The group visited a marine lab on Aitutaki today and met with Charlie Waters. Charlie recently finished a PhD focused on the giant clams of the Cook Islands. These clams were heavily overfished until they became functionally extinct (could not reproduce in the wild). Clams are important filter feeders in the reef ecosystem and are […]
Please work
It is Friday night, and I am already trying to think about my answers to all the questions I will be getting when I get home. If someone asks me what my favorite part of the trip was, then I would probably say (as of right now) collecting trash on the motu yesterday. It seems […]
On Thursday we left with the start of the sun peaking across the water to do a full day of surveying in the lagoon surrounding the main part of Aitutaki. We left the dock and zipped across the clear turquoise water to see the amazing coral reefs in the lagoon. As the boat stopped we […]
On Thursday we left with the start of the sun peaking across the water to do a full day of surveying in the lagoon surrounding the main part of Aitutaki. We left the dock and zipped across the clear turquoise water to see the amazing coral reefs in the lagoon. As the boat stopped we […]
Today we rented a second boat. This allowed us to take the entire class as a whole to several sites across the southern extent of Aitutaki Lagoon (across much of the lower third of the map below). We were able to snorkel an explore a wide array of subtidal communities and get a good sense of […]
We’ve arrived to the Cook Islands and met up with Guy Trimby from Plymouth Marine Laboratory in the UK. Communications have been difficult due to limited internet, and we’ve had a pretty packed schedule. To acclimate ourselves with the Cook Islands, we have been visiting the capital island of Rarotonga, and learning about the culture. […]
Ciguatera has been an emerging problem within the last four or five years on Rarotonga and a few other nearby islands, such as Aitutaki. Although many people rely on reef fish populations as a food source, the sunset wrasse is untouched as it is not a public interest. These fish feed mainly on small invertebrates with small […]
We went snorkeling in the lagoon of Aitutaki Island and explored some of the smaller Islands in the lagoon called “motus”. The first was named Motu Ketiu and had multiple species of birds nesting on the Motu. I was able to identify red footed boobies, brown boobies, red tailed tropic birds, white tailed tropic birds, […]
After a visit to the Boat Shed, we ended our introduction to Aitutaki with a snorkel at the (other end of runway) End of the Runway Beach as the sun was setting this evening. Just before we entered the water, we checked out the goings on the beach itself: We also discussed the fine-grained sand […]
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