Anna's Atoll Adventure

Separating the ants I trapped from the Spam bait. I got the record for catching the most ants in one tube 473 or something!!

1) F.O.D. - Foreign Object Debris survey is done weekly. We have to ensure that a certain area (I forget the exact dimensions, it's marked on the concrete) of the runway is clear of any debris that could inhibit an emergency evacuation transport. Basically we walk the important part of the runway and pick up ANYTHING and EVERYTHING bigger than a pickle. Obviously, since Johnston is windy, many things end up on the runway but since we do it every week it's not too horrible of a job. I refuse to pick up any bird regurgitation that ends up there. Not interested in touching half digested squid that has fallen from 50 ft up and has now been baking in the sun.  2) Tide Station - The tide station that transmits data to Univ. Hawaii and USGS needs monthly cleaning. Jake and I drew the short straw and we have to climb the tower to the solar panels and clean to bird poop off with a squeegee and then go for a swim to clean the algae off the water level sensor. I got a hyroid sting ...

July 1 - 6 We completed 7 surveys and 3 "Johnston Life" tasks this week, suffered through deluges of rain, and celebrated the 4th!  The surveys were: 1) Klu - a vegetation management survey for the thorny Klu ( Acacia farnesiana ) conducted monthly. Klu is one of 4 Acacia species found on Hawai'i and was introduced before 1860. Only one acacia species, the Koa ( Acacia koa ) is native to Hawaii. Klu is very similar to the Haole Koa ( Leuaena leucocephala ), meaning "foreign koa", which grows all over Johnston. Because they look so similar it easy to mistake one for the other. Unfortunately Klu is armed with crazy long thorns and since it is very successful in this climate it can take over the whole island if given the chance. Klu hasn't been found on Johnston for just under a year but we survey previously impacted areas as a precaution. 2) Hand Searching - I may have stated before that Johnston is divided into a grid of 50 square meter plots. Each...

Johnston is a nesting ground for 14 pelagic seabird species and 5 wintering shorebird species. Obviously humans were directly responsible for the original decrease in seabird populations, simply because they were killed as a result of most JA operations. Less obvious at the time was the impact of pollution, which was brought to attention much earlier than the problem of invasive, specifically ants and the YCA.  Red Tailed Tropic Birds  -  RTTB nest on the ground under trees, shrubs, up turned rootballs, or rock outcrops. They are ridiculously clumsy and are often seen crash landing some distance from their nests and then using their tiny webbed feet (reminds me of penguin feet) to flop around on their keel, the large ridge of bone that has developed where our sternum is. They also tend to "scorpion" or have their rear end roll up over their head, flinging their tail feathers forward and smoothing their beaks into the ground when they land with force. This usually hap...

This email is a doozy. Sorry it took me so long and also please forgive any typing errors, I had a hard time figuring out which of my devices will actually connect to the wifi with a strong enough connection to send an email. My laptop is useless for wifi and my phone is too small to type an email of this length. So I ended up using my tablet but that presents it's own challenges. I have only been able to type up the first week of July but I've been doing some really cool research on the history of Johnston as a refuge and have hopefully given you some cool details on some of the work we are doing here. I'll continue to do this as we go! JA Backstory - Johnston Atoll is a part of the Line Islands archipelago. It is roughly 700 miles from Hawaii and is one of the most remote islands in the world, being the only landmass in 820,000 square miles. It was used by the US military and was built up and enlarged via dredging in the 40's and is shaped largely like an aircra...