Stuck and Unstuck

We have plated probably 1000 samples of sand and created more then 1000 petri dishes that are now full of growing bacteria .The other day , we packed up our samples and prepared to leave the island. However we are not leaving the island, not today and probably not tomorrow. Sifting through old letters, magazine articles and newspaper clipping I found several articles that meniton how this happens often on Palmyra. The other thing I found is that the experience of Palmyra is tarnished by the presence of the internet, while I believe this may indeed be true I think the unspoiled beauty of Palmyra was destroyed a long time ago.

Anyway we also picked approximately 175 colonies of what we believe are actinobacteria. The scary thing now is that we risk having the plates that we spent the last month plating overgrown with Bacteria if we do not start picking them soon.


I have been working on this blog mainly waiting for our plane to get fixed and come pick us up. Today, since we were basically put on notice that we were likely stuck here until Wednesday, we went for a scuba dive to collect some sediment. While we were on the dive word came in that the plane was cleared to fly and we would be picked up tomorrow (Monday).

Then tonight I had the opportunity to crack open some fresh coconuts to help make some tahitian ceviche with the fresh Yellowtail tuna that was caught this morning.

The Best Boobies in the Pacific

Apparently the second largest red footed booby colony, this is a picture not of a red foot booby.

The pool is closed and the plane is not coming!

I was going to write an entry about the sum of our expedition as Wednesday was supposed to be our departure day from Palmyra atoll. However, news has come that the plane that is supposed to come pick us up is stuck on Christmas island. Now, when you need a plane in the remotest parts of the world well its not so easy to find one, for various reasons. First it is expensive, second when you need a part you also need a mechanic and finally there are other islands that are serviced by the same plane. So right now we are on standby to standby for the actual arrival time of our flight. As far as I know the only plane that can come to get us is broken down.

Parrot Poo and Cocunut Crabs

A very tropical assortment of happenings lately. Today we went out in the lagoon boat and anchored at the inside of penguin spit where the reef is in less than 15 feet. This is a completely different habitat then diving on the outside of penguin spit. The waves crash over the reef crest and then inside you get where we dove today. The sediment is scarce but since we were scuba diving in less then 15 feet of water it was relatively easy and we had plenty of bottom time to get sand and complete our other task. Our mission went above and beyond the usual call of duty, pun intended because today we were collecting Parrot fish poop. The poop is going to be used by another graduate student at SIO to culture bacteria. Unfortunately there are no pictures of the pooping because my camera is not working properly however I can tell you parrot fish poop a lot and often.

Last night we went out on a night jungle walk to photograph the famous Coconut crab which is know to tear open whole coconuts, it is also the world largest land crustacean. Birgus latro, is the largest land living arthropod.

Penguin Spit

Yesterday we completed two dives for a total of 75 samples of coral reef sediment. Most of the collecting was done at 65 feet. The first dive was a little tough due to a strong current and the use of collecting tubes rather then collecting bags. The second dive on Penguin spit was perfect with little to no current and only 12 tubes to fill as opposed to the usual 25 bags. Note Penguin spit is named for one of the original ships to discover Palmyra. You might think collecting sand is easy work but getting 25 samples of sand at 60 feet turns out to be very time consuming and most of the dive is usually spent hunting for the perfect sediment. It is especially hard to find good sediment on these coral reefs because the hard coral and algae cover is so high. Most of the sand we find are in patches, under ledges and sometimes deep in holes on the reef. Anyway posted are pictures of Paul collecting sediment (note mostly composed of halimeda chips) and other pretty pictures that I took.

Tsunami Evacuation on Palmyra Atoll

Just a quick blog, just got back from abandoning Palmyra atoll. As you may know there was a large earthquake in american samoa that generated a tsunami. If you look on a maps america samoa is the next piece of land straight from Palmyra atoll so we abandoned the island. We were about 5 minutes from getting the water for our first collecting scuba we got a call from Palmyra station to come back immediately, then a sail boat that was waiting to come in was told to back off palmyra atoll. All very dramatic sounding. Then we were told to not delay and make full speed back to station. Still we did not know what was going on but the Captain a was flooring it back then we heard about the the tsunami warning. When we arrived we loaded up the boat and sped out to see to wait a few hours until the trouble past... luckily the tsunuami arrived.