March 16th, 2011

View from the back door of Coral Reef Research Foundation.

Banded sea snake. Photo by William F Middleton, Scripps

Yesterday we started out the day with a visit from the U.S. Ambassador of Palau, who stopped by to see what we were doing and how this information will be useful to the country.  After the show and tell, we departed for the west side of the island to survey an area with 3 REMUS’s.  This is the first time that I have ever seen that many vehicles in the water at the same time.  Everything ran successfully and we collected lots of good data.  We even recorded a shark in the REMUS video.

Today the groups split up.  The Hawaii group went and surveyed a reef where they had their instruments deployed to look at how the data from the REMUS compared to the data from the stationary instruments.  The Scripps and Calpoly group went to another spot on the west side to deploy a wave and pressure sensor and do a REMUS run along a main channel to look at fish biomass.  Afterward we moved over to join the Hawaii group and put all of the REMUS’s in the water again. 

All around, a successful day again.

Fish in coral head.  Photo by William F. Middleton, Scripps

Shark swimming below the REMUS during flight.