it's been a while since i last updated this; the reason being because i've been pretty busy! i've been swamped up with class and group projects these past two weeks and am currently working on an additional 3!
since all that stuff's pretty banal, since im betting you want to know more about the more exciting areas of marine biology, i'll tell you about night snorkeling.
night snorkeling is something that everybody should do. just because it's pretty freaky, especially near the drop off. i think part of it is because your vision is so limited, and in the back of your mind, you're going OCD because you're scared that your dive light might turn off. how funny because that's exactly what happened to me! good thing i had friends!
the night scene (underwater of course) looks drastically different than during the day. most of the fish you see during the day, are securely tucked inside the corals, and act rather stupidly (you could touch or even catch them if you wanted to) but the more ominous scene occurs near the frindge, where from the depths, you can see hundreds of Diadema sea urchings (the really really long spikey ones) emerge, and larger fish swimming out at night. can you imagine a shark swimming out at you from no where? (enter jaws theme)
on a cooler note, there are thousands of tiny phosflorescent light producing plankton, in which when you turn off the light, and swish the water, you see tiny explosions of light. and i also learned that it takes a lot for a pufferfish to inflate, mainly, stepping on it and pinning it to the ocean floor. i would have used my hands to spin it around like a ball, but i wasn't wearing any gloves :P
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Friday, April 18, 2008
feelings about the deep blue sea....
april 18 2008
there's something about being surrounded by life, as you swim by coral after coral, admiring the fish, snails, crabs, shrimp and all of the sudden the waves start pounding as you reach the reef front. frothy waves envelope your sight of vision. then all of the sudden the water calms down, as you are underneath it and all you can see in front of you is deep blue sea. looking forward blue water with sun rays flickering and then looking below is deep dark blue. no life in sight. you cant help feeling like you're really small in such a setting. the sounds of the waves crashing earlier have been muted down and all seems quiet and tranquil, while all the same time seeming dangerous and unpredictable. your body and mind fight whether you would dare stay longer in this area or fight back to go into the safety of the reef. all the same time reminding yourself that He holds the oceans within his hand....
on updates:
some crazy flu has been going around, and is causing people to throw up. however, they seem to be back 100% by the next day.
we explored what was called a motu: islands formed by reefs that had grown above present day sea level. i had no idea how large a crown of thorns can grow! they are actually around the size of my torso (i know that's not saying much but....) also we found a huge HUGE moray eel! his head was the size of my backpack, and i almost ran into him by mistake!
we also visited a remote island called tetiaroa but it was occupied more with birds. pretty cool.
be prepared for a mass email coming up soon. a lot more things will be described in detail.
there's something about being surrounded by life, as you swim by coral after coral, admiring the fish, snails, crabs, shrimp and all of the sudden the waves start pounding as you reach the reef front. frothy waves envelope your sight of vision. then all of the sudden the water calms down, as you are underneath it and all you can see in front of you is deep blue sea. looking forward blue water with sun rays flickering and then looking below is deep dark blue. no life in sight. you cant help feeling like you're really small in such a setting. the sounds of the waves crashing earlier have been muted down and all seems quiet and tranquil, while all the same time seeming dangerous and unpredictable. your body and mind fight whether you would dare stay longer in this area or fight back to go into the safety of the reef. all the same time reminding yourself that He holds the oceans within his hand....
on updates:
some crazy flu has been going around, and is causing people to throw up. however, they seem to be back 100% by the next day.
we explored what was called a motu: islands formed by reefs that had grown above present day sea level. i had no idea how large a crown of thorns can grow! they are actually around the size of my torso (i know that's not saying much but....) also we found a huge HUGE moray eel! his head was the size of my backpack, and i almost ran into him by mistake!
we also visited a remote island called tetiaroa but it was occupied more with birds. pretty cool.
be prepared for a mass email coming up soon. a lot more things will be described in detail.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
first weekend....
april 13 2008
was pretty cool overall. Lunch was cut short on saturday in favor of an amazing tahitian feast including pork cooked on rocks, coconut sauce made from well, coconuts and seawater and best of all, raw fish soaked in fermented fish juice (remember that survivor episode?) the raw fish wasnt too bad, it was the aftertaste that killed me. basically, it reminded me of a dead fish in my fish tank. the food was pretty much amazing. i wish i took pictures that day.... :(
sunday:
NOTE TO SELF: YOU SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN A FULL BODY SKIN SUIT!
dang those jellyfish were annoying. what did i ever do to them? our plan was to swim from the beginning of the lagoon, and head towards the outer part of the bay. little did we know that jellyfish no wider than the width of a fingernail clipping would come and embrace us with their stings. Although i had a rash guard, these jellies knew where to sting, including my lip (which went numb for awhile), my legs, neck, and hands. it was kind of hilarious, because those swimming in front would be yelping and screaming, and the person behind would appear to be confused until he or she got stung afterwards.
i've never swam so much in my entire life. i believe the entire swim that morning was a length of 5 km. most of the swim was by myself and the majority of it lacked "life", just peering into the deep blue sea, i could barely see 8 ft below me. i couldnt help but freak out a little. But again, i had a good prayer time by myself, which was very uplifting, recalling various passages in the Bible reminding me of how great God is. some interesting creatures seen that afternoon included another moray eel, an octopus, 2 white antenna lionfish, and touching a picasso triggerfish (silly fish thought it would be smart to hide in a rock sideways)
I have a couple of projects that i have to start on, the first deals with sea urchins, and the other deals with crabs. should be fun.
was pretty cool overall. Lunch was cut short on saturday in favor of an amazing tahitian feast including pork cooked on rocks, coconut sauce made from well, coconuts and seawater and best of all, raw fish soaked in fermented fish juice (remember that survivor episode?) the raw fish wasnt too bad, it was the aftertaste that killed me. basically, it reminded me of a dead fish in my fish tank. the food was pretty much amazing. i wish i took pictures that day.... :(
sunday:
NOTE TO SELF: YOU SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN A FULL BODY SKIN SUIT!
dang those jellyfish were annoying. what did i ever do to them? our plan was to swim from the beginning of the lagoon, and head towards the outer part of the bay. little did we know that jellyfish no wider than the width of a fingernail clipping would come and embrace us with their stings. Although i had a rash guard, these jellies knew where to sting, including my lip (which went numb for awhile), my legs, neck, and hands. it was kind of hilarious, because those swimming in front would be yelping and screaming, and the person behind would appear to be confused until he or she got stung afterwards.
i've never swam so much in my entire life. i believe the entire swim that morning was a length of 5 km. most of the swim was by myself and the majority of it lacked "life", just peering into the deep blue sea, i could barely see 8 ft below me. i couldnt help but freak out a little. But again, i had a good prayer time by myself, which was very uplifting, recalling various passages in the Bible reminding me of how great God is. some interesting creatures seen that afternoon included another moray eel, an octopus, 2 white antenna lionfish, and touching a picasso triggerfish (silly fish thought it would be smart to hide in a rock sideways)
I have a couple of projects that i have to start on, the first deals with sea urchins, and the other deals with crabs. should be fun.
Friday, April 11, 2008
a three hour tour...
4/11/2008
okay, so it wasnt a three hour tour of the island. it was more like 12 hour tour going around the island of Moorea, stopping by some various sites such as a pineapple farm, to the highlands (did you know moorea has pine trees?), to mangrove swamps (which weren't supposed to be there), and later to the famous beach of Moorea, Sofitel la Ora, aka THE DEATH SNORKEL.
Funny, i couldnt make up my mind on being excited or terrified. Besides the high wave surges which would bring one dangerously into coral heads, there were sea urchin Diadema, equipped with hypodermic spines 9 inches long, and they were scattered all over the reef. One wrong push with the hand, or swipe of the foot.....
I cant say i left DEATH SNORKEL unscathed but the wounds look a lot worse than they really are. On the otherhand, if you happen to brush your leg against a coral head, you should try putting lime juice over it. The acidity will kill the coral tissue inside your wound and also provides invigorating stimulation. I'll create a photoblog of all my injuries during the trip for your amusement or pity (sorry mom!).
okay, so it wasnt a three hour tour of the island. it was more like 12 hour tour going around the island of Moorea, stopping by some various sites such as a pineapple farm, to the highlands (did you know moorea has pine trees?), to mangrove swamps (which weren't supposed to be there), and later to the famous beach of Moorea, Sofitel la Ora, aka THE DEATH SNORKEL.
Funny, i couldnt make up my mind on being excited or terrified. Besides the high wave surges which would bring one dangerously into coral heads, there were sea urchin Diadema, equipped with hypodermic spines 9 inches long, and they were scattered all over the reef. One wrong push with the hand, or swipe of the foot.....
I cant say i left DEATH SNORKEL unscathed but the wounds look a lot worse than they really are. On the otherhand, if you happen to brush your leg against a coral head, you should try putting lime juice over it. The acidity will kill the coral tissue inside your wound and also provides invigorating stimulation. I'll create a photoblog of all my injuries during the trip for your amusement or pity (sorry mom!).
Getting Here....
April 10 2008
Im sorry I couldn’t give anyone an immediate update. I just got my internet password and info but unfortunately cant get a signal here in the dorms. The flight was quite interesting to say the least. I think Tahiti Air gets first place in in-flight dinners and breakfasts. I slept like a baby too; I never sleep well on flights. We managed to arrive there around 5:30 am in the morning (8:30 am for you folks) and the weather was rather cool. It rained earlier so the air was nice and sticky. From the airport we went to the ferry (bad typo, thanks Ben!) docks. Already we were excited. From the edge of the docks we could see hundreds of tropical fish just swimming along the wall.
We took a ferry to go to our true destination Moorea, about a forty-five minute sail from Tahiti. One thing I’ve learned, never go indoors in a rocking boat. Bad news.
Getting on the island though was a blast. I got to sit in the back of one of those cool trucks and managed to get a couple of shots of the beautiful island but for bandwidth reasons I might not be able to show them online.
Anywho, after eating lunch and checking into our dorms (co-ed bathrooms, oh dear :P), we went snorkeling and all that jazz. Some highlights included being eviscerated upon by a 22 inch long sea cucumber and almost swimming into a moray eel head first. Some other cool fish were cleaner wrasses, puffers, and Picasso triggerfish. No clownfish though, I was sad. They were replaced by two-spot damsels, who act the same way as clownfish do with anemones, (but not as cool).
More updates to come….
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