Sarigan

All of Sarigan

We had an incredible visit to Sarigan today, the first volcanic, uninhabited island north of Saipan that we've visited so far. This is a tiny island with one side composed of steep cliffs with black sand and boulders underwater.  The north west side of the island looked like a tropical paradise with a small beach and covered by coconut palms.  The dive site on the NW side was amazing.  It was a labyrinth of columns and ridges with incredible coral and fish life.  I was wondering if I could cancel the survey due to insufficient concentration.  At all three dive sites I noticed far more fish than in Saipan or any of the other inhabited islands that we've visited. Even the boulders were beautiful in their own way but the high wave energy of the area and hard bottom seems to prevent many corals from colonizing there.  This was a wonderful introduction to the Northern Marianas islands.

I hope you are doing well and enjoying the day,

Cristi

This is one of our small boats next to the cliffs.

Our first shark siting since Wake.  The area from Guam to Saipan is mostly fished out.

We were surveying between these columns and ridges.  You can see our transect tape in the middle of the picture.

This was the biggest beach we found on Sarigan.