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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.