling ship. The first Ping Pong tournament started today and Kaylynn (a fish biologist) and I battled it out in the first round. Well, battled is probably too strong a word. We more volleyed the ball a couple of times while trying to keep score, keep our balance and not laugh too much to hit the ball. There were lots of do-overs and without many bystanders to interfere with pesky rules, we had a lot of fun. Kaylynn won and will go on to the next round while I may now be hooked on this game. But for now I will say good night and head off to a few hours dreaming of crazy waves, roller coasters, and what is for breakfast. I hope this finds you well and that you are likewise having either an exciting day or soon to have a wonderful night’s sleep. Take care, Cristi