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BEFORE THE EXPEDITION: DISPATCH 1
It has been seven years since I last visited the Phoenix Islands and nine years, in 2000, since I first splashed into the beautiful Eden-like coral reefs surrounding these islands. |
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TRAVEL TO THE SITE: DISPATCH 2
This was a day of airplanes and checked bags. Although it could not look more featureless at night from this altitude, the Pacific is the largest most important natural characteristic on Earth. |
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EXPEDITION DISPATCH 3
We are now at sea, having loaded the vessel and gathered most of the people. The first day on an expedition like this is consumed with sorting gear and settling in. |
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EXPEDITION DISPATCH 4
We've settled into a sort of rolling routine – port, starboard; up, down; now bouncy, now barfing. But the conversation, it is lively, and the parts I can relate, relate to the future of the blue sea slipping, shining beneath our bow. |
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EXPEDITION DISPATCH 5
Now we are within 24 hours of our first Phoenix Island study site, Nikumaroro. The wind has died out considerably as we are nearing the equator, an area that is typically calmer. |
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EXPEDITION DISPATCH 6
In the water at last! We reached Nikumaroro at about 10:30 am, and were on our way out to dive at about 11. Our first site was the NW point (aka "Nai'a Point"). |
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EXPEDITION DISPATCH 7
We arrived at the first Phoenix Island, Nikumaroro to incredibly calm seas, clear blue skies and dolphins swimming around the bow of the vessel. After five days of rough passage, it was welcome by all. |
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EXPEDITION DISPATCH 8
Today, after a spectacular series of dives, PIPA director Tukabu Teroroko, Tuake Tema, Rob Barrel, Alan Dynner, Kate Madin, Larry Madin, Brian Skerry, Jeff Wildermuth and I landed on Nikumaroro to check for the presence of invasive species. |
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EXPEDITION DISPATCH 9
An extremely fine and exciting day in the Phoenix Islands Protected Area. The day unfolded through 3 dives with Stuart to collect fish data, a swim down the landing channel to a Nikumororo landing, two lovely manta rays at the channel mouth... |
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EXPEDITION DISPATCH 10
On this dive we were not going into look at fish or coral, but rather to survey the most abundant multi-cellular organisms on earth: Jellyfish, siphonophores, ctenophores and other gelatinous creatures that live in the open ocean water column. |
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EXPEDITION DISPATCH 11
The expedition has been going fast and furious, and moments to write blogs are sometimes fleeting. Our ship's deck is constantly in motion with NAI'A crew running the ship, scientists lugging dive and science gear around, and so on. |
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EXPEDITION DISPATCH 12
Of the three Phoenix Islands we have visited thus far, Kanton exhibits the most impressive regeneration of coral. This is really terrific news. What a relief too, to see and study this very phenomenon, more than any other single reason that we have traveled so far... |
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EXPEDITION DISPATCH 13
Two days now at Kanton Island and every minute is occupied by diving, conducting reef, open ocean and land surveys, planning, compiling data, photographing, videoing, eating and sleeping. |
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EXPEDITION DISPATCH 14
Today we are at Phoenix Island, the name sake for the entire archipelago. This is a place of birds. As we approached from a distance, the island looked like it had a small dark cloud hanging low over it... |
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EXPEDITION DISPATCH 15
Before breakfast, a landing party made way for the island to check out the birds. "Landing" is a euphemism for packing everything in watertight containers, jumping off the skiff with mask, fins and snorkel, then dragging all your stuff backwards up into the surf ... |
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EXPEDITION DISPATCH 16
Imagine a world where no one had ever seen a penguin because it lived too far away; where bacteria were unknown because it was too small to see and eagles were unimagined because they flew too high above the clouds. |
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EXPEDITION DISPATCH 17
It's a time of transition now. We are underway and en route through, and eventually out of the waters of the Phoenix Islands archipelago, out of Kiribati, and back to Fiji. We are rolling, but not so badly that we cannot work. |
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FINAL EXPEDITION DISPATCH
We are now only one day from Fiji. All the diving tanks of compressed air are empty, the wetsuits, which had remained continuously wet during our whirlwind dives, are now dry; the cuts, sores and bruises on everyone's legs and arms, inevitable on a trip like this, are healing; keys are tapping on computer and boxes of gear are beginning to refill. |