Johnston Update - September 2019
Johnston Update -
September 2019
The
Nautilus was here!! I was so excited when our Honolulu point-of-contact
messaged us saying that the E/V Nautilus would be traveling past us on their
way back to Hawaii. Backstory: the Nautilus is an exploratory ship that
conducts marine research all across remote areas of the Pacific. Basically my
idea of a celebrity! We didn't have a lot of information on when the boat would
be coming, how close it would come to us or even if we'd be able to see
them.
The days when Tropical
Storm Akone was expected to hit us were especially frustrating because the
weather was poor enough to impact our work and prevent us from doing anything
fun outside but didn't seem bad enough to keep a ship from sailing by. I spent
two days racing from the North shore to the South shore every three hours,
climbing bunkers with my binoculars and scanning the horizons. I didn't know
what the boat would look like or how fast it would come into and then out of
view, but there was no way I was going to let it slip by without getting a peek
at it! I gave up hope after day two, I felt I had missed it somehow. A couple
of days later our Honolulu point-of-contact, Margeaux, told us to expect to
have visual contact with the boat within two days, they had been delayed by the
bad weather! On September 11th, I was the first to spot the boat, the tallest
part was just barely visible with binoculars, at the horizon. The first day
they were about 8 miles southwest of us. That night we could see a faint glow
on the horizon and could see the actual lights of the boat through our spotting
scope. We knew via emailing a contact on the vessel that they had deployed two
underwater rovers that were diving a course up the reef. This which would bring
the boat 2 miles closer to us. The next afternoon, the 12th, we were able to
view more of the boat since they had moved to where the RVs surfaced. That day
we listened to Stevens’s radio conversation with the captain and some of the
coral scientists that made up the crew. It was so exciting and fascinating,
especially when they told us they'd be doing another dive that night that would
bring them even CLOSER to Johnston! After that I could see the entire boat
through my binoculars, and still have a decent view of it even without them.
EV Nautilus through one of my binocular lenses.
They talked to us via
radio one last time, on the 13th, before they began to sail away and I actually
got to ask them some questions! They had told us they were mapping and
cataloging coral species at seamounts across the Pacific and had started their
mission at Howland-Baker islands. I asked how many dives they'd done to which
they answered 7. I also asked what their favorite moment of the exploration was
and the majority of them said there favorite was their visit to Johnston!
They told us they were able to drive the RVs into undersea caverns and view
massive amounts of columnar basalt and a shark that no one on board could
identify. They also saw a deep sea jellyfish that has a symbiotic relationship
with a bright red isopod and this specific pair looked like the isopod was
driving the jelly around the ocean like a spaceship. See the story and photos
here: https://www.livescience.com/ghostly-shapeshifting-jellyfish-nautilus.html. They told us they thought we were hard core
for voluntarily secluding ourselves on a deserted island for half a year. It
was such an awesome compliment from scientists that I idolized. I told them so
and they said that I should try my luck at applying to work on the Nautilus in
the future and that if I could cut it on Johnston I would definitely be capable
enough for the Nautilus. It was a great good-bye because just after that they
were out of our radios reach. For more about the Nautilus and its visit to
Johnston, go to https://nautiluslive.org/expedition/2019
We're at the end of
this month and I have been very homesick. I've be feeling guilty because I miss
my family, pups and friends so much but I really wouldn't want to leave
Johnston yet. I've been working hard on an application to OSUs graduate program
and combing through job postings every week.
Jack hogging all the
balls. I love this goof-ball.
Jill, Sweet Jill
Geronimo. She’s a
girl.
The work we've been
doing has been pretty strenuous as well, lots of heavy vegetation management
that requires clearing massive amounts of invasive trees and shrubs and
herbicide application. We also have completed the identification of the
thousands of ants we collected from 657 locations across the island. It was a
huge project.
We've also started
inventorying all the supplies we have stored here because U.S.F.W.S. is
thinking about changing how Johnston is managed now that we're fairly certain
that YCA have been eradicated. My crew could be the last Crazy Ant Strike Team
and the last people stationed here for such an extended amount of time. We know
there has been a lot of discussion going on in Honolulu but until any decisions
are made we've been asked to assist in figuring out logistics or the
demobilization of this remote station. USFWS pages on CAST https://usfwspacific.tumblr.com/post/171441288590/do-you-have-what-it-takes and Johnston
Atoll https://www.fws.gov/refuge/johnston_atoll/
This last week we had
some impressive tide changes that allowed some of the best snorkeling yet.
We've still been identifying very unique sea creatures, it's so much fun to get
to discover new things every week. I found a pelagic fish, a species of
sharpfin mola or sunfish (Masturus lanceolatus), that had been carried
back by a booby or frigate and then discarded on the seawall. It was a mystery
for us until we asked Ryan's friends at University of Texas's ichthyology lab
to identify it for us. It was such a cool find, it went into our bi-weekly
report that gets sent back to the Honolulu office!
Two weeks ago I found
a live Goldlip Pearl Oyster (Pinctada maxima) which is the world's
largest pearl producing oyster! And NO I did not kill it to look for a pearl. I
did however pick it up and put it in my bike basket before I realized it was
still alive! I apologised to it a plopped it back into the water right off the
seawall. I came back the next day to see if I had actually killed it but
thankfully it had scootched off, back to the reef.
I also found the
second species of nudibranch we've seen, the Swallowtail Headsheild Slug (Chelidonura
hirundinia).
Just the other day we
all went snorkeling as a group and a five and half foot grey reef shark came up
and checked us out. Luckily Steven had quite a lot of experience with sharks
being a competitive free-diver and spear fisherman. The shark was close enough
for him to have reached out and touched it but he's smart enough to know not
to! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_reef_shark
I've been working on
some painting and trying to find another good book to read. I found a stack of
canvases and claimed them for some paintings.
Spotted Boxfish https://reefguide.org/spottedboxfish.html
Orangespine Unicornfish https://reefguide.org/indopac/orangespineunicorn.html
We've been watching
the Great British Baking Show and equally getting inspired to bake things or
sad because it makes us miss having the option to go buy something tasty from a
bakery. Sarah has made us bagels twice now. I am a fan of biscuits and scones
and just had an experimental drop biscuit fiasco. I attempted to alter the
recipes I'd been using previously to make a cinnamon whole wheat breakfast
biscuit but somehow they became grossly salty (luckily Ryan and Steven eat
anything and everything despite the taste).
I miss you all !
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