March 22, 2011: The Final Days

Deploying current monitoring instrument.

The last two days have been a whirlwind of activity.  Yesterday started off with the Scripps group doing a REMUS run along the western channel to try and image the fish spawning event that usually takes place around the full moon.  Fortunately for everyone, thousands of fish had gathered and the cameras and REMUS were able to capture part of the event.

Hawaii spent the morning doing one last REMUS mission around their instruments and then they pulled everything out of the water.  The rest of the afternoon was spent packing, working with data and getting ready for a REMUS run tomorrow morning.

Mark snorkeling.

Mark and Eric left last night so we are down to just 6 people and the last 2 people from Hawaii are leaving tonight.  This meant that the Hawaii group spent all day packing.  It always amazes me how much stuff goes into a research project. 

Humphead Wrasse.

Ian during beach landing.

Billy and I took the Scripps vehicles out to a protected feeding area for Dugongs, which are close relatives of the Manatee.  Nobody is allowed into this area, but luckily we got permission and were able to survey it.  What we are hoping to do is characterize the feeding habitat and bottom types in a couple of hours, which can take months by hand.  Since we were there we did a little diving and snorkeling.  It was pretty special to be in an area where people are not allowed to go all the time.    

The Scripps group went back out to change a battery on one of their current meters and I stayed back to work on data.  It is getting close to the end.