The Phoenix Islands "Greatest Hits" highlights continue...

#9: PIPA coral forests

If you've never read The Lorax (Dr. Seuss), you're missing out. It's a brilliant book about Truffula Tree Forests, which support a high diversity of magical, mystical creatures like Bar-ba-loots and Swomee Swans and Humming Fish. In this story, the forest gets slowly cut down by the Once-ler in order to knit thneeds (that everyone needs!). As the Once-ler systematically destroys the forest, the fantastical inhabitants suffer - they face food shortages and disease and suffer from smoke pollution (from the Thneed factory, of course). The Lorax is one of the strange forest dwellers, and the self-proclaimed spokesperson for the trees. The Lorax tries to warn the Once-ler that at the rate the forest is being destroyed, it will no longer support the thriving thneed business (let alone the diverse and complex forest community). "I am the Lorax, I speak for the trees, which you seem to be chopping as fast as you please...".


Photo: J. Stringer

Enough rambling. What does The Lorax have to do with corals? More than you think! Trees create the forest, and the same goes for corals - No trees, no forest, no fantastical forest creatures; no corals, no reefs, no spectacular reef creatures. And by the way, The Laroc is just "Coral" backwards. :-) Check out the photo above this paragraph, and below (left) of the corals with fish hiding among the branches and curls. From the fish's perspective, the coral is certainly a forest! Similarly, look at the beautiful archway in the photo below (right). Though the arch is topped with a few live corals on the top, the arch is mostly composed of dead coral skeletons that are *still* providing reef structure - yup, it was all built by corals.


Photo (L) - D. Obura, (R) - J. Stringer

Corals grow very slowly. The photo below shows a brown Halomitra coral with purple edges - those edges are the growing tips, not yet populated with symbionts. As the symbionts colonize the areas of new growth, the coral will turn brown (purple is a pigment produced by the host; brown/green is a pigment produced by the symbiont). For more information on host-symbiont coral relationships, check out "color changing corals".


Photo: D. Obura

Slowly, corals grow into vast underwater forests, like the Hydnophora coral forest below. These forests provide shelter for many fishes and reef invertebrates. If these forests get destroyed, there is no Laroc (Lorax) to speak for them. Luckily in the case of the Phoenix Islands, the reefs are well on their way to recovery following the severe 2002 bleaching event. But that's not true everywhere, and corals need your help to stop the pollution, overfishing, disease, and myriad other stressors that threaten their very existence.


A living coral forest: Photo: J. Stringer

Amazingly enough, we don't need to go all the way to the Phoenix Islands to see corals. Now that we're home from the expedition, I'm once again thinking about my backyard coral reefs. Here's a glimpse of a coral species that grows right here in New England - the Great Northern Star Coral. It doesn't get as big as the tropical corals, and it doesn't create vast forests, but it is our local coral reef, and is certainly worthy of mention. :-) Plus, WHOI scientists are using it as a model system to examine the effects of climate change.


Photo: J. Dimond

So with that, whether they be tropical or temperate corals, I leave you with these wise words from Dr. Seuss:

Plant a new Truffula. Treat it with care.

Give it clean water. And feed it fresh air.

Grow a forest. Protect it from axes that hack.

Then the Lorax and all of his friends may come back."

:-)

-Randi-

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Labels: coral bleaching, coral reef health, Randi Rotjan

Although we still have 2 more stops on our "greatest hits" site, I am going to take a blogger's liberty of another sidetrack to acknowledge the amazing outpouring of support and interest in the Phoenix Islands. Thanks to all who came out on Monday night for the lecture to come meet the expedition members (Greg, Alan, Les, and Randi).

Special thanks to the students of Souhegan High School in Amherst, New Hampshire for coming; see their earlier posts to the blog here and here.


Les and Greg (left) and Alan and Randi (right) meet with students from Souhegan High School, with teacher Julianne Mueller-Northcott (center; in green). Thanks for coming! (photo: J. Wolman).

The talk was upgraded to the IMAX theatre, which was great fun--50-foot PowerPoint slides!



We've been back for about 3 weeks now, and we all miss the Phoenix Islands. Luckily, we can go downstairs to our exhibits to see live corals and giant clams and fishes to remind ourselves of the amazing adventures on the equatorial Pacific.


Live coral reef rank at the New England Aquarium (photo: R. Rotjan)

Stay tuned for the remainder of the greatest hits...

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Labels: Alan Dynner, Education Week, Gregory Stone, Les Kaufman, Randi Rotjan

Want to hear more about the Phoenix Islands? Want to meet some of the expedition members in person? Want to meet some of the students who corresponded with the team on this very blog? Want to see new (never before seen!) photos?

Join us THIS COMING MONDAY, November 2, at 7pm. The lecture is free; and free snacks will be provided as well!

Please register (free!) using this link - seats are limited!


Phoenix Islands Residents (photos: J. Stringer)

Rising From the Ashes: The Phoenix Islands Protected Area
These days it is impossible to find an ecosystem that is untouched by man. Human effects are felt from the polar ice caps to the deep sea, and coral reefs are far from the exception. The major stressors on most reefs--sewage inputs, overfishing, point-source pollution and extensive tourism--are local. However, a few remote places still exist where reefs are not affected by these local stressors; humans only affect these reefs on a global level. The Phoenix Islands are among these treasures. Their remote location, coupled with their intensive regulations and protection, create a unique opportunity for scientists to study a reef free from local impact.

New England Aquarium researchers recently participated in a rare expedition to the Phoenix Islands. In this lecture they will share scientific findings as well as anecdotes from this remarkable adventure.


Stuart, David, Les, and Randi underwater, measuring reef creatures like the clowfish and anemones featured here (photos: J. Stringer)

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Labels: coral reef health, Marine Protected Area, Randi Rotjan

The Phoenix Islands "Greatest Hits" highlights continue...

#8: Measuring the diversity, abundance, and biomass of PIPA fishes

*Guest post by Stuart Sandin*

Although corals and some algae form the backbone of a coral reef, it is the fish that give reefs their personality (at least from the perspective of a 'fish guy'). Notice, for example, that movie writers and animators did not have us finding Porites corals, but instead we focused on the reef fish Nemo and his friend Dori. Without fish, a reef would be essentially static, with limited color and even more limited movement.


(Photos: R. Rotjan)

We fish guys make a living out of looking for fish, counting how many are around, and trying to figure out what they do. This all begins with advice from Dr. Seuss, "One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish." During our time in the Phoenix Islands, Les, Tuake, and I tried to gain some ecological perspective regarding the fish from each of the islands. In set areas, we counted every fish swimming around, identifying the species and estimating each fish's size. From this we can estimate some fundamental properties of the fish assemblage -- how many fish are around, how much do they all weigh (which is important because fish vary dramatically in size), and what are the ecological roles that these animals are filling?


Photos: R. Rotjan

Now what did we find? Well, we were able to confirm the long-pondered concept -- if you don't fish in an area, you get more fish. The reefs of the Phoenix Islands have no fishing activity, so it is not surprising that we find more fish there than in more heavily fished areas like Fiji, Hawaii, or any other inhabited island. But what is surprising is the sheer bounty of fish that were present on the reefs. It seems that during every dive we would come across a large school of some species; sometimes we saw dozens of giant trevally, or hundreds of parrotfish, or thousands of convict surgeonfish. Add up all of these fish and you have a particularly large assemblage of animal mass. The best insights into this is perhaps completed by comparing the fish assemblages from the Phoenix islands to more commonly visited areas. Let's use the metric of total fish biomass (in other words, imagine that you took every fish out of a section of reef and weighed them...this is our metric of choice when summarizing multi-specific fish assemblages). Our surveys of the Phoenix islands revealed that there were about 250 grams per meter squared of reef, or about a half pound of fish in the area of the hood of a car. In contrast, the reefs of the main Hawaiian islands, Fiji, and Jamaica have about 65, 30, and 20 grams per meter squared, respectively. The reefs that most people visit during vacation are a shadow of their historic potential.


Photos: R. Rotjan

But the reef fish of the Phoenix islands were not wholly pristine and devoid of the scars of human activities. On a number of the islands we did not see many reef sharks, and when we did find them the animals were small and young. Although fishing is currently outlawed from all reefs within PIPA, this has only been true for the past few years. Within the past 10 years there has been some fishing activity on the reefs, particularly targeting the sharks for their fins. Catering to a lucrative market for shark fins (used in shark fin soup), foreign fishing vessels find it to be profitable to legally (and sometimes illegally) to visit even the most remote reef areas to harvest sharks. The regulations of PIPA prohibit any future shark finning from the reefs of the Phoenix islands, and the good number of juvenile reef sharks that we saw during this trip suggests that a recovery of shark populations is possible. But in order to realize this regrowth of shark populations, we have to assure compliance with the regulations. Multi-national efforts to improve surveillance of the remote and protected areas of the Pacific (under the jurisdictions of Kiribati as well as French Polynesia, the United States, and other nations) are beginning and will be essential to protect the splendor of these last remaining gems in sea.


Photos: R. Rotjan

The theme of 'Phoenix rising' has been common during this trip -- we saw evidence of the corals recovering from a massive bleaching event, we saw bird populations soaring following removal of introduced rats, and we also see evidence that even the insulted shark populations can recover to full glory. I am proud to have been a part of such a proactive team of conservationists, politicians, and scientists focused on protecting the Phoenix islands. Only due to this type of effort can I hope that we will protect, and perhaps even improve, vast regions of the ocean for our children and their children to marvel at into the future.

-Stuart-

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Labels: Marine Protected Area, shark finning, Stuart Sandin

The Phoenix Islands "Greatest Hits" highlights continue...

#7: Photography and videography on a scientific expedition

We were fortunate to have several excellent professional and amateur photographers and videographers with us on this trip. You've heard directly from Brian Skerry, the award-winning National Geographic Magazine (NGM) photographer with us (see Brian's earlier posts here). But we also had Jeff Wildermuth with us, assisting Brian and making professional videos for the New England Aquarium and Conservation International.

Jeff Wildermuth, in action (Photo: R. Rotjan)

Jim Stringer is an excellent amateur photographer who has provided many of the photos posted on this site. In addition, Rob Barell and Sam Campbell (NAI'A) shot terrific, high-def video footage of the science-in-action, the reef denizens, and anything else in sight. Craig Cook was not only our MD; he is also an accomplished photographer and helped to capture the essence of our trip, as well as helped Les Kaufman take some scientific footage of coral fluorescence. It's quite likely that hundreds of thousands of photos were taken--I'm not a real photographer (neither pro nor high quality amateur), but I took over 3,000 shots! Add that to the impressive skills of Kate, Larry, Les, David, Greg, Stuart, Tuake, Tukabu, and Alan... and you get the idea. This trip was well documented by all of these photographers (snappers) on our trip (in our group-er). My apologies for the bad puns.

Our snappers, in action - L. Madin, S. Campbell, J. Stringer. (Photos: R. Rotjan)

So, speaking of snapper, what was the most photographed fish? My guess is the charismatic and in-your-face red snapper (Lutjanus bohar); they were everywhere! As for coral, my money is on Porites lobata (a lovely mounding coral present at most sites). David Obura might be the most photographed human; he is especially photogenic with a clipboard and transect tape in hand. Fairy terns might be the most photographed bird. But in truth - I have no idea. Even 2 weeks later, we're still compiling our photographs and sharing files. However, many of our images will be published in Aquarium publications, and shown on November 2 (lecture details here), so keep your eyes open. :-) You never know when you might recognize a Phoenix Islands photograph premiered here on this blog.

Snapper with snappers! (Photo: R. Rotjan)

Before this trip, I had no idea what it was like for Brian and Jeff, our professionals, to photograph a story in the field. I'll re-post some comments of Brian's here, since he says it best:

"Photographically, the challenges have been substantial. Even when all is perfect on these central pacific reefs, making great images can be difficult because fish are skittish and hard to get near. The nature of being on an expedition means we also move continually in order to collect scientific data, so each dive is in a new location. Without the chance to dive the same sites repeatedly and gain knowledge about subtle nuances, I must simply spend as much time in the water as possible and hope to find something especially interesting happening."

Brian and Jeff with gear on the boat; Brian contemplating unpacking the photo gear (Photos: R. Rotjan)

"For this assignment, I have 11 days to photograph underwater, quite a bit less than the 10-12 weeks I typically have for an NGM assignment. Still, I hope that the handful of key images I've produced so far and others I hope to make in the few days remaining will speak to the important story and illustrate the issues we are experiencing here I the central Pacific Ocean."

Brian is being modest--he may have only a handful of images that meet his extremely high standards, but we were all wowed at our first glimpse of his photos. He captures movement, texture, and energy that really demonstrates the wildness of the Phoenix Islands Protected Area.

It was terrifying having the pro's photograph us, however! During our "Phoenix Islands Firsts" post, Tuake described what it felt like to be under the lights:

"I was a bit nervous to be photographed by the National Geographic People! I was finding it hard to breathe on my tank when Brian was taking pictures of me. Normally, I like to be underwater for the fun of diving. I felt relieved when Brian was telling me that he was done with me. I hoped that I had done what I was supposed to do as part of my Phoenix Islands mission. I count myself fortunate to be attached and learning from highly academic scientists who are on this marine expedition. This was indeed a first for me--to be photographed for a magazine story."

Multiple snappers - count 'em, three! (Photo: R. Rotjan)

As for me, I managed to avoid the camera most of the time and be a "snapper" in my own right.... taking photos for science and pleasure with no remorse (thank goodness for digital photography and large memory cards!). But if this post has you hoping for more information on the *real* snappers and groupers of the trip - and yes, I do mean the fish - stay tuned! Stuart and Les will be guest-blogging soon on the fishes hits of the trip. :-)

-Randi-

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Labels: corals, photos, Randi Rotjan, red snapper, tern, videography

The Phoenix Islands "Greatest Hits" highlights continue...

#6: Medical objectives and triumphs of the 2009 PIPA expedition

Some of the most incredible highlights from the trip were the things that never happened. These things are of huge concern when headed 5.5 days away from anywhere, and when engaging in high-risk activities such as repeatedly diving in shark-filled waters with sharp corals at every turn. Of course, there are always the other regular afflictions--sun poisoning, broken bones, infected wounds, parasites, disease and who knows what else. So, you can see that it is quite worth mentioning that no major medical maladies occurred on our expedition. Hoorah!


Dr. Craig Cook on SCUBA with camera in hand and no sharp coral in sight (Photo: R. Rotjan)

Despite our good fortunes, we weren't willing to risk our lives on luck alone. Instead, we placed our lives into the care of the NAI'A, and into the very capable and experienced hands of Dr. Craig Cook, who was our expedition medical doctor. Craig is no stranger to practicing medicine in high-risk, remote locations. He is the Medical Editor for Sport Diver Magazine and a referral physician for Divers Alert Network. With a background in Anesthesiology, Dr. Cook has been a consultant to the National Oceanographic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and is also a scuba instructor and has been actively diving for 40 years. It is with his guidance and wisdom that we hauled a Hyperlite Hyperbaric Chamber with us all the way to middle of nowhere.


Dr. Craig Cook (black shirt) demonstrating the hyperbaric chamber to expedition members (photos: R. Rotjan)

What exactly is a hyperbaric chamber? It's used to treat decompression sickness, (aka "the bends"), which can occur when diving. Basically, divers are at pressure (every 30 feet of depth is equivalent to approximately 1 atmosphere of pressure). The air we breathe is a mix of gasses, including oxygen (~21%) and nitrogen (~78%). At depth, air is compressed (more or less depending on the diving depth), but "the bends" occurs upon depressurization. As divers return to the surface, gas expands as the pressure decreases, and air (basically a mix of dissolved gasses) can form bubbles. Bubbles are usually small and eventually dissipate, but sometimes a bubble forms that is too large, or unfortunately located, and can cause illness ranging from mild to extreme severity. Its effects may vary from joint pain and rash to paralysis and death. To treat the formation of bubbles, doctors use a hyperbaric chamber to recompress a patient (simulate diving depths) while on oxygen, to re-dissolve the bubbles and hopefully prevent their reformation.


Close-up views of the chamber and pressure valves (photos: R. Rotjan)

Luckily, we never needed to use the chamber, and Craig spent most of his doctoring time trying to ease our seasickness, or treating bruises, cuts, scrapes, and allergies. Beyond that, we were all healthy and returned home safely and intact. We were prepared for much worse, however. Craig made sure that each diver was equipped with communications technology (in case we got lost or separated), a safety sausage (again to increase our visibility in case we got lost), a flashlight, a knife (to free from entanglements), a whistle (to call for help), and a tourniquet (in case of shark attacks). However, the one thing that we were all most scared of was a coconut incident. After all, there were a lot of coconut palms on some of the islands!


Coconut palms on Nikamororo (photo: R. Rotjan)

You see, one of my favorite marine biology statistics is as follows: you are more likely to get hit on the head by a coconut than to suffer a shark attack. True, or urban legend? Who knows, but to quote a 2001 journal in the ANZ Journal of Surgery entitled Coconut palm-related injuries in the pacific islands "A total of 3.4% of all injuries presenting to the [Solomon Islands] surgical department was related to the coconut palm. Eighty-five patients fell from the coconut palm, 16 patients had a coconut fruit fall on them, three patients had a coconut palm fall on them and one patient kicked a coconut palm".


"Dangerous" coconut palms 0n the Phoenix Islands (photos: R. Rotjan)

In other words - beware of falling coconuts, but if one falls, mix it with lime (full of vitamin C, it prevents scurvy!), and yell "DOCTOR!" loudly. Thanks to Craig, tropical fruit-borne fractures, scurvy, and the bends were not an issue... and we're most grateful.

Dive safe,

Randi


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Labels: dive safety, hyperbaric chamber, Randi Rotjan, SCUBA

The Phoenix Islands "Greatest Hits" highlights continue...

#5: ROV exploration of PIPA depths

Take a deep breath. Go on, try it. In with the good air; out with the bad air. Ahhhhh. It's easy, and feels good, eh? Now, try it underwater. With SCUBA, you can only breathe so deep - around 120 feet on air, if you're a conventional diver. At best, might be able to breathe about 300 feet deep. What about on a submarine? Okay--you can breathe deep there, but you're breathing recycled air. And hence the topic of today's post: since we can't breathe deep underwater (at least not easily), how do we explore deep underwater?


(Left Photo: David Obura) (Right Photo: Jim Stringer)

The answer to this question depends on how deep you want to go. The coral reefs on PIPA are a reef formation known as an atoll (described in an earlier post). One of the features of these mid-ocean, volcanic atolls is that they are basically seamounts that break the surface--so they descend very deep, with a very steep slope. Kiribati is also full of seamounts that do not break the surface. In fact, Kiribati is home to ~4% of the world's seamounts. That's a lot of ocean to explore below the surface!


Seamounts featured between McKean, Rawaka (Phoenix) and Enderbury Islands (Photo: Google Earth)

It would be great to get a manned submersible out to PIPA someday, and hopefully we will soon. But as a first glimpse of the deep, we brought an unmanned ROV with us on this expedition. This ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) can only go 500 feet deep, but that's 380 feet deeper than we were diving. And yes--you guessed it--since the ROV was unmanned, breathing was not an issue. :)


Mo preparing to launch the ROV off the boat for a dive (Photo: Larry Madin)

Now, I'm not a stranger to the concept of deep depths. I used to work on deep-sea hydrothermal vents (miles below the ocean!) , but I've never personally journeyed there (though my experiments have). So naturally, I was extremely curious to be on-site for some deep-sea exploration. One of the big advantages of working on these reef atolls with their steep, sloping sides is that we could (and did) literally dangle the ROV out of our ship window (see Mo above with the ROV). Greg could (and did) sit at our dinner table on-ship and drop the ROV below us, while others of us were diving on the reef. As any deep-sea scientist will tell you: what an unlikely (and pleasurable) way to explore! Greg posted extensively on this earlier - see Greg's posts for more photos and details.


Randi Rotjan, David Obura and Les Kaufman look on as Greg Stone controls the ROV (Photo: Larry Madin)

A first glimpse was just enough to leave us breathless (figuratively, of course). Corals living past 300 feet! The crystal clear waters of PIPA were able to allow enough sunlight at depth to support the coral-algal symbiosis. We saw lots of healthy corals, though the diversity was low (just a few species) And fish! Snapper (the same we'd been seeing shallow), and more baby sharks patrolling the slopes. In fact, on one ROV dive, 10 sharks (gray reef and black tip) were seen. And here's the enticing part--when we looked further down the slope at the end of our ROV's tether, we could see that there was more life, still. Breathtaking.


(Photos: Jim Stringer)

Marine organisms are not limited to the shallows the way that humans are. Sadly for us, we have to make the choice between deep breaths or deep depths; we generally can't have both. But ROV's and manned submersibles give us borrowed lungs and enable us to explore the last unexplored frontier--the ocean floor. After all, we know more about the moon that we do about our ocean floor! I'm excited about future ROV and sub explorations of PIPA. After all, the thrilling and mysterious sights of the deep sea will take your breath away--but thanks to this technology, not literally.

-Randi-

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Labels: deep sea, Phoenix Islands, Randi Rotjan, ROV

Note: Students from Celeste Young's biology class (Monument Mountain Regional High School; Great Barrington, MA) posted a question for Aquarium researcher Dr. Randi Rotjan in the comments section of this post. Here is Susanna's question with Randi's answer in light blue:

Hello! This is Celeste Young & her biology class! What is the scale of the christmas tree worm picture?

Hi Celeste and Susanna,

Thanks so much for reading the blogs, and for posting your question!

Christmas tree worms are small-- the crowns are only a few centimeters across, at most. They are hard to measure, since they actually retract their plumes (or branchial crowns) into their tubes with the slightest disturbance in the water. Tubes are made of calcium carbonate. These worms settle on the surface of a coral (they do not bore into the skeleton) and grow at roughly the same pace as the coral tissue - thus, they grow really slowly! Some worms are known to be up to 40 years old, so they also can live a very long time. Worms feed by filtering plankton from the water column with their branchial crowns. They retract into their tubes to avoid predators (and rulers). The best way to add a ruler to the photo is to place the ruler down, let the worm retract, and then re-emerge. However, this only works in very calm water, with high flow, the ruler will not stay in place! :-)

Check out the photos below of an exposed worm (left); and then the same worm retracted into its tube (right). These photos were taken by a student of mine, Sarah Abboud, who is actually studying these worms for her masters thesis. These photos are taken from Moorea, French Polynesia, but are of the same species of worm that we observed in the Phoenix Islands.


Spirobranchus giganteus christmas tree worm - exposed and retracted. (Photos: S. Abboud)

Below is another worm next to a piece of flagging for scale. The flagging is 2.5 cm across, so you can now estimate the size of the worm crown!


Spirobranchus giganteus christmas tree worm - exposed (Photos: S. Abboud)

Here are some additional photos by Sarah, measuring the diameter of the tube. Tube diameter correlates to worm age, but not to crown size. Crown size varies with depth; worms in deep areas with high water flow (surge) actually have shorter crowns so that they don't bend or break when water is rushing past them. Deep areas with low surge have taller crowns. Here are some scale bars next to worm tubes; the left photo has an exposed worm behind the 1 cm scale bar (it's orange).


Spirobranchus giganteus christmas tree worms - retracted. (Photos: S. Abboud)

Finally, here's a worm retracted, but just barely: you can see it's crown folded within the tube, and just breaking the surface.


Spirobranchus giganteus christmas tree worm - retracted. (Photos: S. Abboud)

The photos on The Slow and the Spineless post were not taken for an explicit scientific purpose, thus, there are no scale bars on those photos. But I hope that this gives you an idea of scale, nonetheless.

Thanks again for your question!

Best fishes,

-Randi

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Labels: Christmas Tree worm, invertebrates, Randi Rotjan

The Phoenix Islands "Greatest Hits" highlights continue...

#4: PHOENIX ISLANDS REEF INVERTEBRATES

The invertebrates of this trip deserve to be in the top 10; but on this blog thus far, they've barely received an honorable mention. Mea culpa! Because of the scientific interests of the expedition members, invertebrate diversity attention has been taxonomically-eclipsed by the coral invertebrates, the remarkable fishes, and the algae. But, invertebrate diversity is important and interesting, and I'm not the only blogger who thinks so! Check your backbone at the door and go visit Chris Mah's Echinoblog, as well as The Other 95% (written by Kevin Zelnio and Eric Heupel) if you like inverts. Full disclosure: I do not know all of the taxonomic identifications of the critters posted here, so I invite you to join me in this adventure (semi wiki-style)! If you post the ID in the comments section below, I will amend the blog to include the correct ID and give you credit for the match. :-)

Without further ado, allow me to introduce a few of the "the slow and spineless" Phoenix Islands critters. Most of these images will enlarge when you click on them.


Spirobranchus giganteus (photo: David Obura)

The Christmas Tree worm is aptly named for it's shape (photo above by David Obura). They also come in all sizes and colors (see shots below).


Spirobranchus giganteus on Porites lobata corals (photo: R. Rotjan)

Time for a little echinoderm shout-out (for more, check out Chris Mah's blog here). You may not realize it, but echinoderms are a whole lot more than just sea stars! But, we'll start with a Linckia spp. on the left (not sure which one, any guesses? Also, anyone notice anything a little unusual about this Linckia? Count the arms...). But, sea cucumbers (holothurians) are also echinoderms (photo on the right). New England Aquarium Researcher Tim Werner works on these. I think this one is an Actinopyga spp., and Tim Werner has confirmed that it is A. mauritiana. Thanks, Tim!


Linckia spp. sea star and holothurian sea cucumber (photos: R. Rotjan)


Phoenix Island Sea Urchins (photo: R. Rotjan)

Above are two more echinoderms - a Diadema spp. and an Echinometra spp. sea urchins; I think! Let's go check out some more inverts. There are two focal invertebrates in the photo below. The one to the left is an echinoderm (a Culcita novaguinae seastar). But take a look at the invert on the right-- definitely NOT an echinoderm.


Culcita novaguinae cushion star(left) and Tridacna spp. clam (right) (Photo: R. Rotjan)

The photo below shows a bunch of molluscs (Tridacna spp. clams nestled amidst the coral). The photo above shows a clam also - on the right side, next to the cushion star. Chris says that all of these clams are Tridacna maxima. Thanks, Chris!


Tridacna spp. clams (Photo: R. Rotjan)

Molluscs are great; they include clams, mussels, snails, octopus, and squid. They also include nudibranchs, which are shell-less snails like the one below. I think this nudibranch is a Phyllidia spp.; any other ideas?


Nudibranch (Photo: R. Rotjan)

Below is another confusing photo. There is no mollusc in the photograph (only a crustacean), but the crustacean is using a snail shell. Yup, it's a land hermit crab (Coenobita perlatus).


Coenobita perlatus hermit crab (photo: R. Rotjan)

Hermit crabs are very interesting creatures, and they are very picky about their shell choice. While we're on the topic of crustaceans (e.g. shrimp, lobsters, crabs), check out this terrestrial land crab (often called a sally lightfoot). Eric Heupel suggests that it might be Graspus tenuicrustatus.


Sally lightfoot crab (Photo: R. Rotjan)

Back to my favorite group--the cnidaria (e.g. corals, jellyfish, anemones). Below are some beautiful hydrozoans (Halocordyle disticha on the left, and Lytocarpus phoenicus on the right, I think!). These animals have the appearance of a feather, but the branches have polyps (just like corals).


Hydroids (Photos: R. Rotjan)

Of course, corals will always have my heart. Hard corals, scleractinians, have been featured on many posts here already, and are the main focus of our reef recovery attention. The reason why? Well, hard corals may be slow and technically spineless, but they are the backbone of coral reefs. They have calcium carbonate skeletons that create the complex reef structure. In an earlier post, we showed you lots of dead coral skeleton covered by crustose coralline algae. That skeleton is made by the coral animal via a symbiosis with a photosynthetic algae and provides shelter for most of the other organisms on the reef. To see more about the symbiosis, check out the Blue Impact Tour and click on "color changing corals".


Acropora table coral closeup (photo: R. Rotjan) and colony (photo: David Obura)

But the main point here is that coral animals and their calcium carbonate skeletons create the complex structure of reefs.

So spineless? Hardly. These inverts are themselves the backbone of coral reefs. No bones about it.

-Randi-

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Labels: clam, hermit crab, invertebrates, mollusc, Randi Rotjan, sea star

And the Phoenix Islands "Greatest Hits" highlights continue...

#3: SHIP WRECKS, RUINS, PLASTICS, RATS, COCONUT TREES, FISHING, and STYROFOAM

During this entire expedition, we've been cautiously describing the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) as "relatively free from human impact," or as "a reef with little/no current local impacts," etc. In case you missed the nuance, it's worth taking a moment to explain exactly how much human impact there is or has been in and around PIPA. First of all, these reefs are not pristine in the absolute sense of the word. Nowhere in the world is completely free from human impact, anymore. Climate change is impacting natural ecosystems from the equator to the poles. There are still wild and beautiful places in this world, but no place is truly pristine. Pristine has taken on new meaning, and is now used to describe places that are relatively pristine--or as free from human impact as they can get.

So, what are the ghosts of humanity (past and present) that haunt PIPA islands and reefs? To simplify things, I've created a few categories. First, there are long-lasting ghosts. This category basically is restricted to shipwrecks (of which there are surprisingly many!), plane wrecks (Amelia Earhart's plane, in theory anyway), and recent remnants of buildings created when the islands were used by PanAmerican Airlines, or by guano miners, or by military operations during WWII. These large ghosts are mostly made of metals (iron, copper, steel, etc), and are very long-lasting.


Abandoned buildings on Kanton Island (photo: R. Rotjan)

Some of the wrecks on the Phoenix Islands are likely over 100 years old, but they are still having a continual impact on the islands through their slow deterioration and the resulting metal poisoning (which facilitates algal growth, whereby restricting coral growth, for example). There is noticeable shipwreck debris on the reefs. To some extent, the debris has become part of the reef and provides complex structure for fish to hide in and for invertebrates and algae to settle on. However, the debris also changes the ecosystem. We were able to see visible impacts of iron poisoning (with a spread proportional to the size of the wreck). On such small reefs, shipwrecks can have a substantial impact for decades, if not centuries. Similarly, metals leach from abandoned metallic structures on land into the coral sands, and promote plant growth that would otherwise never be found on equatorial, Pacific atolls.



Metal remains from shipwrecks and anchors (photos: R. Rotjan)

The next category is quick-release ghosts. These include plastic water bottles, flip-flops, Styrofoam floats, plastic buoys, glass bottles and buoys, and any other small-trash debris that is likely to last for only a decade or less. This small-scale debris can still have a big impact - as plastics break down, they release chemical compounds that remain in the water long after the original plastic object physically degrades. As we blogged about earlier, there is a surprising amount of trash that washes up on remote, uninhabited shores. The Pacific Garbage Patch is a testament to how much trash is visible from the surface, never mind how much trash lies on the ocean floor.


Debris washed up onthe Phoenix Islands (photos: R. Rotjan)

There are also low-impact ghosts. Ruins from long-ago island residents (Polynesian or otherwise) that were built with coral stones or other natural materials have very low impact. They do alter the landscape of the islands, but they are generally not leaching toxins or metals onto the islands.

There are also a lot of living reminders of humanity on these islands - including the small resident population of people on Kanton Island. However, Kanton is their home and the only inhabited island in the Phoenix Chain, and I give these residents lots of credit for living in an incredibly harsh environment with relatively low impact. Thus, I will restrict this commentary to the 7 uninhabited islands of the 8 total Phoenix Islands. So, living ghosts is my final category.

There are both marine and terrestrial living ghosts. In the marine realm, the abundance of small (and deficit of large) sharks is a living reminder of the shark finning that has occurred on these islands. Baby sharks are an encouraging sign, but they are also living ghosts of fishing past. Since PIPA is now protected with strong enforcement via satellites, on-board government agents, and regular boat patrols, hopefully there will be no over-fishing future.


Baby black-tip shark (photo: Jim Stringer)

However, we see living ghosts in the corals, too--large stands of dead coral rubble reflect the major bleaching event a few years ago (see previous posts by David for more on this), and the geological record of global change will be forever preserved in coral skeletons.


Contrasts between live versus dead coral (photos: Jim Stringer)

In the terrestrial realm, there are living ghosts as well. Rabbits and rats are not native to these islands, but we can see evidence of these (and other) small mammals that were introduced by man. As Greg posted earlier, rat eradication projects have been going very well, which has enhanced the nesting and reproductive success of native birds. But rodents are tough to remove, and their presence (decades after introduction) is a strong reminder of the fragility of these islands, and the long lasting impact of careless (or unfortunately-shipwrecked) rat-infested boats. Though the vegetation on these islands is beautiful, it is worth mentioning that some trees and plants are themselves living ghosts of human impact. Used by humans to provide sustenance, coconut trees would not likely have found their way to the Phoenix Islands without being directly planted. So too with other plants, I'm sure, but I didn't spend enough time exploring the land to see for myself (I was mostly underwater). But the point remains--living ghosts still abound on the most remote, uninhabited islands of the earth.


Palm tree on the Phoenix Islands (photo: Randi Rotjan)

As we approach the Halloween season and ghosts and goblins abound, take a few minutes to consider the ghosts around you--remnants of society and humanity that still influence the natural world long after they have been abandoned by humans. And with that, I leave you with this eerie thought: Boo!

-Randi-

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Labels: coral reef health, hits, human impact, lagoons, Phoenix Islands, Randi Rotjan, shipwrecks

#2: CRUSTOSE CORALLINE ALGAE: Next on the greatest hits of the Phoenix Islands (and these are in no particular order, by the way), is our CCA tour. CCA tour? What's that? Glad you asked.


Hydnophora rigida coral near Kanton Island (Photo: R. Rotjan)

CCA is science geek shorthand for Crustose Coralline Algae. Clear as mud, I know. CCA (now that you know what it stands for) is basically reef cement. It's an encrusting, hard, red algae (Rhodophyta) that covers dead reef substrate (among other things). CCAs are anything but slimy--they appear smooth, but also provide some texture and traction. This textural combination is a bit like sidewalk cement. It pours smoothly and will cover surfaces evenly, but has a bit of a grainy texture to the touch. Also similar to cement, CCA acts like mortar holding bricks together, only that CCAs cover loose pieces of dead coral rubble and holds them together.

With all of this construction/cement talk, you might be wondering about the pink part of this story. Molly Ringwald, Aerosmith, Pink Panther--this part is for you. CCAs are usually pink! The pinkness adds a lovely aesthetic to a coral reef, which is one nice feature.


PIPA reef in recovery. Can you spot the pink CCAs in this picture? (Photo: R. Rotjan)

More importantly, a pink reef is a reef ready for re-growth, since baby corals like to settle on CCA-covered substrates.


Coral recruits and juveniles growing on CCA-covered substrate (Photo: R. Rotjan)

Loosely, when corals reproduce, they either spawn or brood their next generation, and these eggs and sperm combine to create larvae which spend some time in the water column before settling on a permanent home on the reef floor. For a coral larvae, pink = prime real estate, a.k.a. smooth, available substrate with just enough texture to hang on while growing.

There is always some amount of CCA on reefs, and coral settlement is highly biased towards CCA. On a reef that has suffered some major challenge, in the case of the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) reefs, the catastrophic coral bleaching event (mentioned in previous posts here, here and here) caused by the longest and highest thermal anomaly likely ever recorded on reefs. CCAs are a critical part of the recovery stage. Once corals bleach and die, their rubble often remains and gets strewn about on the reef floor, knocked around by waves and storms.

Without live coral animals continually building new skeleton, abandoned skeletons get quickly overrun by bioeroding organisms and become weakened to the point of collapse. This is why live, healthy, GROWING corals are critical to reef. Leftover skeletons can only provide structurally complex habitat for a short while. The point is that CCAs overgrow these dead skeletal frameworks and provide the perfect platform for larval settlement: a.k.a. coral re-growth. Hence, CCAs are a critical part of reef recovery.


Dead, standing coral rubble covered with pink CCA (photo: R. Rotjan)

CCAs themselves are only one part of a very complex recovery story. Briefly, for successful recovery recipe, a reef needs the following the ingredients: reproductive coral adults (or a nearby supply of coral larvae), a CCA blanket, clean and clear waters, and a healthy population of reef herbivores to graze the fleshy macroalgae that would otherwise cover the CCAs and outcompete baby corals for access to space and sunlight. A reef also needs to NOT have the following: disease, pollution, repeated disturbances, etc. Luckily for PIPA, there was only one major bleaching event. With almost no current influence from human populations, PIPA remains free from extensive pollution and disease.


A parrotfish feeding frenzy, "lawn mowers" (Photo: R. Rotjan)

PIPA also hosts a relatively intact fish population, which means that herbivores keep the reef substrate clean (think of herbivores as lawn mowers working to maintain a perfect corporate lawn). Weedy macroalgae is therefore only present in low abundance (because the herbivores graze it), and the reef stays closely cropped. Put all of this together, and the story is this: PIPA reefs are pretty in pink!


PIPA recovery in progress: newly growing coral overgrowing CCA substrate, which is kept clean by herbivores such as the surgeonfish shown here (Photo: R. Rotjan)

Sure enough, on this expedition, we saw lots of pretty pink CCA, and on top of the CCA: coral recruits and juveniles. PIPA is well on the way to recovery. Stay tuned for the next expedition (2011?!) to find out: Will coral be the new pink?

-Randi-


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Labels: coral bleaching, coral reef health, Crustose Coralline Algae, hits, Phoenix Islands, Randi Rotjan

#1: BLUE WATER EXPLORATION

I think it's fitting to begin our top 10 countdown with a rendition of "The Blues." With all due respect to jazz, I have yet to hear a good version of the blues that actually laments the state of the ocean (if anyone has evidence to the contrary, post to the comments below! I'd love to hear it!).

In terms of the Phoenix Islands, there are lots of ways to interpret "The Blues." First, I miss being on a boat and seeing nothing but blue--blue sky, blue sea. No land, or birds, or other boats. Just blue.


(Photo: R. Rotjan)

In fact, most of the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) is just blue. With an area of 410,500 km2, PIPA is the largest Marine Protected Area (MPA) in the world, and is the first MPA in the Pacific to include large areas of deep water habitat including seamounts (of which Kiribati has around 4% of the world's total). We explored the seamounts with an ROV, but I'll save the details, since the ROV has also made the top 10. The Phoenix Islands are located in extremely deep ocean waters (>5,000m), most of which is just blue.

We explored some of this blue-ness with Larry and Kate Madin, who led the blue-water exploration part of our expedition. Kate has blogged extensively about these experiences - check out her posts on the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) blog, specifically:

• Looking for plankton in PIPA
• Green island blue desert

PIPA is an important "ocean desert," to quote Larry. More specifically, to directly quote Kate quoting Larry: "Dives in the surface water of the tropical ocean are very different from some dives I've made in the North Atlantic," Larry said, "where sometimes we've seen salps and jellyfish in swarms of thousands. The reason is that the ocean here has only low levels of the nutrients that plankton need, such as nitrogen. Without it, phytoplankton (microscopic plants) can't grow, and there's little food for bigger plankton. It's almost an ocean 'desert.'"


Blue water diving photo from an earlier expedition (Photo: Michael Aw)

Now, terrestrial deserts are anything but boring. Though they are relatively sparse, there are still some incredibly important and interesting desert critters... so too in the oceans. However, we know very little about life in blue deserts. That is why Larry's work on gelatinous plankton in PIPA is so important. The majority of the ocean is blue and represents one of the last unexplored frontiers for humanity. Far from sadness, these blues represent excitement and adventure.



So, bring on the blues! Let's respectfully explore our oceans, and try to understand and conserve what we have. Let's embrace the concept of living blue. And while I'm sad that the expedition is over, I think singin' the blues is just fine... I'll be walking the bass line from the shore line for a while.

-Randi-

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Labels: deep sea, hits, Randi Rotjan, ROV

In addition to the frequent Q+A opportunities that the expedition team has had with readers, students, and the traditional press, there has also been interest from ocean bloggers. Yesterday, Rick Macpherson, the Director of Conservation Programs at the Coral Reef Alliance, posted an interview conducted over email with Randi Rotjan on his longrunning ocean conservation blog Malaria, Bedbugs, Sea Lice and Sunsets. Here's brief excerpt from his introduction and one of the interview questions, follow the link for the whole thing:

"I've been handing out quite a few YAOSGBIR (Yet Another Ocean Scientist Getting Broader Impact Right) recognitions recently. SEAPLEX, Finding Coral, NE Pacific Expedition, the Beagle Project-Tocorime Pilot Project, to name a few. And joining the list was the recent New England Aquarium-Woods Hole-Conservation International 3-week research expedition to the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA). This expedition, made up of an international team of scientists, divers, and photographers, surveyed what may be the most pristine, intact coral reef ecosystems on Earth.

"You may have been following the Aquarium's expedition blog that's kept an almost daily play-by-play of the mission ....



"MBSL&S: I'm fascinated by your interests and exploration of what you call "ecosystem engineers," or species that can significantly alter or manipulate their environments. What ecosystem engineer species are you hoping to study on this expedition? Can you describe some of the experiments (or observations) you plan to conduct?

"Dr Randi Rotjan: Ecosystem engineers abound on coral reefs, and include the corals themselves! Coral animals build the structure of reefs with their calcium carbonate deposition. In many ways, they are analogous to trees in a forest--both trees and corals create the physical structure on which so many other organisms depend, and thus dramatically alter the landscape with their presence. In temperate forests, beavers are often cited as ecosystem engineers because they cut down trees – thereby again altering the landscape by creating dams, which not only changes the distribution of trees, but also diverts waterways. Similarly, corallivores (organisms that eat live coral) are also ecosystem engineers because, like beavers, they can change the shape of the habitat."


Coral near Nikumaroro Island (Photo: Randi Rotjan)

Read more here...

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Labels: coral reef health, Phoenix Islands, Q+A, Randi Rotjan

Before we get to the PIPA 2009 Expedition Greatest Hits, the expedition needs to officially end. What's the official end? It's a tough call. The moment we left the Phoenix Islands? The moment we got off the boat? The moment we all left Fiji? The moment we all arrived home? The moment when all of the scientific publications, National Geographic stories, videos, blogs, and medical articles have been published? Where should we draw the line?


View from my airplane window of one of the Fijian Islands (Photo: R. Rotjan)

Well, I decided to draw the line when we all left Fiji. Though the responsibilities of the expedition members are far from over (and this blog will continue on for a while longer), the full team is no longer together. As I mentioned previously, David and Tukabu and Tuake are together in Tarawa presenting the initial findings of the expedition. The rest of us are preparing to leave Fiji to go home or onwards to other exciting locales. But before the next stage (whatever it may be), we must all encounter one final expedition-related excursion... the airport.

You've probably been through this--check in 2 hours before an international flight. Pack the bags yourself. Limit yourself to 1 carry-on and a small personal item. No liquids. Usually 2 bags per person. yadda yadda. It's a different experience in bulk, let me tell you! We all flew separately to Fiji in the beginning, but the bulk of us left together (9 in total) on the same plane. For those 9 members, check-in lasted almost 2 hours and included 67 bags worth of hassle. That's right, 67 bags for 9 people!


Airport shenanigans with 67 bags and 9 people--every bag visible is ours! (Photos by R. Rotjan)

Totaling it all up, that means an average of 7-8 bags per person. Given that there were 15 expedition members, we had over 100 bags total between us all... not counting the three giant crates that were shipped to and fro, containing the hyperbaric chamber (see Greg's earlier post for photos of the chamber, and an early post by Brian to see some of the bags in the gear room onboard). Larry put it best - when I mentioned that I would title this blog "Leaving on a jet plane," he suggested an alternative: "Filling up a jet plane!" Because I used the radio call letters WPIPA in my last post, I stayed true to the original title (Sorry, Larry).


1/6 of our luggage tags (Photos by R. Rotjan)

Bag trouble aside, we all managed to leave Fiji successfully, avoid any Tsunami issues (though we are all deeply saddened and concerned about Samoa and other relevant areas), and all of us have the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) on the brain.

I can't speak for my colleagues, but on the plane, I read a novel by J. Maarten Troost and I think he did an incredible job of describing Kiribati as a country (however, having never been to Tarawa, I cannot comment on the accuracy of the rest of the book). Nonetheless, his words are so apt that I feel compelled to share them with you; I have taken some liberties (in [ ], and some deletions represented by an ellipsis), which I hope Troost will forgive if he ever reads this:

"The word Kiribati, pronounced kir-ee-bas on account of the missionaries being stingy with the letters they used to transcribe the local language, is derived from the word Gilberts, which is the name of one of the three island groups that comprise this improbable nation. Located just a notch above the equator and 5000 miles from anywhere, Tarawa is the capital of this country of 33 atolls scattered over an ocean area as large as the continental United States.


Kiribati shown in relation to Australia (canterburypasifika.org)

"The total landmass of these islands is about 300 square miles, roughly the size of the greater Baltimore metropolitan area, though I believe it halves at high tide. Most of Kiribati's land mass is found on Kiritimati Island (Christmas Island), several thousand miles away from Tarawa. What remains is not much [but includes the Phoenix Islands].


Satellite image of the Gilbert Islands (NASA)

"To picture Kiribati, imagine that the continental United States were to conveniently disappear, leaving only Baltimore and a vast swath of very blue ocean in it's place. Now, chop up Baltimore into 33 pieces, place a neighborhood where Maine used to be, another where California once was, and so on, until you have 33 pieces of Baltimore, dispersed in such a way so as to ensure that [99%] of Baltimorians will never attend an Orioles game again [due to travel constraints]. Now, take away [most Western conveniences]. Replace [Northeastern U.S. shingled roofs] with thatch. Flatten all land into a uniform 2 feet above sea level. Toy with islands by melting polar ice caps. Add palm trees. Sprinkle with [remarkable musical talent and amazing dedication to PIPA]. Isolate and bake at a constant temperature of 100 degrees Farenheit. The result is the Republic of Kiribati."

View from airplane window of the Pacific Ocean with no land in sight (Photos: R. Rotjan)

These were the thoughts as I had in my mind as I flew over Fiji and looked at a tiny, tiny portion of the vast Central Pacific on my way to New Zealand (where I will be for the next week). As I looked down on the big blue from ~30,000 ft, I was again struck with the theme of the trip: there's a lot of ocean out there. It's giant and blue and amazing and fragile, and there is still so much to explore.

By the time I post this blog, every single one of the expedition members will have reached our next destination successfully. And so, I declare the expedition officially over. But, I also officially declare the next challenge: for all of us (including you!) to contemplate the sheer size, mass, area (pick a metric, any metric!) of the world's oceans, and think about what you can do to explore and protect them. In other words, live blue.


The 2009 PIPA Expedition Crew; officially signing off. (Photo: Cap'n Jonathan).

Stay tuned for the greatest hits and the scientific wrap-up (coming over the next several weeks).

But since I've now left Fiji on a very full jet plane, over and out from the PIPA 2009 Expedition.

-Randi-


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Labels: conservation, Fiji, Kiribati, Phoenix Islands, Randi Rotjan, Transport

We're here at WPIPA playing the expedition hits. Coming up soon, we'll play the "best of" expedition highlights (don't change that channel!), including the "top 10 greatest hits." But in the meantime, a word from our in-the-field news correspondent (me) during our Fijian interlude.

It's another bright and sunny day here in Nadi (pronounced Nandi) in Fiji. Expedition members are slowly adjusting to land--experiencing various levels of "dock rock" and trying to find their land legs again.


View from hotel window in Nadi; a glimpse at the hotel grounds (photo: R. Rotjan)

Immediately upon arrival at our hotel, meetings began with International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) representatives to discuss our candid impressions of the Phoenix Islands Protecte Area, which has been nominated as a World Heritage Site. After a day of productive meetings, we had a wrap-up dinner at The Corner Cafe for some Indian Food. That was the last time the team met as a whole, but the hits just keep on coming. Field correspondents David, Tuake, and Tukabu headed off to Tarawa (back in Kiribati) to present our 30-page field report to the Kiribati Fisheries department and other government officials. The rest of us have another day in Fiji to unwind, analyze more data, update our blogs and, dare I say it, relax (shhh!) for a few moments before our hectic inter-continental travels.

In other important news, expedition members got their first glimpse at this blog, and were shocked that a) our almost-equatorial Central Pacific ramblings were semi-coherent, and that b) so many different things happened on this trip. Experiencing it was a whirlwind; re-reading the events feels like a dream.


Les Kaufman gets his first glimpse at the this PIPA expedition blog (Photo: R. Rotjan)

A dream-like reminder of our trip--looking through previous expedition photos, we realize that we've had similar experiences, and seen most of the same critters. It's like seeing your own experience through someone else's eyes. Notice any photo similarities?




Bottom left: Fairy tern with sand lance in beak (Photo by R. Rotjan); other assorted photos from previous expeditions (by Cat Holloway).

As we review the blog, organize our photos and compile our science for publication, we'll publish the top 10 greatest hits right here on this blog--the world premiere of all things PIPA Expedition 2009. We'll also be updating previous blog posts with new photos, so be sure to check back!

Don't change that channel, the expedition "top 10" will be coming right up.

We'll be right back!

-Randi-

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Labels: Fiji, Phoenix Islands, Randi Rotjan, World Heritage