NOWRAMP
2002
Coming
Home
Honolulu
Posted by Ann Bell Hudgins, education team member, US Fish
and Wildlife Service
September 22, 2002
Two
nights henceforth I was absorbing the full moon's beam on
one of Midway Atoll's sugar powdered beaches. There was
no wind, skies were clear and the air smelled clean, crisp
and refreshing.
The
next morning, I said my farewells to the expedition participants,
and then boarded a chartered flight on Midway, bound for
Honolulu. I started to miss "us," immediately,
those people I had lived with two weeks 'shoulder to shoulder'
on the Rapture.
What
I know now at this moment is that I felt privileged to be
in the presence of the expedition's selected members. They
were passionate and driven, experts in their field of study.
Some
I observed making three dives a day. After a long, tiring
day, they then off-loaded, rinsed off and put gear away,
took a shower, got a quick meal, then stayed up painstakingly
each night trying to maintain clear focus. At 8:00 pm, their
real work began - the task of categorizing, and identifying
the data and specimens collected that day. Those with specimens,
then preserved them, making sure to accurately list the
locations where they were found. After several days, it
is difficult to remember one dive from another, so making
sure no backlogs are created is critical.
I
was in the midst of their life long passion.
Vignettes
keep playing time and again, there was the University of
Hawai`i at Hilo professor, Dr. Karla McDermid, talking about
how pressing marine plants touched both the right and left
brain: the artist and scientist. The undergraduate and graduate
students working with her are wonderful souls to be around
as I watched them work 'till late and then get up early;
their sense of dedication, wonder and humor was contagious.
I'll
never forget that one rare afternoon when the ship was making
headway during daylight hours. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
coral reef biologist Dr. Jim Magagos, was neither out diving
nor on his computer entering data. Instead, I found him
strumming his stringed instrument, singing folks songs from
lyrics he hand wrote 30 years prior. A rare break, well
deserved.
There
was the colorful shipwreck guy, University of Hawai`i`s
Hans Van Tilburg, (the one who gets all the publicity, but
never seeks it). He had great stories. Stay tuned to the
website there are two more weeks of discovery!
Certain
phrases constantly replay in my mind. The first time I talked
to Dr. Alan Friedlander, National Ocean Service's coral
reef fish expert, I found he was chock full of patient wisdom.
"Of course we are going to find new species in the
Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI)," he said, "because
this place is so large and so poorly studied. For me it
is not that you are able to check off a new find, but to
study in awe of an entire ecosystem in balance."
Just
before departure, I gained a deep respect for Dr. Randy
Kosaki. He was the glue, yet one of those that doesn't have
to be at 'center stage.' He is the expedition's Chief Scientist
aboard the Rapture, also representing the State of Hawai`i
Division of Aquatic Resources. His message to me the night
before leaving was "that which is very important, are
the intangibles."
And lastly, a master mahalo from me personally goes to `Aulani
Wilhelm, expedition manager and the collaborative spirit
of the new NWHI Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve on this expedition.
Without her wise planning and tenacious perseverance, none
of us wide-eyed documenters or educators would have been
on board.
As the plane touched down in Honolulu, the crisp light air
and less than humid feeling was the first thing I noticed.
That night the moon was as brilliant as I saw on Midway.
We were still under the same sky, under the same roof in
the same archipelago. I wasn't really coming home; I was
home to begin with.
As
one of the educators, my journey has just begun, to transfer
the wisdom learned into the hearts and minds of Hawai`i's
children in the main Hawaiian Islands.
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