This is blog entry posted from the field during the 2012 Phoenix Islands Marine Protected Area (PIPA) Expedition. The Phoenix Islands are an isolated island chain more than 1,000 miles southwest of Hawaii. They are part of the island nation of Kiribati, which partnered with the New England Aquarium and Conservation International to create PIPA in 2008. Today it is one of the world's largest marine protected areas and a UNESCO world heritage site. This voyage is part of a regular series of scientific expeditions to investigate coral health and study ecosystems and biodiversity.


It is the third day of our travels to the Phoenix Islands and we have now covered 700 miles of open ocean. We have already changed our itinerary to suit the currents and weather conditions and are heading directly through the center of the Phoenix Islands to Kanton Atoll.


We have been blessed with calm seas and good weather all the way out and the majority of the team got their sea-legs after the first day. [Seas were much rougher during the 2009 expedition crossing.] Four of us--myself, Rob Barrel (the owner and captain of the Nai’a and who been to Phoenix Islands five times), Tuake Teema (who is our esteemed Kiribati government representative) and Craig Cook (our doctor and safety officer for this trip)--have visited the Phoenix Islands before and were part of the original pioneering expedition in 2000.



The others are new young up-and-coming scientists from WHOI, Scripps and KAUST visiting the islands for the first time. It is clear from talking to them, that they have a wealth of experience from other parts of the world and are experts in their field. Over the upcoming days, they all will be blogging and sharing a little of the research they are doing and how it will contribute to the growing body of information on the Phoenix Islands. [While in transit, the team has already started deploying data collection equipment called drifters.]



During the transit we have been sharing our local knowledge of the area of the team, reviewing our safety and biosecurity protocols, and we have started to prepare our equipment and datasheets. The team is now itchy and ready to get into the water and do their first dive in the Phoenix Islands.



In between talking to the team, I have had calm moments to sit and just reflect on the Phoenix Islands and what the place has meant to me. The Phoenix Islands changed my life and has inspired me over the last decade to work on coral conservation issues in the Pacific, East Africa and now SE Asia. The Phoenix Islands and the early expeditions we did in 2000 and 2002, are my “baseline” of what coral reefs should like in the absence of human impacts. It does not matter where in the world I work, the Phoenix Islands help me understand what a truly healthy reef looks like, if protected or managed well.



A healthy reef should been literally teaming with fish and invertebrate life against a backdrop of vibrant gardens of corals. It should be noisy and busy place with fish darting in, out and along the reefs. It should also be a place where large apex predators like sharks patrol the reefs in large numbers. As we get closer to the Phoenix Islands, I cannot wait to see how these reefs are doing. Part of me is anxious because I know how much the bleaching event in 2002/2003 affected the reefs. But the other part of me is hopeful that the fish populations are in a good condition and that there is much recovery.

-Sangeeta Mangubhai

P.S. And a special message from Rob Barrel (scuba diver) to any Rocket 21 kid reading this blog "we have arrived in Kanton and all the serious science has started so stay tuned."

So why does a Boston aquarium work in the Pacific? Commuting to my job at the aquarium today I was thinking about this question. If you are a diver or a scientist it is obvious why you would want to go to place like the Phoenix Islands--they are beyond imagination and still virtually unknown to Western science. And if you have followed this blog over the past few years you will have read about Dr. Randi Rotjan and colleagues as they set off on a research expedition to the Phoenix Islands in 2009. My work is not as glamorous or exciting as Randi and our Global Explorers who dive into the most remote and beautiful corners of the oceans. It is a lot of meeting rooms and conference centers.




However, I am privileged to be a part of the globally significant conservation work on marine protected areas (MPAs) that our Boston institution is involved in. I represent the Aquarium in our partnership with Kiribati and Conservation International on the policy and administration side of our work on this Very Large Marine Protected Area (VLMPA), as these giant managed ocean areas have recently been coined.

Next week I will be traveling to the capital of Kiribati, to the island of Tarawa. It will be my third trip to Tarawa in two years. This time, I am heading there for the third annual Phoenix Islands Protected Area Conservation Trust board of directors meeting. Bud Ris, New England Aquarium President and CEO, and PIPA Trust board member, and I will be making the trek together. For all intents and purposes, the trip takes three days. To get there we stop in Boston, Los Angeles, Auckland New Zealand, stay overnight in Nadi Fiji and finally arrive in Tarawa.


Over the next two weeks Bud and I will be blogging to you on our work and experiences, on MPAs, the PIPA Trust, the New England Aquarium’s role in the Trust, and more. I hope to help answer this question for those of you who might have pondered of why we work internationally. And we also want to share with you a glimpse of everyday life on an atoll island, in a truly ocean nation whose very existence is under threat by climate change.

-Regen

At the conclusion of the 2009 expedition, we left you with promises of updates and publications and news. I'm writing now to make good on that promise; even though the blog has been a little quiet, there has been much action behind-the-scenes, and PIPA has reached several important milestones.

First, in September 2010 (~1 year post-expedition), a group of scientists met to brainstorm the next decade of PIPA research. Following the 5-day meeting, a Science Advisory Committee was created, and a document drafted containing the vision for scientific marine research in PIPA for the next 10 years. Already well underway, the scientists (myself included) have been busy fundraising, designing experiments, and planning the logistics for the next expedition (upcoming in 2012). Here's a group shot from the meeting:


Another major milestone occurred last month (May 2011), when delegates from the Kiribati government, the New England Aquarium and Conservation International signed a new Memorandum of Understanding to continue their partnership work on PIPA for another four years.


May 2011 was historic for PIPA on a number of fronts. The PIPA Conservation Trust held it's second annual board of directors meeting in Seattle. Directors include (R to L) Bud Ris (NEAq), the Hon. Minister Amberoti Nikora (Kiribati MELAD), and Dr. Greg Stone (CI); below, they are welcoming the new Executive Director of the Trust, Dr. Teuea Toatu (far left).


PIPA was also recently highlighted at the second International Marine Conservation Congress for its collaborative partnership with Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument - 2 of the 43 "crown jewels" of the ocean.



Most recently, there are five new scientific publications that have just been published about PIPA; one in the journal Coral Reefs; and four in the Atoll Research Bulletin.

Of course, the biggest news (almost a year old now!) is that in August 2010, PIPA was inscribed as a World Heritage Site; now the world's largest and deepest. marine World Heritage Site. Happy almost birthday, PIPA WHS status...


The next expedition is slated for Spring 2012, and this blog will get busier as the preparations begin. For more real-time news, please be sure to go to connect at our facebook pages Phoenix Islands Protected Area and the New England Aquarium.


Until soon,

Randi

Want to fly through the underwater seamounts of the Phoenix Islands? Now you can, thanks to Dr. Peter Etnoyer's Google Earth fly through. Peter is a Marine Biologist at the NOAA Center for Coastal Environmental Health and Biomolecular Research (CCEHBR) and proud owner of a plot of ocean in the Phoenix Islands on the Aquarium's Live Blue Initiative.



Watch the video below and consider how much is left to explore of the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA). Although the 2009 expedition began blue diving and recording data with Remote Operated Vehicles, most of what we know about PIPA is located on the tips of those mountains, and not the vast expanses below.

"The Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) is the largest Marine Protected Area (MPA) in the world. It's the size of the state of California. Most of the attention to PIPA is drawn by the colorful coral reefs that surround each of the eight atolls in PIPA. But the coral reef environment is a tiny fraction of PIPA. By far, more than 99% of the ocean habitat in PIPA consists of the pelagic environment, the place where a vast array of invertebrates live and drift around; also the area where schools of tuna, pods of whales and dolphins, seamounts, deep sea creatures, many of which await discovery. "
-Gregory Stone, PhD from this original post


"Unlike beaches or even coral reefs, most people will never see a seamount, but this study shows that they are clearly one of the predominant ecosystems on the planet. We can only hope that through this study, people begin to realize what a vast unknown the ocean represents, and what a vital role it plays on Earth."
-Peter Etnoyer, Ph.D., principal investigator of the study and marine biologist at NOAA’s Center for Coastal Environmental Health and Biomolecular Research.

Hello dear readers, and happy holidays!

Emily Mead, a local high school student, is sponsoring a campaign for the children on Kanton Island. When the expedition team visited the Kanton Island school, the students gave us a list of items that they need. In the spirit of the holiday season, I encourage you to donate!

Items (or funds for items) can be dropped off or mailed to the New England Aquarium, attn: Regen Jamieson, Conservation Department; 1 Central Wharf, Boston, MA 02110.


Photos of the Kanton Island school and kids (photos: L. Madin)

Emily's summary and list are as follows:

Kanton is the only inhabited island out of the eight that make up the Phoenix Islands. The Phoenix Islands are located in the country of Kiribati. Kiribati is in between Australia and California. Kiribati includes 33 islands in three different island groups, 277 square miles of land, in 2 million square miles of the Pacific Ocean. The Phoenix Islands include 11 square miles of land. The Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA), including its archipelago and surrounding waters, is 157,626 square miles, making it the largest protected area in the world and about the size of California. Kanton is included in this area, and needs your help. The teachers of the school on Kanton requested some materials, to educate their students more and teach them about the oceans surrounding them. So, by helping them in any way makes a big impact. We greatly appreciate your generosity, and happy holidays!

Materials Requested:
Crayons
Scissors
Stapler
Pencils & Pens
Dictionaries
Markers Glue
Rhymes
Poems & Songs
Posters of the internal and external parts of fish
Posters of types of fish and reefs
Wall clock
Dolls

Thank you!

Items (or funds for items) can be dropped off or mailed to the New England Aquarium, attn: Regen Jamieson, Conservation Department; 1 Central Wharf, Boston, MA 02110.

The last of the Phoenix Islands "Greatest Hits" highlights.#10: Future PIPA ExpeditionsOkay, I admit it. I have been stalling on this last post. The truth: I have no idea how to end this blog. How do you put a neat, satisfactory end on something so wild? Anything I write will be anticlimactic. With this in mind, let me simply offer you some stats to let you know how where things stand as of this very moment:

...15 Expedition members, now spread all over the globe
...15 amazing NAI'A crew members (based in Fiji) 
...100+ bags of luggage transported to and fro
...400+ SCUBA dives completed on the 2009 expedition
...4 blue water dives
...3 ROV excursions
...11 days on-site in PIPA
...11+ days in transit (5 in very rough seas)
...500+ species of fish documented
...200+ invertebrate species documented
...3+ scientific publications in progress
...5000+ photos of PIPA (see previous posts for highlights)
...65 blog posts
...12,000+ blog readers (Thank you!)
..........408,250 km2 of protected ocean (PIPA remains on of the world's largest MPA)

And the experience ..... priceless.

Thank you all so much for reading and journeying with us. Special thank you to Jeff Ives (the New England Aquarium blog guru) for all of his support. Special thank you to all of the fellow bloggers who posted, students who participated, and readers who commented. To those silent readers - thank you - we hope you had as much fun reading as we did writing. It was a blast. I still don't know how to end this blog (mea culpa), so I'll leave you with some comforting thoughts:

1. The next PIPA expedition is slated for 2011. Stay tuned, and we'll keep updating this blog to let you know exactly when.

2. We'll post 2009-PIPA related press, publications, lectures, and outreach efforts here on this blog. These will include a book, a National Geographic article, a movie, scientific publications, and press.

3. This blog will not disappear (it will remain on the Aquarium website), so you can re-visit the 2009 expedition at any time. With 65 posts to go through, it will certainly keep you busy to go back to the beginning! Plus, the New England Aquarium is never idle - there are always amazing adventures all over the globe (including at 1 Central Wharf, Boston!), so check out the other blogs to see what's going on.

So, thank you! And don't forget to live blue.

Happy holidays,

-Randi

The Phoenix Islands "Greatest Hits" highlights continue...

#5: ROV exploration of PIPA depths

Take a deep breath. Go on, try it. In with the good air; out with the bad air. Ahhhhh. It's easy, and feels good, eh? Now, try it underwater. With SCUBA, you can only breathe so deep - around 120 feet on air, if you're a conventional diver. At best, might be able to breathe about 300 feet deep. What about on a submarine? Okay--you can breathe deep there, but you're breathing recycled air. And hence the topic of today's post: since we can't breathe deep underwater (at least not easily), how do we explore deep underwater?


(Left Photo: David Obura) (Right Photo: Jim Stringer)

The answer to this question depends on how deep you want to go. The coral reefs on PIPA are a reef formation known as an atoll (described in an earlier post). One of the features of these mid-ocean, volcanic atolls is that they are basically seamounts that break the surface--so they descend very deep, with a very steep slope. Kiribati is also full of seamounts that do not break the surface. In fact, Kiribati is home to ~4% of the world's seamounts. That's a lot of ocean to explore below the surface!


Seamounts featured between McKean, Rawaka (Phoenix) and Enderbury Islands (Photo: Google Earth)

It would be great to get a manned submersible out to PIPA someday, and hopefully we will soon. But as a first glimpse of the deep, we brought an unmanned ROV with us on this expedition. This ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) can only go 500 feet deep, but that's 380 feet deeper than we were diving. And yes--you guessed it--since the ROV was unmanned, breathing was not an issue. :)


Mo preparing to launch the ROV off the boat for a dive (Photo: Larry Madin)

Now, I'm not a stranger to the concept of deep depths. I used to work on deep-sea hydrothermal vents (miles below the ocean!) , but I've never personally journeyed there (though my experiments have). So naturally, I was extremely curious to be on-site for some deep-sea exploration. One of the big advantages of working on these reef atolls with their steep, sloping sides is that we could (and did) literally dangle the ROV out of our ship window (see Mo above with the ROV). Greg could (and did) sit at our dinner table on-ship and drop the ROV below us, while others of us were diving on the reef. As any deep-sea scientist will tell you: what an unlikely (and pleasurable) way to explore! Greg posted extensively on this earlier - see Greg's posts for more photos and details.


Randi Rotjan, David Obura and Les Kaufman look on as Greg Stone controls the ROV (Photo: Larry Madin)

A first glimpse was just enough to leave us breathless (figuratively, of course). Corals living past 300 feet! The crystal clear waters of PIPA were able to allow enough sunlight at depth to support the coral-algal symbiosis. We saw lots of healthy corals, though the diversity was low (just a few species) And fish! Snapper (the same we'd been seeing shallow), and more baby sharks patrolling the slopes. In fact, on one ROV dive, 10 sharks (gray reef and black tip) were seen. And here's the enticing part--when we looked further down the slope at the end of our ROV's tether, we could see that there was more life, still. Breathtaking.


(Photos: Jim Stringer)

Marine organisms are not limited to the shallows the way that humans are. Sadly for us, we have to make the choice between deep breaths or deep depths; we generally can't have both. But ROV's and manned submersibles give us borrowed lungs and enable us to explore the last unexplored frontier--the ocean floor. After all, we know more about the moon that we do about our ocean floor! I'm excited about future ROV and sub explorations of PIPA. After all, the thrilling and mysterious sights of the deep sea will take your breath away--but thanks to this technology, not literally.

-Randi-

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And the Phoenix Islands "Greatest Hits" highlights continue...

#3: SHIP WRECKS, RUINS, PLASTICS, RATS, COCONUT TREES, FISHING, and STYROFOAM

During this entire expedition, we've been cautiously describing the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) as "relatively free from human impact," or as "a reef with little/no current local impacts," etc. In case you missed the nuance, it's worth taking a moment to explain exactly how much human impact there is or has been in and around PIPA. First of all, these reefs are not pristine in the absolute sense of the word. Nowhere in the world is completely free from human impact, anymore. Climate change is impacting natural ecosystems from the equator to the poles. There are still wild and beautiful places in this world, but no place is truly pristine. Pristine has taken on new meaning, and is now used to describe places that are relatively pristine--or as free from human impact as they can get.

So, what are the ghosts of humanity (past and present) that haunt PIPA islands and reefs? To simplify things, I've created a few categories. First, there are long-lasting ghosts. This category basically is restricted to shipwrecks (of which there are surprisingly many!), plane wrecks (Amelia Earhart's plane, in theory anyway), and recent remnants of buildings created when the islands were used by PanAmerican Airlines, or by guano miners, or by military operations during WWII. These large ghosts are mostly made of metals (iron, copper, steel, etc), and are very long-lasting.

Some of the wrecks on the Phoenix Islands are likely over 100 years old, but they are still having a continual impact on the islands through their slow deterioration and the resulting metal poisoning (which facilitates algal growth, whereby restricting coral growth, for example). There is noticeable shipwreck debris on the reefs. To some extent, the debris has become part of the reef and provides complex structure for fish to hide in and for invertebrates and algae to settle on. However, the debris also changes the ecosystem. We were able to see visible impacts of iron poisoning (with a spread proportional to the size of the wreck). On such small reefs, shipwrecks can have a substantial impact for decades, if not centuries. Similarly, metals leach from abandoned metallic structures on land into the coral sands, and promote plant growth that would otherwise never be found on equatorial, Pacific atolls.

The next category is quick-release ghosts. These include plastic water bottles, flip-flops, Styrofoam floats, plastic buoys, glass bottles and buoys, and any other small-trash debris that is likely to last for only a decade or less. This small-scale debris can still have a big impact - as plastics break down, they release chemical compounds that remain in the water long after the original plastic object physically degrades. As we blogged about earlier, there is a surprising amount of trash that washes up on remote, uninhabited shores. The Pacific Garbage Patch is a testament to how much trash is visible from the surface, never mind how much trash lies on the ocean floor.

There are also low-impact ghosts. Ruins from long-ago island residents (Polynesian or otherwise) that were built with coral stones or other natural materials have very low impact. They do alter the landscape of the islands, but they are generally not leaching toxins or metals onto the islands.

There are also a lot of living reminders of humanity on these islands - including the small resident population of people on Kanton Island. However, Kanton is their home and the only inhabited island in the Phoenix Chain, and I give these residents lots of credit for living in an incredibly harsh environment with relatively low impact. Thus, I will restrict this commentary to the 7 uninhabited islands of the 8 total Phoenix Islands. So, living ghosts is my final category.

There are both marine and terrestrial living ghosts. In the marine realm, the abundance of small (and deficit of large) sharks is a living reminder of the shark finning that has occurred on these islands. Baby sharks are an encouraging sign, but they are also living ghosts of fishing past. Since PIPA is now protected with strong enforcement via satellites, on-board government agents, and regular boat patrols, hopefully there will be no over-fishing future.


Baby black-tip shark (photo: Jim Stringer)

However, we see living ghosts in the corals, too--large stands of dead coral rubble reflect the major bleaching event a few years ago (see previous posts by David for more on this), and the geological record of global change will be forever preserved in coral skeletons.


Contrasts between live versus dead coral (photos: Jim Stringer)

In the terrestrial realm, there are living ghosts as well. Rabbits and rats are not native to these islands, but we can see evidence of these (and other) small mammals that were introduced by man. As Greg posted earlier, rat eradication projects have been going very well, which has enhanced the nesting and reproductive success of native birds. But rodents are tough to remove, and their presence (decades after introduction) is a strong reminder of the fragility of these islands, and the long lasting impact of careless (or unfortunately-shipwrecked) rat-infested boats. Though the vegetation on these islands is beautiful, it is worth mentioning that some trees and plants are themselves living ghosts of human impact. Used by humans to provide sustenance, coconut trees would not likely have found their way to the Phoenix Islands without being directly planted. So too with other plants, I'm sure, but I didn't spend enough time exploring the land to see for myself (I was mostly underwater). But the point remains--living ghosts still abound on the most remote, uninhabited islands of the earth.

As we approach the Halloween season and ghosts and goblins abound, take a few minutes to consider the ghosts around you--remnants of society and humanity that still influence the natural world long after they have been abandoned by humans. And with that, I leave you with this eerie thought: Boo!

-Randi-

#2: CRUSTOSE CORALLINE ALGAE: Next on the greatest hits of the Phoenix Islands (and these are in no particular order, by the way), is our CCA tour. CCA tour? What's that? Glad you asked.


Hydnophora rigida coral near Kanton Island (Photo: R. Rotjan)

CCA is science geek shorthand for Crustose Coralline Algae. Clear as mud, I know. CCA (now that you know what it stands for) is basically reef cement. It's an encrusting, hard, red algae (Rhodophyta) that covers dead reef substrate (among other things). CCAs are anything but slimy--they appear smooth, but also provide some texture and traction. This textural combination is a bit like sidewalk cement. It pours smoothly and will cover surfaces evenly, but has a bit of a grainy texture to the touch. Also similar to cement, CCA acts like mortar holding bricks together, only that CCAs cover loose pieces of dead coral rubble and holds them together.

With all of this construction/cement talk, you might be wondering about the pink part of this story. Molly Ringwald, Aerosmith, Pink Panther--this part is for you. CCAs are usually pink! The pinkness adds a lovely aesthetic to a coral reef, which is one nice feature.


PIPA reef in recovery. Can you spot the pink CCAs in this picture? (Photo: R. Rotjan)

More importantly, a pink reef is a reef ready for re-growth, since baby corals like to settle on CCA-covered substrates.


Coral recruits and juveniles growing on CCA-covered substrate (Photo: R. Rotjan)

Loosely, when corals reproduce, they either spawn or brood their next generation, and these eggs and sperm combine to create larvae which spend some time in the water column before settling on a permanent home on the reef floor. For a coral larvae, pink = prime real estate, a.k.a. smooth, available substrate with just enough texture to hang on while growing.

There is always some amount of CCA on reefs, and coral settlement is highly biased towards CCA. On a reef that has suffered some major challenge, in the case of the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) reefs, the catastrophic coral bleaching event (mentioned in previous posts here, here and here) caused by the longest and highest thermal anomaly likely ever recorded on reefs. CCAs are a critical part of the recovery stage. Once corals bleach and die, their rubble often remains and gets strewn about on the reef floor, knocked around by waves and storms.

Without live coral animals continually building new skeleton, abandoned skeletons get quickly overrun by bioeroding organisms and become weakened to the point of collapse. This is why live, healthy, GROWING corals are critical to reef. Leftover skeletons can only provide structurally complex habitat for a short while. The point is that CCAs overgrow these dead skeletal frameworks and provide the perfect platform for larval settlement: a.k.a. coral re-growth. Hence, CCAs are a critical part of reef recovery.


Dead, standing coral rubble covered with pink CCA (photo: R. Rotjan)

CCAs themselves are only one part of a very complex recovery story. Briefly, for successful recovery recipe, a reef needs the following the ingredients: reproductive coral adults (or a nearby supply of coral larvae), a CCA blanket, clean and clear waters, and a healthy population of reef herbivores to graze the fleshy macroalgae that would otherwise cover the CCAs and outcompete baby corals for access to space and sunlight. A reef also needs to NOT have the following: disease, pollution, repeated disturbances, etc. Luckily for PIPA, there was only one major bleaching event. With almost no current influence from human populations, PIPA remains free from extensive pollution and disease.


A parrotfish feeding frenzy, "lawn mowers" (Photo: R. Rotjan)

PIPA also hosts a relatively intact fish population, which means that herbivores keep the reef substrate clean (think of herbivores as lawn mowers working to maintain a perfect corporate lawn). Weedy macroalgae is therefore only present in low abundance (because the herbivores graze it), and the reef stays closely cropped. Put all of this together, and the story is this: PIPA reefs are pretty in pink!


PIPA recovery in progress: newly growing coral overgrowing CCA substrate, which is kept clean by herbivores such as the surgeonfish shown here (Photo: R. Rotjan)

Sure enough, on this expedition, we saw lots of pretty pink CCA, and on top of the CCA: coral recruits and juveniles. PIPA is well on the way to recovery. Stay tuned for the next expedition (2011?!) to find out: Will coral be the new pink?

-Randi-


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"I've been handing out quite a few YAOSGBIR (Yet Another Ocean Scientist Getting Broader Impact Right) recognitions recently. SEAPLEX, Finding Coral, NE Pacific Expedition, the Beagle Project-Tocorime Pilot Project, to name a few. And joining the list was the recent New England Aquarium-Woods Hole-Conservation International 3-week research expedition to the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA). This expedition, made up of an international team of scientists, divers, and photographers, surveyed what may be the most pristine, intact coral reef ecosystems on Earth.

"You may have been following the Aquarium's expedition blog that's kept an almost daily play-by-play of the mission ....



"MBSL&S: I'm fascinated by your interests and exploration of what you call "ecosystem engineers," or species that can significantly alter or manipulate their environments. What ecosystem engineer species are you hoping to study on this expedition? Can you describe some of the experiments (or observations) you plan to conduct?

"Dr Randi Rotjan: Ecosystem engineers abound on coral reefs, and include the corals themselves! Coral animals build the structure of reefs with their calcium carbonate deposition. In many ways, they are analogous to trees in a forest--both trees and corals create the physical structure on which so many other organisms depend, and thus dramatically alter the landscape with their presence. In temperate forests, beavers are often cited as ecosystem engineers because they cut down trees – thereby again altering the landscape by creating dams, which not only changes the distribution of trees, but also diverts waterways. Similarly, corallivores (organisms that eat live coral) are also ecosystem engineers because, like beavers, they can change the shape of the habitat."

Before we get to the PIPA 2009 Expedition Greatest Hits, the expedition needs to officially end. What's the official end? It's a tough call. The moment we left the Phoenix Islands? The moment we got off the boat? The moment we all left Fiji? The moment we all arrived home? The moment when all of the scientific publications, National Geographic stories, videos, blogs, and medical articles have been published? Where should we draw the line?


Fijian islands, photo: K. Ellenbogen

Well, I decided to draw the line when we all left Fiji. Though the responsibilities of the expedition members are far from over (and this blog will continue on for a while longer), the full team is no longer together. As I mentioned previously, David and Tukabu and Tuake are together in Tarawa presenting the initial findings of the expedition. The rest of us are preparing to leave Fiji to go home or onwards to other exciting locales. But before the next stage (whatever it may be), we must all encounter one final expedition-related excursion... the airport.

You've probably been through this--check in 2 hours before an international flight. Pack the bags yourself. Limit yourself to 1 carry-on and a small personal item. No liquids. Usually 2 bags per person. yadda yadda. It's a different experience in bulk, let me tell you! We all flew separately to Fiji in the beginning, but the bulk of us left together (9 in total) on the same plane. For those 9 members, check-in lasted almost 2 hours and included 67 bags-worth of hassle. That's right, 67 bags for 9 people!


Airport shenanigans with 67 bags and 9 people--every bag visible is ours! (Photos by R. Rotjan)

Totaling it all up, that means an average of 7-8 bags per person. Given that there were 15 expedition members, we had over 100 bags total between us all... not counting the three giant crates that were shipped to and fro, containing the hyperbaric chamber (see Greg's earlier post for more on the chamber, and an early post by Brian to see some of the bags in the gear room onboard). Larry put it best - when I mentioned that I would title this blog "Leaving on a jet plane," he suggested an alternative: "Filling up a jet plane!" Because I used the radio call letters W-PIPA in my last post, I stayed true to the original title (Sorry, Larry).

Bag trouble aside, we all managed to leave Fiji successfully, avoid any Tsunami issues (though we are all deeply saddened and concerned about Samoa and other relevant areas), and all of us have the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) on the brain.

I can't speak for my colleagues, but on the plane, I read a novel by J. Maarten Troost and I think he did an incredible job of describing Kiribati as a country (however, having never been to Tarawa, I cannot comment on the accuracy of the rest of the book). Nonetheless, his words are so apt that I feel compelled to share them with you; I have taken some liberties (in [ ], and some deletions represented by an ellipsis), which I hope Troost will forgive if he ever reads this:

"The word Kiribati, pronounced kir-ee-bas on account of the missionaries being stingy with the letters they used to transcribe the local language, is derived from the word Gilberts, which is the name of one of the three island groups that comprise this improbable nation. Located just a notch above the equator and 5000 miles from anywhere, Tarawa is the capital of this country of 33 atolls scattered over an ocean area as large as the continental United States.


Kiribati shown in relation to Australia (canterburypasifika.org)

"The total landmass of these islands is about 300 square miles, roughly the size of the greater Baltimore metropolitan area, though I believe it halves at high tide. Most of Kiribati's land mass is found on Kiritimati Island (Christmas Island), several thousand miles away from Tarawa. What remains is not much [but includes the Phoenix Islands].


Satellite image of the Gilbert Islands (NASA)

"To picture Kiribati, imagine that the continental United States were to conveniently disappear, leaving only Baltimore and a vast swath of very blue ocean in it's place. Now, chop up Baltimore into 33 pieces, place a neighborhood where Maine used to be, another where California once was, and so on, until you have 33 pieces of Baltimore, dispersed in such a way so as to ensure that [99%] of Baltimorians will never attend an Orioles game again [due to travel constraints]. Now, take away [most Western conveniences]. Replace [Northeastern U.S. shingled roofs] with thatch. Flatten all land into a uniform 2 feet above sea level. Toy with islands by melting polar ice caps. Add palm trees. Sprinkle with [remarkable musical talent and amazing dedication to PIPA]. Isolate and bake at a constant temperature of 100 degrees Farenheit. The result is the Republic of Kiribati."

These were the thoughts as I had in my mind as I flew over Fiji and looked at a tiny, tiny portion of the vast Central Pacific on my way to New Zealand (where I will be for the next week). As I looked down on the big blue from ~30,000 ft, I was again struck with the theme of the trip: there's a lot of ocean out there. It's giant and blue and amazing and fragile, and there is still so much to explore.

By the time I post this blog, every single one of the expedition members will have reached our next destination successfully. And so, I declare the expedition officially over. But, I also officially declare the next challenge: for all of us (including you!) to contemplate the sheer size, mass, area (pick a metric, any metric!) of the world's oceans, and think about what you can do to explore and protect them. In other words, live blue.


The 2009 PIPA Expedition Crew; officially signing off. (Photo: Cap'n Jonathan).

Stay tuned for the greatest hits and the scientific wrap-up (coming over the next several weeks).

But since I've now left Fiji on a very full jet plane, over and out from the PIPA 2009 Expedition.

-Randi-

We're here at W-PIPA playing the expedition hits. Coming up soon, we'll play the "best of" expedition highlights (don't change that channel!), including the "top 10 greatest hits." But in the meantime, a word from our in-the-field news correspondent (me) during our Fijian interlude.

It's another bright and sunny day here in Nadi (pronounced Nandi) in Fiji. Expedition members are slowly adjusting to land--experiencing various levels of "dock rock" and trying to find their land legs again.

Immediately upon arrival at our hotel, meetings began with International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) representatives to discuss our candid impressions of the Phoenix Islands Protected Area, which has been nominated as a World Heritage Site. After a day of productive meetings, we had a wrap-up dinner at The Corner Cafe for some Indian Food. That was the last time the team met as a whole, but the hits just keep on coming. Field correspondents David, Tuake, and Tukabu headed off to Tarawa (back in Kiribati) to present our 30-page field report to the Kiribati Fisheries department and other government officials. The rest of us have another day in Fiji to unwind, analyze more data, update our blogs and, dare I say it, relax (shhh!) for a few moments before our hectic inter-continental travels.

In other important news, expedition members got their first glimpse at this blog, and were shocked that a) our almost-equatorial Central Pacific ramblings were semi-coherent, and that b) so many different things happened on this trip. Experiencing it was a whirlwind; re-reading the events feels like a dream.


Les Kaufman gets his first glimpse at this PIPA expedition blog (Photo: R. Rotjan)

A dream-like reminder of our trip--looking through previous expedition photos, we realize that we've had similar experiences, and seen most of the same critters. It's like seeing your own experience through someone else's eyes.

 
 

As we review the blog, organize our photos and compile our science for publication, we'll publish the top 10 greatest hits right here on this blog--the world premiere of all things PIPA Expedition 2009. We'll also be updating previous blog posts with new photos, so be sure to check back!



Don't change that channel, the expedition "top 10" will be coming right up.

We'll be right back!

-Randi-

(Photo: Jim Stringer)

Every school year, teachers across the country set out to make the work of scientists understandable and appealing to students, who might otherwise find it indecipherable and dull.

This fall, a New Hampshire educator was helped in that mission by a group of scientists--working from a boat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Marajka Knight, a 15-year-old in Ms. Mueller-Northcott's class, was a regular reader.

"It makes you feel like you're there," she said. "You get to talk to someone who's actually doing what you're learning about."