Chapter VII: And on the Seventh Day..Lisianski

Today was a day farewells and actually a bit of work. We stopped at Lisianski to drop off Brenda and Tracy who will be on the island for about a month to do some monk seal work. Angie and Kenady who were just picked up yesterday, are going to help out for a few days while we transit up the chain.

Several scientists went ashore to help set up the camp and a small group walked around the island to try to find some seals that had been instrumented with satellite tags earlier in the year. The study with the satellite tags was to help us learn why some juvenile seals survive while others don't seem to get enough food. Perhaps something in their dive behavior, foraging locations, or diet will give us a clue as to what makes a young seal successful. Here is a photo of one of the juveniles with a satellite tag (Photo by Simon Allen)



Camp set up includes putting up tents for sleeping and working, hooking up the solar power so people can work on their data computers, organize all the gear and food, and, most importantly, dig the long drop. For those of you don't know, the long drop is the field toilet. I tackled the task with my team of Colleen, Jenny and Angie. Jason came in at the end for some additional shoveling. It was actually quite tricky as the loose sand keeps collapsing as you try to dig the hole...you end up having to just squat in it and use your hands to dig. But in the end, as you can see in this last photo, the toilet was completed but perhaps sat a little high.

So after lots of effort, we had to bid our farewells to Team Lisianskit and depart for our next port of call, Kure Atoll. We will be there in 19 hrs. Time to get our rest.