Snorkeling in the Cook Islands was by far the most amazing experience of the entire trip. If you go snorkeling or diving off the coast of Southern California, you will see luscious kelp forests and lots of marine life. The marine life in the Cook Islands was definitely different than the marine life seen off […]
Today the AARR team set out to conduct the first reef surveys using ROVs on Aitutaki. The beginning of the day started out a little rough with one of the ROVs flooding which forced the team to return to base to grab the back up unit. Once back underway, a total of five surveys were […]
One thing I wish I got the chance to do more of was snorkeling at while we were in Rarotonga. The lagoon tour that we did was really quite amazing. The water was light blue and unbelievably clear; it is the kind of water I never thought I would see in person let alone snorkel in. […]
I may have spoken a bit too soon about having stable internet! The heavy work load, coupled with a very congested, slow and often unavailable internet connection has led to slow posting. Two of the major reasons that we are in the Cook Islands are: to work with Guy Trimby of the Plymouth Marine Laboratory […]
I may have spoken a bit too soon about having stable internet! The heavy work load, coupled with a very congested, slow and often unavailable internet connection has led to slow posting. Two of the major reasons that we are in the Cook Islands are: to work with Guy Trimby of the Plymouth Marine Laboratory to search for the biofluorescent proteins, and for what we call “Service Learning,” This is where our undergraduate students have the opportunity to work, and learn, while helping others.
Being that I spent many years as a Paramedic, helping others is ingrained in my personality. The Cook Islands are very isolated, and have a number of environmental issues that we can lend a hand with, because of our experience here in the United States. There have been many hard lessons learned when it comes to managing natural resources, and by coming to the Islands, our students can both learn about a new culture, a different biome / climate, and learn the importance of helping others. The government of the Cook Islands has faced financial issues, and suffered a collapse many years ago. The main generation of revenue for the country is through tourism, fishing and agriculture. After a drop in tourism, the government was no longer able to sustain, at which point there was a restructure, and the Islands became a protectorate of New Zealand.
Though we are outsiders, the people of the Cook Islands have been very welcoming. In the past, some scientists have travelled to the Islands, done research, and left without sharing anything with the people, or the government. This has left the indigenous people in doubt about scientists, specifically because some of the scientists performed experiments which have led to perceived changes in the lagoon environment due to drilling, and injecting of chemicals into the reefs.
We would like to help with a number of issues that are currently present. The Islands are incredibly isolated, luxuries such as internet and telephone are difficult, but there is electricity and running water. Fresh water is an issue due to quality, and availability. Currently Aitutaki is in a draught, it is not uncommon for the island to run out of water during the dry season. There are also many issues with the water quality of the large lagoon, and several marine species are threatened. One issue that we have targeted includes many topics in environmental science (ecology, agriculture, marine biology, resource management and more) and is known as “fish poisoning.” This poisoning is caused by a dinoflagellate called Ciguatera. These photosynthetic organisms, which are similar to phytoplankton, emit a neurotoxin which causes illness and paralysis in humans. Dinoflagellates are best known for producing the “Red Tide” in the United States. Ciguatera poisoning is a regular occurrence on the islands, and it happens to people who consume the fish from the reefs. We are working toward finding why Ciguatera suddenly spiked in the past 20-30 years. We have formed the hypothesis that the agricultural and septic runoff enters into fresh water streams, which exit into the lagoon, and may cause the bloom of dinoflagellates, similar to a harmful algal bloom.
Our current goals include:
August 9 was our last field day for the reef team and we set our record for reefs. We finished a total of 11 transects at three separate locations. I think we saw a total of five Crown of Thorns which was the first time I had seen them on the reef. We finished up […]
On August 6 the Reef team surveyed two sites. The second site, the Clam Hatchery, was definitely the highlight of the day. The 30-meter visibility left us in awe as we surveyed the reef. Clams were abundant and there were huge bommies with various types of coral. It was amazing to see cryptic clams living […]
On one of our last days of research on the motus of Aitutaki, the sandy beach crew sampled the motu of Maina. To our surprise, this motu turned out to be a nesting site for red-tailed tropic birds (Phaethon rubricauda) and we were sampling during breeding season. Like other seabird species, tropic birds make very […]
The sandy beach crew sampled beaches at two different motus yesterday and found some interesting results. Because sandy beaches tend to be low in diversity on their beach face, we changed our protocol for the Cooks to take more cores in the sand submerged in water than is our norm. As a consequence, we found […]
Today is our last day on Aitutaki and we are flying home to LAX tonight. It’s been an amazing trip! We have learned so many things and can never be thankful enough to all the people that helped make it happen.
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