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expeditions/CReefs 2006
Census
of Marine Life, Census of Coral Reefs Expedition to
French Frigate Shoals (Returned October 28, 2006)
Read
about a unique
research expedition to one of the healthiest and least
disturbed coral atolls in the world, French
Frigate Shoals in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
On October 28th, 2006 the NOAA
ship Oscar Elton Sette returned to Honolulu
with an
all-star team of world-renowned taxonomists who collected
and photographed many species that they could not identify
and are thought to be new to science. More than 100 new
species records are expected from the expedition.
French
Frigate Shoals is one of the atolls in the newly created Northwestern
Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument. The monument
has nearly 140,000 square miles of fully protected marine
habitats, and overlays two
national wildlife refuges, the Battle
of Midway National Memorial, a State
of Hawaii marine refuge, and a state
wildlife sanctuary. World renown taxonomists with specializations
in algae, invertebrates and microbes were on the ship,
and they brought an unprecedented expertise in collecting
and identifying organisms in these lesser understood taxonomic
groups for the region. The expedition was coordinated
by
NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service, Pacific
Islands Fisheries Science Center Coral Reef Ecosystem Division and
was part of the Census
of Coral Reefs (CReefs), one
of 17 projects under the larger Census
of Marine Life.
Click
on one of the following areas to follow the expedition.
Ship
Logs:
Day-by-day
activities of the ship: what research is being done that
day, what the weather is like, what's for dinner, etc.
Journals:
Daily
or semi-daily personal journal entries by the particpants
in the expedition. These journals do not necessarily reflect
the positions of any of the agencies connected with this
project.
Interviews:
Interviews with expedition participants, scientists,
vessel crew, educators, etc.
Features:
Highlights or special information such as interesting
discoveries or related research.
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