July 22nd Day 32

Today I woke up with a bit of a hangover. It wasn't major but when I found out we were going to go water sampling out in the open ocean, I wasn't exactly pleased. From the shore it looked calm as could be but as we motored out there, it got a little windy. Being on a small boat that isn't moving with swell and wind chop made the water sampling a bit difficult. I started to feel sick a few times but I was able to put it aside in my head and do the work that needed to be done. It was hard work getting the water samples when they were at around 200 feet. It also wasn't fun pulling up all that line. Once we finished at the open ocean site we went in to do a fore reef site. Once that was finished we came back and processed the water samples. I helped Jessica set up an experiment to find out the primary production (organic carbon production by phytoplankton) in water samples from the two sites. After lunch Tom, Andy, and I went out to the rapids plots to collect some more algal recruitment tiles. When we got back from that trip there wasn't a whole lot else to do for the day. With the extra time, I went to Val who is a Tahitian worker here at the station to have her call about the discount cards and if they were in at Moorea's Airport. I then finished the last portion of the dive master test and then got to call it a day. In that time I did some work on my Fulbright personal statement and also did some job hunting for when I get back to the states. For dinner tonight we had this lentil soup/stew with ham and bacon which was really good. After dinner I spoke with Erica for a short time about finalizing the trip to New Zealand and then I worked for a little while longer. Now I am going to go to bed to try to make up for the sleep I lost last night hanging out with Mathieu. Until later.

July 21st Day 31

Today started off unlike the previous days. We got our dive stuff ready and prepared to set up some more plots for coral caging. I went down with Andy today and helped him drill holes in the reef with the bigger 100 cubic foot tanks and a air driven drill. It was a balancing act holding the tank down for him while he drilled as it continually got lighter and lighter during the dive. It wasn't too bad though because the conditions were really good underwater with very little surge. Once that was over, we rinsed our gear and got ready for more cage building. There wasn't too much to do other than to finish a few cages so I decided to push to get all the work I needed to get done early. I asked Keith at 3:35 if there was anything else I could do before I went to the juice factory and he said no. Although I didn't know it, today was the last full day of work at the juice factory for my friend Mathieu, so my instinct to go today served me well. He gave me a tasting of all the juices they make at the factory and then took me on a tour of the juice factory telling me all about the current and past operation as well as all the things he had done as part of his job. He told me that he is a communications expert by his education who designed all the descriptive signs on the walls of the factory to aid in the guiding of tours through the juice factory. Despite the language barrier, which was very small, he did an excellent job telling me what did what and where in the factory. We got to wear hairnets and lab coat while we toured through the factory which got me to be just as impressed. Once our tour concluded, I thanked him for coming out, and made plans with him to come over after he was done with his departure party at the factory. When he came over, we started to drink the Maker's Mark that I brought over from the states. Although he admitted to hating whiskey, he admitted that he liked the Maker's Mark. We talked for a couple of hours about his travels in Europe and some other things too. He is defiantly a person who I could talk to for hours and hours about everything under the sun. He made sure to tell me that when I come to Europe he would like to meet me somewhere if I don't end up going to Paris where he lives. He told me that it gives him excuse to travel. After Mathieu left I took a shower and now I am about to go to bed. Until later.

July 20th Day 30

Today started off like the last few days have. The weather wasn't the greatest, but regardless there were cages to be made. Tom and I finished the cages in the morning and then processed the herbivory assay algae that was brought in from the field. When I was helping with this, Russ told me that I deserved to go out since I hadn't been on the water for three days. When he said this I figured he meant that we needed to go out diving again. But in actuality, since it was their daughter's last day in Moorea, they were going to go to the ray feeding sight. I was all for it so I got my stuff ready and we headed over. The weather was pretty bad looking on the way over with rain clouds everywhere. Once we got to the sight though it wasn't too bad. It was still cloudy which made picture taking less clear but the water was shallow enough to where that wasn't a problem. As we pulled up, all these people with seadoos had parked in a line at this spot so we knew we were in the right place. Right as we dropped anchor, the rays came to the boat and were looking for food. These 3 rays actually came up to the surface right against the boat expecting food. Russ pulled out some of the frozen squid he brought and fed them right then and there. When I hoped in, it was a little deeper than I expected. I could barely stand with my head over the water. But really that didn't matter. All the action was under the water and boy were there rays. They flocked toward us looking for squid to eat. The majority of the time I spent taking pictures and video of all the rays. At some points during the encounter there had to have been 30 rays swimming around us. They were not bashful at all and would just come up to you and flap onto your chest or head looking for food. I also managed to see a black tip reef shark off in the distance as well, but otherwise there were no sharks there like Russ said there might be. After about a half hour being in the water swimming around with the animals that killed Steve Irwin, we decided to leave to get back to the station before the weather blew in. I spent the rest of the day looking through video and photos of the rays. There were some really good ones and I ended up making one of them my screensaver. We had some home-made lemon chicken for dinner which was pretty good and then I came upstairs to talk to Erica. Now I feel pretty tired after a long hard day of feeding sting rays so I'm going to hit it. Until later.

July 19th Day 29

When I woke up today the weather was very dicey. The wind was blowing real good and there were some flashes of rain every once in a while. Mike and I went to the store early this morning to get our supplies for cooking tonight. We had to make more cages for the Russ and Sally's coral experiment so I spent the entire day working on that. It was my first time today that I had to break out my jacket to keep myself dry in the rain. Normally rain doesn't matter to our operation at all since we go in the water but there was no diving for me today so I tried to keep dry. As the day went on the weather improved slightly but that really didn't matter much since the task was mostly cage building. We had quite an assembly line going for a good portion of the day. Yesterday Russ helped make cages and today Sally did also. I found that to be cool how they didn't consider a task like that under them especially after the many years they have been coming here. I think it's just a testament to their great personalities and work ethics as well as respect for their workers like me. When the day was over we cleaned up and I got ready to cook for the night. We got frozen burgers and fries at the store this morning to make an all American meal but unfortunately there was not enough baking room to make all the fries. They turned out to be more like hash browns than french fries which was funny. This certainly wasn't one of my greatest cooking endeavors. After dinner I skyped with Erica to work on our trip some more and looked at some possible places where I could work as a dive master after this trip. I need to talk to Keith about it but it's possible that I could go work at a resort somewhere to make some money. Anyways I'm falling asleep at the computer so I better go to bed. Until later.

July 18th Day 28

Today we got up to go out and collect more algae for additional herbivory assays. The weather was no good with strong winds coming out of the east but since we collect algae in the lagoon, it was manageable to get out there. Once we got as close as we could to the reef crest we jumped off the boat and started to swim. As I was swimming along, I saw this huge fish that was incredibly ovate in shape blaze by me like a torpedo. I got a glance at its profile from behind despite that it was moving so fast. From the shape alone I was able to tell that it was a Titan Triggerfish. These guys are the biggest triggers here and they can be very territorial. While a female is guarding its eggs, anything that swims close it will charge without any hesitation. They are known for taking bites out of fins of SCUBA divers as they swim away. Once I got to the reef crest, I swam up to it and was astonished at how shallow it was. It was so shallow in fact that I just decided to take off my fins and get on my knees on the crest to pick at the algae. It was like I was tending a garden or something like that. Once we got what we needed we headed back to our boat and made our way back. When we were in the boat channel (where there are no shallow coral bommies and where boats can travel) 4 seadoos came through and Tom freaked out a bit. He had an experience before where in the boat channel two seadoos were coming right at him and instead of going to the left of him, they went on both sides and apparently they all almost collided. He was telling me for the rest of the two minute ride home how much he hates the stupid tourists on seadoos. When we got back, there was very little to do aside from making cages. The weather was quite bad for the most part until the late afternoon. At around 4 pm the weather calmed and we saw it as an opportunity to get out to swap another one of our herbivory assays out on the fore reef outside Cook's Bay. It was really nice out there and the dive went off without a hitch. The only thing was that somehow I forgot my weight belt and had to wear one that made me super heavy that was an extra on the boat. Once we got back we cleaned up and called it a day. Later we ate some tuna that had been caught earlier today as sashimi. It was by far the sashimi I have had before. You could just tell by the taste alone how fresh it was. After that I worked a little more on tying up some loose ends with the trip to New Zealand and now I'm pretty beat. Until later.

July 17th Day 27

This morning was marginal for going out to the field but Tom and I went out despite the weather. It ended up ok and the conditions underwater were not the best, but manageable to the point where we could comfortably dive. We did three dives that included deploying and retrieving a video camera that filmed our herbivory assays and finished the four invertebrate plot surveys that we needed to do at the rapids site outside of Cook's Bay. By the time we left, it was getting pretty dicey so it was a very good time to leave. I spent the rest of the day after we got back building cages for the coral experiments for Russ and Sally. We got to quit work early today however to go to a lookout above CREOBE called belvedere to see both Cook's and Opunahu Bay before sunset. On the way there, we dropped off some pots at the local snack shack along the way to allow us to order food for dinner tonight. We went up to the belvedere and I was amazed. Despite how dark it already was since the clouds were in the way, it was a spectacular site. You could see both bays clearly from the vantage point which made being at this beautiful, Tahitian backwood location even more desirable. When we came back down we picked up our pots we had dropped off to be filled with food and headed back to the station We ate a family style dinner from the white cart for dinner and then allowed people from the French station to come over for a going away party for one of our grad students named Anya. For the majority of the time I was talking to Mathieu about his time here and the amount of times we needed to hang out before he leaves to go do a two week tour of California and Nevada. He reiterated to me the need for me to come to the juice factory before he leaves despite the time I normally get off work. We were under the fierpote tonight but I couldn't help but take a peek out at the water and mountains at night. The moon was out in full force tonight which led me to wonder outside the fierpote to look at the beautiful view. I learned to make a French Caribbean drink with lime, sugar, and local rum that wasn't too bad. Once the rum was gone I brought out my Goldschlager for everyone to try. After that I headed back to my bed because I knew I had to get up early tomorrow. For now I think I'm going to sleep. Until later.

July 16th Day 26

I was woken up this morning by the howling winds and torrential rain outside which was certainly a first for me here. I know it has rained in the past at night but this was pretty intense. It was also at around 6:30 in the morning which really is only about an hour before I get up every morning. It during the majority of the day not including the late afternoon, the weather was marginal to bad for diving. Despite this, we went out to the fore reef for a quick dive to deploy another herbivory assay and collect some more algal succession tiles outside Cook's. On the surface it was windy and there was a lot of wind swell that was sizable enough to smack up against the side of our boat we took out. But despite this, we needed to get our work done so we dove in, did a quick and thorough job, and got out. Getting onto the boat was certainly interesting because you had to time your 4 foot climb up the swim ladder between the waves so that you didn't get flung back off the boat. Once we got on we booked it out of the weather and back to the station. From there on out I made some cages for the rest of the day. By the late afternoon the clouds had parted and it made for a nice end to the workday. After doing some work on my trip out to the Tuamotus, I had some delicious homemade poisson cru from the day old tuna we had bought from the Tahitian boat maintenance guy here at the station. Jack is a very good fisherman and he catches tuna pretty regularly which is great for us because we get the freshest fish possible for a cheaper price than what you get at the market. After dinner we had our first dive master course to finish up some material we needed to cover to finish off the master diver test. Unfortunately that ran a bit long and the guys who went to Mathieu's party down past the Hilton had already left so I'm stranded here writing this blog. I guess it's ok though because I am super tired from getting an hour less of sleep today so I think I'm going to check out for the night. Until later.

July 15th Day 25

Once again the weather was not favorable for work offshore. Since we didn't need the boat for water sampling, Russ and Sally decided to take it because the big blue boat that we had been taking to the west side of the island has been having engine issues and they couldn't take it out. However I could not go with them because the boat they were taking can only fit 5 divers max. Instead I went out with Keith to do instrument work on the north shore. Instruments typically are in deeper water so whenever I go out with him I do my deepest dives. Today I worked at around 60 feet which is reasonably deep. While we were waiting on the bottom for Keith and Jessica to finish working on the ADCP (acoustic doppler current profiler) I spotted a black tip reef shark about 70 feet away from me which was the closest I have been to one yet. These guys are typically smaller sharks that are around the 4-6 foot range and are very docile. I tried to get a little closer to take a good picture but it cruised away off into the distance. I got one picture off before it was too far away but it is reasonably blurry because the shark was moving. After the dive we came back and cleaned the instruments we collected. Surprisingly the instruments were pretty clean and weren't crusted over with algae too much. Often these instruments are deployed in the field for 6 months and over that period they can become fouled by excess settlement of algae on their outsides. But since they were not too bad the cleaning didn't take all that long. After that, I got to play around with a saw to cut through some steel hooks that were corroded and used to connect some of the boats to their trailers. After I got done with that, there was not too much left to do. I worked with Russ for a while to clean some tile pieces and we talked about music and how he appreciated my musical tastes very much compared to one of the other interns. He along with many of the other people working here were happy when they found out her ipod stopped working because she would use the speakers while she was cleaning instruments to listen to her music and everyone hated it. Russ asked me, "Are you sure Keith didn't run it over with the land rover?" We had a good laugh talking about that and then we talked some about what the plan is for the rest of the trip a bit. Once we get done surveying the island, we will start doing more experimental work out on the fore reef off of Cook's Bay. While we were talking about the research, he mentioned that parrot fish, which are common herbivores here, can at times damage coral while foraging for algae. I asked him a question at that point about at what level may this be a negative impact for the coral despite removal of its space and light competitor in algae. He thought that was a very interesting question and actually proposed that when I have time after we set up the planned experiments that I actually try to conduct my own experiment to examine this question. That was really exciting to hear from him that I can and will develop my own experiment this summer out on the fore reef to address a rather important question to the project. Once that conversation finished it was a bit before 5 pm so I decided to go for a bike ride while it was still light out to take some pictures. I rode over close to the Hilton and took some pictures of the bungalows and the surrounding scenery. While I was doing this, the cruise ship that had been docked in Cook's Bay for the past couple of days took off and I got some cool pictures of it making its way out to sea. The ride back was a bit sketchy for me because there was much more traffic on the road and they do not have a bike lane which makes things a bit tight on the road at times. However I was pleasantly surprised to see cars wait for oncoming traffic to pass before passing me on the road so they could go a little onto the other side of the road to avoid hitting me which is a nice and considerate thing to do. When I got back I worked a bit more on the blog and then had dinner. We had some roasted chicken and veggie dish for dinner along with these fried bread pieces that reminded me of funnel cake. They were covered in powder sugar and boy were they good. Elizabeth who was cooking tonight made 3 batches which was too much for all of us to handle. After that I had a chat with Keith and then headed off to my room. Now after I have done some research on the parrot fish project that I will be doing later this summer, I think I am going to go to bed. Until later.

July 14th Day 24

Today again was not a favorable day to do open ocean water sampling so instead I headed out to the west side with Tom, Andy, Russ, Sally, and their daughter Melissa. Melissa does research diving here and has been coming every summer her entire life. She is a senior now at Santa Cruz and does a lot of the fish count work here for the LTER. We headed out to the west side of the island to LTER 6 to finish up rugosity measures that we couldn't finish a couple of days ago. We also ended up going to LTER 5, which is toward Tahiti, to deploy some plot tags for future reference. On our way back we spotted some dolphins offshore of this pass where there were a bunch of surfers which was cool to see. The waves on the west side of the island are just so much bigger than what you see on the north side usually so the surfers seem to aggregate toward that side of the island. Once we turned the corner there was a ton of wind chop. We were in the big boat at the station and yet we were getting tossed around like a rubber duck in a bathtub. It got so bad that we decided to go through the lagoon to get back to Cook's Bay. We cut in at Opunahu Bay and went through the boat channels where most of the lagoon tour boats go to get back. Once we got back we headed right back out to collect our herbivory assay that we set out a couple of days ago. Turns out the fish really did a number on one of the algal species that we deployed and Sally found this to be very interesting. After that task of collecting the assay and weighing it out to determine the mass consumed by herbivores, we called it a day. Had some curry for dinner along with a Hinano beer and then called it a night. Until later.

July 13th Day 23

Woke up today and found out yet again the weather was not good enough to go off shore to do water sampling with Keith. Alternatively, Tom and I headed out to the rapid site off Cook's Bay to deploy a video camera to observe which fish are feeding on the algae we deployed yesterday. We also removed a set of tiles to be processed in the lab to determine algal recruitment and growth over short periods of days. When we came back, we set up the lab for the tiles and weighed some more ash free dry weight boats. After lunch, Tom and I went out to the reef crest again to collect algae. I took a few cool photos including one of a spiky sea cucumber. When we got back the day was done and I headed off to plan more of my trip with my downtime. Tonight we had calzones for dinner which weren't half bad. Sat around and had some coconut ice cream after with our Hinano beer and socialized before peeling off to bed. Now I am considering waking up early to do some work on my Fulbright application so I think I'm going to pass out. Until later.

July 12th Day 22

Woke up early today to go grocery shopping for our dinner tonight at 6:30 in the morning. At the time the wind was blowing pretty strongly from the south and appeared to wash out any chance of going out to do work on the fore reef in the morning. As a result, Tom and I ended up weighing out more tile samples and setting up some more herbivory assays to be deployed out at the fore reef outside Cook's. By the afternoon, the wind had settled some and we decided that we could go out and deploy the herbivory assays at the Rapids site. When we came back I got the chance to go to the airport to drop off the discount card applications for Air Tahiti for our flights to the Tuamotu islands in French Polynesia after I am done here in Moorea. My boss Tom was nice enough to give me a ride there to take care of it. When we go back, Mike and I started cooking our chicken alfredo dinner which just finished about an hour ago. It turned out good but I think we could have added a bit more cream to the sauce to make it a bit thicker. The stick of butter we got at the store (pictured) was huge and we used quite a bit of it for the alfredo sauce. After that I went outside for a while to try to take some night photos. The moon is pretty full tonight so the light in the sky illuminates the clouds beautifully. Now I'm back in my room and about to hit the restart button for tomorrow because I'm a bit tired. Until later.

July 11th Day 21

It has been exactly 3 weeks to the day since I arrived in Moorea and it has flown by so fast. We once again went out to the west part of the island again today to do similar work as yesterday. We went to LTER 6 today and boy was the swell huge. We could see these large swell breaking on the reef crest and boy was it a sight to see. The spray from these waves was so significant that it lingered in the air well after the wave had broke it was incredible. The water was equally as incredible in two ways. For starters it was crystal clear. As I have dove more here in Moorea, it is getting harder and harder to tell which day I had the best visibility underwater. However today I think was just as good if not better than yesterday. Secondly the water where we were today at about 35 feet was much surgier than it was yesterday at LTER 5. Doing plot rugosity with Russ and Tom was quite the task in those conditions. Tom and I were being thrown around like crazy while trying to hold the pvc in place to help measure with. We got three done in 2 dives but I would say my second dive was much better than the first. I had more time to look around on the second dive since we only did rugosity on one plot and I got some decent pictures. I took a good one of a scorpion fish that was literally hanging out right under our measurement stick. They are venomous and I made sure to point it out to Russ so he wouldn't touch it accidentally. On our safety stop we got a good look at some black tip reef sharks off in the distance on the sand floor. We were able to look down at least 80 feet below us at this sandy bottom where a number of reef sharks were just cruising. It was quite a site to see these guys glide along the bottom so effortlessly. I took some video and a few blurry pictures and then got back onto the boat. On our way back to Gump, one of the engines on the blue boat freaked out and for a while we had to put put along with one engine. Once we got back that engine we sped the remaining way home and then shortly after took a boat out to the reef crest to collect algae. When I first jumped into the water, I spotted a big sting ray right off the boat and managed to get a real good picture of it. Between our collection of algae, Tom pointed out an octopus and a real stonefish. I had never seen a real big stonefish before and I was able to take a few real good photos of it. It blended in so well with the coral but I think I got a real good picture of it. This stonefish looked like a green rock with eyes which was amazing to me. When we got back to Gump the day of work was done. I worked a little more on the trip with Erica and then had another delicious dinner courtesy of Stella. She made enchiladas that were amazingly good, especially for being made here. The sad part was that my cooking partner Mike and I had to clean it all up since we cook tomorrow. It took us over an hour to clean everything up but I got to say that the food itself made it totally worth it. After dinner I started to feel tired and having worked on this blog entry I am getting real sleepy so it's time for bed. Until later.

July 10th Day 20

I woke up this morning a little tired from the late night last night. I rushed to make myself a sandwich for lunch and rushed out to the dock to get my gear ready for our trip to LTER 5. We took the station boat which is about a 30 foot twin engine boat meant for longer trips around the island. LTER 5 is on the west side of the island so we had a good 40 minutes by boat to travel to get there. The view along the way was nothing short of spectacular. I was taking pictures of the island and the breaks on the coral just about the entire trip there. Once we got there we spent a half hour looking for the mooring for the boat and once we found it, we got our gear on quick and jumped in. Today I dove with Russ to help him do rigidity measurements in the plots there at the site. The water was spectacularly clear and actually might have topped yesterday for the clearest water that I have ever seen. There was also just so much more live coral there also. You could tell that the hurricane that hit a few years ago happened, but the reef itself seemed to be in a further stage of recovery than anywhere I had seen so far. The swell was rather big on the west side and we could certainly feel it underwater. There was a ton of surge at the bottom which was throwing me all around as I was trying to hold down three pieces of connected pvc for Russ to measure his rugosity chain with. Thank goodness I am always a bit overweighted when I dive. We did two dives at LTER 5 and then headed back to Gump. The ride back was a little dicey once we turned the corner onto the north shore. I took a video of the land going by while the boat was going over all the waves. When we got back, I went to put gas in the boat with Andy at the Mobil station dock and saw a family of Tahitians on their boat cutting up this huge fish. While Andy was filling up the boat I kept looking over at them in wonder of what the hell they had. So much of the meat was already cut from the fish that I couldn't tell looking at it what it was. But when I walked up the dock to go get the gas receipt, I saw the tail of the fish they were cutting up and it was huge. The profile on this tail fin had to have been at least 3 feet. When I walked back down the dock to the boat I saw Andy talking to them. He was asking about what it was and how they caught it. Turns out it was a big marlin that this guy hauled in on this little 15 foot boat with a line and reel. Before I hoped on the boat, Andy pointed out the head that was in their boat and man was it impressive. I wish I had pulled out my camera but we were in a bit of a rush to get back to the station so we could go back out before the day was over. We got some new tanks and headed out to the rapids site that is right off Cook's Bay on the fore reef and deployed some tiles for a sedimentation experiment. We came right back in when we were done and as we pulled through the Cook's Bay pass, we saw a big rainbow that appeared to be coming out of the water in the bay. I took a bunch of pictures to be sure I got a good one. When we got back it was a little past 5 so we called it a day. After doing some more planning for the Tuamotu trip, I went downstairs to have some eggplant parmesan for dinner which was incredible. After dinner I came back upstairs to work on the blog and watch the new episode of True Blood. Now I am starting to feel the effect of not having gotten a good 7 hours of sleep last night so I think I am going to hit the sack. Until later.

July 9th Day 19

Today I woke up at around 7:40 am to get to work at 8:00 am. I made myself a baguette with raspberry jam and went out to the dock to see what I had to do for work today. When I went out to the dock, I found out that I was reassigned to dive with Keith and Jessica on mooring dives on the Tahiti side of the island. Keith was going to go to that side of the island regardless to get instruments but Russ and Sally wanted to have him help deploy these algal growth tiles on the side of the island that he was going to in order to reduce the workload. Keith agreed to do this but said that he would need another diver in order to perform this task of deploying the caged tiles. Seeing as I am the swingman in this whole operation, I was told to go with Keith to help deploy these tiles and to do any associated support work that they were going to do. On our way out to the Tahiti side of Moorea today it was incredibly choppy. The wind out of the northeast was horrendous and we had to power through it to get to our dive site that was near the crescent moon bay on the east shore facing Tahiti. On our way around the north-east shore where Taimai point, a world famous surf spot, we spotted what seemed to be an armada of boats. Apparently these boats were support and spectator boats watching an outrigger canoe race. I felt bad that I couldn't take a picture of this moment but the seas were too rough at that point during our journey to LTER 3 & 4 and I couldn't afford to take out my camera and risk losing it overboard. There were what seemed to be a million support boats alongside the canoes that were competing to help them along. It seemed on a day like today that those support boats would be extremely necessary. It was one of those days that you could not believe that anyone could be boating let alone paddling in those conditions. Once we got past the flotilla we anchored at LTER 4 and dropped down to do some instruments. This dive was completely new to me because it was much more of a drop off than I was used to underwater. From where we replaced our deepest instrument, it dropped off from 70 feet to about 110 feet within 20 foot distance. The view from this site was incredible. I think the visibility was close to the best if not the best I had ever seen and I was awestruck by my surroundings. I had to help Steph, my dive partner, replace both of the instruments because they both entailed some handiwork in which I could clearly tell she was not accustomed to. It took her a good five minutes to get a latch loosened that really should have taken much less time. Despite it all, I ended up helping her unscrew these instruments because she didn't really know how to handle tools. We then went up the slope, replaced another instrument, and then went back to the boat. We did another dive after that closer to Taimai but it was really short and as a consequence I didn't even take my camera. When we got back we got to clean instruments that were collected and then we called it a day. We had a really good chili with cornbread for dinner and then got ready for the our party with the French here at the station. We had fun under the fierpote socializing with the French from the CREOB research base. I talked to Thomas some more about sharks and all the sharks that I will be seeing in the Tuamotu islands when I go. I also met Machu who works at the juice factory down the road. He is a very entertaining Frenchman who comes from somewhere in southern France and currently resides in Paris. He brought a bunch of fruit and vodka drinks from the factory and while we were all sitting around trying all these different bottles he taught me how to say "spectacular" in French so I could say that about every bottle he gave me. They just went back to CREOB now at 1 am and I better go to bed so that I can get up in the morning. Until later.

July 8th Day 18

The weather this morning was certainly much better than it has been the past few days. It was good enough that we were able to go to our other site around LTER 1 where we do not have a mooring. The rapid sites, which are just off Cook's Bay, all have moorings but this site that we went to today currently does not have a mooring which means we have to anchor. This of course to the people like Russ and Sally who work here is kind of a nuisance but it is something that I am completely used to. In Santa Barbara we always anchor so to me it's nothing out of the ordinary. When we went down on our first dive we managed to finish two of our four invertebrate plots that we had to survey at this site. On our second dive on our last plot we saw a ton of fish, like we had the entire day, and also a couple of friendly moray eels. One was pointed out to us by Sally because she and Russ were working on the plot before Tom and I. However she only saw the smaller of the two that were actually there. The one she saw was spotted with white spots while the other green moray laid hidden under the rocks nearby. It wasn't until I was almost done with the plot that I realized the bigger eel was even there. Too bad I didn't have my camera because that was an underwater Kodak moment. When we came up from our second dive the conditions had gotten a bit rough as a wind had picked up out of the northeast and the swell as a consequence was noticeably bigger. Despite that I have been in bigger swell while I have been here, I nearly got flung off the bow of the boat because Russ was going a little fast over the waves which of course fling the 609's bow way up into the air. I felt like we were going off ramps with the boat a few times on the way back in. After we got back we broke for lunch and after we just finished up making the small cages for the algal recruitment and sedimentation time series that we want to start tomorrow. After that was done I did some more work on uploading this blog in its entirety (although I'm not quite halfway done) and then had some dinner. Tonight we had veggie egg rolls made from scratch with some chicken which was pretty good. I then got a chance to do some more trip planning with Erica before she was too exhausted to function and now I actually think I am going to call it a night because I'm starting to feel it too. Until later.

July 7th Day 17

Well today the weather was still bad so yet again we couldn't go out to do anything. Instead Tom and I did some more weighing and then made some new cages for an experiment Russ and Sally want to run this weekend. That pretty much took up my whole day. Tonight we had quishe for dinner and I got to know my roommate Brett who just arrived today. He seems really nice and we should get along just fine. He is from UC Santa Cruz and is working for one of the PhD students here. I'm thinking that I'm going to go to bed soon because I feel really tired. Until later.

July 6th Day 16

Today we didn't even bother to go out to the fore reef because the swell was just too big again. Instead Tom and I did some more weighing for the ash free dry white tile operation that we did earlier. We did that all day which wasn't fun but had to get done. I also got the flights booked for the Tuamotus which was a big lift off my chest. We made a stir fry dinner tonight and that about sums up my day. Hopefully the weather will be a little better tomorrow so that I can get off the station and out into in the water again. Until later.

July 5th Day 15

There was supposed to be larger swell outside the lagoon today and boy was there some big ones. This was my first experience being in a boat with swell that big before. There was no fear that the boat was going to capsize or anything, but it was pretty rough out there. It was decided that the conditions were a bit much to dive today so we headed back in. As we made our way back I saw my first turtle on the surface of the water which was cool. Also on our way in, we saw a pod of spinner dolphins that we were able to get right up close to. We got so close that two spinners one after another jumped and spun in the air about ten feet from the boat. The dolphins are so agile and tiny which made them incredible to watch. They were hanging out right off the bow wave of the boat as they hitched a ride for a little while. When we came back in we did some data entry, cage making, tile sample processing, and then called it a day. We had burritos tonight for dinner which was awesome especially since the girl that cooked brought Tapitio sauce from the states. There are now 12 people in our food group as of today so we made a bit of a mess. Mike, who is my new cook partner, and I volunteered to cook tomorrow so we had to do all the dishes tonight. Took us a solid hour but some tunes made it better. I feel exhausted from last night so it's time for some shut eye. Until later.

July 4th Day 14

Today when we hit the dock the weather wasn't as bad as it was forecasted to be. We went to a new site today that is right between Cook's Bay and Opunahu Bay which was cool to do for a change. Our humpback whale encounter was also very cool. Andy and I spotted what we thought was a large bird or boat on the surface of the water when we saw the whales tail as it dove. Tom and Melissa instinctively jumped into the water and got a chance to see it underwater. Apparently it was a young whale that probably had just left its mother. They tried to maneuver the boat so that I could jump in and see it too but the whale I think was a bit spooked and took off before I could see it. I did see a needlefish however on the surface of the water when I was trying to catch up to this whale which was cool. It looks like a fish with a needle sticking out like a marlin. After our whale chase, we got into the water again and set up some plots at this new site. By the time we got back from our dive trip, we took lunch, worked for a little longer, and then started to set up for the BBQ. We made chicken kabobs which was quick and easy and then headed out to the bbq. It was fun hanging out and socializing. They actually took one of the small one person sailboats here and made it into a boat bar with ice and drinks inside which was cool. I'm pretty sure I took pictures of it. After some beers and good food I was feeling pretty tired. I was one of the last people to leave and it was cool to talk to Keith about the early days of the station where they had only a couple inflatable boats to do all their research in and how rural the island used to be compared to today. Got to get up for work tomorrow though so now it's time for bed. Until later.

July 3rd Day 13

Today I woke up and it was the windiest it has been since I have gotten here. A wind was blowing pretty hard out of the south so at first we weren't sure if diving was ok. I went on the boat to be the tender in case anything happened but we were at a part of the island where the fore reef is sheltered and so it wasn't really windy at all. I sat topside and looked out onto the open ocean and Cook's Bay from afar which was nice to do for a change. After we got back, it was off to processing tiles again. However the team that had been doing it for the past two days with three people were just fine without me so I made cages all afternoon. While I stood around the dock and looked out onto the bay and the island while making the cages, I couldn't help but smile. The view was beautiful despite the wind and I must say it made the tedious work of cage not that bad at all. Once the day was done we made some shrimp scampi, drank a few beers, and went to bed. Because I have to get up at 6 in the morning to go grocery shopping I must go to bed. Until later.

July 2nd Day 12

Again today we set out to collect and process tiles. We were actually so efficient in our work that I was done with my duties before lunch and started to make cages. When I was about done making cages, the two interns were in the water practicing for the underwater breath hold swim which they thought was impossible. Katrina made it before I jumped in. I finished my last cage and did the breath hold swim, long swim test, and snorkeling swim. I got 3 tasks I need to complete for the dive master certification done today which felt good to get out of the way. After that I spent some time before it got dark taking some dusk pictures. They turned out really well especially the long exposures on the road that runs through the station. I got some cool light trails across the pictures I took. I then had dinner with my food group which was a customary pasta and salad, and then headed off to the French research station called CREOB on the north shore. I got to meet some cool young French interns and researchers while I was there as well as get my first try of Rhumba rum which is probably the nastiest alcohol I have ever tasted. It is the cheapest bottle you can get here on Moorea and it is so for a reason. Mike and I had a long conversation with Thomas who is a PhD student who does shark research. He basically goes out and films and catches sharks for behavioral study and genetic analysis. He told us a lot about different kinds of sharks like tiger, reef, and bull sharks, where they typically live and what they eat. It was really interesting to hear about all these different sharks and his personal experiences. One thing I particularly took note of was he emphasized the large number of sharks that you can see out at the Tuamotu islands. I think he said that within the week he was going to head out there to do some more photography. I also got some travel tips from a French girl that I spoke to about booking flights to the Tuamotus which was very helpful. We just got back from CREOB and now it's time for me to shower and go to bed. I have to wake up a 6 in the morning tomorrow to go grocery shopping with Andy so I best get some shut eye. Until later.

July 1st Day 11

We began day two of tile collections this morning at 7:45 am. I showed up a little late at 7:47 am and found my dive equipment out and ready to go since Tom nicely decided to get out my stuff. Although we planned to be leaving by 8, we actually left at around 8:10 and got into the water at around 8:20. Today was the worst visibility that I have seen out at the fore reef so far. It could not have been better than 70 ft, which to be honest is good by any other standard. The cloud cover certainly did not help either. Today we had 3 dive teams and each did a site. That was a lot easier than yesterday where Tom and I alone did three sites. After we finished, similar to yesterday, we headed back to Gump to get started on the tile processing. The rest of the day was pretty much processing of the tiles and a bit of cage construction. After work was done, I came into the dorm kitchen to find that the house cat had somehow taken the chicken that I had placed in a bowl of water on the counter to defrost, onto the floor without spilling the water from the bowl. I saw it licking the water that had spilled onto the floor and for the most part was nothing but impressed by how the cat could possibly do that. I proceeded to make a homemade teriyaki sauce, since I thought we didn't have any, and cook the chicken in it with vegetables on the side. I think it turned out good despite the fact that I didn't have ginger or cornstarch. After dinner, I had a great conversation with the Florida people about graduate school and the NSF fellowship which I found very helpful. Erica and I planned another significant portion of our trip tonight which I am very happy about, but I am tired and I have to wake up early to go to the store tomorrow. I think now I will go to bed. Until later.

June 30th Day 10

Today was our first tile collection day. We got an early start and headed out to the fore reef to collect some tiles. Tom and I collected 12 tiles which apparently is a lot for one dive. I could definitely tell that he was rushing yesterday but we still got done what we wanted. After that dive, Russ and Sally drove us back to Gump to start processing the tiles. When we walked into the wet lab and Tom was explaining the process, I realized that I have done similar work before with water samples. However in this case instead of filtering water we were filtering specific algae and coral. After filtration the samples are burnt inside a furnace and the difference in weight from before filtering and after burning gives you an ash free dry weight which tells the quantity of organic carbon in the sample. I started out rinsing the tiles with sea water to remove excess sediment from the tile for ease of removal of algae and coral. After that I got delegated to working to weigh out the filters. I spent the rest of the day doing just that. After work was over I planned a little bit more for my New Zealand trip and then had dinner. Dinner tonight was extra special. A few Tahitian workers from the station caught a albacore tuna and sold some to us fresh. We made a few steaks last night and man was it good. It was just about the best albacore tuna I have ever had. It makes sense because I was actually eating it the day it was caught instead of a week later or longer which is customary in the states. I have to say it will be hard for me to eat tuna in the states again because I am acquiring very high standards. Well tomorrow is another early day to harvest more tiles so I best go to bed. Until later.

June 29th Day 9

When I woke up this morning and went out to the salt water tanks where we had some algae set up, the hose was not in the tank and there was no running water. I had to hurry to fill up another tank to use to make sure the algae was ok. Tom and I then headed out to the fore reef again with Russ and Sally to go do more invertebrate surveys and check up on the algae we deployed yesterday. Tom saw some signs that fish had been eating the algae so we brought it back up to the surface to take back to Gump. We then spent the rest of the time mucking around doing invertebrate surveys. Saw another stone fish today in one of the invertebrate plots which makes me wonder if I just hadn't noticed them before. We got more pastries and cookies from Russ and kept on our work and then went back to the station. I spent the rest of the day setting up for the removal of tiles tomorrow from cages on the fore reef and didn't get done with work until around 6. We made some breakfast for dinner tonight and after that, Erica and I continued to plan out trip to New Zealand. It's getting late so I better go to sleep. Until later.