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.

The Far East

Today made my second trip to the east end of an island to collect sand this summer. In July, I went to the east end of Catalina island to collect sediment and today I went to the east end of Palmyra atoll. The east end can be very difficult to get to because well Palmyra is in the middle of nowhere and lots of open ocean swell pass by the island. We got lucky and today was very calm. Our first dive was on the south east tip of the east terrace. First thing I noticed when I jumped in the water were sharks and lots of them then I noticed that the entire bottom was hard coral rubble and coral. The hard substrate is not very useful when your task is to collect 25 bags of sand. The task of collecting sand was further complicated by the ripping current and for Paul it was made it almost impossible to collect sand because he had to hold the buoy so that our captain can keep track of us. It was tough but I managed to get 6 bags of sand. I am happy just to have the 6 bags not just cause it was difficult to get them but because the east end is completely untouched by the military dredging and could represent the potential to really understand the native microbial population of palmyra or at least the actinobacteria population.

Since the current was far too strong we decided to move up onto the eastern terrace. Here we found tons of sand creating rivers that seemed to flow through the coral spurs. All the snorkeling was in less then 30 feet of water so it was easy to cover large amount of ground and collect lots samples. After collecting 50 of these types of samples we moved to the northeast part where the atoll has a dramatic wall sloping down quickly to 1000 feet. We dove in 60 feet of water and found the most pristine diving yet on palmyra. After the dive we went out to collect a deep sample, we actually did manage to bring some sediment to the surface but on our second deployment of the sand grabber we encountered something that bit the find and bent it, so we called it a day with over 100 samples of sand.


The pictures above are from today collection trip and the sunset photo is from the bbq we had last night. At the bbq we had sloppy joes and watched hermit crabs figh over food droppings. Did I mention the food here is wonderful.

When it Rains it Pours

I have no complaints about doing research in Palmyra. The food is made fresh everyday, other people do your laundry and the location is perfect. However, when it rains in Palmyra and it does almost every night and day it really pours. The pouring rain is not just a passing rain cloud either. The last two nights it has poured as hard as one can imagine for several hours and continued into the day. The cabin we live in is so loud from the pouring rain it is hard to describe but imagine a truck rumbling down the road for hours and hours (sorry for the lame analogy).

Today we ventured over to a site we had not covered yet, inbetween the two fighter jet runways. Historically, there has been at least 5 runways on this island, two fighter runways, one emergency runway and a side runway from the main one that is still used. The main one is a little over a mile and we use it almost everyday to run. Most of the trip was in less then a meter of water and often we had to pull our kayaks through. The most common animals we see on the sand flats are bone fish and grunts. These fish are usually being chased by baby black tip reef sharks. On one occasion the grunts where being chased and the whole big school of them panicked and started to swim right towards me. When they saw me they got even more scared and jumped out of the water. When the grunts jumped out of the water one hit me directly in the chest and one landed in my kayak. Now, fishing is prohibited in Palmyra so it is pretty funny that without any effort to catch a fish I caught one, which is better then I do when I try to catch fish.

The Video of Quick Sand

Day ? and Kevin in Quick Sand

Today was supposed to be a standard scientific sediment collecting expedition. Our mission was to track around the eastern lagoon and collect sediments from the deep blue holes and the shallow sandy flats. Everything started out well, we passed through the causeway which was built courtesy of the US military so that they could get to all the islands of the atoll. Once we passed through the causeway we started sampling with our mud snapper. We collected some deep sediments and some shallow sediments. Then I suggested we take a walk on the coast where the sand tidal flats meet the jungle. We had about a 5 minute walk to get to shore and when we got there we collected our first samples which were very interesting, the top of the sand was the typical white color but below the was a bright pink color likely of bacterial or even archael origin ( a halophile perhaps) Our goal was to collect from two sites along the coast so we began walking along the coast being careful to stay below the high tide mark because we are not permitted to go on the 'land'. As we began walking we noticed some very cool things. First we noticed that crabs like to hang out below boobies nests. The funny thing I saw was a booby almost poop on a crabs head, I asked Paul to try and capture this on film but he failed. Then we continued to walk this is when we noticed that the sand was becoming gooey. At first it was no problem we simply sank up to our ankles in mud. We come to a low point on the land and admired the outer reef things were going well then paul started to head out and sunk knee deep into the mud, at this point he stated ok this is starting to not be funny, actually I think he said ok this is getting serious probably because I was laughing at him and asked him for his camera so I could film it (video coming soon) then we decided to just walk on palm leaves so that we would not sink so deep and then we came to a point where there were no palm leaves and the sand was way more then knee deep. Paul made his way through first and then I followed, very quickly falling waist deep into the mud. At this poin Paul turned around and began filming the excitement as I was no longer able to move. He captured video of me basically fighting for my life as I crawled on my belly through quick sand. The video is on FB I think but I will try and post a link here later, after I blur out the face.

After the quick sand incident we kept collecting and the next coolest thing was we encountered 7 or more manta rays feeding in a little bay inside the lagoon. I captured video of one the yesterday which I will also try and post later. Now I am posting some pictures we took while snorkeling on the outer terrace, it really exemplifies what it means when someone says 'coral reef'


Anyway besides that the collecting of sediments is progressing, we are plating out so much and that we are running out of petri dishes.

Tomorrow should be a big day because well its Sunday and the Chargers are playing so lets hope for their sake and mine they win.

This may only seem interesting cause I am on a remote island in the Pacific, but here is a picture of the setup we used to charge my camera battery, thanks Canon for making all your chargers and batteries different sizes.

Blog Day 7

Our sampling has come up to full speed, we are now collecting 50 bags of sediment a day and plating each sample onto 2 different types of media. Today we ran a track around the western lagoon collecting sediments from the deep blue holes and the shallow edges of the lagoon. Hopefully we will find Salinispora in these samples, there is no reason to think that we won't but maybe we will find a very different Salinispora. By different I mean very genetically different both at the 16S rRNA gene level and at the secondary metabolome level. The idea is that since Palmyra is so geographically isolated it should harbor genetically distinct populations of bacteria. As of now there are two formally described species and one other that need to be formally described. But there is still a big qustion as to what exactly a model with 3 Salinispora species will do for us.

The big news of the day is that my camera battery which has been dead for the past 3 days was finally charged. When I was packing I grabbed my roomates charger and left my charger plugged into the wall at my home. Today with the help of the station manager and some alligator clips, wiring and duct tape we were able to use another charger and charge up my battery. This is very exciting as I can now tak HD video with my camera, on land and underwater. Now lets hope the housing does not leak. For now here is a picture of me and Paul diving.

Day 5 and 6 Bumphead Wrasses

Yesterday we took one of the small boats and ventured through the lagoon to the far east end of the atoll. We docked our boat on a coral berm and snorkeled on the reef crest. The reef crest was amazing and seemed like the most pristine coral garden I have ever seen. The brightest purple Montipora species and the healthiest looking Pocillopora corals. I was both sad and excited to see Tridacna all over the place but was sad because is is what the western side must have looked like before the military dredged it. In addition to the normal sediment collecting mission we were also helping out one of the other scientists on the island. She is studying the Bumphead wrasse, these are the largest known wrasses and are named for the huge tumor looking bump on their forehead. We found a group of eight of them and followed them for about a half an hour. These massive wrasses use there beaks to bite of and eat pieces of calcareous coral. I observed them actually munching of large pieces of coral it was quite a site to see. Our second collection involved hiking over the coral berm that we docked on to go to the outer reef. The habitat was extremely different from the calm reef crest. The coral living here clearly were used to constant wave action. Most of the coral we saw were table like coral and were clearly very strong although I saw several of the coral flipped upside down, not much soft sediment out in this area. The other thing on the outer reef was sharks, I saw three different ones they seemed very curious but were spooked by our presence.

On our journey back to station we had to navigate through the old causeway that was built to connect cooper island with island on the south, this causeway has caused havoc on the lagoon as it has cutoff the continuous flushing of the western lagoon and is probably contributed to the lack of coral on this end. Apparently there is some heated debates that have occured as to weather or not to remove it.

Also on the way back to station we stopped at the structure where Buck lived during his time here. Buck is the person convicted of the double murders. His house is really just another military building. It was scary because they have made a dummy sit at the table in the building so as we came upon it Paul flinched severely when he saw what looks like a man sitting at a table.

Palmyra Day 3 and 4

Yesterday we went out to scuba dive on the northwest side of the atoll. The first thing we noticed was that Halimeda is everywhere. Most of the 'sand' is composed of pieces of Halimeda. This was also the first dive using my underwater camera. Since one of our main missions is to collect sediments this was my first task during the dive. During the dive we collected 20 samples of the sediment. We take the samples back to the laboratory, place them in a laminar flow hood to dry. The next day when the samples are dried we use a foam plug to stamp out the sediment onto petri dishes with growth media. Then we wait to see what grows on the plate. Mostly bacteria will grow. The bacteria that we are most interested in take 2 weeks or more to grow so this is just the start of our search for marine actinobacteria.

In the day one blog I said that I would not be talking about the history of this island but well it turns out that this island has a very important and sad recent history as an air base of the U.S. military. During the 1940's the military dredged almost the entire atoll to make a large surface area of land, create a longer deeper lagoon and create a passage for boats into the lagoon. The island was also heavily fortified as we found out today during our hike. The construction of the airbase decimated what must have been a beautiful lagoon.

During the hike we found what must have been weapons bunkers, defensive posts and on the tip of the island we found a large platform that contained two gun turrets. The bunkers were totally camouflaged and clearly built to withstand attack. We also found a two story concrete building which was not clear what it was used for. In the library here an album of declassified pictures show that the island once had many many buildings all over the island. But interestingly none of the west end with the bunkers are shown in the pictures, I am guessing they are still classified.

The saddest part about the exploration today was that we noticed much of the island was created from the dredging of the lagoon as evidenced by the presence of tons of coral rubble. The other sad story was that we also found thousands of dead clams of the species Tridacna giga. Tridacna is the very colorful species of clam people often keep in aquariums. The inner lagoon must have been carpeted with them but now all that is left is the dead shells. I can only imagine that the military felt that establishment of bases in the pacific superseded the need to preserve the worlds coral reefs. It is truly sad to me because this island is always described to as one of the most isolated and pristine reefs in the world. While the outer reef seems relatively healthy the lagoon has clearly been destroyed.

Anyway I am going to post some pics from the dive, I guess I will show a picture of one of the numerous sharks that followed us throughout our dive..

Day 2 September 11

So Just a brief comment since it was brought up to me today not through CNN or MSNBC that today is 9/11, eight years ago I was sleeping in my bed and awoke to my mom exclaiming that "they" are knocking down buildings and bombing the Pentagon. I have come along way since then, today I spent my morning in search of the elusive marine Actinobacteria.

I think that as the days go on I will try and not give play by plays but for now that is how it is going to go down. Starting with my first sleep in on the island. The cabins here are very simple with two beds, a dresser, ceiling fan and light. The most interesting thing I noticed while trying to fall asleep was the sound of things rummaging through the bushes, I am guessing these are the invasive rats. The other thing that is also apparent is the many many birds that live on this island, they apparently do not become quite during the night instead it sounds like a busy city of birds all night. I awoke this morning found some breakfast and then got ready to take the boat Zenobia out to collect sediments from depths beyond recreational scuba diving limits.

My advisor Dr. Paul Jensen set up the entire rig which is basically a mud snapper attached to a deep sea fishing device. We used the device to sample within the lagoon and tried to use it sample outside of the lagoon. Inside the lagoon we found very soft mushy sulfur smelling sediments from about 160 feet. After collecting sediments from inside the lagoon we headed out through the channel which was constructed by the military when they occupied Palmyra in the 1940's. We traveled out to find deep sediments down to 2000 meters but only managed to find approximately 600 foot deep water. However, we did not capture any sand probably due to the coral rubble type bottom found here on Palmyra atoll. If you are at all interested I would like to explain briefly how coral atolls form it is very cool. Basically they start as a volcano that begins to sink into the ocean and as it sinks coral grows around the edge of the caldera forming a ring of coral around a very deep lagoon. Coral also grows up the slope of the volcano. The coral growing on the slope of the volcano gives us the hard bottom that makes it hard to get soft sediment that is very deep.

Since we were unable to collect deep samples we decided to collect sediments from the shallow reef in about 30 feet of water. We simply used our snorkels and fins to dive down and grab some sand and then move on to the next spot. This makes my first experience with the local reef. First thing that came to mind was there will be lots of sharks around and there was, I did not see any on my first entry but on the next 5 or 6 entries I saw at least 2 black tip reef sharks cruising the reef each time. This is a good thing as it is a sign that the coral reef ecosystem here is healthy and is not suffering from over fishing.

The rest of the day was spent processing the collected sediments in order to culture marine Actinobacteria.

I would just like to leave this post with a screen shot of the GPS tracks we made today they include the mud snapping and the snorkeling, can you guess which is which?

Palmyra Day 1

Today we arrived on Palmyra atoll. This island is considered one of the most geographically remote places in the world but I wont really be talking about the history of Palmyra here. Instead I will tell you about the day to day experiences I have. I will also try to post video and pics as often as possible. First exciting thing was the landing at the Palmyra international airport. First thing we did was have some lunch followed by safety briefings and check outs on the boats. Right off we saw a black tip reef shark while were being checked out on the boats. I heard there are lots of nesting birds on the island. Most interestingly the red footed booby. I am not sure but I bet this is similar to the blue footed booby which uses its pretty blue feet to attract mates. I wonder if red is as attractive. Finally we got all of the lab equipment set up and most importantly perhaps I have made my first skype phone call. Well hopefully these blogs will get more exciting but for now this will have to do.