Unexplored South Bank!

Today we will have the opportunity to explore a submerged atoll (ring of coral around a central lagoon) that until last week, we didn't know existed. Local fisherman have been visiting South Bank for a long time but no one realized that it was anything more than a slightly shallower spot in the ocean, 70 miles from Tutuila. We mapped this area while we were here last to see if there were any points that were within diving range. We found that there is a narrow band, about 5 miles long, on one side of the atoll, with a minimum depth of 80 feet. So we will be sending teams of divers down to do preliminary surveys. It should be exciting as there is no clear idea of what actually exists there.

Due to the unknown conditions, we are taking every precaution to be safe. There will be 5 divers from our small boat and two surface buoys marking our positions at all times. We will carry the buoys with us so if for some reason we have to leave the reef, the boat will be able to follow us. Also, within our buddy teams, we will be staying within a few feet of each other at all times.

I am excited to explore an area that no one has been to before. Hopefully I will be able to get some good photos to post. Wish us luck for good visibility and good habitat.

Take care,

Cristi

Rose Atoll

Rose Atoll is home to some of the most unusual benthic cover that I have seen while diving. Our sites have been beautiful with 150 - 200 feet of visibility and most of the bottom covered by a hard slick of pink coralline algae. This algae is similar to corals in that it creates a hard skeleton for itself but it is still a plant. This same algae also forms columns the size of bread loaves with various pillars merging into one form and remind me of pink castles. When you look at the columns from the top, they form the shape of a rose bloom. Also, most of the atoll is surrounded by a steep wall making for even more spectacular sites with the deep blue of ocean depths behind you while you're working on a slope of roughly 45 deg.

The conditions while diving, on the other hand, have been less than gentle with surge creating more interesting dives. If we didn't have to stay in one spot on the reef, it wouldn't be a problem. But it takes us at least 5 minutes to install a calcification plate while trying to hold still. My dive buddy and I have found ways of dealing with the surge including wedging ourselves into rubble channels in the reef to try and provide some stability while installing these plates. I've been very glad that most of the reef is covered in coralline algae instead of coral, so that I have more things to hold on to without killing coral. Being that close to the reef has been amusing as I watch small fish doing the same thing that I am - being blown about by surge, trying to hide in holes for stability and occasionally bouncing into things. So I guess I'm in good company :)

One of my most memorable moments at Rose has been when we were in a strong surge moving us sideways along a wall (instead of vertically up and down it). The site was beautiful but I wasn't having much time to enjoy it. A large swell came in and rolled me off of where I was getting frustrated, trying to tighten bolts on one of the plates. I was plopped down on my rear in a nearby rubble channel with columns of pink rising all around me with accents of a gorgeous green algae and a deep blue ocean in the distance. It was beautiful and calm as I sat in my little rubble spot. I stayed there for a few moments considering how wonderful it would be to spend the rest of the dive there until I remembered that my buddy would be upset if she had to pound in all of the stakes by herself. I reluctantly pulled myself back into the fray but that has still been the best view I've had at this atoll.

I hope you are doing well and keeping warm. Our boat is getting ready to launch so I better go.

Take care and write soon,

Cristi

Beautiful Sunset

We had a late start yesterday as we waited in the small boats for the ok to start diving. Thankfully, Samoa only received a small wave from the earthquake in Chile with no major secondary waves. After we had confirmation of this, we began our dive day with nothing appearing out of the ordinary underwater. Our second dive was beautiful and a bit deeper than what we normally survey with a max depth of 70 feet. Even at this depth we were finding bits of cloth and debris from the tsunami last fall. But the corals appeared healthy with colonies larger than a diver and a wide variety of species present. The evening was capped off with a sunset better than what we've received in at least a week. It was gorgeous.

Molly in a fashionable tsunami bikini

To finish off the island of Tutuila, we had one site to visit today near the village of Leone. This was a bit of a treat because we did two dives on the one site. The coral team had more work to do, so we dropped in for a 2nd time and the rest of us did a 'reconnaissance' (aka a fun dive). What was only meant to be a 30 minute swim turned into an hour of poking around the coral heads, exploring swim throughs and picking up/modeling debris from the tsunami. It was an excellent and relaxing way to finish up our time at Tutuila.

Next stop is Rose Atoll where the work and madness (more work than there are available dives) really begins. But not to worry, after a 2 or 3 days of over-working the Chief Sci, I'm guessing that he will be more amenable to reconsidering the amount of tasks that we have to do! Plus, I've heard nothing but good things about the dive sites at Rose and I'm really looking forward to seeing what is out there!

That's about it for now. I hope you are having a wonderful day and keeping warm.

Take care,

Cristi

Coral off of Leone Village, Tutuila

Ben is Fine

Good morning,

Just in case you've been watching the news, I wanted to send a quick note to say that Ben is fine. The tsunami sirens went off twice in Honolulu this morning and he has already checked the predicted inundation zones. Our building is well outside of where the wave is predicted to hit and the only 'widespread panic' that he has heard of is that people are limited to the purchase of 2 cases of Spam per person today. I'm being serious. I guess there have been reports of this "panic" and they are exaggerated. However the local news has reported the limitation on Spam purchases. The fact that we shop at Costco and that I will never be without food means that Ben will be able to live comfortably in our apartment for a long time before he has to resort to fighting people over cases of Spam. The wave is predicted to hit at 11:20 HST so I'm sure he'll know more after that.

I have to go continue preparations for diving today. I hope you are doing well.

Take care,

Cristi

Long Day

The island of Au'nuu off of Tutuila

Yesterday was a good but long day with a total of four dives and about 10 miles of transit. It was fun however because I'm starting to take on different dive roles. For the first dive, I was a safety standby diver for the Oceanography Team while they moved an instrument anchor. I was able to watch them use the a liftbag to move a 250 pound anchor. It had moved about 100 feet either due to the tsunami or to boats using the instrument as a mooring site. My real role would have been to go down and retrieve one of the working divers in case something went very wrong. It is always a good thing when you're a bored safety diver. The 2nd and 3rd dives were collecting calibration data along a transect. Exactly the same method that I've been doing for the past month, but this time I was also taking site pictures for historical documentation. There was also another person in the water collecting the same data that I was for comparison between the two of us. The 4th dive I was helping collect diseased coral samples for an on-going cellular research project. The collection work really wasn't difficult but it kept the day interesting to be changing between roles.

Today will thankfully be a bit shorter with only 2 dives planned. I have to go for now, I hear the crane starting for our small boat.

Take care and talk soon,

Cristi

What happens when the surveys go too quickly...

The village of Vatia on the northeast side of Tutuila

We had 3 more dives today on the northeast side of Tutuila with amazing views of the island. The underwater portion was again unremarkable but the water clarity was better than I was led to believe. All 3 of the dives were in small bays that harbored villages. This can sometimes be a bad combination since the water flow may be reduced, plus any garbage from the land easily gets swept into the bay. But although visibility wasn't great, we didn't run into anything too gross. We did see the towboard team on the second dive which provided an easy and quick way of transiting back to the beginning of our transect line - Molly, my dive buddy, and I both caught on to the trailing tag line of one of the boards to effortlessly move 50 feet. I always have fun with this and now that I have a dive buddy that will join me, I don't have to worry about getting too far away from her.  I'm very happy about this.

We did run into a little trouble on that same dive however. Crown of Thorns Sea Stars or COTS are a nocturnal type of star fish that feed on coral. The thorns on the top side of their body are venomous and can lead to nasty infections if you get stuck with them. Outbreaks of these creatures can lead to the decimation of a reef and Molly has been working on understanding the various populations of these through out the Pacific using DNA technology. It is because of this that she has a lot of experience handling COTS and removing arms from individual COTS for DNA analysis. It is possible that through this work the COTS have come to recognize her presence in the area and are incensed by it. Evidently they still feel the anger of a particular uncle or aunty COT coming to a coral dinner with one less arm, care of Molly Timmers. I believe that this is why one of these cunning creatures - as feisty as a garden snail - attacked Molly on her bum today. But evidently the creature reconsidered its original strategy and decided to take on the pose of either a starving brain sucker or a lovely Sunday hat. You can decide which it is :)

By the way - the thorns are venomous and this shouldn't be tried at home. Molly is a trained professional who is evidently easily amused and needs more sleep :)  I used at least a 1/4 of my air tank laughing underwater.

I hope you are having a wonderful night.
Take care,
Cristi

Umu Dinner

Opening the Umu while Tisa describes its history.

In Samoan culture, an Umu is a traditional method of preparing food and also refers to the meal that is produced. Men are generally tasked with preparing and serving this meal. A fire is built several hours before the oven will be needed and stones taken from river beds are placed in the fire. Once the fire has burned down to embers and the stones have been sufficiently heated, a combination of banana stalks and leaves are placed on top of the stones as a cooking platform. To this is added a variety of meats, fruits and vegetables, including breadfruit, bananas, taro, and fish, in addition to other family favorites. When all of the food has been added to the Umu, it is tightly covered with banana fronds and left to cook for several hours.

Coconut shells filled with steamed shrimp, coconut
cream and taro leaf, papaya, red bananas and
squash make up one layer of this Umu.

In today's society, Umus are generally prepared on Sundays and during large family gatherings. A portion of the Umu is selected for the chief of the village and for the pastor. The rest is shared by family and friends. We were lucky enough during our stay in Pago Pago to participate in an umu at Tisa's Barefoot Beach Bar on Alega Beach. We were treated to a delicious array of traditional foods as well as some non-traditional favorites. In the Umu was chicken, turkey, pork, lamb, octopus wrapped in banana leaf, shrimp, two different types of bananas, squash, papaya, a coconut cream and taro leaf dish, as well as a can of corned beef. The corned beef is a modern staple to most family's Umus.

Ben doing a bit of oven cleaning.

The food was amazing and even cleaning the bits of meat and vegetables from the cooling oven was delicious. Ben argues that the oven cleaning was the best part! Looking at these pictures makes me crave this all over again. It was interesting because there was virtually no seasoning on the food. However the taste of the smoke and the various flavors melding together made the meal far from bland. I can say without hesitation that this has been the best meal of the trip.

I am off to get ready for the day. I hope you are well and eating good food.

Take care,

Cristi

(Please excuse if this seems a bit 'official' in the beginning paragraph. This post was originally meant for the official cruise blog until it was deemed that we shouldn't show that we are having fun, in addition to working 15 hour days. However the Umu has been one of the highlights of the trip for me so I decided to post it on C Time. I hope you enjoy.)