Student Connection

Just in from the Ship

TC-99-09 Monk Seal Forage/Reef Fish Survey
August 13 - September 7, 1999

August 15, 1999 We arrived on Tern Island on July 29 and ran supplies to the scientists studying the Hawaiian Monk Seal and the many sea birds that nest there. We also picked up two scientists for transport back to Honolulu. We departed the same day and on July 30, arrived at Necker Island and performed a monk seal count around the perimeter of the island. USFWS went ashore and performed a quick search to see the number of sea birds and check the general well being of the many endemic plants found there. We left Necker and steamed to Nihoa where we performed the same operations. We left there for Honolulu and arrived on August 2 after having been gone for 20 days. We enjoyed a longer than normal inport (Aug. 2-12) and had quite a lot of maintenance and repairs completed in addition to unloading the many truck loads of field camp gear and supplies from the ship. After the unloading, the preparations for the next trip commenced. We restocked the ship's supply of food, fuel and parts. Our next cruise (TC9910) involves quite a lot of diving so scuba tanks and equipment began to arrive to support the team of NMFS divers who are to join us. The U.S. Navy has a 3 man team joining us along with their 4000 lb. decompression chamber. The decompression chamber is required as the divers are descending to depths of 170-240 feet which is deeper than the standard dive operations of 120 feet or less which we normally perform. On August 13, the ship was ready and everyone aboard. The lines were tossed off and we backed away from our pier for another 17 days. We are scheduled to return on the 30th for a quick turn around to drop off the Navy personnel and the chamber, then we head back out to perform another 8 days of diving (shallower than 120 feet) operations. On August 15 we arrived at our regular anchorage just south of Tern Island on French Frigate Shoals and ran a couple of boat loads of supplies into Tern. We also set a string of 8 lobster traps to acquire some specimens for a bioassay study that is being done on this reef's ecosystem. Afterwards, we spent an hour performing a diver accident drill using the decompression chamber. The ship's executive officer played the diving victim. His only comment after the drill was that the chamber sure got warm as he was compressed down to an equivalent of 60' of water pressure. As air is compressed, it does get warm and the fact that your in a confined metal "tank" on a rolling deck, gives us divers a lot of incentive to not get hurt and risk having to be put inside it for hours on end.

Other Reports For This Cruise

• August 15
• August 19
• August 24
• August 27
• September 02
• September 07

Last modified September 03, 1999