NOAA Ship OSCAR ELTON SETTE arrived in Siapan on August 18th after a ten day transit across the Pacific. The ship had a busy first day in port loading supplies and embarking new scientists. Over the rest of the in port the crew members got some time off to go sight seeing which everyone enjoyed after 37 days at sea. The ship, crew, and scientists recieved a warm welcome in Siapan which included a fantastic reception from the Marianas Department of Fish and Wildlife.

NOAA Ship OSCAR ELTON SETTE departed Siapan August 22nd on the second leg of the Coral Reef Ecosystem Investigation cruise. As of today, the ship has surveyed reefs from Siapan Island north to Farallon de Parajos. The Ship is currently at Pagan island and will continue south through the island chain to arrive in Guam on September 21st.

Each day the ship launches five small boats first thing in the morning. The divers in each boat have a specific mission so the boats are designated for the operations the will be performing; Tow team, Mooring/Turtle team, Fish team, and two Benthic teams. The teams conduct towed diver surveys, turtle surveys and moored instrument deployment, and fish and benthic rapid ecological assesment (REA) surveys. The small boats are recoved before dinner and the ship begins night time operations which include; QTC/TOAD habitat mapping, bioacoustic surveys,
current profile surveys, and deep water CTD's.

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NOAA Ship OSCAR ELTON SETTE departed Honolulu on the 12th of July for a Coral Reef Ecosystem Investigation (CREI) cruise. This cruise consists of two research "legs" in two geographic regions. The first leg of the cruise the SETTE will be in the North West Hawaiian Islands. The second leg of the cruise, she will make the long voyage (2200 nautical miles) across the Pacific to the Marianas Islands. After the SETTE completes the CREI cruises, she will begin another cruise investigating monk seal diets. All of these cruises combine make for the busiest and longest research cruise the SETTE conducts all year. The ship will be away from her home port of Honolulu from July 12th to October 24th, for a total of 104 days.

The information obtained by the CREI scientists aboard the SETTE is used to support the assessment, monitoring, and mapping of coral reef ecosystems. This data comes in many different forms and is collected using a wide variety of techniques and technology. Scientific research is going on aboard the SETTE 24 hours a day. operations include; towed diver surveys, installation of bouys, rapid ecological assesments of fish, corals, and algae, camera surveys, acoustic seabed classification, bottom grabs, CTDs, and mapping operations.

The ship will be conducting operations along the entire NWHI chain from Necker Island to Kure Atoll, covering about 900 nautical miles of ocean in 25 days. The SETTE is currently at Lisianski Island/Neva Shoals. The ship will stay in this area for two days then will begin the transit to Midway Island.