Days
1-3
October 8-October 10, 2006
By Andy Collins,
NOAA, NOS, NWHIMNM -
Education and Outreach Specialist
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All
scientific crew ready for departure.
Photo by Andy Collins |
I am
aboard the NOAA ship Oscar Elton Sette in route
to French Frigate Shoals (FFS) in the Northwestern Hawaiian
Islands.
We departed Honolulu harbor around 6 PM last Sunday 10/8,
and we are just passing the island of Mokumanamana (9
AM on Tuesday 10/10). We expect to reach FFS in the early
evening today. It is busy on the ship with the scientists
and ship’s crew preparing all the sampling gear for deployment.
There are modified lobster traps (designed not to catch
lobsters but smaller crustaceans) on the aft deck waiting
to be deployed, and our Dive Master, Brian Zgliczynski
is working on the dive compressor, and checking out everyone’s
gear. Much of the time over the last few days has been
spent discussing how field operations will be carried
out, and how the database will be structured to capture
all data about the organisms we will be collecting. The
database management aspect of this mission is quite daunting
considering the number of samples that will be coming
in and the number of organisms hidden among the samples.
Each organism, except those which are well known, or
above a certain size, will be isolated, photographed,
labeled, and preserved in tiny vials of alcohol.
Since
our departure from Honolulu was delayed by a few days
the scientists had an opportunity to test drive some
of the special collecting
gear last Saturday, and work out some of
the processing procedures. Even off the densely populated
shores of
Honolulu the scientists found a great diversity of crustaceans,
nudibranchs,
worms, and other organisms, many of which are quite difficult
to find, let alone collect. Such
is the advantage of having these world-renown taxonomists
aboard. What they see in pieces of coral rubble, or a
patch of sand is so very different from what the untrained
eye sees, and many of the organisms they are collecting
have developed exceptional
 |
Can
opener crab collected on South shore of O’ahu.
Photo by Jodi Martin |
predator avoidance and camouflage mechanisms over tens of thousands of years
of evolution, making the scientists job even harder.
The other factor for why they were able to collect these
hard to find organisms, some as small as half a grain
of rice, and many even smaller, is because of the special
collecting methods employed. Each method targets particular
groups of organisms. Some methods are designed to suck
the organisms out of their burrows, others are designed
to sieve them out of sand. Only a few minutes using the
suction method and
the taxonomists were busy for the whole day, sorting,
identifying, photographing,
labeling and preserving.
A few minutes ago I was downstairs in the medical unit for a neurological screening. All divers are screened for pre-existing nervous system issues, for dexterity, and skin sensitivity, the purpose of which is to have a baseline of nervous system function in case of a diving accident. As long as we follow all of the strict diving protocols and procedures there will hopefully be no use for this screening information, or for the decompression chamber, which we used yesterday during a simulated dive emergency drill with a member of the scientific party acting as an unconscious diver. Many dive accidents, such as decompression sickness, can result in nervous system damage due to nitrogen in the diver’s blood or tissues coming out of solution. In the unlikely event that this happens, both the neurological screening and the decompression chamber will needed.
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Dive
tanks at the ready. Photo by Jodi Martin |
Aside from preparations for field
work, and eating three times a day, our days are spent discussing various
topics related to these fascinating and tiny organisms the scientists study.
For me it’s like walking into Willy Wonkaland. Just to listen to these scientists talk about their field of interest and organisms they study, and seeing their photos, is truly an eye opening experience, and a testament to the wondrous and amazing diversity of life that only appears to be more rich and complex as we move from the macro level of fish, corals and large algae to the micro scale of miniature crabs, predatory snails, and finally single cell organisms. It has been said many times before, but science fiction does not hold a candle to what we are seeing beneath the microscope, a marine world in miniature that few of us ever notice, but one that ultimately allows coral reef ecosystems to function.
*All images and information from French Frigate Shoals are provided
courtesy of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument,
Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge, the Northwestern Hawaiian
Islands State Marine Refuge, and NOAA's Pacific Islands Fisheries
Science Center in accordance with permit numbers NWHIMNM-2006-015,
2006-01, 2006-017, and DLNR.NWHI06R021 and associated amendments.
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.
Talk About It!
Talk About It!
