NOWRAMP
2002
Updates
from the Townsend Cromwell
(9/17 - 9/19/02)
Pearl
and Hermes Atoll
Posted
by Stephani Holzwarth
Sept
17, 2002. Pearl & Hermes Reef. Glassy calm day, the
kind that makes you
feel ecstatic riding in a boat fast across saphire clear
water. Bubblebee-sized flying fish burst out of the water
ahead of our bow, along with dart-like needlefish. Brown
boobies circled overhead, a clean, pretty Hawaiian green
sea turtle dove out of site, and in the afternoon during
our last run we had a couple dozen spinner dolphins travel
with us for a happy 15 minutes. A little one surfed our
bow wake next to its mum. It popped up for a breath, and
even the guys smiled at how cute it was. "It looks
like a little football," Brian said, endearingly.
Our
task for the day was to retrieve the CREWS buoy we deployed
last fall and replace it with a new one. The batteries that
power the instruments were designed to last a year. We 
towed
the old buoy through 4.5 miles of inner reef maze and out
through the southeast channel where the ship was anchored
in deep water. Deckhands pulled tight on 3 tag lines and
our boat was pulling on a 4th to keep the buoy from banging
against the hull and destroying its expensive sensors. I
was the lucky one who got to slip the lifting strap over
the crane hook. The hook and tackle are a hefty 500 lbs,
so this is an Interesting (!) operation. Jonathon was infinitely
careful craning the hook down. It took me a couple tries,
but I yanked the strap down over the hook and swam out ofthere.
On my way to the ladder I turned around to confront a riled
up crowd of 100 lb ulua swimming at me, and a few galapagos
sharks lurking beneath. It was a stunning site in the clear
deep water, and I enjoyed a bit of an adrenalin rush climbing
up the ships ladder. You can be sure I scanned under the
ship for the big (imaginary) Tiger shark when I first jumped
in. Now I know why the spinner dolphins come inside the
atoll to sleep. ;o)
Sept
18. PHR. Towing the new buoy into the atoll we ran out of
time and set two temporary anchors to hold the buoy for
the night. Once we towed the buoy to the site the next morning,
I raised the 1200 lb anchor with a liftbag and Rusty attached
the buoy to the anchor with a super thick rubberband-like
device which tethers the buoy at tension and keeps it off
the coral. After I set the achor back down by dumping air
out of the liftbag, Brian and Bill assembled settlement
plates around the base which will document what kind of
larvae flow through this atoll. The plates (unglazed ceramic
tiles) from last year have a variety of things growing on
them- sponges, algae, baby corals, and slimy unidentifiable
objects. Jean Kenyon, our coral biologist, will analyze
the plates in detail when we return. A conger eel slid out
of the plastic pipe structure when we hauled it onto the
boat. The eels seem to really like the pipes, we found one
at Neva Shoals as well. Does that count as settling? Or
just homesteading? ;o)
Sept
19. PHR.Between yesterday and today we finished 9 towed
diversurveys, mostly along reef on the inside of the atoll.
We're noticing an alarming amount of bleached coral on these
inner reefs. Coral are related to jellyfish, only instead
of being free floating, they anchor themselves and build
a calcium carbonate masion to accomodate the family as the
coral colony grows and prospers. Inside their skin corals
keep little pet algae (zooxanthellae), which make sugar
with the energy from sunlight and share it with the coral
in exchange for a place to live. This is a classic symbiotic
relationship, but if the coral gets stressed out it loses
the algae and turns ghostly white. We call that "bleaching."
If the coral can recover from the stress and take upmore
algae, it will survive. If it stays stressed out, it dies.
As alarmed as we were to see vast tracts of bleached coral
within the atoll, it is actually a natural cycle. The coral
has a good chance of recovering out here, as it is far removed
from many of the extra stressors and pollutants that reefs
deal with in more populated areas. The coral on reefs dies
and regenerates many times on large time scales. These reefs
are ancient.
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