Well, the end has arrived at last. Ok not quite yet, we still have 12 hours to go. But I won't be able to post anymore after this, so it's close enough. We will be arriving in the port of Suva, on the island of Viti Levu, in Fiji tomorrow (Sunday 3/8) at 8 am. I've been looking forward to this pretty much since I got on the boat, so needless to say I'm happy to be so close to done. Tomorrow night, we are going to have a party in town at the Bad Dog Cafe in Suva, which should be fun. After the party, we will all return to the boat for one more night on these crappy beds to avoid paying for a hotel. On Monday the 9th we will finish packing and get off the boat, and probably spend most of that day checking out Suva and the area around it. I've heard about a nice hike into a canyon nearby, and of course there's always the beach. On the evening of the 9th, we (the Hawaii crew) fly to Nadi on the other side of the island (yes, the island is big enough to fly across), which is about a 30 min flight or so. We will spend the night of the 9th in Nadi at the same hotel that we stayed in on the way in. The morning of the 10th we will take a boat out to Mana Island Resort, where we will stay until the 13th. This is the part of the trip that I have been looking forward to the most since the beginning, for obvious reasons. The resort owns the entire island and it is pretty much our playground for 4 days. Regan and I (and Michaela if we can convince her) are definitely going to be scuba diving, and I'm sure we'll do some snorkeling, swimming, island exploring, and relaxing as well. I plan on taking at least a few hundred pictures, so I'm excited for that as well. From there, we take a boat back to Nadi on the 13th, then fly out to Honolulu at 9:30 pm and arrive at 6 am (on the same day, which is a little weird). That's pretty much the plan for the next week, and I think it's safe to say it will be the best week of the trip.
I would say the only things I will miss about this experience are the people and the scientific discoveries. Most of the aspects of life on the boat I will definitely not miss, except maybe having all my meals cooked for me. Everybody that I spent time with on the boat was cool, and I enjoyed listening to various stories and getting to know them a bit. In terms of the scientific aspect, I'm glad I got the experience of seeing how the data is collected and learning a little bit about processing. Over the last few days, we have been going through essentially uncharted territory, so the element of new discovery is exciting. I enjoyed producing and looking at the mutlibeam bathymetry maps and sonar plots and trying to piece it all together. It's a bit like solving a mystery, and it's definitely one of the main reasons that I enjoy being a scientist. It's especially exciting when nobody out there has the answers yet, so any idea you come up with could be at least part of the explanation. There are some interesting features in the western part of the basin, including volcanoes of unknown origin with what appear to be relatively recent lava flows, faults, possible extinct spreading centers, and many other features on the seafloor that have yet to be explained. It's possible that my thesis work may be involved in trying to figure some of these mysteries out.
A few other random things:
1) We just crossed 180 longitude about 10 minutes ago, which (for sailor-types) is one of those milestones like crossing the equator or crossing 0,0, which is a particularly rare one. I am now a member of the Order of the Golden Dragon (they have a cheesy name like that for each one of these geographic milestones). Apparently, there is usually some sort of ceremony and certificates for these things, but for us it was pretty anticlamactic. From what I've heard the equator-crossing ritual sounds more like a fraternity hazing ritual, so maybe it's better that I avoided any ceremonies.
2) I have now eaten dinner three times and I'm wishing I had eaten it more often. Tonight, we had roast tenderloin (very similar to prime rib) and fried shrimp, with potatoes, rice, and a few other sides. Yesterday, we had grilled pork spareribs smothered with bbq sauce, corn on the cob, potatoes, and a few other sides as well. I'm completely blanking on what we had the night before, but it was something of a similar caliber. As much as I love eggs, bacon, and hashbrowns, you really can't compete with steak, shrimp, and ribs, especially when you have eggs, bacon, and hashbrowns every single day.
3) Sea life: Earlier today we officially crossed over the Lau Ridge and out of the Lau Basin, so we have been in significantly shallower water (<500-1000m as opposed to 2000-3000m). Also, we have been passing close to some islands in the eastern part of the Fijian group. Because of these factors (as well as not having the airguns on) there has been much more sea life sighted, unfortunately not by me, however. The MMO's saw some pilot whales from their tower and a bunch of people got to see dolphins while I was on watch duty. One of the OBS guys told me he was standing out on deck today and he saw a lot of flying fish and even a blue shark. I went outside at about 5:30 today to check it out and wait for the sunset and unfortunately I only saw 4 tiny flying fish desperately trying to avoid getting run over by the boat. I was amazed that even at 2-4 inches long they could "fly" for at least 50 feet before splashing back into the water. I guess I'll just have to wait until I see them up close and personal when I go diving in a few days. I think I can deal with that :)
4) Doubles Ping Pong Tournament: The semifinal round came down to 3 teams because of the odd number of people, so we did a round robin where each team played the other two. Every team ended up 1-1 in the round, so we had a sudden death playoff to determine who went to the finals. My team was randomly chosen to have a bye in the first round, so the other teams played to see who would face us in the finals. We played against Michaela and the Captain, who had beat us in the semifinals. In the final round, we came out victorious and were crowned the doubles champions. I wish I could take more credit, my teammate was the singles champ, but at least I held my own and didn't make us lose, so that's worth something.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Update and Some More Science
We are officially six days away from dry land at last. Since the main experiment is done and we only need one student on duty at a time, we have switched our watch schedules so the 24 hrs is divided evenly between the 5 of us. My new watch is 9:40 am- 2:30 pm, which is much nicer, and allows me to transition to a relatively normal sleep schedule. I still have to be down in the lab working on data processing for a longer period of time, but I don't have to be around for 8 hours during the middle of the night anymore. All we have to do is check that the instruments are still running occasionally and make a log of our progress along the new survey lines every 30 min. There's not much else to report besides seeing a few squid while we were retrieving OBS's. Hopefully, we'll see some more sea life as we get closer to the much shallower Lau Ridge, which forms the western edge of the Lau Basin.
The new survey area is west of the seismic survey in a relatively unmapped and poorly understood portion of the basin. We are no longer using the airguns, and are just collecting bathymetry, sidescan sonar, gravity, and magnetic data. The methods for each of these is described below:
The airguns sole purpose is for collecting the seismic data: they produce a loud sound and a pressure wave which vibrates the seafloor (similar to an earthquake). These vibrations are picked up by the OBS's on the bottom of the seafloor and after lots of processing, give you an image of the surface of the seafloor and a few km below the seafloor.
We were collecting bathymetry, sidescan, gravity, and magnetic data while we were shooting the airguns as well, but we are now concentrating on an unmapped section west of the original survey area, and are going back and forth on E-W lines to cover the whole area.
The bathymetry data is collected with a multibeam echosounder, which shoots multiple beams of sound down toward the seafloor in an angular "swath," so we can collect data directly below the ship and off to the sides as well. Depending on the depth and the angle of the beams, the swath is usually around 5 miles wide. The beams reflect off of the seafloor and based on the travel time the instrument calculates the distance and comes up with a color-coded (based on depth) image of the surface of the seafloor (the bathymetry).
The sidescan sonar is similar in that it uses sound, but it's most accurate to the sides of the boat (hence "sidescan") and the data directly below is pretty much useless. I'm not sure why this is, but it has something to do with the reflection being to strong. The purpose of the sidescan data is to determine the type of materials that you are looking at. It doesn't give you a nice image of the seafloor like the multibeam, but you end up with a grayscale image based on the intensity of the reflection (aka backscatter). Harder materials like fresh volcanic rock show up as black on the image, and sediments are generally lighter colors. It's useful for determining areas of recent volcanic activity, identifying faults, and determining where sedimented areas are. While the topographic relief of faults is visible on the bathymetry, the sonar is much better for identifying them as faults rather than a ridge or something like that. This is because the majority of the faults around a backarc spreading center are "normal faults" where one block slips down at an angle relative to the underlying block. When this occurs, it exposes the harder rock under the sedimented surface, so the fault shows up as a nice linear black area (most of the time). This data will be very important for my thesis work, which involves identifying and interpreting the structures in the basin, as it is much better for seeing structures than any of the other data.
The magnetometer measures the magnetization of the seafloor. When new basaltic crust (high iron content) is formed, the iron grains are aligned in the direction of the earth's magnetic field at that time and "frozen" in place when the lava hardens. Since the earth's magnetic field changes over time and even flips polarization completely (i.e. the north pole becomes the south pole), crust formed at different times will have iron grains with orientations corresponding to when it was formed. The magnetometer measured these orientations and can give an idea of the relative age of the crust. If the crust was actually formed at a spreading center, you will see "stripes" parallel to the spreading center corresponding to times of different polarization of the earth's magnetic field. If it was formed another way (i.e. arc volcanism) you will see a less organized pattern. The data we are collecting now can potentially resolve a contentious question of how the crust on the west side of the basin was formed, which is pretty cool. This data alone could provide enough information for a thesis to be written. It will likely be the other student under my advisor who will use this, not me.
The gravimeter measures the varying gravitational field of the seafloor. This is mostly controlled by the density of the material (higher density = more mass = stronger gravity). Gravity data is the least intuitive of all of these types, because it doesn't necessarily correspond to anything you can see on the seafloor (i.e. higher topographic relief does not necessarily mean higher gravity). One use of gravity data that I know of is to differentiate between types of volcanoes. Volcanoes formed along a spreading center are composed mostly of basalt, which is a very dense volcanic rock. Volcanoes formed along the volcanic arc due to subduction have a higher proportion of andesite, which is a less dense volcanic rock. Therefore, with gravity data, you can actually determine with reasonable accuracy whether a given volcano on the seafloor is formed at a spreading center or a volcanic arc without having to take any rock samples from it. There actually are a number of volcanoes in the area we are covering whose origins are unknown, and the gravity data should provide some valuable insight on that.
The new survey area is west of the seismic survey in a relatively unmapped and poorly understood portion of the basin. We are no longer using the airguns, and are just collecting bathymetry, sidescan sonar, gravity, and magnetic data. The methods for each of these is described below:
The airguns sole purpose is for collecting the seismic data: they produce a loud sound and a pressure wave which vibrates the seafloor (similar to an earthquake). These vibrations are picked up by the OBS's on the bottom of the seafloor and after lots of processing, give you an image of the surface of the seafloor and a few km below the seafloor.
We were collecting bathymetry, sidescan, gravity, and magnetic data while we were shooting the airguns as well, but we are now concentrating on an unmapped section west of the original survey area, and are going back and forth on E-W lines to cover the whole area.
The bathymetry data is collected with a multibeam echosounder, which shoots multiple beams of sound down toward the seafloor in an angular "swath," so we can collect data directly below the ship and off to the sides as well. Depending on the depth and the angle of the beams, the swath is usually around 5 miles wide. The beams reflect off of the seafloor and based on the travel time the instrument calculates the distance and comes up with a color-coded (based on depth) image of the surface of the seafloor (the bathymetry).
The sidescan sonar is similar in that it uses sound, but it's most accurate to the sides of the boat (hence "sidescan") and the data directly below is pretty much useless. I'm not sure why this is, but it has something to do with the reflection being to strong. The purpose of the sidescan data is to determine the type of materials that you are looking at. It doesn't give you a nice image of the seafloor like the multibeam, but you end up with a grayscale image based on the intensity of the reflection (aka backscatter). Harder materials like fresh volcanic rock show up as black on the image, and sediments are generally lighter colors. It's useful for determining areas of recent volcanic activity, identifying faults, and determining where sedimented areas are. While the topographic relief of faults is visible on the bathymetry, the sonar is much better for identifying them as faults rather than a ridge or something like that. This is because the majority of the faults around a backarc spreading center are "normal faults" where one block slips down at an angle relative to the underlying block. When this occurs, it exposes the harder rock under the sedimented surface, so the fault shows up as a nice linear black area (most of the time). This data will be very important for my thesis work, which involves identifying and interpreting the structures in the basin, as it is much better for seeing structures than any of the other data.
The magnetometer measures the magnetization of the seafloor. When new basaltic crust (high iron content) is formed, the iron grains are aligned in the direction of the earth's magnetic field at that time and "frozen" in place when the lava hardens. Since the earth's magnetic field changes over time and even flips polarization completely (i.e. the north pole becomes the south pole), crust formed at different times will have iron grains with orientations corresponding to when it was formed. The magnetometer measured these orientations and can give an idea of the relative age of the crust. If the crust was actually formed at a spreading center, you will see "stripes" parallel to the spreading center corresponding to times of different polarization of the earth's magnetic field. If it was formed another way (i.e. arc volcanism) you will see a less organized pattern. The data we are collecting now can potentially resolve a contentious question of how the crust on the west side of the basin was formed, which is pretty cool. This data alone could provide enough information for a thesis to be written. It will likely be the other student under my advisor who will use this, not me.
The gravimeter measures the varying gravitational field of the seafloor. This is mostly controlled by the density of the material (higher density = more mass = stronger gravity). Gravity data is the least intuitive of all of these types, because it doesn't necessarily correspond to anything you can see on the seafloor (i.e. higher topographic relief does not necessarily mean higher gravity). One use of gravity data that I know of is to differentiate between types of volcanoes. Volcanoes formed along a spreading center are composed mostly of basalt, which is a very dense volcanic rock. Volcanoes formed along the volcanic arc due to subduction have a higher proportion of andesite, which is a less dense volcanic rock. Therefore, with gravity data, you can actually determine with reasonable accuracy whether a given volcano on the seafloor is formed at a spreading center or a volcanic arc without having to take any rock samples from it. There actually are a number of volcanoes in the area we are covering whose origins are unknown, and the gravity data should provide some valuable insight on that.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
The Experiment is Complete
About 45 min ago, (4 am on 2/25 our time) we officially shot the last point of the seismic experiment. This is definitely a nice milestone and it feels good to be done with that part. We are in the process of bringing the airgun strings back on board, and then over the next 4-5 days we will be retrieving the OBS's from the seafloor. The end is in sight, but we still have over 10 days to go. The remaining time after retrieving the OBS's will be used to fill in gaps in the bathymetry data for my advisor, and then the transit to Fiji.
1. OBS retrieval: the OBS's are retrieved by sending an acoustic signal from the ship (basically an unlock code) which triggers the instrument to be released from its anchor that is keeping at the seafloor and then it floats up to the surface over the next 30-45 min. It is visible by a flashing light (for nighttime retrievals) and an orange flag (for daytime). We pull the ship up next to it and use a long pole with a hook on the end to grab it as it passes by, then hook a rope onto it and pull it onboard with a winch. Many things can go wrong in this process: the OBS not receiving the signal, drifting as it floats upward, missing the OBS with the hooked pole, etc., but for the previous ones we retrieved we didn't have any problems.
2. I was having a rough time over the last day or two, but I definitely was cheered up by the show that nature put on for me earlier tonight at about 1:30-2:30 am. I went out on deck like I usually do to get some fresh air, hoping that it wasn't raining. It was about 75 degrees and the wind was blowing pretty hard (there are thunderstorms in the vicinity). The horizon was obscured with thick black clouds 360 degrees around the boat. However, the sky above the boat was completely clear and there was no moon to obstruct the stars. I got the best view of the stars and the milky way that I've seen since being on the boat (although still not as good as being out in the mountains, due to the few lights that were on on the ship). To top it off, I was treated to a lightning show the whole time I was out there, which was pretty awesome. So, it was another little bright moment amidst the monotony which I thought I would share.
3. We are in the final round of the second ping pong tournament, this time we're playing doubles. I was fortunately paired up with the winner of the singles tourney, so we were definitely the favorites going into it. We're down to the final 3 teams now, but I'm not sure when we're going to get to play the final matches because we will all be busy when we start retrieving OBS's. I'll keep you posted on the results, since I'm sure you're dying to know what happens :)
4. At the request of my mom, I will provide some more details on the meals. "Breakfast" for me, is usually around 11:30 pm, and always consists of cereal (usually honey nut cheerios) and before we ran out I would have yogurt as well, nothing exciting. The regular breakfast meal is 7:15-8:15 am, and as I have described in detail in a previous post, always consists of eggs, bacon/sausage, and hash browns, and varies from day to day between pancakes, french toast, waffles, and cream of wheat. We used to have watermelons and pineapples as well, but the fresh fruit is pretty much gone by now. Lunch (dinner) is at 11:15 am-12:15 pm and is much more variable than breakfast. We almost always have french fries and rice, and there is always a few different options for a main entree. We've had lasagna, stroganoff, fried cod, fried clams, clam chowder, grilled cheese, grilled turkey/roast beef sandwiches, burritos, tortilla soup, fried rice with teriyaki beef (only once unfortunately), and other similar types of food. None of it is fantastic or particularly high quality, but for the most part it's pretty good, especially given that the food budget per person/ per day is $3. I know, that's pretty ridiculous, I would have gladly thrown in $50-100 of my own money to get better quality food. They always have some kind of desert, usually cake of some kind, sometimes pie, and almost always some kind of cookies (many of the deserts are cooked at dinnertime too). They have made some peanut butter cookies that were absolutely fantastic, probably the best single thing I've tasted on the boat, even rivaling and probably topping my mother's own pb cookies (sorry mom, but it's true). In terms of beverages, they have an assortment of long-life (i.e. lots of preservatives) juices and milk in a fridge, as well as water, gatorade (which tastes terrible), and another fruit drink (not juice) : lemonade, grape drink, or fruit punch which are in those clear plastic dispensers with the tap that constantly circulate the liquid. I think that's about it for the food. I can't tell you anything about dinner because I've never had it once on the boat.
1. OBS retrieval: the OBS's are retrieved by sending an acoustic signal from the ship (basically an unlock code) which triggers the instrument to be released from its anchor that is keeping at the seafloor and then it floats up to the surface over the next 30-45 min. It is visible by a flashing light (for nighttime retrievals) and an orange flag (for daytime). We pull the ship up next to it and use a long pole with a hook on the end to grab it as it passes by, then hook a rope onto it and pull it onboard with a winch. Many things can go wrong in this process: the OBS not receiving the signal, drifting as it floats upward, missing the OBS with the hooked pole, etc., but for the previous ones we retrieved we didn't have any problems.
2. I was having a rough time over the last day or two, but I definitely was cheered up by the show that nature put on for me earlier tonight at about 1:30-2:30 am. I went out on deck like I usually do to get some fresh air, hoping that it wasn't raining. It was about 75 degrees and the wind was blowing pretty hard (there are thunderstorms in the vicinity). The horizon was obscured with thick black clouds 360 degrees around the boat. However, the sky above the boat was completely clear and there was no moon to obstruct the stars. I got the best view of the stars and the milky way that I've seen since being on the boat (although still not as good as being out in the mountains, due to the few lights that were on on the ship). To top it off, I was treated to a lightning show the whole time I was out there, which was pretty awesome. So, it was another little bright moment amidst the monotony which I thought I would share.
3. We are in the final round of the second ping pong tournament, this time we're playing doubles. I was fortunately paired up with the winner of the singles tourney, so we were definitely the favorites going into it. We're down to the final 3 teams now, but I'm not sure when we're going to get to play the final matches because we will all be busy when we start retrieving OBS's. I'll keep you posted on the results, since I'm sure you're dying to know what happens :)
4. At the request of my mom, I will provide some more details on the meals. "Breakfast" for me, is usually around 11:30 pm, and always consists of cereal (usually honey nut cheerios) and before we ran out I would have yogurt as well, nothing exciting. The regular breakfast meal is 7:15-8:15 am, and as I have described in detail in a previous post, always consists of eggs, bacon/sausage, and hash browns, and varies from day to day between pancakes, french toast, waffles, and cream of wheat. We used to have watermelons and pineapples as well, but the fresh fruit is pretty much gone by now. Lunch (dinner) is at 11:15 am-12:15 pm and is much more variable than breakfast. We almost always have french fries and rice, and there is always a few different options for a main entree. We've had lasagna, stroganoff, fried cod, fried clams, clam chowder, grilled cheese, grilled turkey/roast beef sandwiches, burritos, tortilla soup, fried rice with teriyaki beef (only once unfortunately), and other similar types of food. None of it is fantastic or particularly high quality, but for the most part it's pretty good, especially given that the food budget per person/ per day is $3. I know, that's pretty ridiculous, I would have gladly thrown in $50-100 of my own money to get better quality food. They always have some kind of desert, usually cake of some kind, sometimes pie, and almost always some kind of cookies (many of the deserts are cooked at dinnertime too). They have made some peanut butter cookies that were absolutely fantastic, probably the best single thing I've tasted on the boat, even rivaling and probably topping my mother's own pb cookies (sorry mom, but it's true). In terms of beverages, they have an assortment of long-life (i.e. lots of preservatives) juices and milk in a fridge, as well as water, gatorade (which tastes terrible), and another fruit drink (not juice) : lemonade, grape drink, or fruit punch which are in those clear plastic dispensers with the tap that constantly circulate the liquid. I think that's about it for the food. I can't tell you anything about dinner because I've never had it once on the boat.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
2 weeks to go...
Well, there's actually 13 days to go, but since the day just started for me (it's 1 am right now), 2 weeks is a good estimate. There is not much exciting to report at this point, except that we are 2 days away from finishing shooting the airguns. We should have been done with that yesterday by the original plan, but the chief scientist added a number of extra lines at the last minute. In his defense, we have saved a significant amount of time compared to the original plan, as it contains contigency time for bad weather and/or airgun issues. We will be picking up all of the instruments after shooting stops, and will probably be done with that about a week from now. That will leave us with 4-5 days to collect bathymetry, sonar, magnetic, and gravity data in the portion of the basin west of where we are, which is what my advisor is interested in. Then we have a ~33-36 hour transit to Fiji and we are done. It seems like it will go so fast when I write it like that, but 13 days still seems like a long time to me right now.
1. We are keeping a close watch on the weather, there is another low pressure system south of us right now, which could stay out of our way or could develop into something bigger. The last week or so, the waves, wind, and ship motion have noticeably increased, but it hasn't been nearly as bad as the cyclone. There actually was a second cyclone last week, I think it was named Innini (sp?), but it stayed well west of us and we only felt marginal effects and it has dissipated by now. If the weather kicks up while we are retrieving OBS's, it could be a significant issue, so we're hoping it doesn't get worse.
2. There has been some marine mammal-related drama developing as well. We got an email forwarded to us from a guy who was in a conference in Hawaii. He is a marine biologist who has worked with some of the people on this boat in the past, I think in a MMO capacity. Apparently, he even shut down a previous cruise due to whale activity. A woman from Tonga who was at the conference mentioned to him that 6 pilot whales had washed up in Tonga over a ~2 week period from mid-January to the very beginning of Feb. The email said that this is an "extremely rare" event, but then proceeds to say that 10 pilot whales washed up in a similar fashion just 6 years ago (more like somewhat uncommon then extremely rare if you ask me). She said she is "aware" of our cruise and our schedule and along with others in Tonga, including some in the government, is trying to blame our activities for these deaths. There are a few huge holes in this theory however. 4 of the 6 whales washed up before we were even in the water, proving not only that they had nothing to do with our airguns, but that this person was not "aware" of our schedule at all. The 5th whale washed up I think 2-3 days after we were in the water, before the airguns were even turned on. The 6th whale is the only one that could even marginally be connected to our activities, but given that the other 5 clearly had nothing to do with us, it's reasonable to conclude the 6th didn't either. Unfortunately, logic and reason will probably not suffice to convince these people, especially when politicians get involved who want to show that they "care" about the environment (i.e. reelection). It's unlikely that this will affect us, but it's possible there may be some protests or something like that when we reach Fiji.
The real drama will begin when the boat gets to Taiwan, where some similar research will be done around the island (thankfully I'll be long gone by then). I don't know a whole lot about this issue, except for the few things I've heard here and there, so I don't have many details, but I imagine the whales washing up in Tonga will only add fuel to the fire. The crew is expecting to be greeted by angry protests when they arrive. There is apparently a growing number of people who have become convinced that seismic research with airguns is harmful to all kinds of sea life and want to shut it down permanently. Many of these people are fanatics that aren't really concerned with petty things like evidence and reason, and simply will believe what they want to believe. However, there certainly could be some truth to what they are saying. The airguns produce an extremely loud sound (>200 dB) which certainly could have a negative effect on sea life and marine mammals and/or disrupt the communication of whales. They used to use dynamite, so I think it's safe to say that airguns are at least an improvement. These potential negative effects are exactly why we have marine mammal observers (MMO's) on the boat monitoring 24/7. They constantly monitor with an acoustic device that allows them to listen for any sign of whale activities and during the day this is combined with visual inspections from the MMO tower. If whales are anywhere within a range that could be harmful to them, the airguns are shut down. It seems logical to me that any fish or other animals that may be harmed by this would hear the guns from a long distance and stay away. The sonar-based devices, as well as the engines, also produce a much quieter and more frequent sound that would likely scare away anything within a dangerous distance of the ship. This is most likely why we haven't seen much sea life on the cruise. I don't claim to know the solution to this issue, but as of yet there really isn't any clear-cut evidence that any of the ships activities harm sea life in anyway. If I find out some more info on this I'll post it, but I've been writing way too long, so I'm going to stop.
1. We are keeping a close watch on the weather, there is another low pressure system south of us right now, which could stay out of our way or could develop into something bigger. The last week or so, the waves, wind, and ship motion have noticeably increased, but it hasn't been nearly as bad as the cyclone. There actually was a second cyclone last week, I think it was named Innini (sp?), but it stayed well west of us and we only felt marginal effects and it has dissipated by now. If the weather kicks up while we are retrieving OBS's, it could be a significant issue, so we're hoping it doesn't get worse.
2. There has been some marine mammal-related drama developing as well. We got an email forwarded to us from a guy who was in a conference in Hawaii. He is a marine biologist who has worked with some of the people on this boat in the past, I think in a MMO capacity. Apparently, he even shut down a previous cruise due to whale activity. A woman from Tonga who was at the conference mentioned to him that 6 pilot whales had washed up in Tonga over a ~2 week period from mid-January to the very beginning of Feb. The email said that this is an "extremely rare" event, but then proceeds to say that 10 pilot whales washed up in a similar fashion just 6 years ago (more like somewhat uncommon then extremely rare if you ask me). She said she is "aware" of our cruise and our schedule and along with others in Tonga, including some in the government, is trying to blame our activities for these deaths. There are a few huge holes in this theory however. 4 of the 6 whales washed up before we were even in the water, proving not only that they had nothing to do with our airguns, but that this person was not "aware" of our schedule at all. The 5th whale washed up I think 2-3 days after we were in the water, before the airguns were even turned on. The 6th whale is the only one that could even marginally be connected to our activities, but given that the other 5 clearly had nothing to do with us, it's reasonable to conclude the 6th didn't either. Unfortunately, logic and reason will probably not suffice to convince these people, especially when politicians get involved who want to show that they "care" about the environment (i.e. reelection). It's unlikely that this will affect us, but it's possible there may be some protests or something like that when we reach Fiji.
The real drama will begin when the boat gets to Taiwan, where some similar research will be done around the island (thankfully I'll be long gone by then). I don't know a whole lot about this issue, except for the few things I've heard here and there, so I don't have many details, but I imagine the whales washing up in Tonga will only add fuel to the fire. The crew is expecting to be greeted by angry protests when they arrive. There is apparently a growing number of people who have become convinced that seismic research with airguns is harmful to all kinds of sea life and want to shut it down permanently. Many of these people are fanatics that aren't really concerned with petty things like evidence and reason, and simply will believe what they want to believe. However, there certainly could be some truth to what they are saying. The airguns produce an extremely loud sound (>200 dB) which certainly could have a negative effect on sea life and marine mammals and/or disrupt the communication of whales. They used to use dynamite, so I think it's safe to say that airguns are at least an improvement. These potential negative effects are exactly why we have marine mammal observers (MMO's) on the boat monitoring 24/7. They constantly monitor with an acoustic device that allows them to listen for any sign of whale activities and during the day this is combined with visual inspections from the MMO tower. If whales are anywhere within a range that could be harmful to them, the airguns are shut down. It seems logical to me that any fish or other animals that may be harmed by this would hear the guns from a long distance and stay away. The sonar-based devices, as well as the engines, also produce a much quieter and more frequent sound that would likely scare away anything within a dangerous distance of the ship. This is most likely why we haven't seen much sea life on the cruise. I don't claim to know the solution to this issue, but as of yet there really isn't any clear-cut evidence that any of the ships activities harm sea life in anyway. If I find out some more info on this I'll post it, but I've been writing way too long, so I'm going to stop.
Friday, February 13, 2009
More thoughts...
It is Valentine's Day on the boat (tomorrow for all of you), and we have officially crossed the halfway point of the cruise. On the one hand, it's a nice milestone and it feels good to have gotten this far, and on the other hand, that means we still have over 3 weeks left (~22 days). It feels like we've been on the boat for months already, I can't believe that we have that much longer to go. We are in the last phase of shooting the airguns over the northern area, which is ~1/2 the size of the first area. After we're done shooting, we will go back and pick up all of the instruments and the experiment will be done. Any extra time will probably be used for mapping between here and Fiji using the multibeam echosounder, the other two sonar-like devices, the gravimeter, and the magnetometer, which is the data that my advisor is most interested in and the only data that may have some relevance to my thesis. Unfortunately, even though it looks like we will be done at least a few days early (assuming the shooting and instrument recovery goes well), it doesn't seem like there's any chance of arriving in Fiji early.
1. A nice thing that I realized a while ago is that we don't have any bugs on the boat. No cockroaches, no ants, no mosquitoes, no spiders, none of the usual pests that annoy land-dwellers. You can leave food out and uncovered and it doesn't get mobbed by roaches (I guess that's more of a Hawaiian problem), but it is one positive point that I thought was worth mentioning. I've got to hold on to all of the positives I can, because there aren't too many.
2. I at least partially understand why people are actually willingly choose to work on a boat as a career. I learned this from talking to the guy (Bern) who is a watch leader and spends most of his time in the lab with us. For one, they make very good wages. Bern said that he makes ~$400 a day (7 days a week), meaning if he worked a full year, it would be over $100k. I imagine his income is on the high end for the normal crew members, but the captain and 3 mates (guys that actually pilot the boat) probably make even more than he does. Also, they only work about half the year on average, anything from 4 to 11 months, based on what I've heard. I guess that would be about the only way you could convince anyone to do this job, so it makes sense.
3. For the last week and a half, we have been experiencing tropical summer weather, which is pretty brutal. It's in the 90's every day, and is extremely humid. It's noticeably worse than anything I have experienced in Hawaii as of yet. I only go outside at night or in the early morning, it's just not comfortable during the afternoon.
4. Despite the sleep schedule, I am actually happy that I got the night shift, which surprises me to say. I don't think I would sleep that well on a normal schedule anyway, so that's somewhat of a moot point. First of all, we have 3 students on the night shift vs. 2 during the day, so we actually get more free time because we can split up the watch duties. Also, it is quieter and there are less people around, so we get a little more freedom in our activities. They have a surround sound system in the main lab which I always plug my Zen mp3 player into, which I'm not sure I could do as much during the day. Also, we get to play cards and yahtzee during our shift, another thing that I don't think would be as acceptable during the day.
5. We had a ping-pong tournament which 22 people participated in. I made it to the second round, but had to face the captain, who I predict is going to be the winner of the tournament (he's in the final 3 right now). I could have made it to the semi-finals at least if I hadn't faced him. Oh well, it was a fun distraction, and we even have a camera set up so we can watch the games in the main lab.
6. After a 5 or 6 year hiatus, I actually started drawing again. I'm happy to say that (at least with graphite) I haven't lost my abilities. I did a drawing of the view from the Hopi granaries in the Grand Canyon (see photo below). I think I need to pick something a little less complex for my next attempt. I'm not the kind of person that can just gloss over details, so it was a pretty difficult drawing for my first attempt in a long time. I tried a watercolor painting earlier today, but it was pretty much a disaster. I've only done one watercolor before in high school (which turned out pretty good), but it really doesn't suit my artistic style. I'm a very slow and careful artist (some might say a perfectionist), and watercolor forces you to go fast because you can't blend it very well once the paint dries. Acrylic is my favorite kind of paint, very easy to blend, easy to make fine details, and you can actually paint over mistakes, which is virtually impossible with watercolor (tempera is pretty good too). I then tried a colored pencil drawing, but the pencils I brought are not very good for blending and they have a limited color range; I failed pretty miserably on that too. I should have brought the prismacolors, which are definitely the best ones out there. I thought these ones might be good too; it turns out they weren't, oh well. I've also been volunteered to do a t-shirt design for the cruise, so we'll see how that turns out.
7. Lastly, this photo is a correction from the previous photo of the color of the ocean that I posted earlier. After looking at that, I realized that it did not represent the color of the deep ocean well at all. It's way too bright and turqouise colored, either an effect of the camera, or because it was taken near Tonga in shallow water. Here is a photo that more closely matches the color of the water (which of course varies based on the time of day and weather).
1. A nice thing that I realized a while ago is that we don't have any bugs on the boat. No cockroaches, no ants, no mosquitoes, no spiders, none of the usual pests that annoy land-dwellers. You can leave food out and uncovered and it doesn't get mobbed by roaches (I guess that's more of a Hawaiian problem), but it is one positive point that I thought was worth mentioning. I've got to hold on to all of the positives I can, because there aren't too many.
2. I at least partially understand why people are actually willingly choose to work on a boat as a career. I learned this from talking to the guy (Bern) who is a watch leader and spends most of his time in the lab with us. For one, they make very good wages. Bern said that he makes ~$400 a day (7 days a week), meaning if he worked a full year, it would be over $100k. I imagine his income is on the high end for the normal crew members, but the captain and 3 mates (guys that actually pilot the boat) probably make even more than he does. Also, they only work about half the year on average, anything from 4 to 11 months, based on what I've heard. I guess that would be about the only way you could convince anyone to do this job, so it makes sense.
3. For the last week and a half, we have been experiencing tropical summer weather, which is pretty brutal. It's in the 90's every day, and is extremely humid. It's noticeably worse than anything I have experienced in Hawaii as of yet. I only go outside at night or in the early morning, it's just not comfortable during the afternoon.
4. Despite the sleep schedule, I am actually happy that I got the night shift, which surprises me to say. I don't think I would sleep that well on a normal schedule anyway, so that's somewhat of a moot point. First of all, we have 3 students on the night shift vs. 2 during the day, so we actually get more free time because we can split up the watch duties. Also, it is quieter and there are less people around, so we get a little more freedom in our activities. They have a surround sound system in the main lab which I always plug my Zen mp3 player into, which I'm not sure I could do as much during the day. Also, we get to play cards and yahtzee during our shift, another thing that I don't think would be as acceptable during the day.
5. We had a ping-pong tournament which 22 people participated in. I made it to the second round, but had to face the captain, who I predict is going to be the winner of the tournament (he's in the final 3 right now). I could have made it to the semi-finals at least if I hadn't faced him. Oh well, it was a fun distraction, and we even have a camera set up so we can watch the games in the main lab.
6. After a 5 or 6 year hiatus, I actually started drawing again. I'm happy to say that (at least with graphite) I haven't lost my abilities. I did a drawing of the view from the Hopi granaries in the Grand Canyon (see photo below). I think I need to pick something a little less complex for my next attempt. I'm not the kind of person that can just gloss over details, so it was a pretty difficult drawing for my first attempt in a long time. I tried a watercolor painting earlier today, but it was pretty much a disaster. I've only done one watercolor before in high school (which turned out pretty good), but it really doesn't suit my artistic style. I'm a very slow and careful artist (some might say a perfectionist), and watercolor forces you to go fast because you can't blend it very well once the paint dries. Acrylic is my favorite kind of paint, very easy to blend, easy to make fine details, and you can actually paint over mistakes, which is virtually impossible with watercolor (tempera is pretty good too). I then tried a colored pencil drawing, but the pencils I brought are not very good for blending and they have a limited color range; I failed pretty miserably on that too. I should have brought the prismacolors, which are definitely the best ones out there. I thought these ones might be good too; it turns out they weren't, oh well. I've also been volunteered to do a t-shirt design for the cruise, so we'll see how that turns out.
7. Lastly, this photo is a correction from the previous photo of the color of the ocean that I posted earlier. After looking at that, I realized that it did not represent the color of the deep ocean well at all. It's way too bright and turqouise colored, either an effect of the camera, or because it was taken near Tonga in shallow water. Here is a photo that more closely matches the color of the water (which of course varies based on the time of day and weather).
Saturday, February 7, 2009
More Randomness
I've officially survived just over two weeks, and we have exactly 4 weeks to go. It's going to be a looooong 4 weeks.
1. It hit me a few days ago that silence does not exist on this boat. No matter where you go, you can always hear the engine, as well as a variety of other noises. I never thought I would miss silence so much, but that is probably the one thing I want the most right now.
2. On a related note, just being still and motionless is impossible on the boat. Even when the ocean is virtually flat, you are always moving. Just sitting in the chair at the computer, my hips and lower torso have to slowly but constantly adjust side to side to keep my upper torso straight. You do get accustomed to it, I definitely have my "sea legs," but I miss being able to just sit and be still.
3. I finally got to witness my first sunrise yesterday, and if I may say so, I think I picked an excellent day. The low cumulus clouds provided a great foreground, and the high cirrus clouds (correct me if I'm wrong mom) provided a nice canvas for the sun to paint on. I took over 90 pictures as the sun was rising. I realized that it's hard to keep the horizon level on a moving boat, and I also realized I wish I had an SLR. Here's 5 of the best shots, I couldn't decide on one:
I'll add to this post later...
1. It hit me a few days ago that silence does not exist on this boat. No matter where you go, you can always hear the engine, as well as a variety of other noises. I never thought I would miss silence so much, but that is probably the one thing I want the most right now.
2. On a related note, just being still and motionless is impossible on the boat. Even when the ocean is virtually flat, you are always moving. Just sitting in the chair at the computer, my hips and lower torso have to slowly but constantly adjust side to side to keep my upper torso straight. You do get accustomed to it, I definitely have my "sea legs," but I miss being able to just sit and be still.
3. I finally got to witness my first sunrise yesterday, and if I may say so, I think I picked an excellent day. The low cumulus clouds provided a great foreground, and the high cirrus clouds (correct me if I'm wrong mom) provided a nice canvas for the sun to paint on. I took over 90 pictures as the sun was rising. I realized that it's hard to keep the horizon level on a moving boat, and I also realized I wish I had an SLR. Here's 5 of the best shots, I couldn't decide on one:
I'll add to this post later...
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Random Thoughts
Since we are in a pretty constant routine for the next week and a half or so, there aren't too many new and exciting things to report that are going on. This post is just some random thoughts, rants, comments, and experiences that may or may not be interesting, in no particular order...
1. The shower design. Whatever idiot "designed" the shower "enclosures" needs to be smacked. It's basically a curtain around one corner of the bathroom, with an ~1" depression, that is somehow supposed to contain water sloshing around while the boat moves. It doesn't. There is an ~ 3" high metal wall running along the top edge of the depression, but this is not secured into the floor or sealed in any way, and there is a gap between the bottom of the metal and the floor. It's not like it was once sealed and now the seal is gone, it clearly was never sealed at all, I don't even know why they bothered putting it there. The first few showers I took (especially during the cyclone) resulted in the entire bathroom floor being covered with a layer of water. I have managed to contain the water by placing my beach towel around the edge of the metal piece, which does successfully soak up the water leaking under the metal. I haven't tested this method yet during a storm, but I imagine it will result in my towel getting completely soaked.
Another horrible piece of "design" is the lack of a ventilation fan. There is a very small vent in the ceiling (I think that's what it is), but it doesn't suck the steam out with any efficiency and is clearly not powered by a fan. This isn't a huge problem in and of itself, but when the rooms on either side are equipped with very sensitive smoke alarms, it means that I have to throw the door open, hop through it and shut it very quickly to avoid letting steam in the room and causing a ship-wide panic. I've gotten somewhat used to this, but it always makes me at least a little nervous when getting out of the shower.
2. On a lighter note. I've discovered that watching the ocean breathe in the morning (before it gets hot and humid) while listening to Bonobo (a band that Ryan introduced me to, thanks buddy) is quite a magical experience. It is the perfect theme music for floating in the ocean.
3. I've noticed that when the ship is rolling (side to side, rather than front to back) a substantial amount, going up stairs can actually almost feel like going down stairs, and vice versa. It's not that the ship is tilting so much that the stairs going up are actually pointing down (that would mean that we're sinking), but I guess it just has to do with mental perception, i.e. your brain is expecting it to be more difficult to go up the stairs and it's actually significantly easier, so it feels like you're going downstairs. See, I told you these were "random" thoughts, don't say I didn't warn you.
4. The only sea life we've seen since leaving Tonga is a school of tuna, and a possible jellyfish (could have been a plastic bag or something). The tuna were pretty cool to watch, there was about 20-30 of them jumping up and feeding on I guess some smaller fish we couldn't see, and they stayed by the boat for almost a half h0ur. They had backs that looked somewhere between purple and maroon, I'm not sure which specific kind they were. The only other animal life is seabirds (gulls, and maybe albatross?), of which at least a few are around almost constantly, even given our distance from land. I imagine the lack of other sea life has to do with our equipment. We not only have the air guns towed behind the boat, but we also have a multibeam echosounder (I think I said it shot light beams in my first entry, which is wrong and doesn't even make sense, because light can't penetrate 2000+ meters of water), and another type of echosounder constantly going, which apparently don't bother whales and larger animals (too high frequency), but can bother smaller creatures.
5. Breakfast. This one is fresh on my mind because I ate during the middle of this entry. Breakfast is my first big meal of the day because I always miss dinner and usually don't have much of an appetite right after I get up at 11 pm. It's definitely the most predictable meal. We always have eggs, bacon, hash browns, and some kind of sausage, accompanied on different days by either cream of wheat, pancakes, waffles, or french toast. I'm still at the point where this is a good thing, I love american-style breakfast, but I imagine it will get tiresome after another week or two. Thankfully, we also always have fresh fruit with breakfast, usually watermelon and pineapple, and sometimes a weird canteloupe-like tongan melon that's too sweet, kiwi, or grapefruit. There are usually apples and oranges available at all times in a bowl, but I have yet to find an apple that wasn't mealy, bruised, and gross, so I pretty much gave up on those. Also, there is yogurt and various kinds of juice (probably loaded with preservatives) that are always available. All of the yogurt that I've eaten has an expiration date in December, yet it seems to be perfectly fine, I don't know if they froze it or what, but as long as it tastes good, I'm not complaining.
6. This is a pretty gruesome story, you are forewarned. Before I left, a number of people asked whether we could get off the boat and swim, and I remember saying that I heard of people being attacked by sharks, but I couldn't really remember where I heard that or whether it was even that accurate. Well, one of the OBS guys from Scripps Institute of Oceanography (in San Diego) told me the story that I think I was referring to. Apparently, there was a Scripps-run cruise a number of years ago, somewhere in the Pacific (I forget where) and it was one of their traditions to have a "swim call" every so often, where they stopped the boat and a bunch of people would jump in to cool off. One of the crew had the terrible idea of throwing out the kitchen trash (food scraps, paper waste, etc) while people were in the water. So, as you might expect, the smell of food attracted sharks. Without warning, a shark grabbed one of the women's legs and pulled her under. The others quickly got out and tried to grab her and pull her on the boat. They ended up pulling her in and she survived, but the shark took her entire leg off. Needless to say, there are no more swim calls. I've heard that this incident was filmed and it was submitted to one of those extreme reality shows, so some of you may have seen it on TV or the internet. I also heard from the chief scientist that he used to shine a spotlight behind the boat at night on a previous cruise and the water would be teeming with sharks. Apparently they have learned to recognize boats as food sources (it is routine to throw food and biodegradable waste overboard). So it looks like I won't doing any swimming until Fiji.
That's all for now, more randomness to come whenever I get inspired (probably in a new post, since this one is ridiculously long already)...
1. The shower design. Whatever idiot "designed" the shower "enclosures" needs to be smacked. It's basically a curtain around one corner of the bathroom, with an ~1" depression, that is somehow supposed to contain water sloshing around while the boat moves. It doesn't. There is an ~ 3" high metal wall running along the top edge of the depression, but this is not secured into the floor or sealed in any way, and there is a gap between the bottom of the metal and the floor. It's not like it was once sealed and now the seal is gone, it clearly was never sealed at all, I don't even know why they bothered putting it there. The first few showers I took (especially during the cyclone) resulted in the entire bathroom floor being covered with a layer of water. I have managed to contain the water by placing my beach towel around the edge of the metal piece, which does successfully soak up the water leaking under the metal. I haven't tested this method yet during a storm, but I imagine it will result in my towel getting completely soaked.
Another horrible piece of "design" is the lack of a ventilation fan. There is a very small vent in the ceiling (I think that's what it is), but it doesn't suck the steam out with any efficiency and is clearly not powered by a fan. This isn't a huge problem in and of itself, but when the rooms on either side are equipped with very sensitive smoke alarms, it means that I have to throw the door open, hop through it and shut it very quickly to avoid letting steam in the room and causing a ship-wide panic. I've gotten somewhat used to this, but it always makes me at least a little nervous when getting out of the shower.
2. On a lighter note. I've discovered that watching the ocean breathe in the morning (before it gets hot and humid) while listening to Bonobo (a band that Ryan introduced me to, thanks buddy) is quite a magical experience. It is the perfect theme music for floating in the ocean.
3. I've noticed that when the ship is rolling (side to side, rather than front to back) a substantial amount, going up stairs can actually almost feel like going down stairs, and vice versa. It's not that the ship is tilting so much that the stairs going up are actually pointing down (that would mean that we're sinking), but I guess it just has to do with mental perception, i.e. your brain is expecting it to be more difficult to go up the stairs and it's actually significantly easier, so it feels like you're going downstairs. See, I told you these were "random" thoughts, don't say I didn't warn you.
4. The only sea life we've seen since leaving Tonga is a school of tuna, and a possible jellyfish (could have been a plastic bag or something). The tuna were pretty cool to watch, there was about 20-30 of them jumping up and feeding on I guess some smaller fish we couldn't see, and they stayed by the boat for almost a half h0ur. They had backs that looked somewhere between purple and maroon, I'm not sure which specific kind they were. The only other animal life is seabirds (gulls, and maybe albatross?), of which at least a few are around almost constantly, even given our distance from land. I imagine the lack of other sea life has to do with our equipment. We not only have the air guns towed behind the boat, but we also have a multibeam echosounder (I think I said it shot light beams in my first entry, which is wrong and doesn't even make sense, because light can't penetrate 2000+ meters of water), and another type of echosounder constantly going, which apparently don't bother whales and larger animals (too high frequency), but can bother smaller creatures.
5. Breakfast. This one is fresh on my mind because I ate during the middle of this entry. Breakfast is my first big meal of the day because I always miss dinner and usually don't have much of an appetite right after I get up at 11 pm. It's definitely the most predictable meal. We always have eggs, bacon, hash browns, and some kind of sausage, accompanied on different days by either cream of wheat, pancakes, waffles, or french toast. I'm still at the point where this is a good thing, I love american-style breakfast, but I imagine it will get tiresome after another week or two. Thankfully, we also always have fresh fruit with breakfast, usually watermelon and pineapple, and sometimes a weird canteloupe-like tongan melon that's too sweet, kiwi, or grapefruit. There are usually apples and oranges available at all times in a bowl, but I have yet to find an apple that wasn't mealy, bruised, and gross, so I pretty much gave up on those. Also, there is yogurt and various kinds of juice (probably loaded with preservatives) that are always available. All of the yogurt that I've eaten has an expiration date in December, yet it seems to be perfectly fine, I don't know if they froze it or what, but as long as it tastes good, I'm not complaining.
6. This is a pretty gruesome story, you are forewarned. Before I left, a number of people asked whether we could get off the boat and swim, and I remember saying that I heard of people being attacked by sharks, but I couldn't really remember where I heard that or whether it was even that accurate. Well, one of the OBS guys from Scripps Institute of Oceanography (in San Diego) told me the story that I think I was referring to. Apparently, there was a Scripps-run cruise a number of years ago, somewhere in the Pacific (I forget where) and it was one of their traditions to have a "swim call" every so often, where they stopped the boat and a bunch of people would jump in to cool off. One of the crew had the terrible idea of throwing out the kitchen trash (food scraps, paper waste, etc) while people were in the water. So, as you might expect, the smell of food attracted sharks. Without warning, a shark grabbed one of the women's legs and pulled her under. The others quickly got out and tried to grab her and pull her on the boat. They ended up pulling her in and she survived, but the shark took her entire leg off. Needless to say, there are no more swim calls. I've heard that this incident was filmed and it was submitted to one of those extreme reality shows, so some of you may have seen it on TV or the internet. I also heard from the chief scientist that he used to shine a spotlight behind the boat at night on a previous cruise and the water would be teeming with sharks. Apparently they have learned to recognize boats as food sources (it is routine to throw food and biodegradable waste overboard). So it looks like I won't doing any swimming until Fiji.
That's all for now, more randomness to come whenever I get inspired (probably in a new post, since this one is ridiculously long already)...
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Langseth Photos
Here are some sample photos of the boat:
"The Bridge" where the captain and co. control the ship
The main deck where the OBS's are deployed. The right side of the deck is only ~6 ft above the water, so this area gets very wet during storms.
The Marine Mammal Observers (MMO) tower. Also not a good place to be in a storm, especially if you're prone to seasickness. It moves more than anywhere else on the boat.
A part of the gun deck. The rubber float is the large black cylinder in the top left and you can see two of the guns hanging down from that. The curved metal rails allow for easy deployment off the back of the boat. Another place you don't want to be in a storm as the edge of the deck is nearly level with the water.
My bathroom (shared with one other guy). The shower is out of the picture to the right.
The common room between the other student's rooms (to the right) and my room (off the picture to the left).
My humble quarters, prior to moving in. You can't see the whole room, but there really isn't much else to it.
The R/V Marcus G. Langseth. It was hard to get the whole ship in one photo. The bridge is on top and the "house" containing all of the living quarters, mess hall, movie room, etc. are below the bridge. All of the equipment decks are barely visible on the right edge of the photo.
The beautiful blue of the South Pacific.
Olga, me, and Erica on the MMO tower, just after launch.
The movie room, complete with ~42" 1080p flatscreen and surround sound. Unfortunately, you have to compete with engine noise if you watch a movie, but it's still nice to have.
The main science lab, where I spend most of my waking hours.
"The Bridge" where the captain and co. control the ship
The main deck where the OBS's are deployed. The right side of the deck is only ~6 ft above the water, so this area gets very wet during storms.
The Marine Mammal Observers (MMO) tower. Also not a good place to be in a storm, especially if you're prone to seasickness. It moves more than anywhere else on the boat.
A part of the gun deck. The rubber float is the large black cylinder in the top left and you can see two of the guns hanging down from that. The curved metal rails allow for easy deployment off the back of the boat. Another place you don't want to be in a storm as the edge of the deck is nearly level with the water.
My bathroom (shared with one other guy). The shower is out of the picture to the right.
The common room between the other student's rooms (to the right) and my room (off the picture to the left).
My humble quarters, prior to moving in. You can't see the whole room, but there really isn't much else to it.
The R/V Marcus G. Langseth. It was hard to get the whole ship in one photo. The bridge is on top and the "house" containing all of the living quarters, mess hall, movie room, etc. are below the bridge. All of the equipment decks are barely visible on the right edge of the photo.
The beautiful blue of the South Pacific.
Olga, me, and Erica on the MMO tower, just after launch.
The movie room, complete with ~42" 1080p flatscreen and surround sound. Unfortunately, you have to compete with engine noise if you watch a movie, but it's still nice to have.
The main science lab, where I spend most of my waking hours.Tonga Photos
Here are some selected photos from Tonga and on the boat. I have many more, plus a number of movies, but this computer is way too slow to put everything up. I'll put a larger selection on facebook at some point, but it may not be until after the cruise.
Keleti Beach in Tonga, near the phantom "resort" (see the first blog entry). The water was warm, but it rained and the beach wasn't that great. The reef was also very close to shore.
Beautiful downtown Nuku'alofa
Fruit "stands" (more like piles) along Vanu Road in Nuku'alofa (Olga in foreground)
Beautiful wood carvings sold along Vanu Rd in Nuku'alofa
The other grad students and the 3 OBS guys from Woods Hole at a Luau-like dinner at the International Dateline Hotel in Nuku'alofa
From left: Olga, Regan, and Erica on Atata Island (where we went snorkeling in Tonga)
Atata Island again, the water is crystal clear but a dark-brown sea-grass causes it to turn dark as you go out from the shore
The "Flying Fox" on Atata Island
Keleti Beach in Tonga, near the phantom "resort" (see the first blog entry). The water was warm, but it rained and the beach wasn't that great. The reef was also very close to shore.
Beautiful downtown Nuku'alofa
Fruit "stands" (more like piles) along Vanu Road in Nuku'alofa (Olga in foreground)
Beautiful wood carvings sold along Vanu Rd in Nuku'alofa
The other grad students and the 3 OBS guys from Woods Hole at a Luau-like dinner at the International Dateline Hotel in Nuku'alofa
From left: Olga, Regan, and Erica on Atata Island (where we went snorkeling in Tonga)
Atata Island again, the water is crystal clear but a dark-brown sea-grass causes it to turn dark as you go out from the shore
The "Flying Fox" on Atata IslandTuesday, January 27, 2009
1/30/09 Update
Well, we officially experienced the first (and hopefully last) cyclone of the trip. It was named Tropical Cyclone Hettie and it lasted for about three days or so. We avoided getting hit by the worst part of it by sort of skirting around the edge, but it was still rather unpleasant. The boat was pitching and rolling quite a bit more than usual, occasionally things would fall off desks or slide around, and sleeping was much more difficult. We've had almost 24 hours of relative calm now, and we've actually begun shooting the air guns and collecting data. The air guns are in 4 rows of 10 guns, towed about 200 m behind the boat, all suspended a few meters below rubber tube floats which kind of look like giant snakes in the water when they move around on the waves. Only 9 of the 10 guns in each row are active at a time (the other is a spare), and they all fire off at once every ~3 min (450 m in the water). In each row, there are guns with variable pressures that produce a variety of sound frequencies. The sound waves are what travel to the ocean bottom and penetrate the crust. Thankfully, we don't really hear the guns on the boat; from what I've heard, on other boats or in shallower water the sound can be pretty brutal and make for a hellish experience. While shooting the guns, my job is to log the start and end of the lines that the boat travels along (a grid pattern over the study area), and to log any problems with the guns (of which there are many so far). Apparently, we're going to be shooting for almost 2 weeks on the current area, after which we retrieve some of the seismometers from the seafloor and place a smaller number of them in a location just north of where we are. As you might imagine, watch duty during shooting is pretty boring, but it's nice to actually be doing what we came to do. Unfortunately, we can't see the data in real time, it's all stored on the instruments and has to be processed extensively before it's of any use. The marine mammal people are constantly listening for any signs of marine life while we shoot as well.
I got a chance to go out before my shift at 11:45 pm or so and see some stars, which was pretty awesome. The milky way was visible in a big swath overhead, although to be completely honest, I've seen stars just as well on camping trips in California or Oregon before, I was hoping for a little better being this far from civilization. I try to get outside for an hour or so every day and just stare at the ocean, it's very peaceful and helps keep me sane. Although there are a few bright spots here and there, overall I think it's pretty safe to say that life on a boat is not for me, I'm definitely ready to get back to solid ground, especially since I have 4 days on a resort island in Fiji to look forward to, and then back to good old Hawaii. I still have a long way to go though; I'm interested to see what my opinion will be by the end of this trip. In the big picture, I'm glad I'm getting this experience and seeing this side of the geologic spectrum, but for me this simply doesn't compare to being out in a beautiful place in the mountains somewhere where I can actually see and touch the geology. There are some really cool things going on out here geologically (see the "Science of it All" post for details), but seeing it filtered through a computer monitor is just not the same. Oh well, for all the Calvin and Hobbes fans out there, I guess I can just chalk it up to "building character." Until next time...
I got a chance to go out before my shift at 11:45 pm or so and see some stars, which was pretty awesome. The milky way was visible in a big swath overhead, although to be completely honest, I've seen stars just as well on camping trips in California or Oregon before, I was hoping for a little better being this far from civilization. I try to get outside for an hour or so every day and just stare at the ocean, it's very peaceful and helps keep me sane. Although there are a few bright spots here and there, overall I think it's pretty safe to say that life on a boat is not for me, I'm definitely ready to get back to solid ground, especially since I have 4 days on a resort island in Fiji to look forward to, and then back to good old Hawaii. I still have a long way to go though; I'm interested to see what my opinion will be by the end of this trip. In the big picture, I'm glad I'm getting this experience and seeing this side of the geologic spectrum, but for me this simply doesn't compare to being out in a beautiful place in the mountains somewhere where I can actually see and touch the geology. There are some really cool things going on out here geologically (see the "Science of it All" post for details), but seeing it filtered through a computer monitor is just not the same. Oh well, for all the Calvin and Hobbes fans out there, I guess I can just chalk it up to "building character." Until next time...
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Life on the Boat
My watchstanding shift begins at the brisk hour of midnight and ends at noon. Needless to say, this takes some getting used to, but I am actually doing better at adjusting then I thought I would. Having breakfast (dinner??) at 11:00 pm is pretty strange (normal dinner time is when I am asleep). So far, my watch duties have consisted of logging the activities that are going on and any problems with the equipment, as well as helping to deploy equipment. Right now, we are in the seismometer deployment phase, so every so often I go out on deck and man a tag line (for stabilization) as they lift the seismometer over the edge and into the blue abyss below. On that note, the color of the water is absolutely beautiful, I've never seen a blue quite like it. It matches my favorite color perfectly, which I had no idea actually existed in nature. It's not a tropical turquoise like you might find around Hawaii or other tropical islands, it's more of a deep steely blue with a hint of green in it, hard to describe without a photo. If you just sit and watch the ocean for a while, it really starts to feel like it's alive, like it's breathing with every swell. Anyway, back to the topic at hand. I haven't had a whole lot of free time to just wander and do whatever I want as of yet, most of my off time is spent sleeping (or at least laying in bed). There is down time while on watch, but I generally have to stay in or around the lab area in case I'm needed. This is better for reading a book or something portable rather than exercising or watching movies, etc. I've already finished one book, one of my old favorites, and one of the few books I read in high school that I actually liked. It's called The Killer Angels, a historical novel about the battle of Gettysburg (the movie Gettysburg which is also great, was based on it). It tells the story from the perspective of various generals and commanders on both sides and really puts a human face on the war; many of them were fighting friends and even brothers on the other side, and they all had reasons for fighting beyond the slavery issue. Anyway, the deployment phase is apparently busier than when we are shooting the air guns, so I imagine I will have some more down time in the future. However, I do have work for classes and some data processing type work to do for my advisor, so it looks like I'm going to be staying busy most of the time. The food has been pretty decent so far, although it worries me that the fresh fruit and veggies are already starting to go bad and we're barely two days in. I imagine it's going to get progressively worse as we go. All right, I have to go, to be continued...
Saturday, January 24, 2009
The Boat
This post is meant to give some information on the boat that I am on. Some of you may have already seen pictures of the boat and info on this website: http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/fac/oma/replacement/shipyard_progress.html
It is owned by Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) affiliated with Columbia University, and is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). It is ~230 ft long and is a converted military ship (details and photos of the conversion process are on the above site). The ship has three main decks loaded with all sorts of equipment and various cranes to move it around: there is a huge ~10 ft diameter sphere on the top deck which gives us our satellite connection, a ~50-60 ft tower in the middle where the whale-watchers (Marine Mammal Observers or MMO's) set up camp, all sorts of winches and spools of cables and ropes for various purposes, and many other things which aren't particularly exciting to mention. I spend most of my time while I am on watch in the main science lab, which is basically an array of ~30 screens and computers monitoring various pieces of equipment and even showing video feeds of various parts of the ship. There are a few computers around that we can use for the internet or various other purposes. The living quarters are quite small as you might expect, mine consists of four small rooms (~5'x8') with two bunks each around a central common room with a couch, a table, and a mini fridge, and two adjacent rooms share a bathroom. Thankfully I have my own room, which is nice. There is a mess hall (dining room) nearby, a movie room with a nice HD flat screen, some couches and a fair number of movies, a library room with some novels and other random books, and a small exercise room with a treadmill, rowing machine, and a few free weights. There are many other labs, equipment rooms, laundry room, and other random rooms around, but those are pretty much the highlights. I have some interior photos, but it's kind of a pain to post them and the connection is a bit slow, but I may get around to posting them here or on my facebook at some point. Despite being a pretty big boat it still pitches and rolls quite noticeably, even in waves that are relatively tame. It hasn't been bad so far, and I think my legs and stomach have mostly adjusted, but I'm really not looking forward to experiencing a storm, which may be as early as tomorrow (1/26 for me). All right, enough about the boat for now, if I think of anything else interesting, I'll post it later...
It is owned by Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) affiliated with Columbia University, and is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). It is ~230 ft long and is a converted military ship (details and photos of the conversion process are on the above site). The ship has three main decks loaded with all sorts of equipment and various cranes to move it around: there is a huge ~10 ft diameter sphere on the top deck which gives us our satellite connection, a ~50-60 ft tower in the middle where the whale-watchers (Marine Mammal Observers or MMO's) set up camp, all sorts of winches and spools of cables and ropes for various purposes, and many other things which aren't particularly exciting to mention. I spend most of my time while I am on watch in the main science lab, which is basically an array of ~30 screens and computers monitoring various pieces of equipment and even showing video feeds of various parts of the ship. There are a few computers around that we can use for the internet or various other purposes. The living quarters are quite small as you might expect, mine consists of four small rooms (~5'x8') with two bunks each around a central common room with a couch, a table, and a mini fridge, and two adjacent rooms share a bathroom. Thankfully I have my own room, which is nice. There is a mess hall (dining room) nearby, a movie room with a nice HD flat screen, some couches and a fair number of movies, a library room with some novels and other random books, and a small exercise room with a treadmill, rowing machine, and a few free weights. There are many other labs, equipment rooms, laundry room, and other random rooms around, but those are pretty much the highlights. I have some interior photos, but it's kind of a pain to post them and the connection is a bit slow, but I may get around to posting them here or on my facebook at some point. Despite being a pretty big boat it still pitches and rolls quite noticeably, even in waves that are relatively tame. It hasn't been bad so far, and I think my legs and stomach have mostly adjusted, but I'm really not looking forward to experiencing a storm, which may be as early as tomorrow (1/26 for me). All right, enough about the boat for now, if I think of anything else interesting, I'll post it later...
The Science of It All
This post is for those who are interested in some of the details of the actual science experiment that is going on. I'll try to keep it in language that non-scientists can understand and I'll try to explain what various things are, but if there are any questions, feel free to leave a comment on the post and I'll answer when I can.
Here goes: The area of interest is in the Lau Basin, located between Fiji on the west and Tonga on the east. Here's a brief geologic history of the area: it all started when the Pacific plate started to subduct underneath the Australian plate north of New Zealand. The overall tectonic forces are pushing the two plates together in a roughly east-west orientation, causing one plate (the Pacific) to slide under the other. As the water-rich subducting plate descends, it begins to be compressed and heated, squeezing water out as it goes down towards the mantle. Once it reaches a depth of ~100 km, the plate begins to melt, releasing water-rich melt into the base of the overlying crust. This magma is less-dense then the surrounding material and buoyantly rises to the surface to form a chain of volcanoes. Over time, these volcanoes build and become an island chain above the ocean surface (e.g. Japan, Indonesia, the Aleutian Islands...). If this subduction process occurs under a continental plate, you get the Andes in South America or the Cascade Range along the west coast of the US. Due to various forces that are very complex and still not entirely understood, these chains of volcanoes often rift apart and split. In this case, the Fiji Ridge and the Tonga Ridge were once part of the original volcanic arc. Rifting occurred between the volcanic arc and the subduction trench (called the forearc), splitting the arc into two pieces. The Tonga ridge is the forearc portion of this system and hence is much flatter than the Fijian portion, which contains the arc volcanoes and has much higher topographic relief. Over time, this rift develops into an organized spreading center, similar to what is happening along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where new crust is emplaced at the spreading center axis, creating new ocean floor. As long as subduction continues, the downgoing plate will continue to melt and form a new chain of arc volcanoes in a similar position to the original arc (this chain is currently the Tofua Volcanic Arc, just west of the Tongan islands). Most of these volcanoes are small still and only a few have actually breached the ocean surface. As spreading continues behind the volcanic arc, you end up with a new ocean basin (the Lau Basin) bounded on the west by the Fiji ridge and on the east by the newly formed Tofua arc, with the Tongan islands just east of the active arc, and the subduction trench just east of that. This type of basin is called a backarc basin, because of it's position relative to the arc. This basin and the spreading center that created it are the focus of both my Master's thesis work and the current experiment.
The experiment: the goal of the experiment is to look at the crust and upper mantle below the southern portion of the backarc spreading center and try to image the magma chamber underneath the spreading axis. This will be accomplished by setting up a rectangular grid of ocean-bottom seismometers (OBS's) on the seafloor, centered around the spreading axis. After the OBS's are deployed on the seafloor, we zig-zag over the area in a grid pattern (both horizontally and vertically), shooting specially designed air guns at the seafloor. I'm not completely familiar with how the air guns work, but essentially they cause small seismic waves to propagate through the seafloor to the base of the crust and even into the upper part of the mantle (~8-10 km deep). Different types of material (i.e. sediment vs. rock vs. magma) reflect and refract these waves in different ways, and the waves move through them at different speeds. The seismometers can pick up these differences and create a cross-sectional image of the crust and upper mantle. The main thing we are looking for in this case is the magma chamber below the spreading center and its variations as you move down the axis. The southern end of the spreading center is closer to the arc volcanoes then the northern end, so we are expecting to find much larger magma chambers in the south, and smaller, if any, magma chambers in the north. We will also be collecting other secondary types of data while in the area, including: bathymetry (the surface of the ocean floor) from a multibeam echosounder (multiple beams of sound bouncing off the seafloor, like sonar), magnetic (different types and ages of rocks have different strengths and orientations of their magnetic fields which can be measured from the boat), and gravity (different densities and thicknesses of material produce a stronger or weaker gravitational pull). These data are what my advisor (whose on the boat but not in charge of the cruise) is interested in and will be more directly related to my thesis.
Complications: Many things can go wrong and slow us down while collecting this data. The one I'm most concerned about is cyclones or large storms. It is cyclone season in the southern hemisphere and it is entirely possible we could encounter one in the 45 days that we are out here. If this occurs, apparently we have to move the boat behind the nearest island to give us some shelter from the waves. Obviously, this is not something we want to experience, the boat moves enough on flat water as it is. The other complication is from marine mammals (mostly whales) which may venture close to the air guns. There are 5 biologists on the boat who are constantly on the lookout for any sign of whales and they could potentially shut the experiment down if a whale gets close enough. It's unclear how much harm the air guns do to whales, but it seems to affect their ability to communicate and may possibly physically harm them as well. I for one, would not mind seeing some whales, but it would definitely wreak havoc on our plans.
Here goes: The area of interest is in the Lau Basin, located between Fiji on the west and Tonga on the east. Here's a brief geologic history of the area: it all started when the Pacific plate started to subduct underneath the Australian plate north of New Zealand. The overall tectonic forces are pushing the two plates together in a roughly east-west orientation, causing one plate (the Pacific) to slide under the other. As the water-rich subducting plate descends, it begins to be compressed and heated, squeezing water out as it goes down towards the mantle. Once it reaches a depth of ~100 km, the plate begins to melt, releasing water-rich melt into the base of the overlying crust. This magma is less-dense then the surrounding material and buoyantly rises to the surface to form a chain of volcanoes. Over time, these volcanoes build and become an island chain above the ocean surface (e.g. Japan, Indonesia, the Aleutian Islands...). If this subduction process occurs under a continental plate, you get the Andes in South America or the Cascade Range along the west coast of the US. Due to various forces that are very complex and still not entirely understood, these chains of volcanoes often rift apart and split. In this case, the Fiji Ridge and the Tonga Ridge were once part of the original volcanic arc. Rifting occurred between the volcanic arc and the subduction trench (called the forearc), splitting the arc into two pieces. The Tonga ridge is the forearc portion of this system and hence is much flatter than the Fijian portion, which contains the arc volcanoes and has much higher topographic relief. Over time, this rift develops into an organized spreading center, similar to what is happening along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where new crust is emplaced at the spreading center axis, creating new ocean floor. As long as subduction continues, the downgoing plate will continue to melt and form a new chain of arc volcanoes in a similar position to the original arc (this chain is currently the Tofua Volcanic Arc, just west of the Tongan islands). Most of these volcanoes are small still and only a few have actually breached the ocean surface. As spreading continues behind the volcanic arc, you end up with a new ocean basin (the Lau Basin) bounded on the west by the Fiji ridge and on the east by the newly formed Tofua arc, with the Tongan islands just east of the active arc, and the subduction trench just east of that. This type of basin is called a backarc basin, because of it's position relative to the arc. This basin and the spreading center that created it are the focus of both my Master's thesis work and the current experiment.
The experiment: the goal of the experiment is to look at the crust and upper mantle below the southern portion of the backarc spreading center and try to image the magma chamber underneath the spreading axis. This will be accomplished by setting up a rectangular grid of ocean-bottom seismometers (OBS's) on the seafloor, centered around the spreading axis. After the OBS's are deployed on the seafloor, we zig-zag over the area in a grid pattern (both horizontally and vertically), shooting specially designed air guns at the seafloor. I'm not completely familiar with how the air guns work, but essentially they cause small seismic waves to propagate through the seafloor to the base of the crust and even into the upper part of the mantle (~8-10 km deep). Different types of material (i.e. sediment vs. rock vs. magma) reflect and refract these waves in different ways, and the waves move through them at different speeds. The seismometers can pick up these differences and create a cross-sectional image of the crust and upper mantle. The main thing we are looking for in this case is the magma chamber below the spreading center and its variations as you move down the axis. The southern end of the spreading center is closer to the arc volcanoes then the northern end, so we are expecting to find much larger magma chambers in the south, and smaller, if any, magma chambers in the north. We will also be collecting other secondary types of data while in the area, including: bathymetry (the surface of the ocean floor) from a multibeam echosounder (multiple beams of sound bouncing off the seafloor, like sonar), magnetic (different types and ages of rocks have different strengths and orientations of their magnetic fields which can be measured from the boat), and gravity (different densities and thicknesses of material produce a stronger or weaker gravitational pull). These data are what my advisor (whose on the boat but not in charge of the cruise) is interested in and will be more directly related to my thesis.
Complications: Many things can go wrong and slow us down while collecting this data. The one I'm most concerned about is cyclones or large storms. It is cyclone season in the southern hemisphere and it is entirely possible we could encounter one in the 45 days that we are out here. If this occurs, apparently we have to move the boat behind the nearest island to give us some shelter from the waves. Obviously, this is not something we want to experience, the boat moves enough on flat water as it is. The other complication is from marine mammals (mostly whales) which may venture close to the air guns. There are 5 biologists on the boat who are constantly on the lookout for any sign of whales and they could potentially shut the experiment down if a whale gets close enough. It's unclear how much harm the air guns do to whales, but it seems to affect their ability to communicate and may possibly physically harm them as well. I for one, would not mind seeing some whales, but it would definitely wreak havoc on our plans.
Fiji and Tonga
This is a slightly modified version of the email I sent to my parents, which many of you may have seen already...
We left Honolulu at 7 am on Jan. 18th and arrived in Fiji at 11:55 am on the 19th (Fiji is 22 hours ahead). We didn't have a whole lot of time to explore Fiji, mostly we drove around town (Nadi, pronounced Non-dee, on the main island of Viti Levu) and saw the pretty extensive flood damage from last weeks storms. It was pretty bad, most of the downtown area was completely closed and the roads were in horrible shape, fences and walls knocked down, houses with muddy destroyed furniture and all sorts of junk outside. Apparently the water level was 15-20 ft above the river level (which is close to the town). Fiji felt much more like a foreign place than Hawaii, it is a mix of polynesian-looking people and Indian-looking people, who were apparently brought in to be workers many years ago. We were pretty much the only white people around with the exception of a few tourists at the hotel (mostly from New Zealand or Australia), and a few occasional people around town. Everyone pretty much speaks English and all of the signs are in English, so that helped. The same way there is American influence in Hawaii, there is a New Zealand/Australia inluence in Fiji. I'm sure I'll have more to say about Fiji once we go back there at the end of the cruise, and I will be staying on a resort island for a few days.
On to Tonga (where this was originally written): we are on the island Tongatapu, which is the main island, in the capitol Nuku'alofa. Tonga is one of the last true kingdoms on earth. The king owns the entire island and has multiple palaces, his coronation was just 5 months ago, so he is still new. We saw his house and the main palace (from a distance). The house looked like something out of Hillsborough, but the palace was actually a bit less impressive than I expected. Nearly everyone here looks like what you'd expect of Tongans, and they all speak English as well (Australian influence here too). There is a sizeable Chinese population as well (similar to Indians in Fiji), although we haven't seen too many around town. The Chinese tend to own these little cinderblcok shops stocked with a bunch of cheap crap, as you might expect. As you walk down the main road through town, you find many Tongan families selling fresh watermelons, pineapples, Taro roots, bananas, as well as some beautiful wood carvings of whales, fish hooks (a symbol of strength in Tonga), and other animals.
The Kingdom is very conservative and Christian, the Tongans wear shirts in the ocean and dress very modestly, which was a bit strange. Also, I've never seen so many coconut palms in my life (even in Hawaii), they actually have farms with rows and rows of palm trees which I saw when we flew in. Yesterday, we went out to what we thought was going to be a resort on the beach. But after a half hour drive, with most of it on dirt roads, we found out from the cab driver that the resort doesn't exist anymore. So we stopped at the end of this dirt road and walked down to a beach while the cab driver waited for us (we had no way to call another cab). There was probably 10 Tongans at the beach and every one of them wore a shirt in the ocean except for one guy. They looked at us a little funny, but not in any sort of hostile way. One of the girls offered me some watermelon that she had been munching on. Overall, the people in both Tonga and Fiji were pretty friendly, so no bad experiences with that. Every time we walked into town from the hotel, almost everyone we passed would smile and say hi, or bye to us, and people in cars would honk and wave (it probably helped that I was always walking with a group of 3 or 4 girls, all 4 of the other students are female). We are planning on going out to one of the small nearby islands tomorrow for some scuba diving or snorkeling. The ship is already here, we can actually see it from a balcony at our hotel. We are getting on board on Friday (Thursday for you guys) and leaving the next morning.
Update (1/25/09): we made it out to Atata island on Thursday (1/23) (40 min boat ride from Tongatapu), which contains the Royal Sunset resort and we got to do some snorkeling. The scuba diving was going to be too expensive and I'll be diving in Fiji in March anyway, so we decided against that. It turned out to be a good decision, because the visibility wasn't fantastic (from the storms) and I doubt we would have seen much more than we did snorkeling. Probably the most interesting thing we saw snorkeling were these clam farms that the Tongans set up. Basically there are these nice neat rows of hundreds of humongous clams on the seafloor (1 to over 2 feet wide). There was some decent coral and a few colorful fish but nothing spectacular. The island itself was interesting, there are a number of people that live there in rundown houses, many were raising pigs. Also, there are lots of wild to semi-wild dogs that run around the island, sort of like the cats in Hawaii, but surprisingly no roaches. We even saw a bat hanging in a tree right by the restaurant at the resort, I took a bunch of pictures of it. I didn't think bats could be cute, but this one definitely was, it had a furry face like a little fox, not a stubby pig-nose like most bats (they call them flying foxes). Oh, and we did see a pod of dolphins on our trip out to Atata Island which was awesome. One disturbing thing I saw on that island and on the main island is the amount of trash. You would think tourists were bad, but the Tongans don't seem to be too concerned with trashing their home. There were pieces of trash strewn along parts of the beach, and even dirty baby diapers on the beach we went to the day before, worse than most beaches I've seen in the US (except maybe a really crowded beach in LA or something).
We boarded the boat on Friday morning at 10:30 and got our stuff organized, I'll talk about the boat in the next post (that's where I am right now). We had one last night in Nuku'alofa on Friday night, and a bunch of us and many of the crew went to a bar in town. When we first arrived it was pretty slow, but by the time we left it was like a packed nightclub in the US, I really did not expect that. Some of the Tongans were actually drinking at the bar, but I never saw any other Tongans drinking in other restaurants that we went to. We spent our first night on the boat on Friday night while it was still docked, and then set sail at 8 am on Saturday. More details on that in the next post. Overall, I definitely enjoyed the experience in Tonga, although I don't know that I would make a vacation trip out there again. If I did, I would go out to one of the smaller island groups north of the main island, which I imagine would be much nicer.
We left Honolulu at 7 am on Jan. 18th and arrived in Fiji at 11:55 am on the 19th (Fiji is 22 hours ahead). We didn't have a whole lot of time to explore Fiji, mostly we drove around town (Nadi, pronounced Non-dee, on the main island of Viti Levu) and saw the pretty extensive flood damage from last weeks storms. It was pretty bad, most of the downtown area was completely closed and the roads were in horrible shape, fences and walls knocked down, houses with muddy destroyed furniture and all sorts of junk outside. Apparently the water level was 15-20 ft above the river level (which is close to the town). Fiji felt much more like a foreign place than Hawaii, it is a mix of polynesian-looking people and Indian-looking people, who were apparently brought in to be workers many years ago. We were pretty much the only white people around with the exception of a few tourists at the hotel (mostly from New Zealand or Australia), and a few occasional people around town. Everyone pretty much speaks English and all of the signs are in English, so that helped. The same way there is American influence in Hawaii, there is a New Zealand/Australia inluence in Fiji. I'm sure I'll have more to say about Fiji once we go back there at the end of the cruise, and I will be staying on a resort island for a few days.
On to Tonga (where this was originally written): we are on the island Tongatapu, which is the main island, in the capitol Nuku'alofa. Tonga is one of the last true kingdoms on earth. The king owns the entire island and has multiple palaces, his coronation was just 5 months ago, so he is still new. We saw his house and the main palace (from a distance). The house looked like something out of Hillsborough, but the palace was actually a bit less impressive than I expected. Nearly everyone here looks like what you'd expect of Tongans, and they all speak English as well (Australian influence here too). There is a sizeable Chinese population as well (similar to Indians in Fiji), although we haven't seen too many around town. The Chinese tend to own these little cinderblcok shops stocked with a bunch of cheap crap, as you might expect. As you walk down the main road through town, you find many Tongan families selling fresh watermelons, pineapples, Taro roots, bananas, as well as some beautiful wood carvings of whales, fish hooks (a symbol of strength in Tonga), and other animals.
The Kingdom is very conservative and Christian, the Tongans wear shirts in the ocean and dress very modestly, which was a bit strange. Also, I've never seen so many coconut palms in my life (even in Hawaii), they actually have farms with rows and rows of palm trees which I saw when we flew in. Yesterday, we went out to what we thought was going to be a resort on the beach. But after a half hour drive, with most of it on dirt roads, we found out from the cab driver that the resort doesn't exist anymore. So we stopped at the end of this dirt road and walked down to a beach while the cab driver waited for us (we had no way to call another cab). There was probably 10 Tongans at the beach and every one of them wore a shirt in the ocean except for one guy. They looked at us a little funny, but not in any sort of hostile way. One of the girls offered me some watermelon that she had been munching on. Overall, the people in both Tonga and Fiji were pretty friendly, so no bad experiences with that. Every time we walked into town from the hotel, almost everyone we passed would smile and say hi, or bye to us, and people in cars would honk and wave (it probably helped that I was always walking with a group of 3 or 4 girls, all 4 of the other students are female). We are planning on going out to one of the small nearby islands tomorrow for some scuba diving or snorkeling. The ship is already here, we can actually see it from a balcony at our hotel. We are getting on board on Friday (Thursday for you guys) and leaving the next morning.
Update (1/25/09): we made it out to Atata island on Thursday (1/23) (40 min boat ride from Tongatapu), which contains the Royal Sunset resort and we got to do some snorkeling. The scuba diving was going to be too expensive and I'll be diving in Fiji in March anyway, so we decided against that. It turned out to be a good decision, because the visibility wasn't fantastic (from the storms) and I doubt we would have seen much more than we did snorkeling. Probably the most interesting thing we saw snorkeling were these clam farms that the Tongans set up. Basically there are these nice neat rows of hundreds of humongous clams on the seafloor (1 to over 2 feet wide). There was some decent coral and a few colorful fish but nothing spectacular. The island itself was interesting, there are a number of people that live there in rundown houses, many were raising pigs. Also, there are lots of wild to semi-wild dogs that run around the island, sort of like the cats in Hawaii, but surprisingly no roaches. We even saw a bat hanging in a tree right by the restaurant at the resort, I took a bunch of pictures of it. I didn't think bats could be cute, but this one definitely was, it had a furry face like a little fox, not a stubby pig-nose like most bats (they call them flying foxes). Oh, and we did see a pod of dolphins on our trip out to Atata Island which was awesome. One disturbing thing I saw on that island and on the main island is the amount of trash. You would think tourists were bad, but the Tongans don't seem to be too concerned with trashing their home. There were pieces of trash strewn along parts of the beach, and even dirty baby diapers on the beach we went to the day before, worse than most beaches I've seen in the US (except maybe a really crowded beach in LA or something).
We boarded the boat on Friday morning at 10:30 and got our stuff organized, I'll talk about the boat in the next post (that's where I am right now). We had one last night in Nuku'alofa on Friday night, and a bunch of us and many of the crew went to a bar in town. When we first arrived it was pretty slow, but by the time we left it was like a packed nightclub in the US, I really did not expect that. Some of the Tongans were actually drinking at the bar, but I never saw any other Tongans drinking in other restaurants that we went to. We spent our first night on the boat on Friday night while it was still docked, and then set sail at 8 am on Saturday. More details on that in the next post. Overall, I definitely enjoyed the experience in Tonga, although I don't know that I would make a vacation trip out there again. If I did, I would go out to one of the smaller island groups north of the main island, which I imagine would be much nicer.
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