Snorkel pictures!

As promised, here are some exciting snorkeling pictures!

Here are some pictures of cushion stars and their associated shrimp. One of our students, Eric, is doing a project on the relationship between the two. They are pretty cute.

Here I am snorkeling! I look pretty awkward in the water- that is almost a 'queen wave'- but I'll work on that.

 The reef near the Hilton (where we went to snorkel) is really cool and 3-dimensional looking. This makes for some cool optical illusions. This picture looks like it is two morphed into one or something.

There are lots of amazing fishes on the reefs. It is often hard to get a good picture of them because they move so quickly! I captured these two butterfly fishes, and it's probably the best fish picture I got all day.

I love the way the water surface looks from underwater. This picture makes me feel like I am the littler mermaid! 

 This spiny guy is the voracious crown-of-thorns sea star. Periodically it will have outbreaks and devour the reef. The spines have a poison that isn't very pleasant, so I vetoed a student project that wanted to focus on them. I have no more interest in going to the hospital, thank you very much!

 

This is a beautiful tridacna clam. They come in all shapes, sizes and colours in the reef. One of the students made a comment about how our 18-girl and 3-boy contingent is a clam jam. I’ll let you interpret that as you will!

This fuzzy picture of a hole is actually a picture of an octopus, Octopus cyanea. I’ve seen three of them now, and they are one of the species that Jenny studies. You can see the white eye in the top middle of the picture there, and some little suckers in the bottom of the picture. It is too bad I couldn’t get a better picture; next time I’ll have to take video and try to capture the awesome colour changing abilities of these fun guys.

 

These are some of my favorite creatures on the reef, known as ‘christmas tree worms’. They are burrowing worms who filter feed on plankton after burrowing into a coral head. They have brilliant colours, ranging from yellows, oranges, greens, blues and reds. One of our students is doing a project on how they are dispersed in the reef and how that relates to the various currents of the water. I am pretty excited about this project, because it’s the sort of thing I would have done if I were a student here.

I really like this picture showing some live corals. It’s kind of how I imagine a reef looking. The small branching one a bit to the left is Acropora, and the other chunky looking one more to the right I think is Pocillopora. I am working on my reef creature identification skills, so correct me if I ever get this stuff wrong (Julie, I’m looking at you here!).

 

This spiny Diadema urchin is of the same type that spined one of my students. I’m working on getting some pictures of that incident, since I am hoping it won’t happen again! Her foot has actually healed up pretty well.

Unfortunately this poor sea cucumber did not fare so well. The poor guy is going to have a hard time scuttling about now with all those spines in him/her.

Another fish picture that worked! I have a million pictures of fish butts, so I have to celebrate when I actually capture their faces. This guy I think is a lemonpeel angelfish, though it’s quite a bit more orange than some of the others I have seen around.

  

This is Jenny. She has picked up a triton here, I think ‘triton’s trumpet’. I am going off of our reef creature ID book, and the fact it looks like triton’s trumpet from the little mermaid. You may at this point realize that all of my marine ID skills come from the little mermaid or from finding nemo. This is why it’s great to have a buddy like Jenny to swim around with! She knows what is safe to pick up or not, which makes things a lot more fun, and definitely more safe. I almost picked up a cone shell last week (which is a nasty venomous snail that can kill you). Woops!

These two pictures are some of my favorite fish! They are the spotted daschylus, a type of fish that associates with anemones (like nemo!). One of our students is looking at personality in these fishes, and as much as I don’t like ‘behavioural syndrome’ work (because it basically aims to ‘explain’ why behavioural variation exists, in an adaptive way, and is statistically flawed, but that’s another rant), her project will be pretty cool. I think they live in family groups, but as far as I know they are a pretty under-studied fish. I like the more territorial fish like these guys, because they don’t run away nearly so quickly, and you know where to find them. Also, I love symbiosis, so anemone fish rock my ocean world!

This spiny fellow is another urchin- Echinometra- which is a bit friendlier than the Diadema. One student project is going to look at the various urchins and their relationship to sunlight. They will move their spines towards you when they sense a shadow, which can be a bit disconcerting. Many of our night snorkelers have seen this quite dramatically when they are out there with their dive lights. I am hoping to get out night snorkeling soon- be prepared for a whole new batch of sea creature pictures when that happens!

And last but not least, the beautiful rainbow wrasses. I have to go drive around some people (my main job is as chauffeur here!), so I’ll leave it at that. I hope you enjoyed my sea creature pictures!

An update on a long week...

Well, today is Sunday, and we have hit the two week mark! Only 7 weeks left!

This past week was indeed both busy and a lot of work. After our day of transects on Friday, we had a rather comically disastrous stats workshop on Saturday. Bier and I tried to explain principle components analysis to the class, and they were definitely really lost. I can't believe you don't need to take biostats to graduate with a biology degree from Berkeley! We did however create a few running jokes, and they were really pleased to acquire one of my favorite expressions: massaging the data. There will certainly be much data massage in the coming weeks.

Saturday night was really fun; we had dinner (delicious curried shrimp!) and many drinks with Pat and Jere up at their bungalows. We heard many good stories and shared a lot of laughs. Unfortunately, the whole affair put me out of commission for much of our Sunday day off. Alas.

Monday we fired right back up with things. We had a few office hours and in the afternoon the students all presented their research ideas. Certainly a diversity of interests! It was pretty hilarious that very few students picked up on our millions of project ideas we'd been throwing out all week. Oh well, a scientist always has more ideas than they have time to pursue!

The rest of the week was a bit of a blur. I had some office hours Tuesday to help out students, and Wednesday I was the grocery driver, and also hosted some more office hours. Thursday I went with a group to hike the 3 coconuts trail again and explore their project ideas. My little arthropod clutch was very enthusiastic, which was encouraging. I would definitely be keen as them to do behaviour work here, since there are not that many mosquitoes at all!

Friday was somewhat relaxed, but there was the first of what I really hope is not a trio, just a duo, of injuries. Poor ole Roxanne fell off her bike and smashed up her knee pretty good. I spent most of the afternoon driving her around first to the local doctor, and then to the rural 'hospital' to get her wound cleaned and stitched up. The pharmacy bill was interesting (they wrote a prescription for gauze and bandages)! Her biggest disappointment was the advice to stay out of the water for two weeks, so hopefully she heals fine and gets back out to snorkeling soon.

Yesterday (Saturday) I spent a lovely morning snorkeling with Jenny. I took a million pictures, and will have to upload them in a separate post. Such cool things! We were over by the Hilton, and we oggled the accommodations there. Over-water bungalows would be super cool to stay in!

Saturday at 5 pm we enjoyed a cocktail party up at Jere's bungalow and the students made some great food. Salad, stuffed peppers, warm brie, bruschetta, and grilled pineapple with chocolate. Ridiculous! This is certainly a theme so far with the students- elaborate dinners. These kids sure know how to cook! I have probably already mentioned this before. So far we've had pineapple fried rice, home made pad-thai, baked pineapple and coconut pie (homemade crust!), and french toast with pineapple sauce with the students. Oh, did I mention they are obsessed with pineapple?!

Everyone had a pretty good evening with the professors, and I managed to migrate us out of there by 8:30 or 9. The party continued at the fare potee (hut of gathering in Tahitian) where we danced on the sandy floor in our barefeet. Bier and I bonded over how we aren't up to date with the modern dance music. I need to get out to a club sometime to update my music know-how.

Some of the students got excited and jumped off the dock in the dark, and thus happened the second (of the hopefully duo) of class injuries. I will certainly have to get some pictures from a student to post.

Poor ole Manu got stuck by a sea urchin in her foot. She had more than 30 spines stuck in her. The students got her foot into hot water pretty fast, which was good, and she was super calm about the whole situation. I am not sure how I got elected (I probably volunteered) but I pulled those damn things out of her foot one by one very carefully. You can't use tweezers because the spines are hollow and fragile, so I had to grab them with my hand and pull firmly but gently. The students made a 'Diadema rap' and one of the lines was 'urchin spines and nematocysts, good thing we've got an entomologist!'

Today has been a pretty stressful day of looking over student project proposals. It is quite evident some of them are not taking this class very seriously, but moreso very evident that the undergraduate Berkeley curriculum SUCKS. I won't say more about that to avoid going into too much of a rant. Until next time (look out soon for awesome snorkeling pictures!)

Doctor/mom Virginia!

Transects, transects, transects (SCIENCE!)

Friday was probably the only day we actually did some legit science the whole week! We got up bright and early for a reef transect at Tia’ia, which is near the (evil) golf course. Our students were bright eyed and busytailed, and I think a lot of them enjoyed seeing the sunrise on the ocean!

We got to work right away, surveying the flora and fauna along the reef and the shallow lagoon.

It was really fun in the middle where the current was so strong that us short statured types couldn’t really hold on. Jere (pictured) and Pat sure had fun snorkeling around and helping identify corals and algae and snails!

In the afternoon we did a stream transect, which was considerably less, uh, aesthetically appealing. Many of our students were less than thrilled about the murky water, and even asked ‘is this a practical joke?!’. Indeed, no, it was not a practical joke, but an exercise in the realities of fieldwork. Did you think this was all going to be pretty snorkeling? It might also involve some mud snorkeling! Katie sure seems down for some mud snorkel!

As we drove further up to the more clear and open waters, enthusiasm grew, and we were quit thrilled to find a few eels amongst the creepy crawlers we collected. There were definitely some attempts to catch the real big ones, but they managed to elude the students.

All-in-all, a great day in the field, doing some real SCIENCE!

Motus and snorkeling- yay water!

 

Our Thursday motu day has got to be by far my favorite on Mo'orea so far. We woke up early and took three boats out to the two motus on the northeast corner of Mo'orea. 

The boat trip out there was my first real ocean voyage since the ferry, and what a great way to see these islands. I would love to come back and sail around here; the water is so clear and everything looks so beautiful from the ocean. I got a little bit sea sick when we had to turn around and collect a buoy that had fallen offboard, but I’m going to work on my seasickness. I might be taking a boat license test to try to get licensed on the boats and be able to take students out to the backreef. More on that I am sure in coming weeks.

Here are three of my students, Brandy, Qi and Michelle enjoying the sun on our boat!

Before landing at the motus, we stopped a ways off of them at a common ray feeding station. Tourists come there often to snorkel with rays and see them up close.

I don’t even know if we actually fed them, but they were definitely expecting food. Probably at least a dozen or more big rays were swimming all about and then some black-tip sharks even came in for a look! (Don’t worry mom, these are man-eaters by any means).

The rays and sharks sure made for some great picture opportunities, and I’m glad my underwater camera was up to the task!

After the amazing ray-snorkel we landed on the motus and walked around the perimeter, contemplating the geology and biology of these transient mini-islands. It was some great snorkeling, and I am definitely looking forward to going back sometime soon. To top of the whole day we got saluted by a humpback momma and saw the spray from both her and her baby! I didn’t get any pictures, but it was super cool to see her tail slapping the water over and over. Maybe one day soon I will get to snorkel with them; I have heard this is something that can happen if the stars line up right.  

Ah, another beautiful day on Mo’orea! I loved the wind blowing in our hair as we drove back to the station; Camille in her trendy glasses agrees!

Three coconuts hike- yay land!

So, Tuesday we had a hike up three coconuts.  Here I am at Belvedere- I told you we'd be back again! Look at me all in my 'field clothes'! I learned something disconcerting though; I forgot to bring the bottoms of my zip-off field pants! I guess if I do get around to any fieldwork it will be in field capris!

Jean-Yves Meyer is a french botanist (here in yellow) who gave us a great tour of the forest as we hiked. He has done a lot of work on Miconia, a very invasive plant that they have been managing with a successful biocontrol initiative (unlike the cannibal snails!). Seems like nearly half the forest is invasive plants, so I'm excited to soon hike up the taller peaks where the native vegetation holds out.

All of students were attentive listeners as Jean-Yves stopped at various spots. And what great views on our hike! I'm excited to go back again.

Professor Kirch was the first to pick up a 'science stick', mostly for his bad knee. The students love the term 'science stick' for this essential piece of improvised research equipment, which we use for poking at things. 

A few of the students have those 'cool' barefoot shoes, and I was quite impressed how well they were hiking in them. Alas, I have a feeling their shoes will disintegrate before the end of the trip. So, here is a before picture, which I'm sure the barefoot shoe company would love as a promotional. In a few more weeks, I can post a great 'after picture' when my prediction comes true. 

The views at the top of the 3 coconuts hike are amazing, so of course we had to take some class pictures. I love our students; such enthusiasm! 

It was a great day of hiking, picnicking with great views, and learning more about Polynesian and invasive plants. One of my favorite pictures of the trip so far is of one student, Camille, who brought an inflatable pool toy with her and seemed to really enjoy the lagoon outside our bungalows after our long day of hiking! 

Island tour!

The students all got picked up safe and sound, and we haven't lost anyone yet thank god! Monday we had a tour of the island, and it's surprising small (only about 60 km around) this island of Mo'orea! There is a lot to describe, so this post has a lot of pictures!

 First we drove up the Pao Pao valley in our big tour bus, and saw the wide range of agriculture that's going on here. Lots of pineapple! It's so interesting to think about what this place would have looked like when the Polynesians first settled, and how it would have looked about 300 years ago at the height of their population. There were more people living then on Mo'orea than there are now!

Pat Kirch and Jere Lipps, the two professors who are here right now gave us an extensive and great overview of the archaeology (Krich) and geology (Lipps). Lots of old lava flows and debris fields on this once volcanic island.

Here is a great picture of my co-GSIs Jenny and Bier in the Pao Pao valley. They are so hard working and great pals to live and work with! It should be a great 8 weeks.

After driving through the valley, we ended up at Belvedere, one of the look-out spots where you can see both the Cook and Oponohu bays. Many of our students will probably have projects up here, so I'll have ample opportunity to enjoy the nice lookout. And what a great spot for our first class picture!

All of us GSIs can't resist doing fieldwork, even when we've been instructed by our professors to NOT do more projects (me). So, of course, Bier started looking at his bryophytes as soon as he could:

As we came down the Oponohu bay, we stopped near the estuary at the bottom, and lo-and-behold, we happened to find some of the endangered Partula snails. These snails radiated locally in French Polynesia, and once consisted of almost 80 species. Sadly, an introduced african snail started out-competing them, so to try to control it, then introduced a cannibal snail. Unfortunately, this is an example of classic biocontrol gone wrong, and the cannibal found the Partula more delicious than the africans, and decimated their populations. Now there are only a handful of species left, in a few key holdouts. I'm hoping a student does some project work on this interesting system.

Round the other side of the island, we stopped for lunch at the famous octagonal church, one of the first Christian institutions on the islands. There was a huge religious sweep, and now most Polynesians call themselves Christian,  and many of the old traditions have been lost. We have to reconstruct much of that history from oral records. One of the Polynesian practices was the building and elaboration of marae, a temple of sorts. I'm not going to do any of the history justice (this is Pat Kirch territory), but marae (picture on the right) were temple/shrine structures where the Polynesians offered sacrifices and performed their sacred ceremonies. Within the marae were the sacred upright stones, beside which our tallest student, Manu is standing (left). I understood something about the chief having to be taller than the upright stone, so Manu isn't quite chiefly. Kirch explained a woman would have been killed for even touching the upright stone- sorry Manu! The marae we saw at the southern part of the island is quite impressive, and is one of the 'royal' marae found on the coast. One of the old walls spans more than 100 m. Coral was cut and placed at the base of these structures, involving an impressive amount of work, especially considering they had only rough stone tools!

Of course we snorkeled and explored the waters during our island tour. Here is a super cute and well-camouflaged crab.

 We ended the day at the public beach at Temae, and the snorkeling there was really spectacular. I'm excited to keep exploring this beautiful island in coming weeks!