Monk Seals and More

Chapter XXXII: One Last Look At Nihoa

2008-09-28T23:00:00.000-10:00

We're almost home, just a few more days. But on our way we have Nihoa island to check on one last time.

Fortunately on this visit, we have beautiful weather and we are able to get all of our scientist ashore safely. The weather has been very nice for the past few days, which makes our eastbound transits much nicer. If the normal northeast trade winds are blowing, our eastbound transits are heading directly into the wind which makes the ride on the ship a bit rough. On this day, we arrived to clear skies and calm seas.

Our goal today is to see if the pups that were nursing when we were here on our last visit have weaned. We also want to do a population count and see if the translocated weaners and seals with our satellite tags are around. But first, we need to hike over to the beach with all of our gear.

Arriving at the beach, we find the usual rogues gallery of seals. Since this is the only beach on the island, it can get very crowded. Today is no different and we find a number of seals laying around.

On our patrol of the beach, we find three weaned seal pups without flipper tags. We capture them one at a time to give them their flipper tags and take measurements. After we're done, they go right back to playing and bothering the other seals. Ahh...kids now days.

Then we see them interspersed among the seals on the beach. With our satellite tags still attached to their backs they swim along the shoreline and sleep on the cool wet sand. They seem to be doing what seals do naturally, which hopefully means the satellite tags are collecting a lot of useful data. In a few months the batteries in the tags will run down and the seals will start molting the tags off. But, till then they'll give us a brief insight into the life of the seals at Nihoa.

With our work done, we say goodbye to Nihoa for this year. We also give our thanks for allowing us safe passage and watching over us during our visits.

Photos courtesy of Mark Sullivan.

Chapter XXXI: Mahalo Nui Loa French Frigate Shoals!

2008-09-28T22:59:00.002-10:00

Erin, Mark and I spent twelve fantastic days in the lovely FFS with Dave, Jessie and all of the amazing wildlife. We appreciate Dave and Jessie’s hospitality, and their allowing us to assist in the seabird counts and banding.

The birds definitely rule Tern Island!

We accomplished all of our monk seal research goals, and enjoyed the scenery along the way. Here are just a few pix from our underwater explorations that our trusty Montauk took us on:

And of course, we’ll end with some seal pix to hold you over until next time…

ALOHA!

Chapter XXX: The Chad's Crib

2008-09-26T22:08:00.011-10:00

Hi everyone, and welcome to my "crib". I thought I'd spend some time to give you a tour of my home away from home. So come on it and take a look around...

Here we start in my living room. I've got bulkhead to bulkhead carpeting. There is plenty of room for one chair. The fluorescent lighting and beige metal lockers and shelves gives the room a very bright office environment feel.

Let's move over to my bedroom. I have a very roomy twin sized bed. The bed is very firm; it's almost like sleeping on a flat mattress laid on a hard metal shelf. I've changed out the gray wool blankets for my own comforter to add some color to the room. Next to the bed is my walk-up-to closet with my various field clothes.

I have a guest room that's next to my bedroom, well, it's actually it's above my bedroom. It's spacious enough if you're less than 5'6" and have a prehensile tail to help you climb up to the bed.

I also have my own head (nautical term for the bathroom), or as my friends like to call it,"The Reading Room", complete with a shower stall and, most importantly, floor drains. The remarkable thing about this room is that emergency drills and pages occur only once I'm committed to using it. Strange...

Here we have my entertainment center. I have a 17" flat screen TV and DVD player to watch episodes of Battlestar Galactica and Lost. One can only guess why we like to watch shows about people lost on spaceships and stuck on islands while we're at sea on ships or working on islands. Anyway, also on my entertainment center is a desk where I do my work and also write blogs, hopefully for your entertainment. Fortunately the desk is directly in line with my door, so to people passing by, it looks like I'm hard at work when I'm really surfing the web (don't tell anyone, lets just keep this between you and me).

Well, that's about it. Hope you enjoyed checking out my crib. I like it, it's been home for over 100 days this year. It's in a good neighborhood, and the commute to work is very short. The best thing is I wake up to the smell of breakfast cooking every morning...PANCAKES!!

Chapter XXIX: Aloha Midway

2008-09-22T21:05:00.013-10:00

Once a major naval base, and a prized piece of land in WWII, Midway Atoll now serves as a haven for sea birds, monk seals, green sea turtles, and an abundant marine ecosystem. Under the watchful eye of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the wildlife has taken back the atoll and flourished in the safety of its lagoon and on its islands. Still, we cannot forget the dedication and sacrifice of our armed forces during and after the war. Throughout the island we see memorials and monuments testifying to their bravery in the defense of our nation and fight for our freedoms.

After three days at Midway, it's time to say goodbye. We had a very nice visit and got a lot of work done. During our August trip we saw two untagged weaned pups. We were able to tag one of them, but the other eluded us. Fortunately, on this visit we found the weaner on Eastern Island and got it tagged.

On our boat rides across the lagoon we meet up with the resident spinner dolphins. As they come in close to ride our bow wake and check us out, we can hear them whistling and chirping through the water. Someone once asked,"Why do they jump and spin in the air?". I think the answer is simply, because they can.

We also said goodbye to Jason, Jessie, Tracy, and Marie who caught a chartered flight back to Honolulu. After a few weeks in the field, they seem ready to return to life back in the city. A ride in the Midway "limo" to the airport reminded them of the conveniences of life in the modern world.

So as we depart Midway to continue with our journey, we want to say thank you for the hospitality and, till our next visit, Aloha.

Chapter XXVIII: Marine Debris- Yuck!

2008-09-22T20:28:00.016-10:00

In recognition of the International Coastal Cleanup Day, we (all 5 of us) here at Tern Island did our part by removing a couple of large net masses from the beach. Erin and I could have surely done it by ourselves, but we let Mark (AKA "Guns") and Dave (the only one who knows how to operate the forklift safely) contribute.

The sea was angry that day, my friends! Jessie photographed our victorious wrestling match with the first net, which went three rounds: digging it out of the sand, floating it down the beach, then hauling it back up the beach to the forklift. It put up a good fight, but it didn’t stand a chance because those horrible images of entangled seals, turtles and seabirds inspired us to not giving up despite its weight and the crashing waves. Once the second net saw our strength and determination, it threw in the towel making it easy to haul up the beach. We felt all warm-&-fuzzy inside knowing that these nets would no longer threaten the Tern Island marine life.

Besides entanglement dangers, pieces of net and plastic are eaten by sealife. This can be especially harmful if adult seabirds feed their chicks this toxic meal.

Here are a couple plastic bottles that have been munched on by small sharks (notice the jagged edges from the bites). It obviously can’t be good for the sharks’ digestive systems if they are actually consuming this stuff!

I was happy (well, not actually happy, but…) to find these “sharkastics” here, as I collect them during marine debris cleanups on the main Hawaiian Islands. Yes, I invented the word sharkastic. Kinda has a nice ring to it, don’t you think? Hopefully it will catch on because sharkastics certainly are great educational tools once folks realize what they are. Consider yourself one of those enlightened folks now, so get out there and find some of your own sharkastics- it’s fun! And it’s not a difficult treasure hunt. I have found that nearly every piece of thin plastic has some evidence of shark bites. They range from simple pointy punctures to quite dramatic rows of teeth marks that will surely “WOW” your friends and family. Extra points for the biggest tooth radius, although the bigger sharks are probably just grinding the bottles whole… Comforting thought, eh? Oh, while you’re at it, if you could please pick up the other rubbish you come across as well that would be great. Mahalo!

Marine debris is an issue throughout the state of Hawai'i, and there's a special NOAA team who has removed tons of debris from the NWHI reefs and beaches. Here in the FFS, Tern and Trig seem relatively debris-free compared to East Island and especially the Gins. That’s probably where their names originated (besides the crystal clear water)- this is where all the alcohol bottles collect! Even on the most remote and picturesque atoll, there’s this constant reminder of the ugliness of society. Bummer.

On a happy note, you just never know what you’ll find during beach cleanups…

Chapter XXVII: The Pearl in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands

2008-09-22T01:02:00.018-10:00

On a clear calm day, we were heading to Seal Kittery island, the southwestern most island within Pearl and Hermes atoll, when my teammate started yelling,"Stop!! Oh my god...stop the boat!". Fearing I was going to run over a shallow reef, or worse, I immediately pulled back on the throttle. "What is it?!" I asked her. She was staring over the side of the boat into the clear water. "This is it...THIS is where all the blue in the ocean comes from!" she said, still staring through the glassy surface into the deep waters surrounding the boat.

Pearl and Hermes atoll holds a special place in my heart. Even after over 10 field season, I'm still amazed at the sights and sound of the atoll. From my very first visit to today, there is always something that make me stop and say,"Wow...never seen that before!". The colors of the atoll span the entire spectrum, from the deep blue waters to the bright white sand.

The atoll is home to a plethora of wildlife both above and below the water. There is not much land, just five islands large enough for the various sea birds to nest on. Two to four additional sand spits add to the beach area for seals and turtles to rest. With a minimal amount of bickering, the wildlife does manage to share the limited real estate.

The immensity of the atoll can be intimidating, especially when boating between islands. Some trips take you out of the sight of land, giving you the feeling of being alone in the middle of the Pacific on a very small boat. On a calm day, this can be a spiritual experience. When it's rough it's just scary. Fortunately, on most days the spinner dolphins are around to keep us company.

Each northwestern Hawaiian island has it's own unique quality, and everyone working up here has their favorite. You can probably guess which is mine.

Chapter XXVI: Ode to the French Frigate Shoals Honu

2008-09-20T20:51:00.029-10:00

Here's where the “and more” part of the ‘Monk Seals and More’ blog comes into play... Those who know me have been expecting me to find a way to write about turtles at some point, and are likely surprised that it took me this long. Well, The FFS Team (Mark, Erin and Cheryl) has been super busy with the seals out here, but we just can’t help but notice all the turtles crawling around. Where do all those Hawaiian green sea turtles that we see in the main Hawaiian Islands come from? It’s been well documented by NOAA/NMFS George Balazs and his turtle team that over 90% of them hatch from right here in the beautiful French Frigate Shoals. Good choice, honu!

East Island is the most popular nesting destination, but all accessible strips of sand and coral rubble beaches on all these islands are totally covered with what resembles bomb blast craters (the nesting turtles’ body pits): Tern, Trig, Gin, and Little Gin. Seals love to lounge in these pits, by the way. We’re at the tail end of nesting season now, but with the typical 2-month incubation period that puts us in peak hatchling season. Lucky us! One night we watched ~80 hatchlings make a break for the ocean in the moonlight- an awesome sight indeed. Their tiny flippers make tracks that kinda look like bicycle tracks, and with this high quantity of emergences there’s not a smooth patch of sand to be found.

Every morning just after sunrise, we take turns checking certain spots around Tern Island for any seabirds, seals or turtles that get themselves trapped amongst the seawall rubble. This dawn patroller also looks for hatchlings that are heading in the wrong direction. The vegetation lining the beach is littered with misoriented hatchling corpses, sadly. Surprisingly, we often find them crawling down the middle of the runway, far far away from where they need to be.

The heat of the day is obviously too much for them to handle, so we scoop them up and take them to the nearest beach and let them go.

We of course fend off the crabs, because they are ferocious predators. Once they reach the water though, they’re on their own to swim the gauntlet of fish, sharks and diving frigates. These tiny turtles have a lot going against them in this big scary world of ours, so it’s the least we can do to give them a little helping hand.

Because hey, we all get a little lost sometimes…

On our seal patrol of Tern yesterday morning, Erin and I stumbled upon a major emergence of ~70 hatchlings. We took a video clip of the whole thing (coming soon to a theater near you). Here are just a few pictures of how it unfolded:

We’ve also been helping out the USFWS volunteer, Jessie, with nest excavations. Digging up a smelly turtle nest doesn’t sound like much fun to most people, but I’m a turtle nerd so regardless of how many hundreds of times I’ve done it, each one usually leads to something interesting. Even if we don’t rescue any live hatchlings, the digging of these ~3 ft deep holes has its rewards for sure. Check out these fine examples of early and late (alien-like) development:

Besides the nesting scene, honu can be found cruising around the reef and basking on the beaches. Ahhh, paradise…

XXV: French Frigate Shoals Update

2008-09-19T22:32:00.012-10:00

But first, who's got the cutest kitten in the world?

That's right, me!! Turbo Kitty coming at you. She's trouble. OK, onto the seals.

The main goal of our return to French Frigate Shoals was to tag the remaining nine weaned pups from the summer and relocate those born on islets where many pups have been taken by sharks to locations within the atoll that will hopefully give them a better chance of survival. Of those nine pups, we have found and tagged five and know of a sixth who has been seen twice swimming around Tern Island. Three of those five were moved successfully, and two were born on islands that are safe for them to remain. Unfortunately, three of the pups haven't been seen since we arrived. We also discovered the carcass of a pup born some time in the past few weeks.

We are outfitting some of these pups with sonic tags as a side project to a study looking at shark movements. The tags transmit a signal that is detected by underwater devices stationed throughout the area. The tag is attached to a piece of neoprene which is glued to the seal's fur. It will stay on until the seal molts next year.

This is the time of year when many monk seals are experiencing their annual molt, when they lose the top layer of skin and fur as a fresh coat comes in underneath. They tend to be more alert and irritable during this time which can last a few weeks. (Think of a peeling tan after an awesome sunburn - good times.) One way we can help out next years summer crew is to apply unique numbers using a standard hair dye to this new coat. The act of applying the number without disturbing the animal can be a bit tricky, but once it's set that seal can be easily identified from a distance until he or she molts again next year.

We have also been helping the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The refuge manager, Dave, and Jessie have been out here for a month together and have another three to go. So we provide entertainment and assistance in our spare time, in addition to standard chores around the island. (They are clearly tired of cleaning the bathroom and mopping the floors ;) Seriously, they do a great job of keeping this place running in addition to monitoring wildlife. We plan to help with the removal of a large net aggregate that is partially buried at the east end of Tern Island. Abandoned nets are a hazard to all wildlife and removing entanglement debris is an important part of everyone's job out here.

Stay tuned for more exciting tales from Tern!

BTW: Although there are only two flies here... they are persistent and extremely annoying. Here's one now....

Oh yeah, the flat kind.

More Photos from Lisianski

2008-09-18T16:10:00.023-10:00

Lord of the Flies...

Chapter XXIV-1/2: Return From Lisianski Island

2008-09-18T16:10:00.022-10:00

Aloha from one half of Team Lisi. Good to be back and free of the Lisianski flies. We were picked up by the good ship Oscar Elton Sette yesterday (9/17) after about a month on Lisianski Island. It was a good stay. Lisi is an island paradise with the finest, softest sand I've ever felt and with flies and large sharks. We had a productive season tagging the last of the weaners and collecting population assessment data on all the seals there. Though at times just finding the seals was challenging. The vegetation is quite lush and thick and many of the seals like to lounge beneath the cool, leafy confines of the veg. We also were champions with poo collection and amassed over 100 scats for the season (5 bucket loads of seal poo were loaded yesterday)! It was pretty hot out there most of the time and the fly count was out of control. There were times when on survey we would have literally hundreds of flies swarming us as we walked around the island. I inadvertently swallowed a few myself while there...taste like chicken. Brenda reported several attempts of flies trying to infiltrate her nasal cavity. But we didn't let the flies damper our spirits (most of the time), and I became quite skilled at wielding the pink wand of death (aka flyswatter). Early in our stay we had numerous sightings of large tigers near shore followed by several newly shark bitten seals. Luckily that trend fizzled. But sometimes bathtime seemed a bit like Russian roulette.

Now we are back on the ship and enjoying the splendors of the Galley, fresh showers and a fly-free environment. Some of us have even been sucked into cheesy BBC time-space-continuum dramas. Ah, the civilized life...

Chapter XXIV: Welcome Back Brenda and Macy

2008-09-17T22:25:00.004-10:00

That's right...they're back, they're tanned, and no vegetable or ice cream is safe. After three weeks on Lisianski island, Brenda and Tracy are looking for a little redemption. They've tagged all weaners, counted all seals, and now they're ready to take on...The Galley! This time they're taking no prisoners.

Chapter XXIII: A Laysan Visit

2008-09-16T11:03:00.007-10:00

We arrived at Laysan island this morning. The weather is still in our favor and we've arrived to light winds and only a small northwest swell. Today we're helping out our U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service colleagues by transporting supplies and personnel to their camp on Laysan. The camp is staffed year round and the only way to get supplies to them is by ship.

We launched our boats at 0800 this morning and began moving their gear and supplies. Loading and offloading gear to a boat along side a ship is inherently risky. Safety is our primary concern and we always ensure our safety protocols are discussed each morning before starting any operations. We also talk through our operations and ensure everyone understands their role and the overall plan for the day.

There are a few large items that we can load by crane, but most of the equipment and supplies must be loaded by hand. This can be back breaking work for both the crew on deck as well as those in the boat. This is a very coordinate effort by all parties involved, from the officers on the bridge trying to find the best possible position to minimize the pitch and roll of the ship, to the boat operator who must decide how much gear can be loaded without compromising the stability of the small boat. The Oscar Elton Sette is very good at it.

Today we finished quickly. There wasn't a lot of USFWS gear and our launch point is very close to the island, making for very short boat runs. We completed offloading the Laysan supplies, recovered both of our boats, and were underway by lunch to our next stop, Lisianski Island.

Today we served as support for science, a very important role. Out here, we need the support and cooperation of each agency to accomplish our missions. It is important that we all work together towards a common goal; to preserve and protect our precious natural resources here and throughout the Pacific.

Chapter XXII: Tern Island...I Am Coming Back Again

2008-09-14T20:41:00.018-10:00

The Pacific Ocean lived up to it's name as the ship made it's way to the small boat deployment waypoint this morning. The water was like glass with winds gusting a whopping 5 knots and barely the hint of a northwest swell wrapping to the lee of the atoll. Yes, we are back at French Frigate Shoals to drop off three of our monk seal scientist (Mark, Erin, and Cheryl) to look after the young seals. Although the sign on Tern Island indicates there is a population of four, there are only two US fish and Wildlife Service residents left on the island. Our three scientist have increased the population 150%, at least for a few weeks.

After our morning safety and operational meeting, the crew launched the boat and transported us to Tern. The ride in was good and our boat operator kept us dry and comfortable.

There wasn't much setting up to do, and we were all anxious to take a look around the atoll. We launched our boat and headed to Trig island, just east of Tern and a short boat ride along the reef.

French Frigate Shoals is a very beautiful place full of wildlife both above and below the water. My marine biologist tendencies mainly keep me looking below the water, and French Frigate Shoals doesn't disappoint. Sharks, green sea turtles, and dolphins are always around.

On this day, however, we were looking for a couple of pups that were recently weaned from their mothers.

The first look around the island proved disappointing. We saw no sign of either weaner or mom. However, around the last bend we finally found not one, but two of the weaners we were looking for.

Unfortunately they were both playing in the water. So, we wait...

And wait...

And when it seemed like the seals would thwart us again...our patience was rewarded with both fat and happy weaners coming up on the beach in front of us.

Ten minutes later, we had both weaners in stretcher nets and on our way to Tern island where we would release them on a safe sandy beach, hopefully out of the reach of any hungry sharks.

With a job well done, we left our monk seal team on Tern and headed back to the ship. They'll stay at French Frigate Shoals to look for more weaned seals while we continue with our cruise. We'll be back in a few weeks to pick them up. But for now, we're on to our next destination...Laysan Island.

Chapter XXI: Why The Chad Has Voted Cheryl Off The Ship

2008-09-14T16:27:00.007-10:00

Please allow me to introduce myself, my name is Cheryl and I am the official “stowaway” aboard the Sette for this cruise. How did I finagle my way onto a dream trip to The Mecca you ask? Well, this culmination started quietly brewing more than 3 years ago when I first worked with The Chad, Sir Charles, and The One and Only Bob. They came out to Kaho‘olawe (where I work as an Ocean Resources Specialist for the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission- KIRC) to tag some seals, and tag some seals we did. We bribed them with our unstudied seals and seemingly endless supply of ice cream and chocolate milk, thereby forming the foundation of a beautiful NOAA & KIRC relationship that would lead to many fun adventures.

Gas Station Mechanics from left to right: Now TNC Koa, The Chad, Beardless Charles, My Awesome Boss Dean, & Bob Doing All The Work.

Researchers on a junk food sugar high: Bob, Cheryl, Charles, Dean, & Brenda.

Good things always seem to stem from the annual Hawai‘i Conservation Conference, and 2008’s was no exception. One of the major highlights was watching “Her Deepness” Dr. Sylvia Earle and iconic Nainoa Thompson speak- very inspirational indeed. One day at lunch, after one of their very informative monk seal forums, Tracy and Charles were talking about their upcoming cruise to Papahānaumokuākea. I chimed in, “Oooh, can I go?!”, in my typical sarcastic way. Well, as destiny would have it, Charles pulled a few strings, I completed the paperwork, the planets aligned, and KIRC was convinced that it would be very beneficial (“an investment into the future of Kaho‘olawe’s monk seal research” as Charles so eloquently put it). And there you have it- I’m in! I feel extremely fortunate and thankful to all who made this trip happen (especially fellow KIRCers who are covering for me while I’m away).

Okay, back to the theme of this blog posting: “Why The Chad Has Voted Cheryl Off The Ship”. The original plan entailed me staying with the ship for the duration of the cruise, helping out The Chad with the embarking and disembarking of researchers/gear at each lovely destination, with a mix of seal research along the way. I was ready, with five sets of quarantine outfits for each island (which was not easy to come up with considering today’s extremely bad fashion!), to have my mind totally blown by the experience. Well, it seems that my three strikes below have angered The Chad enough to have me semi-abandoned at Tern Island instead, only to be picked up at the end of the cruise (maybe…). I am describing my major offenses in detail below so that other new Sette recruits will not repeat my careless behaviors and inherit the same ‘miserable’ sentence as I.

1st offense, Day #2: Wearing a hat in the mess hall. It was brekkie time, 0730ish, and I wandered sleepily into a full mess hall. We were going to be arriving at Nihoa soon and I was wearing my favorite hat because I planned on being outside photographing everything I could (and, I was having a bad hair day). I actually have two of these favorite hats of mine- one extra for a quarantine outfit. I sat down with my fresh fruit and french toast at the only empty chair I could navigate to, which unfortunately was in plain view of The Chad’s hawklike vision. He honed in on my bright, cheery turquoise hat immediately and harped instinctively from across the room, “Cheryl- no hats in the galley!” This rule wasn’t in my chill, Maui lifestyle repertoire so it took me by surprise. I glanced across the table at USFWS Matt’s disguarded hat. He looked at me with the same deer-in-the-headlights eyes and said, “Yeah, he got me too.” Then he helpfully clued me in on another unwritten rule before I had a chance to get myself in trouble again: no elbows on the table, ever. Okay, good mental note for my next dinner date, thanks.

2nd offense, Day #3: Wearing slippers outside my cabin. I planned on sleeping in on this fine Thursday morning because my zodiac wasn’t leaving for the Nihoa coastal survey until 0930. Sleeping isn’t something I get to do nearly enough in my real life, so I was totally loving the relaxation. I envisioned making a fresh fruit and yogurt smoothie (my favorite!) and watching the kajillion seabirds frolick around the island in the morning sunlight. My two USFWS Cabinmates were oddly up at 0700 though, so I slowly decided to motivate once they vacated our tiny bathroom. Somewhere in the middle of brushing my teeth and putting my contacts in, I heard a broken announcement over the loud speaker, “All hands involved in small boat operations for the day, meet at the muffled-voice-describing-location-somewhere-or-another immediately for a safety meeting.” Immediately, as in like, right now?! A little notice woulda been nice, huh? Being rushed sucks, especially in the morning. I couldn’t even understand where the meeting was taking place, let alone get there in less than 2.2 seconds. But this was my ‘big day’ off the ship, so I had to be there for whatever important information was going to be presented. I barely popped my second contact into my uncooperating eyeball just as Charles pounded on my door, “Cheryl- boat meeting now, let’s go!” I stumbled out of the bathroom and ran down the ever-swaying hallway after him, because if I lost him I wouldn’t know where the meeting was (not that it was a big ship, but hey- that saved me valuable wandering time, thanks Charles). As soon as we walked through the last hatched door, we were right smack dab in the front of Brian’s meeting and all eyes fell on me- my bare feet actually. My Long’s baby blue slippers (which I ironically have two pairs of because they’re my favorites, just like my hat that got me in trouble) were impossible to hide, and I could feel the scouls, grimaces and looks of pure disgust torpedoed their way from every crew member. Don’t get this wrong, I actually have pretty cute feet, but wearing slippers is strictly prohibited except for in our cabins. I fully knew this but in my extreme haste didn’t ponder it until it was too late. The Chad didn’t say anything after his initial horrified gasp, he just shook his head and looked to the ground with utter disappointment. As everyone can relate, that was the worst feeling. I had let him down and I felt awful. I like to believe that my actions saved others from the very same fate, as the next morning Charles was in the shower when a similar meeting was called without even a moment’s notice. He stumbled in late dripping wet, but with regulation closed-toed shoes. You see, if I hadn’t made that horrible mistake the day before, it would’ve been him wearing the slippers. Just lookin’ out for ya and takin’ one for the team, dude. That’s what I’m here for (in case you were wondering).

3rd offense, Day #4: Eating in the mess hall after dinner hours (1630-1730). It was post dinner time by 6 minutes, 1736, and USFWS Matt and I were in deep discussion about the crisis of the planet, or something like that. He was finishing his main course of fish and steamed veggies, while I was thoroughly enjoying my last few bites of Clementine and Mike’s fantastic double-layered chocolate cake with coconut frosting (topped with healthy strawberry ice cream, of course). Out of nowhere The Chad appeared and broke our concentration by saying, “Hurry up you guys, dinner time is way over! They need to finish their jobs so they can get out of here.” Just like that, The Chad laid down the shipshape law with an iron fist then vanished, leaving us stunned. That’s his job, to keep a sense of order to these here parts. And he does it very well because without him we would surely all be running amuck in chaos and disorder, and nobody wants to see that. Mahalo nui loa, The Chad- you are the greatest!

So, you can clearly see why I’ve been voted off the ship by The Chad Chief Scientist (don’t let this happen to you). I don’t blame him. Who would want to deal with my renegade shenanigans for another 2 weeks (there’s no telling what I might do, especially during the full moon!)? Making me walk the plank to Tern is a completely fair ‘punishment’. I can only hope that poor Erin and Mark, who have been stuck with me going to Tern with them instead of Smiley Gretchen of The Massive Toothache, can handle my maverick personality for ten days. I promise to try my very, very best to change my laid back attitude and conform to the Tern Island rules and regulations, whatever they may be. I’m truly sorry, The Chad and Sir Charles, for not meeting your expectations. We had such an auspicious beginning together, and I had to go and blow it like this darnit. Maybe one day you can find it in your big hearts to forgive me...

Research Update

2008-09-13T16:30:00.002-10:00

We have had many requests to give updates on our seals from people who are interested in the tracking data. There is a little bit of data crunching that is involved to present the data, but I will do my best to post updates every so often. I am not at work this weekend (for once) so I can only put up a couple of tracks. Early next week I will have something more informative but this will be about what it looks like....here are three seals' movements over the last day or so.

XX: Departure Of Good Friends

2008-09-12T18:34:00.009-10:00

Greetings all, Chad here taking over the posting for the cruise. Today we said goodbye to a few of our team members. With our Nihoa work done, Bob, Tenaya, and Charles could leave the cruise and head home.

We headed to Kauai last night once we finished at Nihoa, a 17 hour transit. Arriving this morning, we deployed one of our boats and dropped them off at Port Allen so they could catch a flight to Honolulu.

Once we got them safely ashore, we again turned northwest and began our transit back up the Northwestern Hawaiian Island chain towards French Frigate Shoals. We have about 450 miles to cover and it will take us about 48 hours to get there, plenty of time to rest and recover our sore muscles and tired legs.

We're having a quite night on board the ship. It's a different feel right now with three of our team gone. We've been together on board for over a month now and, as is common with good teams, fell into our routine.

I'll miss Charles peeking into my room every 30 minutes asking "when are we getting there?", Tenaya in the wet lab re-checking all of our gear for the 27th time, and Bob doing...whatever it is Bob does. They will be missed...

Stay tuned for more adventures from the Oscar Elton Sette. We'll soon be picking up our field teams from Lisianski island and Pearl and Hermes Reef. I'm sure they'll have plenty of stories to share.

XIX: A Task Completed

2008-09-11T19:11:00.007-10:00

First off...how cute is this seal? Let me introduce to you YW29. She is one of the seals we relocated from French Frigate Shoals to Nihoa. She is the favorite of the ships crew because she managed to get out of the stretcher net when we were bringing her on board and she was ever so cooperative and climbed right into her cage.

She apparently is enjoying her new place and spent much of the day hanging out near us on the beach and lounging in the surf. She is not very shy and is always looking for something (or someone) to play with.

Okay...back to our story. The weather and island smiled on us again today and we touch ground at about 745. We headed over to the beach to do more of the same. The priority today was larger animals for full health surveys and instrumenting. One of the biggest lessons we learned yesterday is that the beach gets incredibly hot during the middle of the day so we had to work quickly before it became to warm to work with the seals. Luck was on our side and were were able to catch two adults right away. The seals weighed between 200-300 lbs each. The restraints went very smoothly and the seals were quickly on their way back to the big blue. Shortly after our second seal we decided it was too hot for holding seals for more than a couple of minutes so we stopped the full work ups, escaped to the shade, and waited for seals to show up that might need flipper tags.

While we waited for the sun to drop a bit, we were able to flipper tag one of the last weaners and a juvenile seal. We were also blessed with a sub-adult male that hauled up on a secluded portion of the beach. We were able to instrument him and get him on his way quickly. And with that we were done for this trip to Nihoa. In total, 4 instrumented weaners, 4 instrumented adults, and several newly flipper tagged seals. This team was great and everyone worked hard to get the work done and keep the seals safe. Also, we thank and respect each seal we worked on. While we wish we didn't have to do the work, every animal that is studied adds to our understanding of the species and hopefully what we can do to keep monk seals from going extinct. So thank you seals.

We slowly packed up our gear and started making our way back to the pick-up. We got done a little bit early and it was still pretty warm out so we spent the rest of our time lounging in the tide pools and goofing around with the camera. Those photos are below...most of them are shots of what we look like to fish.

Anyway...my portion of the blog is done for this trip. Bob, Tenaya and I are getting dropped off at Kauai tomorrow. And Chad and a few others will continue up the chain to do some more research and pick up our other team members.

Thanks again for reading and hopefully someone else will take up this blog on the cruise.

Chapter XVIII: The Sands of Nihoa

2008-09-10T21:17:00.008-10:00

This morning we awoke to the delicious smell of bacon, eggs, and pancakes wafting through the passage ways of the ship. A peek out of the porthole showed Nihoa rising sharply out of the ocean on the horizon. We at our breakfast and started prepping our gear (again) for what we hoped would be an easy landing at Nihoa. Winds were calm and the swell was definitely present but not as large as we had feared..so we were cautiously optimistic.

At just around 12 pm we were set to put the small boats in the water and make our way to shore. Chad, Tenaya, and I were driven by Lester and Mike to the rocky shelf that serves as the landing for the island. It was a little surgey but definitely workable. Nihoa was going to let us on to do our work. So the three of us jumped ashore, caught our gear being thrown after us, and scrambled up to some dry land. The small boat left to get the rest of our team, Bob, Erin, and Mark. Shortly afterward they joined us and we could start our work.

This trip was a new experience for a few of the folks who had never been on Nihoa, and for those of us who had, we took a new route to the seal beach. We stayed along the shore which was a whole lot easier and faster than our usual trek all the way up the steep slopes of the island and back down another gully. So after a short walk along an extremely lovely coastline we had our first glimpse at seal beach.

The beach was crowded today with a total of 27 animals ranging from suckling pups to big old adult males. We even caught a glimpse of a few of our relocated seals frolicking in the surf zone. They seemed to be fitting into their new home pretty well.

So, the beach was crowded which meant we had to be very careful about disturbing animals unnecessarily, particularly mothers with pups. It was also very hot so we had to make sure when we were doing our work that the seals (and researchers) didn't overheat. We decided it was best to just work on some of the weaners at first and give them new flipper tags and a satellite transmitter. The flipper tags are so we can monitor their survival and determine how successful they are (in foraging, reproduction etc) throughout their life. The satellite tag will show us how they develop their feeding behavior as young naive animals. Then as the day wore on and cooled off a bit we could move to older animals. We quickly got to work...and we worked...and worked...and worked.

By the end of the day we had instrumented 4 weaners, flipper tagged a 5th, and fully worked up and instrumented a sub-adult female. This is an incredible amount of work for just a half day. Today's team absolutely rocked and I thank them all for a great effort. So we left the island feeling very satisfied and thankful to have had a chance to work on this beautiful island. We have another day and our fingers are crossed we can get on again. We will keep you posted.

Chapter XVII: Journey through Darkness

2008-09-09T19:07:00.002-10:00

After a short delay today (apparently the Navy had some stuff going on) we were off on our new adventure. It is dark outside now but when we wake up we will be very near our first destination, Nihoa. It appears that our trip is starting up where we left off as we have a big south swell escorting us up to the island.

The beach we need to get to is in a southward facing bay so anything rolling in from that direction makes the landing very treacherous. The winds at least seem to be cooperating so we have that going for us.

We are all prepping for the best and are ready to go if we get the chance.

So much work to be done in such a short time. No doubt our team (Tenaya, Bob, Chad, Erin, Mark and me) are up to it. Hopefully, I will have some good news for you all tomorrow.

Shout out to all the great people from the last cruise...wish you guys were here..I miss my band.

XVI: We're Back...Nihoa Take 2

2008-09-08T17:15:00.002-10:00

Hey everyone...sorry about the abrupt ending on the last cruise. We left you guys wondering if we were going to get onto Nihoa and complete the last phase of our research...

We didn't. After an otherwise fantastically successful cruise, we were turned back from Nihoa due to weather.

However, another cruise is departing tomorrow morning and we are going to try to get 2 days of work done on Nihoa. Wish us luck.

The journey continues.

Chapter XV: Welcome to your new home, please watch your first step.

2008-08-31T21:39:00.007-10:00

Our six new crew members have departed the ship. At noon today we arrived at Nihoa Island after an uneventful night of lots of seals sleeping. After a brief safety meeting we launched the small boat and prepared to release our seals two by two.

It was a pretty simple process:
1. Place stretcher net in front of cage.
2. Open Front of Cage.
3. Open Back of Cage.
4. Have vet play with rear flippers to encourage forward movement.
5. Have seal cooperate by walking onto stretcher net.
6. Wrap seal up in stretcher net.
7. Carry seal to boat.
8. Lower boat.
9. Take seal to Nihoa.
10. Show seal new beach.
11. Let seal hop over the side to freedom.

It worked wonderfully well. In just about an hour and a half all the seals were swimming around their new surroundings checking out the new beach and crystal clear waters.

The whole transport went really well thanks to all the scientists, volunteers, crew, and officers aboard the ship who all went above and beyond to help these seals have a smooth and safe ride. We really thank everyone on board for their aid. It was nice to see everyone turn out to see the pups off this morning.

Now, it is up to the pups and Nihoa. Hopefully they will be able to find a safer haven with more abundant food than the seals that were left behind at French Frigate Shoals. We will be monitoring them with satellite tags and follow up with visual observations next year.

So this will likely be my last blog entry for this cruise. I am sure that one of the other gifted authors will keep it going for the last couple of days of work. Tomorrow, Tenaya, Chad, Bob, Jenny and I are going to try to get off to camp on Nihoa for the next week to study the seals living here. The swells are up so landing can be extremely treacherous. Wish us luck. Thanks to everyone who has been reading this (I know there are at least a few). We hope you all learned something and got a chance to share our fun and adventure. I just want to say I have enjoyed working with everyone that has been on the is cruise...they have all been wonderful colleagues and friends. They busted their butts for these seals and projects. I wish them the best of luck in everything and hope they are all well.

So...I guess on that note I say Aloha! Be well, take care.
Charles

P.S. Kehaulani, if you are reading this, we are sorry you can't be here for this part of the journey. But we will follow your guidance and acknowledge Nihoa and the Kupuna buried there every day. We will ask for guidance and wisdom and protection.

KU PAKU KA PALI O NIHOA I KA MAKANI
THE CLIFF OF NIHOA STANDS AS A RESISTANCE AGAINST THE WIND.
SAID OF ONE WHO STANDS BRAVELY IN THE FACE OF MISFORTUNE.

XIV: All expense paid cruise...weaners welcome

2008-08-31T10:03:00.002-10:00

Today is the day that we brought aboard our new passengers, or stowaways as some folks are calling them. We were gambling that we would be able to get back out and find the seals all in one day to bring to the ship. We felt it was better letting them swim freely while we processed their blood work instead of setting up a pen on the beach for them. We started searching for the little guys at about 730 and our gamble paid off.

Almost immediately we found two of our seals and by the time we had dropped them off at the ship and returned to Tern Island, Derrick, Monica, Mark and Shawn had found another two. After a couple of more hours all the seals were on board and in their cages. There was a lot of excitement on the ship for the new members and everyone came out to watch the seals being brought on board. The seals calm down quickly once they were put in their cages and lounged under the misters that kept them cool in the heat. Immediately after bringing them on board we began a 24 hour watch to monitor their health and safety. So far everything is going very well and we expect to have the seals dropped off around noon tomorrow at their new home.

Thanks to the crew and science staff that helped with the watches and respected all the quarantine and disturbance restrictions put in place for these pups. We will update soon once we get the seals off the Sette and into the water at Nihoa.

XIII: French Frigate Shoals: Ditch Diggers

2008-08-30T17:32:00.003-10:00

The seal crew wasn't the only group on island hard to work. Tern Island called in for the best and the brightest researcher volunteers to do the ultimate in scientific work, dig a ditch.

Tern Island is currently under a rewiring project for their new solar energy system. Since Tern Island has such a huge bird population the wires have to be underground and out of reach of the curious bird brains. The wires stretch from one building to another resulting in a 100 feet x 2 feet of necessary ditch digging. Tern Island manager, Dave Zabriskie (not to be mistaken with the champion cyclist by the same name) took on the challenge of digging the trench without the help of a professional construction crew. Thus, Dave sacrificed his time and his back to accomplish the task without a $20,000 bill to show for it. Little did he realize that he would have to do this all by himself...oops! Luckily for Dave's back, the Sette arrived with 7 enthusiastic body-building scientists with backs of steel just in time to save the day. The champion ditch-digging extraordinaires included: Angie the Queen of Spades, Colleen the Conqueror of boulders, Amarisa the Vertical Digger, Katy the pick-ax whacking Queen, Cindy the Motivator, Jim the King of all that is digging and Jenny the Energizer Bunny. It was tough at times, but we kept the moral alive with rounds of "I've been working on the railroad" and "Chain Gang".

With a quick lunch underhand, the chain gang returned to the obliterate the remaining rocks and sand that stood between them and victory. As Angie returned to the Barracks for a much deserved water run, she ran across the team leaders of all things monk seals, The Chad and Charles. She bounced into the kitchen with boundless energy and asked them how their day was going. Barely able to lift their heads, they groaned and said "Holy Cow, we're so tired. We stood around all morning and finally caught two seals." Angie patted them once on the shoulders and returned to her magnificent crew of 7 slaving away in the heat of the day. (note: OK, the seal team had been working for hours and continued working late into the evening. They are ALL awesome and did an excellent job that day!)

With the hard work and determination of the ditch digging extraordinaires, the ditch was completed in just over three hours. Dave was stunned and delighted. The ditch that he thought would take weeks was completed in one day. The crew rewarded themselves with hours of ocean entertainment including snorkeling and jumping off the dolphin. Good Work!

Chapter XII: French Frigate Shoals - The Search for the Six

2008-08-30T14:24:00.004-10:00

Our journey is coming to an end, but there is much work to be done. Some of us on the cruise have traveled all the way and most of the way back down the chain, for the work that is being done these next few days.

We have arrived at French Frigate Shoals to take on new passengers. One group is four scientists that have been at French Frigate for the last 4 months monitoring the monk seals in the atoll: Shawn, Derrick, Monica, and Mark. The other part of their job was to set up deterrents at key locations in the atoll to keep sharks from eating suckling and recently weaned pups. This group of scientists went above and beyond the normal exceptional job done at this camp. They did all their work, retagged a bunch of adult animals (that's where we got our butts kicked earlier in the cruise), found a plethora of poop, and much more. Great job team FFS.

The second group of passengers is a little different. We are on a mission to find six young seals that have weaned in the last month. These brave critters are going to be moved to Nihoa in an effort to increase their likelihood of surviving to adulthood. FFS is a tough place to be born and grow up with most seals dying before they ever reach adulthood. The seals will be captured, health screened, instrumented with a satellite tag, and then transported on our ship to Nihoa. Phase One happened on our first day at Nihoa...find them and capture them for the medical screening and instrumentation.

Team FFS was well prepared to greet us and get to work. Within an hour of landing at Tern Island we had our first seal and all went smoothly. Over the course of a very long and hot day we were able to catch 4 of our candidates. After capture we spent several long hours late into the night working up the blood to make sure the seals were all healthy enough to transport to their new home. Tenaya is a trooper, she worked the hardest and the longest of us all.

The second day was more of the same except, thankfully, we only had to capture two more little guys. The work went off without a hitch and we returned to the ship for another late night for Tenaya and Jenny (you guys are stars). I might have been playing Rock Band when I should have been working.

We also had to clean and sterilize the cages the pups would be traveling in and we got the whole team together to do that. Over course Chad, the Chief, stood above us and directed our actions.

Chapter XI: Lisianski Drive-By

2008-08-29T19:52:00.003-10:00

Hello dedicated readers. We got caught up in our work again and were remiss in our blogging duties. So where did we leave off...Oh yes, Pearl and Hermes Reef. After an overnight transit and several more hours of rock band we found ourselves, once again, off the island of Lisianski. We had just a very short stopover to pick up our two fieldcampers from earlier in this adventure, Angie and Kenady. That took about an hour and we were off....

Yeah I know that wasn't very exciting but seriously people, there isn't much I can embellish here. But here is a photo of my band. There are a couple of other members not pictured here.

Chapter X: Destination Pearl and Hermes

2008-08-26T13:22:00.003-10:00

After losing a much needed hour of sleep (Midway time change), we arrived at Pearl and Hermes to drop off the final seal camp.

Now, as you read earlier on the blog, Charles digs a mean long drop. But he’s got NOTHING on Jason. Ever the perfectionist, Jason didn’t just want a long drop, he built a throne, complete with water in the tank, comfort seating and fresh flowers to boot. Even the native wildlife was impressed.

It was hard leaving Jason, Jesse, Kathleen and Marie behind on PHR, and as we headed toward the boat, we couldn’t help but think how much we would miss them. Luckily we had banana splits and Rock Band waiting on board to console us!

One last comment: CO is a maniac on the drums!

Chapter IX: One Perfect Day at Midway

2008-08-26T12:53:00.007-10:00

This blog was written by Colleen and Jenny, peripheral members of the monk seal family, kinda like Cousin It but less hairy. (Note from Charles: but they are as short and mumble incoherently about putting throttle on the situation).

We rose early and made ourselves conspicuous on the deck so that our fearless leaders would have no choice but to take us along on their day’s adventure. We boarded the small boat with coxswain Chad, mate Max, Charles and Jason and set out to perform monk seal surveys. Upon arriving at Eastern Island, we were greeted by a curious, untagged weaner, swimming toward the boat.

We split up with team JJ (Jason and Jenny) headed in one direction and team CC (Charles and Colleen) headed in the other. Monk seal surveying is not a simple walk on the beach. You have to think like a detective…and like the paparazzi. We scanned the beach for signs of a seal, like a trail in the sand heading up into the bushes or a big lump in the veg line. Once a seal was sighted, we went into stealth mode, creeping along the edge of a bush and keeping as low to the ground as possible while trying to avoid the monstrous spiders (500 lbs seals are no match for Jason and Charles, but spider webs pose a real threat). Our mission: to identify, assess and photograph the seal without being noticed.

Did I mention the treasure hunt? “Treasure” means different things to different people. For scientists, it’s satellite tags and monk seal poop. And so the day began. Team JJ was slow but thorough. They only made it across a fraction of the island, but they identified 3 males from Kure, found 3 poop samples, and collected a piece of molted skin. Team CC was much more ambitious, covering ¾ of the island and sighting 3 seals, but they scored no scat (“Chuck the poop guy,” not living up to his self-appointed title.)

After lunch, a bunch of folks from the ship rendezvoused at North Beach for a refreshing dip, but there was much of the island still to be explored: the doctor’s cemetery, mall, and three story ceramic albatross. Engineers James and Garry headed off to shoot pool, but Jenny and Colleen could not resist the amazing photo op below. Now, we’re not going to comment on anyone’s billiardesque abilities, but let’s just say after two games in as many hours, it ended in a draw. (A deciding match would’ve been too painful!)

The place to see sharks is just below the ship pier where big fish congregate amongst the concrete pillars. Colleen and Jenny dared each other to swim to the end of the pier hoping and fearing to see the huge tiger shark rumored to patrol the waters. It was very dark and spooky. Colleen spotted a shark deep below the layer of uluas, while Jenny made sure that Colleen was between her and the shark.

Speaking of sharks, that night was the first ever World Championship Pearl and Hermes Transit Poker Tournament. Stakes were high, as the winner would walk away with a coveted glass float. The finalists were Chuck the poop guy, the Riddler (CO), Chad the chip shuffling, Vegas-trained, seal wrangler and the uninitiated pollywog of the group Stud Poke (that’s poe kay as in delicious Hawaiian sashimi) who brought nothing but her intimidating stealy glare to the table. In the end after seven hours of blinding, bluffing, washing and cutting, Chad would reign victorious.

Chapter VIIIB: Kure - The start of the road back down

2008-08-26T07:49:00.009-10:00

Okay, so we have all been a little slack with the blog lately. Sorry to all the dedicated readers (mom). I will honestly say that it is because we have been working hard, recovering from some injuries, battling some sea sickness, and watching some movies. So, to catch up with the last few days we are going to have to condense things a little bit.

The second day on Kure was spent moving the rest of Jessie's field gear to the ship and the seal team kept searching the island for seals to tag. At the end of the first day, we had Jessie get smacked across the jaw with rear flippers and Chad was bit by an adult seal. Basically we continued the same pattern on day 2. We started surveying at about 8 am with Jason, Chad, Jessie, Kathleen, Marie and myself. The highlight was Kathleen got to tag her first adult seal and did great. We got 2 seals done before lunch at which time our team was dropped to just Jason, Chad, Jessie, and myself.

The third animal we caught was a skilled opponent. No matter how hard we tried he kept managing to avoid the net so finally I stood right over him for a better shot at capturing him. The seal saw an opportunity and took it. With what felt like all the strength his 400 lbs body could muster, he launched his lower body straight up between my open legs...I won't explain it in detail but I will say that I was largely incapacitated for the rest of the capture with nothing but small whimpers coming from my mouth. Sometimes I wonder if tagging is worth it.

The fourth animal went smoothly, but the fifth ended up briefly dislocating Chad's pinky.

We then met up with Tenaya and Kehau and caught the last two seals of the day. We received only one very minor temporary injury when an adult male threw a flipper full of sand into Jason's eye. He was trying to net the seal at the time and continued to do so for about 15 seconds more when he finally turned to no one, held out the net to empty air and said "I have sand in my eyes and can't see a thing." Blindness aside, it went smoothly and Tenaya speedily tagged her first two adult seals.

So exhausted from having caught 7 seals (about 2500 lbs of seal) in a day we called it quits and headed back to the ship. By then almost everything was loaded and we were set for a half a day of seal catching the next morning before departure.

The next morning: Thank goodness...bad weather! Seal operations were called off due to low visibility and choppy conditions. We were all terribly disappointed. So goodbyes were said on Kure and 4 State scientists/volunteers were brought aboard for transport back to Honolulu. The Sette turned and started back down the chain...banging into the swell...people got sick. Overall, Kure was a success. We got everyone on board safely and managed to retag 9 seals without serious injury to ourselves or the animals. Hopefully, through our efforts, the field camp will have an easier time identifying seals next year. On to Midway.

Scientist of the Day: Tenaya N.

If you need someone to take care of your undernourished monk seal, the our SOD is the person to call. Tenaya has been involved in monk seal recovery efforts for several years. She has field camped at Laysan, headed up captive care efforts at Midway and Honolulu, and is now going to be studying the relocation of seals to and the ecology of the population at Nihoa. Tenaya is currently doing her Masters at Moss Landing Marine Lab.

When asked what famous person Tenaya would like to meet, she responded "I don't want to meet someone famous." She is so real.

Tenaya's favorite dessert is her mom's chocolate cake...appropriately called Mum's Chocolate Cake.

Tenaya's favorite book is Banana Bottom by Claude McKay or anything by Jane Austen.

Chapter VIII: Kure- The end of the Road

2008-08-21T21:00:00.012-10:00

Okay, some days there is so little going on that it is hard to think of something to write about. Other days, though, there is so much you don't know where to begin. Today was one of those days. Let me warn you in advance...this story involves craft making, fires on board, long hot treks across deserted beaches, and a solid right upper cut and a bloody lip.

The first order of business today was building stretcher nets. Most of the remaining team gathered together to try to finish 4 nets that are going to be used to transport the weaned seals that we will be moving from French Frigate Shoals to Nihoa Island in a week. The requires taking some cargo netting and attaching it to a couple of wood poles and lacing line along the poles to keep the net in place. Apparently, everyone other than myself was adept at this task. We were able to get most of the nets done prior to being rained out. The final crafting of the nets will take place in the next couple of days.

As Kure grew closer and closer, we started to get prepared for going to Green Island, the largest of the two islets in the atoll. Suddenly the air was split with a shrieking of the alarm bell...FIRE!! To be more accurate the air was first split with an announcement that this was just a drill. So, we all drop what we are doing and head up to our muster location so Chad can account for all of us. Then we stand and wait while the crew battles a fake fire.

We barely have enough time catch our breath after the fire drill before the alarms are ringing again...ABANDON SHIP! For this drill, we each have to grab long pants, a hat, our life vest, and our survival suit. Then we meet at a pre-assigend lifeboat and wait. New people on board have to practice putting on their survival suit which looks like a bright red Gumby suit. I have provided a photo of Colleen donning her suit. She looks pretty excited huh? I think her suit is about 3 sizes too large.

Finally at 1430 we arrive at Kure Atoll. Our mission at Kure is to pickup Jessie L. who has been doing monk seal work on the islands since May. Jessie is going to be joining Jason, Kathleen and Marie at Pearl and Hermes for a month or so. We were also dropping off Daniel who was going to be joining the group of researchers working for the State. While on the island we were planning on tagging any seals that had lost flipper tags over the years. The flipper tags are important for us to be able to easily identify and monitor the seals.

While we were headed into the island we were escorted by three spinner dolphins. I tried to take pictures but it was just way too choppy. We landed at Green Island and were greeted by many happy campers. After long hellos and sharing of stories it was business time. Kehau lead us in a chant to ask for wisdom from the islands and our experience. Then we started walking the beach looking for any seals that might need tagging. It was at this point that things kind of started going downhill.

The first seal we found was KSO8, an adult male that was born in 1993. Chad was restraining the head, I was grabbing the pectoral flippers, and Jason was holding the flippers while Jessie tagged it. Everything went smoothly, but we could only get 1 of 2 flipper tags in him.

The second seal was YG10, an adult female that was born at French Frigate Shoals and relocated to Kure in 1990. This capture was not as smooth. YG10 is adept at avoiding capture. At one point near the end of our attempt, she snaked around the net and nipped Chad...well it was more like she tried to swallow his elbow. Needless to say, we ended that attempt. Nicely done YG10.

Our last seal for the day was KD11 and adult female that was absolutely ENORMOUS. Jason was in charge of the net and head restraint, Chad pectoral flippers, and I was handling the rear flippers. We got her in the net and restrained and things were going pretty smoothly. Near the end of the tagging she started to fight a bit. As we were releasing her, she kicked out hard and smacked Jessie across the jaw with her rear flippers. Unbelievable Jessie took the hit without hitting the ground...that it a pretty strong hit coming from a 400+ seal. KD11 was let go without injury, but Jessie received a fat bloody lip and sore jaw for her efforts.

I think today belonged to the seals.

We called it a day after that and headed back to the small boats for the ride back to the Sette. A little bruised and battered but looking forward to doing it all again tomorrow.
Here is a picture of me with our coxswain Bruce.

Scientist of the Day: Jessie L.

Jessie has worked with the monk seal program for 4 years and when she isn't leading the fieldcamps at Pearl and Hermes or Kure, she is heading up our logistics.

When Jessie was asked what she wanted the most after 92 days at Kure Atoll her response was...a hot bath.

Jessie's favorite sound is the plaintive whimper an albatross chick makes when it is begging for food.

The first book Jessie remembers getting from the Library is Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell.

Chapter VII: And on the Seventh Day..Lisianski

2008-08-20T19:36:00.009-10:00

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.

Chapter VI Part Deux: Fish On! and Other Happenings

2008-08-19T22:31:00.013-10:00

Scientist ready for deployment

So we arrived at Laysan Island on Tuesday 8/19. A bunch a people went ashore. Three scientists (Kenady R., Angie K. and Colleen S.) and lots of gear (and possibly a few insects) came off Laysan en route to Honolulu. There were many moments of excitement and awe as various people experienced various things on island, but they will have to tell you about them. I crewed a small boat for the day, running gear and people to and fro.

Late in the afternoon after all personell and equipment were safely on board, the ship set sail for Lisiankski Island. In the meantime it was fish time. Monk seal girls rock at fishing!

Tracy, Kehaulani and Tenaya show off their catch.

Chapter VI: It is with great pleasure I introduce to you...Laysan

2008-08-19T17:05:00.008-10:00

After a two day transit we awoke this morning with land off our bow. We had made the long journey from Mokumanamana to Laysan Island.

Today our mission was very simple, go to shore and rescue the two field campers, Angie and Kenady, that had been stationed there since May. We were also picking up one US Fish and Wildlife volunteer, Colleen, who would be hitching a ride back to civilization with us.

The good weather we experienced at our first two stops stayed with us today, and the waters near the island were almost as still as a lake. This is good thing since the channel leading into the island can close out in bad weather preventing us access to our people. It was very smooth sailing today.

A view of the USFWS service camp on the island.

While several people helped load our field gear up on the small boats, I took a small group of scientists and crew on a short tour of the island to show them the local wildlife. The picture to the left shows a couple of great frigate birds and noddys resting on some crosses.

Here is a black spot sergeant major damsel fish, I think. Either way, they have a great genus name...Abudefduf. He was chasing the small schooling fish in the shallows.

Anyway, the packing and transport of the gear was quick and easy and we got away early. I have no doubt the rescued campers are happy to be on the ship and have already spent a large part of their time eating fresh salad and ice cream, drinking anything with ice in it, and, of course, checking email.

The highlight of the evening was supposed to be a Fantasy Football draft with many of the scientists and ship crew, however ESPN Fantasy Football has let us down. We will try again another night.

Oooh, last minute entry. We pulled out Rock Band on Xbox 360 this evening. Many new folks playing and by and large they rocked it. Award goes to Jenny S. for being absolutely fearless with the vocals.

Scientist of the Day: Brenda B. and Tracy W.

Its a double dose of scientists today. Brenda and Tracy are both part of our Population Assessment program and are going to be spending a few weeks camped at Lisianski Island monitoring the seals, collecting scats, and tagging weaned seals that were born on the island.

Brenda B.'s favorite things to do are raising service dogs for the blind, belly dancing, and hiking.

If she could have one food right now, it would be dark chocolate.

Her first concert was Leon Russell

Tracy W. focuses on our main Hawaiian Islands data and is the person you might talk to if you call the monk seal sighting line.

Tracy's first pet was Snoopy, a mutt. When asked what happened to Snoopy, Tracy was quoted saying "...his tail got run over once by a car..." and "...I don't know, he died."

If Tracy could only have one book to read for the rest of her life it would be Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff by Cristopher Moore.

Her favorite place she ever visited was the South Island of New Zealand.

Wish them luck during their stay on Lisianski Island.

Chapter Vb: More daily excitement

2008-08-18T22:06:00.005-10:00

In addition to what Charles reported on the harrowing afternoon of drills and cetacean observations, many of the scientists were busy prepping for the field: nets to carry seals were being handcrafted on deck, flipper tags were being carefully filled with resin in the wet lab, buckets were being checked and re-checked...the ship was humming with the buzz of activity. Kehaulani, our cultural rep., made a ti leaf lei for the ship as a blessing and for safe passage through the Papahanumokuakea. Tenaya realized that she had never before heard the Mr. Roboto song by Styx, claiming that she had lead a sheltered childhood. But life on the ship is not all work and no play. The scientists found time for movies and episodes of Flight of the Conchords . And as is custom on the ship, all filled their bellies with many tasty delights from the galley: fresh Ono sashimi (caught by Kehaulani), homemade breads and pastries, strawberry shortcake, fresh fruit smoothies, homemade bluecheese dressing, gallons of ice cream, and much, much more.

Chapter V: Emergency at Sea! ... oh wait, just drills

2008-08-18T10:13:00.009-10:00

MAN OVERBOARD! Three rings of the bell echo down the hallways signaling that some poor soul has fallen overboard into the big blue and is fading into the sunset as the ship powers along at 11 knots. Everyone jumps to action to get as many eyes up on deck to look for a tiny speck floating in the Pacific. This time it is just a drill and we are all looking for a orange flotation ring. Luckily, it was spotted quickly and pulled back on board.

Somewhere in this photo is the flotation ring.

When someone goes overboard, get them in view and point towards them. Never take your eyes of them. Here Tracy and Marie demonstrate proper pointing technique.

The fast rescue boat returns after
the harrowing rescue of the
flotation ring.

The rest of the day today is being spent doing cetacean observations and catching up on work in the real world. Hopefully one of the other contributors will jump in with an interesting tale.

Scientist of the Day: Chad Y.

Chad Y, also known as The Chad, T-Tubb, The Fridge with Eyes, and various other monikers, is not only our SOD but also the Chief Scientist on the cruise. Yep, he is the 'decider'. Or at least we let him think that he is. Chad holds the bitey part of seals when we catch them, runs the small boat program, and patiently teaches us scientists how to not make fools of ourselves on the ship. The most you can ever hope for from Chad is a short grunt of approval.

Chad's favorite song for research cruises and monk seal work is Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler.

Chad is one the best racquetball players in the state, well at least better than anyone else on the ship.

Chad loves Vegas.

Chapter IVb: Meanwhile the people stuck on the ship...

2008-08-17T21:47:00.011-10:00

Its good to see some of the other research team getting involved with this blog. Particularly since Jason got to get of this ship and explore a rather amazing island. No jealousy here.

The rest of us stayed on the ship taking care of preparations for the upcoming field deployments. Jen S., Tenaya N. and I spent most of the morning and afternoon getting Tenaya's satellite tags ready for her research study.

Oh yeah...Forgot about Bingo. Last night Doc got a game of Bingo going in the mess. Las Vegas has nothing on Saturday Night Bingo on the Sette. Everyone who is anyone was at the game. The primary prizes were candy so most people were jacked up on sugar so it got a little crazy towards the end. Also, I am not usually a big believer in conspiracies but I thought it a bit strange that the CO of the ship won two of the biggest prizes...the fix was in...just saying.

In the photos here you can how intense Chad is, how much Tenaya loves photos, and the rest of the team getting into it. The table in the center with Marie, Jenny, and Brenda erupted into a tense debate on who shouted bingo first. Jenny had to be escorted out.

Scientist of the Day: Jason B.
Todays SOD is Jason B., one of the intrepid adventurers to explore Mokumanamana (Necker Island) today. Jason is in the population assessment program and headed out for the three week camp at Pearl and Hermes Reef.

Jason lives in Oregon with his wife Mary, bird Geddo, wonder dog Dima, and their horse Teardrop.

Jason feels that the most important piece of apparel is a good pair of shorts and shoes. ------------------------>

Jason's two new favorite tv shows are Heroes and Flight of the Conchords.

Chapter IV: Stop at 2nd rock to the left

2008-08-17T14:05:00.024-10:00

We arrived at our second stop today- Necker Island, aka Mokumanamana. Like Nihoa, this one is a big rock jutting up out of the sea. It's really not very big (46 acres), nor particularly high (276 ft), but it's all relief - I think the largest flat spot on the island is slightly smaller than a size 10.5 Converse All-Star high top.

I had the privelege to go ashore today along with veteran monk seal maven, Brenda B., and Kehau S. We were safely shuttled to the island by Sette crew members, Doug and Ray, after which we three went our own ways. Brenda surveyed the seals near the landing site and I served as climbing guide to cultural guide Kehau, leading her up a nice basalt scramble to the first of many areas of upright stones emplaced by her ancestors.

Good enough for the ABA,
but no match for Necker.

I carried on picking my way across the island, down and up the ridge line, being careful not to trod on the thousands of seabird nests, chickies and eggs that carpet the route. No one is happy to see me. Booby parents and even their large gawky fuzz-headed chicks protest (the masked booby call, I'm certain, was the inspiration for the sounds made by the martians in the classic film, Mars Attacks - best movie of the 90's, by the way). I'm aware of an ominous shadow approaching, hovering, and then WHAP!, a great frigate bird (think evil incarnate with a 7 ft wingspan) urges me to move along with a gentle tap on the head from her long beak shaped like some medieval flesh-gouging weapon. I comply.

Finally, I drop back down to an intertidal shelf where 5 monk seals are relaxing. Seems to be a boys hangout, as all 4 of the 5 I could check were male. One was a 4-yr-old, an adolescent that was tagged as a pup at French Frigate Shoals, 85 miles to the west.

Reluctantly, I must leave the relative peace of this rocky shelf and suffer the indignation of several hundred more irate birds as I make my way back to the west end of the island. On the way I meet the intrepid Kehau on the last peak and she gamely follows me as I down-climb the final sketchy bit, oblivious to the fact that I am renowned among family and friends as a spectacularly poor route finder with questionable judgment. Nevertheless, without incident we arrive back at the landing spot and, one by one, hop into the inflatable as Doug deftly maneuvers it up to the intertidal shelf. On the way back to the Sette we are escorted by a pair of bottlenose dolphins. Not too shabby a morning - and I feel that lunch is the first meal I've earned in many days.

Chapter III: Transit

2008-08-16T07:46:00.008-10:00

As I said last time, transit days are pretty mundane. Today we spent our time doing some training on the Big Eyes (giant binoculars) for whale and dolphin spotting while three scientists landed on Nihoa.

We were extremely lucky today and the seas were calm so landing at Nihoa was a breeze. It can be very treacherous when there is a south swell rolling in. Kehau S., Brenda B. and Tenaya N. hiked along the coast to the only sandy beach on the island to have a look at what monk seals were around. We needed to stop at Nihoa to make sure everything was normal with the resident seals before we attempt to move our young seals there from French Frigate Shoals. There were a total of 41 seals spotted with 6 nursing pups and 4 weaned pups. That is a lot of seals.

The remaining scientists spent time doing whale observations from the top of the ship (more below). Research music today was provided by Adele, G. Love, Modest Mouse, Gary Jules, and Bon Iver.

Scientist of the Day: Marie H.
Today's SOD is Marie, our token cetacean (whale and dolphin) biologist on board. Marie is headed up to Pearl and Hermes to help with our monk seal field camp there...along the way we are trying to help her keep an eye out for some whales.

To do this you use Big Eye binoculars and scan from the top of the ship. Add a slightly rolling ocean to the mix and you end up with 6 very ill seal biologists. We will continue to try to help, but apparently we are all a bit soft.

Marie's favorite food is brownies with haupia ice cream.

Her favorite hobby is surfing.

One of Marie's happiest moments in her life was her wedding earlier this year to John H. I was there, it was lovely.

Tomorrow we reach Mokumanana (Necker Island) and will do a similar survey. But before that tonight is BINGO in the main mess! Things could get crazy...stay tuned.

Chapter II: The First Day on the Ship (or...Wow, you are looking decidely green today...)

2008-08-15T08:33:00.010-10:00

Today is my first day aboard the OES and we are transiting from Honokahau Harbor on the Big Island to our first stop, Nihoa. More on Nihoa in Chapter 4. During the transit we don't do much except work on the computers, prep our gear, eat (a lot) and watch movies endlessly. One exciting addition is Xbox 360 Rock Band. Anyway, life on the ship quickly slips into a pattern...sleep, eat, work, eat, movie, read, work, eat, movie, sleep.

So, since nothing much is going on on the ship, I am using this post to explain what goals are for this cruise.

Objective I: Field camp pick up an drop off.

We have annual field camps that go up to the NWHI (see map -->) to monitor and count the monk seals living in those remote islands. Much of their time is also spent intervening when animals are entangled or otherwise in danger. Researchers camp at each of the six main islands that have monk seals (French Frigate Shoals (FFS), Laysan Island, Lisianski Island, Pearl and Hermes Reef, Midway Atoll, and Kure Atoll).

Due to budget constraints we had to decrease our field effort this year. Generally this cruise would be to pick up our full camp contingent, but we are doing things a little differently this time around. We will pick up crews from FFS, Laysan and Kure and drop short camps off at Lisianski and Pearl and Hermes. These short camps will be picked up on the next cruise.

Objective 2: Relocation of monk seals from FFS to Nihoa Island.

One of our highest priorities in researching and recovering the Hawaiian monk seal population is understanding why juvenile seals have such a difficult time surviving. There are many threats to young animals including predation, starvation, and entanglement in marine debris. Currently, less than 1 in 5 seals born will live to see adulthood in the NWHI. This needs to change if the species is going to survive. We are currently developing a number of strategies to increase juvenile survival and one of them is simple relocation. Well the concept is simple. It is based on the idea of moving seals that are born or living in areas of low survival to a location where survival may be higher. Choices are limited in the NWHI, but Nihoa looks promising. We are conducting a pilot study of picking up 6 recently weaned monk seals at FFS and moving them to Nihoa Island. There will more details about this in future posts.

Objective 3: Studies on the health and disease status and foraging behavior of monk seals at Nihoa Island.

A small group of us will be camping at Nihoa for about a week at the end of this cruise to study the resident population there. This is a part of Tenaya N.'s masters project. We will be satellite tracking several seals to find out how monk seals at Nihoa make a living. More information on this is coming later too.

Scientist of the Day
This section is going to focus on a new scientist each day and demonstrate the quality crew we are working with here...and yes, there is a fair bit of quirkiness thrown in to the mix.

The first SOD is Kathleen G. Kathleen is the newest addition to the monk seal research program and is heading up our Mortality Mitigation Program. She is going to be overseeing and designing many of our future studies and interventions to increase monk seal survival, with particular focus on young seals.

Kathleen just completed her PhD dissertation which was part of a project to "examine long-term impacts of poaching in Tarangire National Park and the Mikumi-Selous Ecosystem, Tanzania. The latter area contains one of the largest and most heavily poached elephant populations on the continent." More information on her project and old lab is located here.

Kathleen is getting thrown into the deep end with the program. Her first day of work was Monday. Tuesday she was whisked away to the Big Island. Wednesday she departed on a two month trip to the NWHI where she will be visiting all the islands and camping at Pearl and Hermes Reef for 3 weeks.

Her favorite books is Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.
She enjoys spending time with her dog, Kermit, a beagle with a distaste for open water.
Her new favorite drink is the Mai Tai.

Okay it is a beautiful flat day on the ocean, I am going out on deck. Tomorrow is another transit day so more monk seal background information and another SOD will be on tap.

Chapter Ib: A slight diversion (or...Where the seals aren't...)

2008-08-14T17:08:00.008-10:00

The iPhone alarm goes off in the pre-dawn light Wednesday morning. Bags of sampling and survey gear are loaded into the two trucks and we are ready to begin our day. After our mandatory first stop for coffee (scientists are useless without caffeine) we are off to find the elusive RO42.

We knew it would be difficult. She had been seen recently at Ho'okena, Honaunau, and Kealakekua Bay but had gone off the radar for the 2 days prior to our arrival. This is fairly standard for monk seals..once they know we are looking for them they lay low. Monk seals love a good game of hide and seek. So the crew was divided into two teams. The first team would start at the south of RO42's range and work north, the second would work north to south. My team consisted of Nicole D. and Darin P. and we were headed north to south.

I would go through the list of each individual spot we stopped at...they all were lovely places...but each was the same in the fact that RO42 wasn't there and hadn't been seen in days. Luckily our job was made easier by support from DLNR/DOCARE, NPS rangers at Honaunau, and numerous volunteers and concerned citizens. But even with this army of searchers, RO42 was nowhere to be found.

So...let us quickly summarize our search:
Number of miles driven for each team: Approx. 165
Number of beaches searched at least once: 13
Number of people questioned about seal sightings: 42
Number of people that had seen the seal "in the last two days": 39
Number of nude sunbathers spotted: 1
Number of sunburned visitors from far off lands: 81
Best album for fruitless searches for monk seals: Bon Iver
Number of loaves of sweetbread purchased: 7
Number of negative responses towards monk seals: 0
Number of monk seals seen: o
Number of mai tais consumed after failed search (combined): 5
Best meal of the trip: Lobster stuffed ono at Kona Inn

Some images of where monk seals aren't:

Kealakekua (photo by BIVB):

Pebble Beach:

South Point (The most southern point in the USA):

Lava Fields (we were getting desperate):

Needless to say...the search lasted all day. We had decided early on that if we didn't find her before 5PM we would call it a day due to the coming sunset. As is to be expected, at just around 5 PM as we are headed back to our hotel we get the call. RO42 had been found down at Miloli'i, a small village in the south of RO42's range that has welcomed her into their community. She had hauled out on the rocks and was going to sleep. It was too late in the day and too far away to get to in time. Monk seals 1...crack research team 0. We would have to leave the island and RO42 behind...there was another pressing mission that we needed to tend to.

Postscript: I don't want to leave anyone with the impression that our experience was a bad one. We were not able to find RO42, but it is a spectacular place to drive and see and we met a ton of really great people who are very interested in protecting and conserving their/our seals. Also, it was Darin P.'s birthday. I am sure he would have rather been somewhere else celebrating but karma was not going to let him miss out on cake. We arrived at Pebble Beach to search for the seal. Darin went south to look over a hill, Nicole went North to check another bay, and I stayed at the truck cause that is what I am good at. Nicole found the nude sunbather mentioned above. Darin however, found his birthday party. He passed a small gathering on his way up the beach and chatted about the seal. They were having a birthday party for their 7 year old daughter and were interested in hearing about the seal. When they found out it was Darin's b-day they sang to him, gave him cake and offered drinks. Darin being the dedicated monk seal researcher that he is, declined frosty cold beverages and returned to the truck with cake in hand. The moral of this story is: DO NOT STAY AT THE TRUCK.

Stay tuned for Day I on the ship...mostly a haze caused by the motion sickness pills everyone is on.

Chapter Ia: A slight diversion (or…Wow, the timing really sucks…)

2008-08-14T14:12:00.001-10:00

Welcome aboard the NOAA Research Vessel Oscar Elton Sette (OES from now on). The OES is a 220+ ft chunk of steel that is carrying our research team to the remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands to undertake some monk seal research. But I am getting ahead of myself already. The story starts on the Big Island…some 2 years ago.

One sunny day a couple of years ago, a young female seal was born on the north side of the Big Island near Hilo. The mother gave birth to her pup at the mouth of a river and spent most of the 6 week nursing period swimming with her pup in the fresh water. The river is great because it offers protection from large predators but carries the threat of Leptospira, a bacteria that can cause problems for mammals. So as soon as the pup was weaned from mom, we caught her, flipper tagged her for identification (her new name then became RO42) and we moved her east to a bay where her half-brother was known to inhabit. Over time she moved towards areas of greater human density and developed a penchant for interacting with people. This is bad for both people and seals. So, when the interactions became too much we had to move her again, this time to the Volcanoes National Park on the east side of the island. She happily lived there for several weeks before exploring south, eventually finding humans again.

Now, jump forward a year or so from that point and the interactions have intensified. Despite our efforts to relocate RO42 and educate the public about how to best behave around seals to avoid encouraging this behavior, we were faced with having to move her again. But of course, the need to move her couldn’t come at a worse time.

The lead up to a research cruise is always a hectic time. Scientists running around trying to make sure they packed all the gear they need, enough food to eat, plenty of books to read, enough toilet paper and sunscreen etc. etc. It is a complex dance with multiple people doing their own thing and not listening to anyone. If you had a chance to witness it first hand you would be surprised anyone makes it back from the field at all. Yet somehow, this rag tag band of scientists pulls it together time and time again. But it is CHAOS incarnate, so throwing in a monk seal emergency 2 days before departure tends to throw everyone for a loop.

A team of people were needed to fly to the Big Island to try to find RO42, assess the situation, and potentially grab her for a relocation to somewhere away from people and near seals to help break her of her bad habits. It sounds so simple. So, with a cruise departing in just 2 days the monk seal team comes up with a plan. Several people from the cruise will head over Tuesday with other members and find RO42, the OES will depart as scheduled on Wednesday. The team, with seal in hand, will rendezvous with the ship at 0700 Thursday morning. The seal will be dropped off at a new location and the ship will continue on to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

“The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” Robert Burns

Late Tuesday night the crack seal team walked from the GO! Jet and into the humid vog filled air that covered Kailua-Kona. The team consisted of Jason B., Kathleen G., Darin P., Bob B., Nicole D. and myself. The necessary equipment was gathered, a plan was hatched, and we all went to bed for an early morning start.

Stay tuned for the next exciting installment...I took a sea sickness pill and now need to nap.

Monk Seal Mission 2008

2008-08-14T13:30:00.000-10:00

The following posts are dedicated to work conducted on the NOAA RV Oscar Elton Sette on its Aug-Sept 2008 cruise to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The work undertaken on this cruise is for the research and conservation of the endangered Hawaiian monk seal.