NOWRAMP 2002

9/28/02 - Rapture

Position:
Latitude: 27° 47.238' N
Longitude: 175° 51.711' W
Area Name: Pearl and Hermes Atoll, S anchorage

Weather:
Barometer: 1017.1 mb
Winds: 17 Knots ENE
Description: Cloudy, scattered showers.
Forecast: 5-10 knots, ENE - N.

Sea Conditions:
Waves: 4-7' in lee of atoll with 3'south
Current: 1.2 Knots.
Sea:

Daily Vessel Plan:
Scheduled Activities:

REA (Rapid Ecological Assessment) Team A: 2 sites outside, many Ulua, some small Galapagos sharks. Dominant corals - Porites lobata and Porites compressa; 5-20% coral cover. Second richest in terms of number of coral species. Monk seal sighting. Lobsters. Inside dive - juvenile Scarids, Porites compressa towers. Turf algae dominated and cyanobacteria.

REA (Rapid Ecological Assessment) Team B: 3 dives - all outside the reef crest. The hard bottom spurs were dominated by the green alga Microdictyon. Every dive we had 15-30 Ulua companions. The question is: Did they follow us site to site?

Coral Team : Set new permanent monitoring transect in pass. Ground truth Northern backreef. Took spectra of Lyngbya algae near wreck on Eastern backreef.

Maritime Archaeology : Surveyed two wrecks - the SS Quartette and a freighter sunk in 1952, as well as an unknown wreck site on the Northern reef (maritime power plant, shafts, propeller, debris).

Intertidal: Surveyed East Seal-Kittery and Grass Island's intertidal; shallow subtidal dominated by Microdictyon; intertidal at Grass Island had large pathes of Neomeris; high number and diversity of urchins and fishes.

Terrestrial Team: Bird surveys on Southeast Island. Weeding.

<<Logs Home