It’s a long way to Nikumaroro

Kate Madin, Writer, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
The dive boat, Nai’a, made good time, and this morning (Sunday, Sept. 13) dawned with us almost at our goal, the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) - - where scientists will survey the reefs for the first time since the PIPA was established. We have much calmer water than during the transit from Fiji, and a rainbow graced the horizon this morning.

The expedition’s divers are excited about today, and the first dive on the reefs. At 8:00am Phoenix Islands time (17 hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time), divers began assembling their gear.

From deck we saw our first stop, Nikumaroro Island – 4° 30’ south x 172° 10’ west. The island is approximately 4 miles long and 1 mile wide, a long, oval coral atoll surrounding a large lagoon, as the aerial shot shows.

Nikmaroro has a history: Whaling ships may have visited here in the late 1800s. A large ship, the Norwich City, was wrecked here in 1918, the wreck still at the water line. The British called it Gardner Island and established a settlement here in the 1930s, later abandoning it for lack of fresh water. Many think that Amelia Earhart crashed here on her final flight, and the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) has launched a handful of trips here to look.

But our science party is here to identify and count coral and fish species, and to see how healthy the corals are in this location. In 2002, waters warmed so much that a large part of Nikumaroro corals bleached, and the science team wants to learn if there has been recovery in these seven years. Chief scientist David Obura will be looking for data loggers he placed here in 2005 to record water temperature.

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After three dives today the fish researchers are happy with the numbers and kinds of fish they identified. Randi Rotjan, and David Obura worked on the reef: Randi, who studies predation on corals, now has new photographic evidence of bite marks fish make on coral - - white scars on the otherwise colored surface. David found the data loggers, right where he left them - - an invaluable record of temperature conditions the corals have experienced over the last several years. And some areas of coral show “striking recovery” from bleaching, Les Kaufman said, with new corals growing. And Larry Madin dove in blue water, and noted many colonies of radiolarians (single celled protists that form small globular colonies.). Now that we’re here in PIPA, the scientific work has begun.

Safe Diving in PIPA

Kate Madin, Writer, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
The Nai’a continues on a straight course from Fiji to the Phoenix Islands, carrying scientists and photographers, to study the coral reefs and open water of the world’s largest marine protected area -- the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA). The high waves and rolling motion we have been experiencing for days have decreased, making this a good day to hold the second meeting of the entire group.

The first meeting, on the day we departed Fiji, was to discuss the science plan for the expedition. Today, the group heard about the multi-tiered safety plan for diving. Rob Barrel, owner of Nai’a, Greg Stone, Craig Cook reviewed safety procedures for reef divers, and Larry Madin reviewed the procedures for blue-water diving.

Divers--especially if they’re absorbed in marking off sections of reef, or counting fish -- could become separated from others, or come up after a working dive and not see the skiff that will pick them up. Craig Cook and Randi Rotjan, before the trip, assembled safety equipment and a diver safety plan that will work to ensure no diver is lost.

First, diving in buddy pairs is essential. Then there are three methods of letting the skiff driver know where a diver has come up : Everyone will have an inflatable “safety sausage” - - a brightly colored tube a diver can use to wave in the air and signal the skiff. Every dive group will carry short-wave radios that can reach the skiff even at considerable distance. Last, there is a beacon that sends a signal to a satellite, and back down to Maryland receiver, a Coast Guard Station in Hawai’i and thence to the Nai’a, using GPS coordinates to locate a diver. Cook, in the image, is demonstrating the folding antenna to be used for that signal.

Last but not least, Cook spoke about the recompression chamber, emphasizing that it’s very rare to get the bends, but that the only treatment is to be put back under elevated pressure. Most of the divers will be using a mixture of gases called Nitrox, which contains less nitrogen and more oxygen than air, enabling divers to stay down at reef depths longer, with less chance of suffering the bends.

Les Kaufman, professor at Boston University, who is along to study fish, said, about the safety meeting:

“It is at once sobering and reassuring that very extensive preparations have gone into the safety measures for this cruise. First up, we reviewed the normal Nai’a dive protocols. Then comes ‘not getting lost’. … Sharks were up next: billies (shark sticks - long wooden poles) for those who want them… In fact we are hoping for abundant sharks as this is a sign of ecosystem health, and though once abundant, the sharks at Phoenix Islands have not been troublesome to divers on the earlier expeditions. We’ve also got an evacuation plan out of Kanton if somebody must be medivac-ed. DAN (Diver Alert Network) central, which is aware of our activities, stands by in case this is needed.”

Needless to say, we all hope none of the equipment or procedures will be needed on this trip. All are aware of our distance from medical facilities, and will be as careful as possible, but the extra measures of insurance are good to have!

On our way

Kate Madin, Writer, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
It takes more than five days steaming from Fiji aboard the live-aboard dive boat Nai’a to reach the Phoenix Islands, through rolling waves that have kept the boat moving unpredictably and constantly. Most of the scientists are waiting out the trip, waiting for the waves to quiet down, since the boat’s motion makes it very difficult to work at a computer or unpack equipment.

As we left Fiji, while the waters were still calm enough, Dr. Craig Cook, a specialist in diving medicine, and ship’s crew member Brigitte assembled and tested a piece of equipment we hope no one will use -- a portable recompression chamber. This would allow a diver who has decompression sickness (the bends) to be put back under pressure for the necessary time to recover. All divers will use extreme caution on this trip, but we are in such a remote area that this gives everyone an extra margin of safety we are happy to have along.

An all-hands science meeting on the first morning of the voyage addressed the history of PIPA and the science plan for this trip. The expedition is led by Gregory S. Stone of Conservation International and the New England Aquarium, who first saw the Phoenix Islands and their reefs in 2000, and who worked for years with members of the Kiribati government to establish PIPA. The chief scientist, in charge of the day-to-day work, is David Obura, coral biologist and coordinator of the Coastal Oceans Research and Development Indian Ocean-East Africa. They each outlined their objectives for the work to be done at the site. Stone then introduced the members of the Kiribati government who are accompanying us, Tubuku Teroroko, Director of PIPA, Kiribati Ministry of Environment, Lands, and Agricultural Development, and Tuake Teema from the Kiribati Ministry of Fisheries – both of whom expressed the hope that this expedition would bring attention to the efforts of Kiribati to preserve this remarkable marine area for the world.

Cruise Overview

The Phoenix Islands Marine Protected Area is the largest protected marine area in the world. It was formed in 2008 thanks to the efforts of the Island nation of Kiribati, the New England Aquarium and Conservation International.

This September an international team of scientists, divers, photographers and officials are heading to the Phoenix Islands, a remote archipelago of coral islands in the equatorial Pacific, on a 3-week research mission to survey what may be the most pristine, intact coral reef ecosystems on Earth, in the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA).

The PIPA reefs are a nearly-untouched underwater wilderness of lush and diverse corals; abundant fish of many kinds including sharks; sea turtles; manta rays; and uncounted invertebrate species.

The focus of this expedition is to survey the reefs, count and identify coral and fish species and continue a long-term monitoring program begun on previous trips. The researchers will also take coral samples, assess coral health and predation on corals.

WHOI biologist Larry Madin is participating in the expedition, to conduct the first survey of planktonic invertebrate animals in the open water around the islands. Madin will also bring back samples of corals and coral skeleton for Anne Cohen and Konrad Hughen, WHOI scientists studying coral growth and responses to environmental and climate change.