Student Connection

September 2, 1999  We arrived off Kaula on August 27. Kaula is the remnant of an extinct volcano that juts from the water about 20 NM SW of the island of Niihau. The island and its reef are off the normal track transited by fishing and commercial traffic and our scientists had little recent data on the area. We first attempted to tow our camera sled on the surrounding reef. However, as so often happens with salt water and electronics, the camera failed to operate correctly. It was then decided to send divers over the side with a video camera to record the marine environment. An hour later the divers returned with an extremely interesting video. A sea turtle was filmed with markings on her shell identifying her as one that had nested recently on East Island (French Frigate Shoals - 330 NM to the NW).

After the dive, we set sail for the Waianae Coast of Oahu. On August 29 we arrived off the coast and spent the day performing two technical dives to 200' to recover a section of abandoned gill net that had been reported in the area. Our divers were able to find about 400 square feet of the fish killing net, attach lift bags to it and float it to the surface where one of our boats retrieved it.

After the dives, we transited to Honolulu and pulled alongside our pier for a day of changing out a portion of the scientific staff and unloading the dive decompression chamber and its U.S. Naval staff. By 4:00 PM the next day (Aug. 29) we were ready to go and set sail back for Kaula. In the early morning of August 31, we were back alongside Kaula getting ready to deploy our boats and divers. The trade winds that had begun increasing on Aug. 26 had continued until they were 20-25 knots. This makes for nine-foot (3 meters) seas and causes the ship to roll and pitch. It takes timing on the part of the bridge officer and deck crew to lift and swing the boat out during the very brief periods the ship is steady. Then as the boat is lowered to the water, one of our crew steps into it and rides it down. Immediately upon it reaching the surface of the water, the crewmember unhooks the boat's harness from the lifting hook. You can imagine what this is like with 5-7 foot hills of rolling blue water lifting the boat up and dropping it down.

Kaula itself is about as big as 4-5 city blocks and has sheer walls that jut straight from the water to a height of 300 feet (100 meters) or so. The water directly around its base is anywhere from 20-150 feet (6-50 meters) in depth. Our boats got tossed around a bit but we successfully deployed diver tow boards from one of the boats and myself and one of the scientists donned dive gear and joined the boards. The tow boards are a piece of equipment used to survey long sections of reef and similar habitats. The tow boards enable divers to be towed behind boats and we only allow operators who are trained in their use. There is an increased risk of embolizing (injury or death caused by over inflating your lungs) while using these boards. For this reason, we are extremely careful with scuba divers on the tow boards. They are extremely effective though as they enabled us to film and document about a half-mile of reef. Afterwards, we snorkeled along the leeward side, surveying the shallow water areas. However, the swells would often crash against the cliff face and we would find ourselves immersed in water white with millions of bubbles which were impossible to see through. We often had to dive down 15-20 feet (5-7 meters) just to get under the bubble layer and see. It was sort of like descending out of the clouds to get a look around. Unfortunately, I often found myself in 80+ feet (24+ meters) of water instead of the 20-30 feet (7-10 meters)that I wanted to stay in so I could dive to the bottom. During the latter part of the survey, two Hawaiian monk seals that were foraging in the area started following us. The younger of the two was very curious and couldn't keep his eyes off of us. We regularly kept bouncing up and down like yo-yos between the opaque, white surface layers to the rocky bottom to perform our survey. Numerous times while we were concentrating on looking in holes and under ledges, this seal would cautiously swim towards the diver with all its attention focused on what these strange creatures might be up to.

In the afternoon, we loaded the boats and divers and steamed NW for Nihoa Island. We arrived there on September 1 and placed one of our boats into the rolling seas. However, we then discovered the boat had no steering and would require repairing. So we hauled it back aboard and then held a meeting with the Chief Scientist, myself (the Operations Officer) and the Commanding Officer. Judging from the weather (which showed no signs of abating) it was decided to transit straight to French Frigate Shoals where we could get some work done within the protection of the barrier reef there. With that decision made, we set a westerly course and arrived on French Frigate Shoals this afternoon. We performed a CTD to collect data on the salinity and temperature of the water from the surface to a depth of 500m (1500 foot). We also set a string of lobster traps to collect specimens for the Hawaiian Monk Seal nutrition study. Tomorrow we plan on dive operations and then we will depart and start heading east. The trade winds don't look like they will be diminishing any time soon so we are most likely in for a bouncy ride home.  

Other Reports For This Cruise

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

Last modified September 03, 1999