Student Connection

Just in from the Ship

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

August 24, 1999 From August 20 to the 23, we performed the same daily operations. At 6:30 AM, we hauled anchor and transited to the deep dive locations on the outer reef on the NW side of the French Frigate Shoals. We performed two sets of dives to 170 feet during which the divers would video record the Monk Seal foraging habitat and record the species of fish and crustaceans found under the rocks there. After the deep dive operations, we steamed to the lobster trap location (below left) and hauled our 1 string of 8 traps, collected the animals in them and reset the traps. From there we motored to an anchorage location, anchor the ship where we would deploy a scientific boat and one of the ship's boats. The scientific boat transported scientists to the NE inner reef area to record shallow reef fish populations. The ship's boat contained divers and snorkelers who were tasked with collecting certain species of reef fish for a study on Monk Seal nutrition. The ship's boat was also used to deploy and recover an oceanographic mooring to test oceanographic sensors that are to be later deployed to a very deep depth to collect data over a year's time. This mooring was simply to ensure the sensors operated correctly. However, the mooring turned out to weigh approximately 800 pounds and proved to be a challenge to deploy and recover with a 15 foot boat and 3 divers. We have been blessed with phenomenally calm weather during these operations and we've had multiple days with no wind and little to no waves. We usually have 20-25 knot trade winds in the Hawaii area so the calm weather is a welcome respite. However, today the trades are back. Today we anchored near Tern Island and transported 5 pallet tubs of marine debris (old nets and trash that had washed ashore) for us to return to Hawaii. We also assisted a Hawaiian fishing boat whose GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver had failed. We provided them one of our hand held receivers which they can use to navigate back to Honolulu. We are now on our way to the NE outer reef of FFS to possible conduct more deep diving operations. This evening we'll start our transit 60 miles to the east to Necker Island for more diving operations.

Other Reports For This Cruise

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

Last modified August 26, 1999