The goal of our expedition is manifold, but it could be condensed into two main goals. First, we aim at describing a healthy coral atoll in its entirety or, more humbly, within the limits of our expertise and physiological limits. That is, we will survey the reef ecosystem from viruses to sharks, from the shallow giant clam beds in the lagoon to the fore reef 20 meters deep.
    To undertake such an ambitious task we have a four-person fish team, a two-person coral and algal team, and a two-person microbial team. The fish team is composed of Ed DeMartini, Alan Friedlander, Stuart Sandin, and myself. We dive three times a day and identify, count, and estimate the size of all fishes within two meters on either side of 25 meter-long lines, or belt transects. We carry out three such transects per dive, and expect to encounter more than 200 species of reef fishes in our surveys. Using the data collected in the field we will estimate the number of grams of each fish species per Meter Square, or biomass. Fish biomass is the single best indicator of fishing pressure, and since Kingman is unfished and protected, it should have one of the greatest fish biomasses in the tropics.
    Jim Maragos and Jen Smith constitute our coral and algal team. They dive twice in the morning. Jen takes dozens of photos of the bottom using a small digital camera attached to a frame made of PVC pipes - a “quadpod”- that allows her to always photograph the same surface in order to obtain comparable samples. She will then spend hundreds of hours in front of her computer, calculating what percentage of the bottom is covered by different species of algae and corals. Meanwhile, Jim Maragos identifies all coral species in situ, and measures the size of coral colonies, including the smallest ones that are indicative of replenishment of the population. A coral reef is a reef made of coral, thus we expect Kingman to be overwhelmingly composed of live coral, and scarce seaweed.
    The microbial team is composed of Linda Wegley and Mark Hatay. They dive in the morning and collect water samples in hard plastic bottles the size of poster tubes. They will then count the number of microbes that inhabit every milliliter of seawater around the atoll, and determine how fast bacteria reproduce. The rate of bacterial growth is a good indicator of how “clean” the ecosystem is.
    In addition, Christian MacDonald, our diving safety officer, supervises our diving operation and ensures that we conduct our daily activities safely. In other words, he makes sure all of us return to the Searcher every day. That is no small task.
    As I mentioned yesterday, our goal is not conducting scientific studies for the sake of science, but to obtain a rigorous description of a healthy coral atoll so that we can use it as baseline for coral reef conservation.
    Our second aim is to make the public aware of what we find, and to show them why it matters. To achieve this goal we have one of the best underwater photographers in the world, Brian Skerry, who is shooting for a story that will appear in National Geographic magazine. Brian typically takes a boat and an assistant, and goes diving for four or five straight hours. He then comes back to the boat with amazing photos, although he never seems totally happy, and goes back to the same place to make a yet – incredibly - better shot.
    Finally, our young videographer, Tyler Rowe, is shooting with a high-definition video camera in an underwater housing. He will produce short videos for what I call a communication experiment: a scientific expedition seen through the eyes of a teenager. We wish more young people were attracted by natural history, and hope these videos will help recruit some of them.
    The crew of the Searcher is a terrific team that deserves a full daily dispatch...

Comments