Phoenix Islands Blog

7/31/14

SEA 2014: Seamounts and Winslow Reef (July 30)

A six-week expedition with Sea Education Association (SEA) to the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) is underway. This will mark the first-ever oceanographic cruise to PIPA, and is a historic collaboration between SEA, the New England Aquarium, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Republic of Kiribati. The objectives of this mission include the high-quality education of 13 students in both science and policy aspects of PIPA as well as scientific goals, which will be detailed in the coming weeks and months here on this blog.

This is a cross post from the SEA Expedition Blog.

July 30, 2014

07:50 We’ve been sailing in a large circle overnight, waiting for the daylight to begin our approach to Winslow Reef. The reason for this wait is that Winslow is one of those rare unmapped places of our planet, and so we have no good charts to rely on in the absence of daylight. To fix this situation a big part of today’s mission is to use our onboard CHIRP sonar system to produce some accurate soundings of this large series of subsea peaks that may or may not pierce the surface of the sea. With the sun
sufficiently high in the sky and the CHIRP pinging away we begin our first survey line toward a seamount some 8 nautical miles from what we think is the shallowest point of the reef.

09:20 We found the top of the seamount at 948 meters deep according to the CHIRP. Perhaps you are wondering exactly how we knew where to look for this seamount, given that no reliable charts exist. I should clarify here that a map of sorts does indeed exist of the seafloor of PIPA, indeed the whole Pacific Ocean. This map is made using information from a very sensitive satellite capable of measuring variation in the sea surface height down to centimeter (about half an inch) resolution. The rest is down to Newtonian physics: large features on the seafloor, seamounts and such, will increase the gravitational pull exerted on waters above and produce a slight dip in the sea surface. You can measure this dip and
calculate the size and position of the subsea feature necessary to produce it. These satellite-derived seafloor topography maps are what we use to plan our mapping mission today. So how did our 948m measurement compare? Turns out the satellite map was showing 851 meter depth, so it seems to have been off by about 100 meters or a little more than 10% - pretty good accuracy for the deep ocean!

First light of morning shows Seamans at anchor in the middle of the Pacific.

11:10 We’re now creeping toward one of the two peaks that according to the satellite map might reach the surface. At depth of 700 meters, we stop and deploy the CTD rosette water sampler and tow the neuston net. This is at the same depth where we’ve conducted our other island stations, so I hope this an equivalent and comparable location. Interesting to think that if this reef was an island, it would be only mile or so distant while now we only see the unbroken horizon. The instruments on the rosette pick up clear signs of the interaction of ocean currents and the seafloor - the phytoplankton peaks both at depth and at the surface.

14:00 The station came and went, and we’ve been approaching what we thought would be the peak of this coral reef-capped undersea mountain. The CHIRP shows 450 meters and the bottom starts sharply falling away from us. Nowhere around is there breaking water or changes in the color of the sea, both telltales of shallow water—we have a lookout up the mast to watch for these signs. Oh well, when you explore I guess you never know what you’ll not find… No matter, there is another pinnacle to the west of us, and we change our course that way.

17:15 With a setting sun behind us, we’re now west of the reported position of the shallowest part of the Winslow Reef. In case you’re curious about the name of this reef, it dates back to the first report in
1851 by one Captain Winslow of the whaling ship Phoenix. The current British Admiralty Pilot relates that at the time the reef was reported to be “extending 1 mile in a NW/SE direction, 71/2 cables wide, with two pointed rocks awash”. The next report dates to 1944 and mentions a minimum depth of 11 meters but no rocks awash. So we creep cautiously forward with the CHIRP pinging and I’m about to head up the foremast to act as an aloft lookout.

18:20 Twelve hundred meters… Eleven hundred meters… Thousand meters… Matt in the lab calls out CHIRP depths over the radio. Up aloft I see large flocks of birds feeding on schools of jumping fish that are trying to escape their aquatic predators, the pursuing tuna leaping high out of the water in chase of their prey and turning the sea white with splashes. A young masked booby circles the ship and I can hear the sound of its wings beating in the gentle evening breeze as it accelerates past my post in the
foretopmast. Gradually a line in the water, ripples of waves and current emerge to show the outline of the reef ahead. We send our small boat out to verify what the CHIRP has indicated and lower our anchor in 49’ of water onto a bed of coral sand and rubble. We are anchored on Winslow
Reef! Tomorrow morning we’ll go explore a little, and expect to have the first pictures of this reef that, as far as we know, has never been visited by anyone before us!

Cam, Tane and a grey reef shark. The shark is on the left…

21:20 The small boat is splashing at the end of its painter behind the ship. Illuminated by the beam of the aft life raft floodlight Cam and Tane are busy sampling sharks again, making the best of this unexpected opportunity. The first catch, a small grouper, is used for bait, the smaller fish traded for bigger ones. Four grey reef sharks are caught and sampled with a curious audience at the taffrail getting their first close look at the details of the Tweedle’s work. The water in the beam of light teems with fish; a small but ambitious flying fish leaps out of the water for the brief safety of its flight but is caught short as it collides with Tane’s face. To the laughter of the onlookers, Tane collects the fish
from the bottom of the boat, kisses it and throws it back into the dark sea. Looking away from the light I see the reflection of the Milky Way off the water on the dark side of the boat, reminding me to look up at the brilliant night sky. We are so very lucky to be here tonight, lucky to have this gentle, settled weather. Lucky for this unique, unforgettable anchorage in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with nothing but the horizon in sight!

Jan Witting
Chief Scientist

In the vicinity of Winslow Reef, 1˚30’S by 175˚ 0’ W
Winds Force 2-3 from ENE
Motorsailing under main, staysails and the jib.

7/30/14

SEA 2014: Orona and tuna

Orono Island photographed on a previous expedition

While the corals of Orona are still recovering from the last bleaching event there were lots of persevering coral patches interspersed with giant clams, their neon turquoise of their lips standing out against the sand and rock. One of the tidal channels that dots the island, connecting lagoon to ocean, was dotted with the small black fins of a reef shark nursery. Dozens of the pups playfully swam around amongst schools of mullets and jacks or darting away from a few intrepid explorers chasing them with Go-Pros. And although lone concrete steps stoically mark where humans have scared the area, these
things so easily seen are not the only ones of concern nor interest.

A shark along the reef of Orona from a previous Aquarium expedition

PIPA has been a very important part of the Kiribati fishery, accounting for as much as 43% of the tuna catch taken from Kiribati waters although accounting for as little as 11% of their EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone) (A fact farther ingrained by the four fishing vessels we've seen in the few days that we've been within PIPA waters. (One of which was unfortunately within the no fishing zone around Kanton (Aba-Riringa)) Despite the implicit availability of adult tuna within the area there has not been much research done into PIPA as a tuna nursery nor the possible distributions or species of larval tuna that may be present in the abundant waters.

A pair of Katsuwonus pelamis (Skipjack tuna) under the microscope.

So far we have been able to identify several different species of tuna larvae within PIPA waters using a variety of nets as well as other larvae of the same sub-order of tuna (Scombrid) which has been incredibly exciting. Hopefully we will soon have an idea about some of the species of tuna spawning in PIPA as well as relative distributions as concentrations amongst the islands, as we push onwards into deeper water and the data continues to pile up.

For now however we will enjoy the palm trees, beaches, flora, fauna, and waters of Orona. While sending out the doubtless dozens of scientific missions whilst under the calm of anchor in the endeavor to learn as much and as quickly as we can about the environment we have but a moment's insight into.

After all: "Science never sleeps."

— Michael S. Heard-Snow
Northeastern University

7/29/14

SEA 2014: All in a day's work (July 29)

Camrin Braun cradles a whitetip reef shark before its release | Photo by Tane Sinclair-Taylor

Our typical day starts around 04:30 by fishing a longline from the stern of the Seamans. As the day begins to break, we haul our hooks in and take to the skiff for some fishing closer to the reef. We spend the next several hours maintaining longlines for sharks and spearfishing for our reef fish samples. In-water sampling part 1 ends around 13:00, and the real work begins. We extract fish ear bones and collect muscle and tissue samples from the morning’s samples. As the heat of midday gives away to evening, we make a second trip on the skiff to repeat our earlier sampling and search for the inevitable hard-to-find fish species.

All this hard work and foul odor isn’t without reward, though, as we’ve so far managed to fulfill nearly all of our sampling goals. We are collecting these samples from a representative group of coral reef species to better understand how energy moves through a reef from its primary producers like corals up to top predators such as sharks. If we can constrain the energy sources supporting a coral reef foodweb, we can better understand reef function and resilience to change. What a great opportunity we’ve had thus far with more to come in the last few weeks of our trip!

We’re now on to day 28 since watching the lights of Honolulu fade in the distance and are currently < 5 nautical miles from Winslow Reef. We (as a ship and as a society) know very little about Winslow including what kind of land emerges from among the waves, if any. Excitement aboard the Seamans remains high as we ride some light winds and creep toward our next stop, eager to be among the few people in the world to have ever laid eyes on yet another amazing reef of the Phoenix Islands.

Camrin Braun
PhD Student
MIT/WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography

Tane Sinclair-Taylor
Reef Ecology Field Technician
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology

7/25/14

SEA 2014: The birds at Birnie (July 25)

View from the porthole at sea

Along the way we did five hydrocasts and Neuston net tows, plus a few MOCNESS deployments and meter net tows. We sampled the waters just off of each island we visited plus a double station our one full night at sea, one at night and one during the morning. These are among the most important measurements we will make while at PIPA. Many of the differences we detect are small from station to station, but from a large scale view the patterns should become clear.

Deploying nets from the Robert Seamans

Another island, Birnie, lay between us Kanton and Orona only a few miles east off out of our way. Unfortunately the wind was coming directly from the east as well and sailing into the wind is very difficult and not something we were going to do. Instead we motored most of the way there, reaching Birnie early on the 24th. In many ways Birnie is very similar to Enderbury. Like Enderbury it is a small island with little vegetation and large populations of seabirds. Birnie was also part of the same rat eradication that Enderbury had in 2011. It was not successful at Enderbury so we were very interested to see what Birnie's rat status was. Although no one went onshore and we only stopped at Birnie for an hour of bird observations and a deployment station, we saw clear signs that the eradication was successful.

Christmas shearwaters roosting | Photo: Duncan Wright via Wikimedia Commons

Close to ten different Christmas shearwaters were flying a little offshore, and since they make their nests in burrows in the ground, are especially vulnerable to rats. So their presence at Birnie is an indicator that there are no longer any rats on that island and that the eradication was successful.

Luke Faust

7/22/14

SEA 2014: Anchored off The Island of the Sun (July 22)

The village of Aba-Riringa all dancing and singing together

An older I-Kiribati man told me of their culture's tale about the young woman who became the first coconut and how whenever someone now drinks from a coconut they are giving her a kiss.

We all sat together in the remains of an old metal building of the bygone era of Kanton's imperial occupation, one of the many that nature slowly wages her war against. Rust spirals up the walls, corroding the structures integrity while a stoic tree replaces what was once steel and stone, curving
around the structure into its roof and wounds, watching over those inside.

Singing and dancing soon followed, traditional notes woven inextricably into movement, stories told in the flutter of a wingtip. Davis, the village's policeman (and in many ways liaison between us and the
village) spoke to us about how all I-Kiribati people are taught to be able to survive for months while stranded at sea; and with what coconut trees and supplies they had that they would be able to survive for at least another three months or more but with what meager provisions we had given to them (A
fraction of what the ship had stocked for the 6 week journey) they would be able to survive at least another year waiting for the arrival of the elusive supply ship. Nonetheless they still went out of their way to slaughter one of their few pigs, and throw us a spectacular feast of fresh lobster, slow roasted pork, fish, clams, rice, and coconut. . . It seems that those in this world with the least are the ones most willing to share of what little they do have. The joining of cultures and peoples from all over of the world in food, dance, and merry-making is a truly beautiful thing.

In small ways these peoples resilience comes out: traditional lays strung with VHS tape, a young girl's palm skirt made out of strips of plastic, pieces of rubber and cable striping where seeds once were threaded. . . The legacy of the western world exposed in the rusted abandonment of things left behind. What we would see as junk or trash repurposed and reused into something beautiful. It saddens me that those were the gifts our people left the I-Kiribati in years past, and I hope that in the future, perhaps, something more beautiful can come from those who share these beautiful islands for a time.

Upon the morrow we shall sail on, deeper into the heart of the Phoenix Islands, to see and discover what lays over the horizon, our sails full soon again.

-Camrin Braun

SEA 2014: An amazing five nights in Kanton (July 22)

Kanton Lagoon | Photo: Randi Rotjan from previous expendition

Kanton is a coral atoll, the largest of the Phoenix Islands, with a large lagoon in the center, connected to the ocean. The land itself makes a thin ring around the lagoon, with diverse vegetation and habitats in different parts of the island. For at least a hundred years, there has been a small population living on Kanton of I-Kiribati, people from the other island chains in Kiribati. At one time there were over a thousand villagers living on the island, but harsh, hot conditions and most importantly extreme isolation kept the population small. But being located in the center of the Pacific, the island played a key role in the middle of the 19th century in American military operations.

Ruins on Kanton Island | Credit D. H. Livingstone from SEA Blog

When the Americans left the island, all of their buildings, cars, and other large machinery remained. Their ruins are scattered throughout the main section of the island and give it an eerie feel. The vegetation too is very barren, besides a few groves of trees, enhancing the eeriness of the island. But all of that feeling went away when we put our heads into the water during snorkeling, walking along the beach spying on devil rays, and spending time with the local people of Kanton.

Limited coral growth on the shipwreck compared to surrounding calcium carbonate substrate

Snorkeling here was a total success. Within the lagoon there were enormous towers of platey coral, stretching all the way to the surface of the water. Amazingly colorful fish were always in view, making it very hard to see all that was there. Everyone's favorite spot though was around a huge shipwreck
located at the entrance of the lagoon more in the deeper ocean. Besides exploring the shipwreck itself, many of us were able to see manta rays, both black and white tipped reef sharks, and green sea turtles. The coral around the shipwreck has definitely been negatively affected, mostly through an extreme coral bleaching event in 2002. There is slow recovery, but new coral growth can be seen in many places. Counter intuitively there was more diversity and larger schools of fish in this area, but it is important to remember that many factors determine the abundance and diversity of fish in an area.

Our other mission when visiting Kanton was talking to and learning about the people who live here. Our interactions with the people here exceeded all expectations. As we would walk through the village, they would beckon us over to sit with them in the shade and share food and drinks. We joked around with them and learned a little about their lifestyle here on the island. I expected this to be the extent of our interactions, but later in our visit we feasted with them twice. The entire village came onto our ship on Sunday for delicious food, exchange of gifts, and hearing traditional dancing and songs. For the past few weeks they have been living off of rice, coconuts, and any fish they can catch. The supply ship is scheduled to come in a few weeks, but its timing is not always exact.

One of the many dances during our feast on Kanton. This one was performed
by the young men on the island in their traditional garb.

They were extremely grateful and in return shared all of their traditional dancing and songs, and invited us to a feast on Kanton. Having just returned from four hour long celebrations, I can safely say for all of us it was a once in a lifetime experience. They spent all night catching lobster and moray eel, and even slaughtered one of the few pigs on the island for the feast. The food was amazing, but mostly it was just about seeing what their culture is like through all sorts of games and dances, and showing them a little of our culture. Although many of the people on Kanton are just stationed there for a few years at a time, they have developed their own songs and community.

Tomorrow morning we sadly leave Kanton for Orona, with a potential quick stop at the small island of Birnie.

7/20/14

SEA 2014: Kanton is gorgeous (July 20)

Old metallic structures groan in the sea winds like the magnificent, curmudgeonly behemoths they are. They stand out against the natural beauty in the island, but are lovely in their own right. And they have important histories.

Kanton itself is an astounding convergence of beautiful plants, birds, waters and invertebrates all cast against a shroud of haunting, gorgeous ruins. The recent history of Kanton is plagued by foreign powers, primarily the English and America, exerting stress on the atoll. Their presence reverberates strongly across the entire halo of land. Rusted trucks, tractors, generators, cement structures, and radio towers pepper the rather flat, thin island. They quietly growl and creak as the salty sea air continues to slowly rust and degrade them. They persist long past their due dates—the military presence is long gone, the guano rush a distant memory, and the hotel never really took off, to say the least.

The only American structure in relatively good shape is the air strip. The air strip is quite a walk from the lagoon where our shore parties make landfall, and is quite long itself. Many of the morning exploration crew went to go check out the air strip, but others went to the village to hang out with the I-Kiribati who live there. The village is not large, since the population of Kanton roughly the same as our ship's complement-just over thirty. We got to hang out with the people who work in the village.

Some of our crew tried toddy (though I am not sure of the spelling, it is a sweet nectar drawn from coconut trees), chatted with the medical officer, the meteorologist, the policeman, or went to school and hung out with the kids on the island. In the afternoon, there were several snorkel missions, and students got to spy on sea slugs, sea turtles, fish and reef sharks. Everyone was well ready for dinner when the time rolled around, and it was good that everyone was hungry because we had ourselves a bloody great feast, I tell you. We had the whole island population come aboard and tour our ship. They brought coconuts and brought pulled pork and other bbq staples. We all bonded, laughed, told jokes and they sang for us. It was an amazing evening. The people who live on Kanton are just tops. They're really fun, and super nice.

We have a few more days anchored here in this incredible lagoon on this unbelievable island. Which is simply grand. The I-Kiribati tell us they'll host us for dinner soon on their island in return. I am very excited, because they catch lots of amazing fish and have put out some eel traps.

Sweet.

David H. Livingstone. B Watch. University of Chicago-Environmental
Science/Environmental Studies.

7/18/14

SEA 2014: Enderbury arrival! (July 18)

Enderbury is a flat, low lying island with little vegetation
besides a few dense patches of shrubs and a couple of palm trees.

However there was still plenty of activity around the island that we could experience fully. Enderbury is one of the most important bird islands in the area, home to 10,000 breeding pairs of birds of a variety of species. Clouds of hundreds of sooty terns with a few red-tailed tropicbirds sprinkled in were a constant over the island. We observed kleptoparasitism by frigatebirds at its finest, where instead of fishing themselves, they chase and harass other birds so much that they vomit up their food for the frigatebirds to eat. Noticeably absent though were petrels and shearwaters, birds that burrow in the sand to make their nests and are especially vulnerable to rats. In 2011, rats were eradicated from the Enderbury, so we expected to see more of these species around the island.

Birds of Kanton Bird Island in the Phoenix Islands from a previous expedition

We were able to get our two representatives from Kiribati when we went onto Enderbury to do ecological survey work, swimming over the reef to get there. They did hermit crab surveys traversing up and down the island, and recorded counts of vulnerable bird species. But most notable about their visit was the unexpected presence of rats, which had been sighted post-eradication in 2012, also. Their impact on vegetation and seabirds was obvious, and the rats themselves were seen every five or ten minutes. It seems that while initially the population of rats declined after the eradication, it went back up to a high level pretty quickly. This disappointing news explained the absence of the petrels and shearwaters on Enderbury, but hopefully we are able to see more of them at our other stops.

Encouraging though was that masked boobies, another ground nesting species is thriving on Enderbury despite the rats. The other party that was able to venture off the ship was our two shark researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. They caught many species of reef sharks, almost reaching their high quota for the island. The big excitement was when an especially large grey reef shark thrashed around and punctured their inflatable small boat. They had to rush back to the ship as it was deflating, and by the next day it was all patched up. The report of the reefs themselves is that the reef is very healthy with almost no signs of coral bleaching. The reef around Enderbury is an outlier from the rest of the reefs in the Phoenix Islands, being very flat with little vertical buildup of coral. So the most spectacular reefs are still to come.

After finishing up our research at Enderbury and with no signs for the rest of us to snorkel and explore the island, we left a day early for Kanton, the only inhabited island in the Phoenix Islands. It lies only 40 nautical miles from Enderbury, but we detoured out the way to pass over a seamount and do our full series of deployments around it. Currently we sit anchored off on Kanton, having arrived earlier this afternoon. We will spend the next two or three days here, snorkeling in the lagoon, checking out the island, and talking to the local people about life in the Phoenix Islands.

Luke Faust

7/15/14

SEA 2014: PIPA Arrival! (July 15)

Tuesday, 15 July 2014

We crossed the equator on Sunday morning, the day we entered into PIPA. There is always a celebration of the event, crossing the line is a big thing for a sailor, for the first time in particular. Of course around the ship nothing changes, the same trade winds push us along, the same waves stretch into the horizon. Drawing lines into the high seas can seem like a funny business!

And on some level that is what PIPA is, a square patch of the ocean marked by lines drawn into the water. When we protect sensitive areas on land, understanding boundaries is easy. On this side of the fence big redwoods you mustn't touch, on this side a pasture for dairy cattle. The trees stay put, the situation is pretty stable.

Not so in the ocean. The ground is more than three miles below the ship and remains less known to us than the surface of Mars. No, what we really seek to protect here is in the shallow ocean, all the life that it nurtures and supports, from seabirds to tuna, from whales to the manta rays and the turtles. These are the iconic species of course, but in one way or the other their existence is predicated on an ocean ecosystem of plankton.

A detail of a small lanternfish (Myctophid) from our meter net plankton tow this evening.
These fish migrate up and down in the water column, spending the night feeding on
zooplankton close to the surface but at night swimming down up to 900 meters deep.

Plankton are those animals and single-celled algae that drift with the ocean currents. The phytoplankton, microscopic algae that photosynthesize, are the grass feeding this vast ocean savannah with its own equivalents of wildebeests and lions. One crucial problem with this metaphor exists, though. As ocean currents respect no boundaries, neither does all this oceanic life they transport. So what do those lines in the ocean really mean, then? What are we protecting here exactly?

Turns out you have to change your perspective here to include the notion that even in the ever flowing ocean there can be persistent hotspots of life that remain in the general location. These hotspot oases are fully aquatic, so water is of course not the limiting substance for growth here as it is in the desert. No, the limiting factors here are nutrients, mostly Nitrogen and Phosphorus (and Iron in the Equatorial Pacific) — the same resources we feed our terrestrial gardens! These hotspots tend to form wherever ocean currents act to bring these limiting resources to the sunlit surface ocean where their constant supply is needed to fuel the growth of the Phytoplankton.

Are there many such hotspots in PIPA? It turns out that the northern boundary of PIPA encompasses a portion of major ocean current called the Equatorial Undercurrent. This current is a product of our planetary climate system, persists over time, and is responsible for constantly pumping nutrients to the surface ocean. You could almost think of the northern fringes of PIPA as this lush rainforest at the edge of a savannah, a wall of green foliage. Today as we've been sailing through the tail end of this edge we’ve witnessed schools of tuna dashing after their pray, large flocks of seabirds following these feeding schools, and even a thresher shark lazily warming itself after a long dive, its long tail fin sticking out of the water as we sailed by.

We expect to find other such hotspots, aligned with seamounts and islands that act in concert with the currents to similarly help fertilize the surface ocean. We'll look for them as we sample, using our current meter to map the currents, our rosette water sampler to draw nutrient and chlorophyll samples, and our plankton nets to sample for the small fish and even smaller zooplankton, the necessary precursors for those big iconic species like sharks and dolphins to exist.

All of this means a lot of hard work of course, and once inside PIPA we’ve begun spending a lot more time on our sampling efforts. At night, the instrument and MOCNESS deployments have gone on from 9 pm to around 3:30 am. Daytime stations are shorter, from 10 to noon, though samples drawn during these stations keep the lab busy around the clock. Here the training we’ve done in the past two weeks really pays off — the students are an integral part of the lab workflow now. During our daily ships meetings we discuss aspects of our results and talk about the things to come.

Another short three weeks and we'll know much more about this aspect of PIPA. And with that I’ll sign off and head into the lab for our night station. We’ll catch some plankton, and I’ll include a picture of some of them with this post!

Jan Witting,

Chief Scientist

7/12/14

SEA 2014: The MOCNESS monster (July 12)

Saturday, July 12

As we close in on our crossing of the equator, we experienced our most exciting day today in all aspects of ship life. Throughout the first two weeks, we deployed two different scientific instruments daily, a Neuston net, a meter wide net that collects zooplankton from the surface of the ocean, and the hydrocast, which is a series of twelve seawater collection tubes that open at different depths. Over the past we days we have been adding a few new instruments. Early this morning we deployed our third Argo float when we crossed the 2.5° parallel. These are similar to the hydrocast, in that the measure parameters of the ocean water at different depths such as salinity and temperature. But these Argo floats part of a network of thousands of robotic floats around the world’s oceans that can raise and lower themselves in the water column, collecting and transmitting data for up to seven years.

Working the sampling nets on deck

Later this morning, after a misfire yesterday, we successfully deployed our first MOCNESS (Multiple opening and closing nets and environmental sampling system). It is similar to the Neuston net but much more advanced. The MOCNESS is a series of nets that can be opened and closed at different depths, sampling the zooplankton not just at the surface. Different organisms prefer different depths and conditions so the MOCNESS allows us not only to sample the lower depths, but also to separate out what was caught where. Once we are in PIPA, the MOCNESS will be an important part of our scientific study of the area.

Pilot whale

The MOCNESS itself would have been enough to make this a remarkable day, with everyone looking forward to its appearance with much excitement. But the MOCNESS pales in comparison to a pod of five or ten pilot whales, the first mammals we’ve seen other than ourselves in two weeks. Pilot whales are small whale with very round head, almost swollen looking. On the whale-dolphin spectrum they fall close to the dolphin side, having the general size and shape of a large dolphin. The pod followed behind our ship for close to twenty minutes, coming to the surface and swimming right alongside our ship. A ray was spotted soon after, along with five or six different bird species, making this by far our most biologically active day.

After doing our weekly thorough clean of the ship, we were surprised with a swim call from the captain. The waters were calm enough that we were able to stop the ship and all get in the ocean for a swim. It felt so refreshing to wash off and finally get in the ocean. It is pretty cool to think that below us was close to 5,000 meters of water between us and the ocean floor. Early tomorrow morning we expect to make our crossing of the equator. A few days after that we will enter PIPA finally before spending the next three weeks in its waters. Our exact plan for those three weeks is still relatively unclear, as we do not know what conditions will be like and how many landings we will be able to make. But our general plan is to go to Enderbury, Kanton, Orona, possibly a trip up to Winslow Reef, and then Nikumaroro before heading out to American Samoa. We will spend three days on and around each island doing both terrestrial and marine work. Our transit time between islands will also involve intense data collection as we try to get an idea of what the waters in PIPA are like and the connectivity between islands.

Since this is the first oceanographic research trip to PIPA that will be our primary research focus while we are there. But there are still many more miles to go before we arrive, including an equator to cross.

Luke Faust

7/9/14

SEA 2014: Approaching the equator (July 9)

The other notable change to our surrounding has been the appearance of boobies, specifically red footed boobies and a few masked boobies. Boobies are large seabirds that plunge into the water to catch fish, with striking plumage and colorful body parts.

They don't go as far out into the open ocean as the petrels and shearwaters we had seen earlier in our voyage, so their presence indicates the presence of land nearby, which in this case in likely Palmyra Atoll to the east of us. As we continue to progress toward the Phoenix Islands, we will start to see a lot more seabirds, including some smaller groups that don't venture out as far away from their breeding grounds. 19 different species of seabirds breed on the Phoenix Islands across the eight islands in the group. For many of these species, including the endangered Phoenix petrel, the Phoenix Islands represent one of their primary breeding grounds worldwide.

These small islands house tens of thousands of breeding pairs of many seabird species, including over 600,000 breeding pairs of the sooty tern on Orona itself, one of the four islands we plan to visit.

Historically, the Phoenix Islands are home to a limited variety of terrestrial animals: these 19 species of seabird, a few migratory shorebirds, hermit crabs, and some lizards. The absence of mammals was crucial for the success of the seabird rookeries, as many of them have low-lying nests, burrows in the ground, or nest on the ground. Without mammalian predators they thrived on these islands. However over the past few centuries, with increased sea travel and exploration, rabbits, rats, and cats have all been introduced to the islands.

They prey on seabird chicks and eggs and compete for the limited habitat available on the islands. Seabird numbers plummeted as a result, with the ground nesting species especially hurt, with some of them only breeding on a few tiny spots of land in lagoons in some of the islands where the mammals couldn't reach. So while the current numbers of breeding pairs of birds seems high in the Phoenix Islands today, it is an order of magnitude or two lower than historical numbers. Efforts have been made to get rid of these invasive species and help the seabirds recover from their impact. In 2006, rabbits were removed from Rawaki, and Asian rats from McKean, leaving these island completely free of invasives.

A more extensive project was done in 2011 to remove Pacific rats from Birnie and Enderbury. Reports from Rawaki and McKean showed a huge success in the quick increase in breeding pairs on these islands, especially in the most sensitive species. One of our main projects in the Phoenix Islands will be checking in on the results from Enderbury and hopefully will see an increase throughout the whole PIPA area as the spread out.

Luke Faust

7/7/14

SEA 2014: Did you have a "sleep of kings" last night? (July 6)

A six-week expedition with Sea Education Association (SEA) is en route from Honolulu to the Phoenix Islands. This will mark the first-ever oceanographic cruise to PIPA, and is a historic collaboration between SEA, the New England Aquarium, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and of course, the Republic of Kiribati. The objectives of this mission include the high-quality education of 13 students in both science and policy aspects of PIPA as well as scientific goals, which will be detailed in the coming weeks and months here on this blog.

This post is from Aquarium research intern Luke Faust.

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Today we passed the 500 mile mark since we left Honolulu on the 2nd, well on our way to the Phoenix Islands. Fully immersed in life at sea, it is hard to keep track of time. Time is marked by what watch is currently being stood. For four to six hours, one watch team controls the ship, steering, looking out, making sure everything is running smoothly, and working in the lab. Because there are five watch timeslots in a day, and three watch groups, the time each group stands watch changes each day, rotating on a three day schedule. Today I was on watch from 0700 to 1300, and will go on again from 2300 to 0300. This allows us to experience the different parts of the day, seeing sunrises, sunsets, clear night skies, and hot sunny days. Sleeping occurs whenever possible, at different times every day, with no more than four or five straight hours of sleep at a time. However every third day you get a 'sleep of kings', where you can have an uninterrupted eight hours of sleep.

Soaring sea birds

On watch my two favorite duties are lookout from the bow, and doing the hourly seabird observations. Just looking out into the ocean is very relaxing and allows you to appreciate all that is going on. Constantly checking for squalls or obstacles in the water, you have to be attuned to any changes that are going on around you. This means that every school of flying fish that jumps out of the water, every petrel soaring in and out of the ocean swells.... all are noticed. Other than our 32 other shipmates, these open ocean inhabitants are the only other life we have seen since leaving Hawaii.

A diving bird photographed on a previous expedition

Of course we cannot forget about abundant zooplankton and phytoplankton existing in huge quantities in the ocean all around us. Every night we deploy a Neuston net, which we drag along the surface of the water while we sail by. Mostly we catch copepods and a few cephalopods in our net, but as we traverse south, we expect to see a change in composition of our net tows. Throughout our voyage we will making similar measurements, as well as daily carousel deployments, where we sample water at preprogrammed depths, characterizing depth profiles of temperature, salinity, chlorophyll a, and a
few others.

As we approach the intertropical convergence zone, these measurements will change. This is the area where Hadley cells on either side of the equator converge and air rises, leading to pretty much constant cloud cover. There is also continuous upwelling of cold, nutrient rich deep water to the surface, as the surface water is driven northward. Because the cold deep water goes to the surface (bringing with it an abundance of nutrients from the deep), these depth profiles change significantly. One of the big questions we are trying to address in the Phoenix Islands is how its waters are affected by the intertropical convergence zone. It sits right on the edge of the equator so it is unclear how the productivity of the waters of PIPA compares to surrounding waters. But we will soon find out.

Until then, I'll be standing watch, and waiting for my next sleep of kings.

Luke Faust

7/3/14

SEA 2014: They're off!

Our mission on this six-week voyage is to make the first comprehensive oceanographic survey of PIPA, a vast marine protected area about the size of the state of California. Over the next few weeks you’ll be learning much more about PIPA, one of the world's largest and most remote protected areas located in the middle of the Pacific just South of the Equator and East of the International Date Line.

Reefs and wildlife in PIPA

There are many remarkable things about the Phoenix Islands and the Protected Area. PIPA is a part of the remote island nation of Kiribati, and makes up over 11 percent of the ocean surface controlled by this country. It represents a huge commitment toward ocean conservation on part of this small nation with few resources. The eight islands comprising this archipelago feature pristine coral reefs with rich fauna of corals, other invertebrates and fish. It is a place where one can see glimpses of what the Pacific looked like before we humans started having an impact on an ocean-wide scale. And as it stands, we know very little about it!

Favorable winds and gentle seas; The sails are set and we are on our way to PIPA!

Ours is a collaborative mission between SEA, New England Aquarium, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Phoenix Islands Protected Area Agency, Kiribati. This voyage of discovery brings together a diverse group of people from across the globe. Our ship carries a community of 33 students, ocean scientists, mariners and conservation managers from the US, Kiribati, Tahiti, India, Australia and Europe.

As diverse as we are as a group, we have a strong unity of purpose. Starting on our arrival in PIPA in some 12 days' time, we’ll be working hard over the following three weeks to create a map of the ocean currents, temperature, planktonic life and the nutrients that support it, and much more.

Researchers survey reefs of PIPA on a previous expedition

We are the first to do this, and there is much to do, more than I can describe in this post. So in the coming weeks I hope you come back to this blog to hear more from all aboard about our work and unfolding discoveries, about PIPA, about sailing and our ship, about the ocean and our efforts to conserve and protect it.

On board the Robert C. Seamans,
Jan Witting, Chief Scientist

7/2/14

SEA 2014: To sea! With SEA!

Every once in a while, the stars align and something truly great happens. PIPA has been lucky of late - lots of exciting news!

His Excellency President Anote Tong recently announced to the world that the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) will be closed to commercial fishing as of Jan 1, 2015 at the Our Oceans conference, hosted by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and the U.S. State Department, Washington, DC.

His Excellency President Anote Tong at the Our Oceans 2014 conference

This is especially exciting because it means that the previous posts on this blog (about tuna) are now out of date. Very soon, tuna fishing will not be allowed anywhere within PIPA waters. The only fishing that will be allowed will be around Kanton Island, which currently is (and will remain) a sustainable use zone, to allow the caretaker population (roughly 35 people) to fish for protein. This is absolutely necessary, since supply ships to PIPA are irregular and rare.

Simultaneously, we were lucky enough to be welcoming two Kiribati colleagues (Tekeua Auatabu—from Christmas Island, and Iannang Teaioro—from Tarawa) to the U.S. to begin a 2-week course at the Sea Education Association (SEA) in Falmouth, MA, along with 13 students. Of course, they also visited the New England Aquarium, where we have several mentions of the Phoenix Islands Protected Area on exhibit! (Here's one of them....).

Tekeua and Iannang from Kiribati visit the PIPA exhibits at the New England Aquarium

Two weeks on Cape Cod may sound fairly idyllic, but everyone was working really hard to get up to speed on their upcoming adventure. All-day, every-day coursework, lectures, guest-lectures, and sail training (with only a 1-day break)... and on the last day, everyone was still smiling!

All smiles!

Within a day, the whole class will set sail from Honolulu, where they will spend 6 weeks at sea en route to the Phoenix Islands. This will mark the first-ever oceanographic cruise to PIPA, and is a historic collaboration between SEA, the New England Aquarium, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and of course: the Republic of Kiribati. The objectives of this mission are multi-fold and many, but include first and foremost the high quality education of 13 students in both science and policy aspects of PIPA and related regions. The scientific goals of the sea portion will be detailed in the coming weeks and months, and will be chronicled here on this blog.

But already, the adventure had begun. For example, a PVC hand-off in Beacon Hill (Boston, MA) between Cam Braun (WHOI), Randi Rotjan (New England Aquarium, not shown), Tekeua and Iannang.

The PVC hand-off on the historic streets of Beacon Hill

Why the PVC? Excellent question! The answer: there are no hardware stores in the Phoenix Islands. :-) But more specifically, the PVC pieces are cut to a very specific length so that we can take photos of the reef floor from a fixed distance (photoquadrats) that will be analyzed later for species diversity, composition, density, cover, and health status. Given that we are headed towards an El Nino year, it is important to get as much documentation of PIPA reefs before, during, and after any potential ocean warming (and perhaps bleaching).

Until then, the students, scientists, and crew are all gathering in Honolulu, getting oriented on-board, and double checking that all necessary supplies are in place.

If the stars aligned, and I think they are, then: to sea! With SEA! To see!

Stay tuned...

Randi

The Phoenix Islands Marine Protected Area (PIPA) is the one of the largest marine protected areas in the world and the largest and deepest World Heritage site on Earth. It was created in 2008 by the Pacific Island nation of Kiribati with support from its partner organizations, New England Aquarium and Conservation International. The Aquarium is grateful to the Prince Albert of Monaco II Foundation, The Robertson Foundation, GoPro, The Explorers Club and many others for helping to support this expedition.

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Expedition Partners

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Team Members

Randi Rotjan, PhD

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Dr. Randi Rotjan is a research scientist at the Aquarium, with expertise in coral reefs, symbiosis, and climate change. She coordinates the Aquarium’s research partnership with Kiribati on the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) and co-chairs the PIPA Science Advisory Committee. She is the Chief Scientist for the current expedition to the PIPA, coordinating the expedition by satellite.

Sangeeta Mangubhai, PhD

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Dr. Sangeeta Mangubhai is an adjunct scientist at the Aquarium. She has been working with the Aquarium since 2000, during the first trip to the Phoenix Islands. This is her fifth trip to PIPA. She is the Chief Scientist onboard the expedition, working with 15 others onboard and Rotjan remotely to study the current El Nino and the impacts on PIPA marine life.

Simon Thorrold, PhD

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Dr. Simon Thorrold is the Director of the Ocean Life Institute and a Senior Scientist in the Biology Department at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). He serves on the Science Advisory Committee for the Phoenix Islands Protected Area. He is a co-organizer of the 2015 PIPA Expedition, working closely with Rotjan and Mangubhai to ensure a successful voyage.

View a list of previous blog authors here.

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