Day 9 • 4 July 2016 • Arno Atoll back to Majuro

With torrential rainfall several times during the night, lying snugly in bed seemed to be the best thing early in the morning. But then at 0615 h Morgan Lewis sounded the call that she had found a sea turtle down at the beach, turned upside down and unable to right itself! Given the swells on the lagoon side from the storms at night, this turtle was left stranded and in its uncomfortable predicament by a receding tide. With the entire team awake and curious about this find, we picked up the turtle, cleaned the sand off to ensure there were no injuries, and realized it was missing the front right flipper! We identified it as an Olive Ridley Sea Turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) based on the characteristic head scale and carapace patterns, and launched it back into the ocean. According to the literature I carry with me on my computer, this may be the first record of this sea turtle species for the Marshall Islands!

After our early-morning turtle task, we began cleaning and packing up. There was a little bit of confusion regarding our transportation back to Majuro, and first there was going to be a boat at 11 am, then at 2 pm, and then we were told there would not be another boat. Well, this called for some serious “fact-finding” on my part, and we eventually had a ride at 3 pm. This time, it was smooth sailing on a beautiful day, with the ocean presenting itself at its Pacific best (the term “pacific” does mean “calm,” after all). After our arrival in Majuro, it was time to shower and celebrate a little bit of the Fourth of July Holiday, with Schawna Mitchell’s various patriotic masks and glowsticks!

 

During her early morning walk, Morgan came across this poor creature, shown here as she found it. She realized this animal was in trouble and brought it to the edge of the property so that we could clean it and check it for injuries. It did present with a significant disability, a missing right front flipper. Photo courtesy of Morgan Lewis. 

 

Once we had cleaned the sand off the turtle and determined that its injury was old and well healed, we identified it as an Olive Ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea), a small species of sea turtle. This one was probably a small adult of about 55 cm carapace length. Photo courtesy of  Mitzia Zambada.

The only thing left to do with a stranded sea turtle is to send it on its way before any predators (especially humans and their friends) get to it. As the discoverer, we asked Morgan to do the honors. Video courtesy of Alex Mitchell.

One of the things team members noticed about life on Arno was that livestock roams around freely, essentially at will. This included a healthy population of pigs. These tended to give us dirty looks when encountered, and this one seems to do its best Robert de Niro impression: "You talkin' to me?" Photo and cinematic concept by Alex Mitchell.

One of the perks of these kinds of trips is that the instructor can get to know an excellent group of people. This is a very fine group photo of what most will readily admit is a fine-looking group (with a thing for purple). In this photo we also included our hovering friend, Marlin the Drone. Front from left: Mitzia Zambada, Dakota Brooks, Marlin, Jose Huerta, Amanda Callahan. Rear from left: Morgan Lewis, Ruby Resendez, Hinrich Kaiser, Alex Mitchell, Kaitlin Rickerl, Mindy Hull, Schawna Mitchell. Photo courtesy of Jose Huerta.

Even though this image is out of sync chronologically, I felt it was a fitting end image to our Arno days. A beautiful place with rustic charm, but certainly not one where life is easy—the Pacific islands in a nutshell. Photo courtesy of Mitzia Zambada.

The boat ride back to Majuro was very different, with sunny skies, blue ocean, and a smooth deck. From left: Kaitlin Rickerl, Mindy Hull, Mitzia Zambada. Photo courtesy of Morgan Lewis.

Day 8 • 3 July 2016 • Of Drones and Elkhorns #steinbeck

A well-rested team was raring to go to complete our experimental design activities for the day. After a torrential downpour, Team Drone went out to determine at what height the drone could best be used to obtain footage of the land or sea below it, and what area one frame of drone footage would record. Jose Huerta, our preferred drone operator, tested out different heights and found that 25 ft (7.7 m) would be an ideal height above ground (or water), and the team scurried around according to his instructions and placed some of our food cans at the corners of the field of view. They then proceeded to use Amanda Callahan’s tape measure to determine the length and width of the recorded area—and repeated the process several times in order to be able to calculate the potential measurement error!

With these data recorded, we went to the outer side of the island at the boat pier to look for elkhorn corals. The lagoon side tends to be the calmer side of an atoll, with a different diversity of sea life than the ocean side. We were hoping to confirm the existence of Pacific Elkhorn Corals, a species considered fairly rare and only reported from the Marshall Islands in 2010 by Dr. Zoe Richards from Australia (see http://www.livescience.com/8415-rare-coral-discovered-pacific-ocean.html). We contacted Dr. Richards to ask whether she would be willing to share the position of her elkhorn coral patch with us so that we might be able to determine their status and test whether use of a drone might allow the identification of additional elkhorn colonies. Thus, while some of us went to snorkel out to the location, Team Drone tested out how to fly a transect and a search pattern across the coral fingers that fringe the ocean side of Arno Atoll.

I am happy to report that we were successful in locating two elkhorn coral sites, and that it does appear as if an aerial view could help with a preliminary identification of where additional sites might be located. Our drone footage showed a specific color for the elkhorn corals, slightly different than those of other coral colonies. Of course, this information is very preliminary, but in a day and age when coral bleaching and invasive sea stars are eroding the health of coral reefs, any form of speedy reconnaissance may be helpful to facilitate coral research. On Arno, we fortunately found no evidence of coral bleaching or invasive crown-of-thorn sea stars.

We spent our last evening discussing some of our findings, both those related to corals as well as those related to lizards. It appears that both lines of experimental design may allow us to write up our results as brief publications! I love it when a good thing comes to fruition, and it shows my students both how science works and how rewarding it can be to gain scientific knowledge.

Figuring out the way Marlin, our quadcopter drone (in the foreground), takes images. Ruby Resendez, Amanda Callahan, and Dakota Brooks (from left) are measuring the field of view. 

Taking scientific measurements takes some doing. Fortunately, these students were trained in General Biology technique at Victor Valley College, where measurements form part of the curriculum! From left: Dakota Brooks, Amanda Callahan, Ruby Resendez, Mitzia Zambada.

Amanda is all smiles during the snorkel for corals. Well, at least all thumbs up! Photo courtesy of Morgan Lewis.

The object of our search, the rare Pacific Elkhorn coral (Acropora rotumana). In the expanse of this particular reef, we were only able to locate two Elkhorn colonies. We are happy to report that the corals are doing well around Arno, with no coral bleaching to be seen, and no crown-of-thorn sea stars around. Photo courtesy of Morgan Lewis.

Day 7 • 2 July 2016 • Skink and Snorkel Extravaganza #spectacular

During a discussion of our reptile findings last night, Kaitlin Rickerl proposed a specific project for today in light of a research paper she read. In the 1980s, a scientist colleague came to Arno Atoll and searched for species of skink on many of the islets. However, he did not visit the several islands just to the north of our current location. Kaitlin proposed that we walk to the ocean channel north of us to snorkel to the first island, and then on to as many others as we could fit into the day. Thus, we set off on a day trip to the islands to look for skinks!

Equipped with snorkeling gear and our usual photography getup, we found the first channel easy to cross at low tide. Although the broken corals in the channel made walking a little tricky (and help tire out legs that had to walk for 40 minutes to get to the channel in the first place) we successfully identified four species of skink on the first island. We then crossed to the second island, separated by an even smaller channel, and identified three skink species. At this island, some team members snorkeled into the lagoon to look for elkhorn coral, while five of us waded across a rather wide channel to the third island, on which we only found two skink species. When it was time to retrace our steps, the tide had come in so that instead of retracing steps we were forced to snorkel across. This was a little laborious, since none of us were particularly well trained in finning across a half-mile expanse of water, but with several rests in the places where it was possible to stand, we managed to get back safely. Jose Huerta, who had been working on his drone-operating skills, even sent out the drone, now known as Marlin, across the channel to take a look at what we were doing! Here is a link to what footage shot by Marlin looks like.

Given that the tide was now in, both of the other channels required various levels of snorkeling and this, along with walking along each island’s shoreline to the next channel, was overall a tiring experience. We emerged at the end with great data for three islands that had never been surveyed, tired, slightly sunburnt, and ravenous. After a snack of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Chef Morgan and her sous-chefs once again delivered a scintillating meal of mostaccioli with a green bean and spam sauce.

Walking across the channel between Arno and its neighboring islet is a little bit of a challenge. The water is only knee-deep, but part of the coral bottom is hard to navigate!

  

Turning over a coconut husk pile in search of skinks. From left: Jose Huerta, Mindy Hull, Morgan Lewis, Mitzia Zambada, Alex  Mitchell.

And this is how you find skinks! Mitzia Zambada pointing out to Dakota Brooks where to look for the lizard.

Kaitlin Rickerl, in pin-up pose, accenting the natural beauty of Arno Atoll.

The professor beginning to create a photography setup to take research-grade photos of reptiles. This would work much better were it not for that pesky feline that literally moved in whenever we were around. Photo courtesy of Kaitlin Rickerl, cat lover.

A sampling of skinks. Emoia boettgeri from an islet just north of Arno Island. Photo courtesy of Kaitlin Rickerl.

Emoia cyanura from Arno Island.

Emoia caelureocauda, with a nice blue tail and coloration that extends to the hind legs. Photo courtesy of Kaitlin Rickerl.

Lamprolepis smaragdina, the emerald tree skink, which I know well from our work in Timor-Leste, where this species has a bright green or brown coloration. On Arno, they are bright green, greenish yellow as seen here, or even brown. Photo courtesy of Kaitlin Rickerl.

Day 6 • 1 July 2016 • Majuro to Arno Atoll (Geeking over Geckos)

With another early morning start, we anticipated a smooth journey to Arno Atoll, which lies only a few miles to the east of Majuro. Alas, the weather had turned overnight to produce winds and rains, which had barely abated by our scheduled departure time. Wind and rain on the open ocean means increased swells, and certainly it meant a foreboding sky. In addition, we ran into what one local fisherman termed “island time,” with our boat not actually getting to the dock until 1.5 hours after we did!

We eventually managed to load and got on a boat owned by the mayor of Arno Atoll. The boat dock is positioned on the lagoon side of Majuro, and the only way out is through the Majuro Bridge, which connects the town and villages around the capital city to the islet with the airport. At the passage spanned by the bridge, the captain held up for a minute or two in order to observe the oncoming swells, before launching into the open ocean—with immediate and rather spectacular effect on his unsuspecting riders. The sudden experience of fairly substantial swells threw many of us for a loop, literally! While it was an interesting roller-coaster ride across the ocaen to Arno, with all those new to this type of boating (which was most of us) given to spontaneous shrieking and squeaking, we arrived safely at our destination shortly after 10 am.

Two pickup trucks did their eponymous duty—they picked us up—and we drove about a mile westwards to reach our destination, the Arno Beachcomber Guesthouse. Now, THAT’S what I call a guesthouse. One part is a two-story structure right by the pristine beach, upstairs and downstairs with separate apartments each to sleep three, and with the tropical breezes providing an excellent measure of air condition—not to warm, not too cool. The other building in the compound is the main living area, with six additional places to sleep and the kitchen. We divided up the sleeping quarters amicably and got settled in.

Settling in on Arno for some of us meant organizing the kitchen, the food, and the common area, while for others it meant dropping everything on the beds and going snorkeling—and this division of activities was quite by choice. Then, we began the experimental design portion of this class in earnest. Since some of our ideas were related to the quadcopter (= drone) I brought along, we needed to try out that piece of equipment. Should anyone be interested in this kind of technology, we were using the Phantom III Professional.

The first thing to do with a drone is to learn how to start flying it, then to complete some specific tasks. We began our flying lesson in a clearing among the palm trees in the compound by launching the drone and having it turn 360° while filming everyone. It is fortunately very easy to start everything up, but navigating the drone by using an image from the drone’s camera on a mobile phone screen perched on the controller is not so straightforward—especially on a sunny day! So it took a bit of time to advance to research-level drone operation. In the end, we were easily able to send the drone out over the reef, 500 feet off the beach, or 300 feet up into the air to get a bird’s view of Arno Atoll.

Our first self-cooked meal in our new digs, ably concocted by Morgan Lewis, along with several sous-chefs, was garlic-fried spam cubes and cabbage-onion stew over white rice, with a Sriracha soy glaze. After this great feast, we went out to find reptiles around the compound. Even though there is a limited number of species on Arno Atoll, we found some interesting tidbits. For example, among the geckos there is one species (Lepidodactylus lugubris) that is supposed to be unisexual, meaning that only females exist. Well, we captured several individuals for show-and-tell, and one of them was clearly a male! A reading of the literature revealed that Arno Atoll is the only place in the world where this unisexual species coexists with the two species (Lepidodactylus moestus and an undescribed species of Lepidodactylus) that hybridized to produce it! Furthermore, we captured a blindsnake (genus Indotyphlops). These kinds of snakes are also called “flowerpot snakes” because they are commonly transported in flowerpots. Since these types of snakes have not been reported from Arno Atoll previously, this is a nice find all by itself! It appears that we may actually be getting enough data for a short publication!

The distance from Majuro Atoll to Arno Atoll isn't that large, as shown here in this satellite image. However, traveling across any ocean passage can be troubling when the wind kicks in, especially in a small craft. 

With our boat double-docked (it is on the left in the image) due to the boat traffic as a consequence of an ongoing fishing competition, we formed a chain to get our luggage and food boxes across.

Speeding across Majuro Lagoon in a boat belonging to the Mayor of Arno Atoll was quite an experience for some of these landlubbers. It was Mitzia Zambada's first boat ride ever! With Neptune's help (the Greek god of the sea, not a movement from a musical suite by Gustav Holst), we made it across in about an hour. We frequently saw flying fish (family Exocoetidae) jump out next to the boat. From left: Dakota Brooks, Ruby Resendez, Jose Huerta, Morgan Lewis, Amanda Callahan.

This footage was shot in slow motion to allow our readers a better understanding of the way this boat ride unfolded. It's a mix between Kon-Tiki and Moby Dick, and you might have to look those up... Video courtesy of Morgan Lewis.

Amanda Callahan's reaction perfectly embodies the adventure of the trip across to Arno. The hair (flying in the breeze), the terror (fingers TIGHTLY gripping the boat), the mouth (alternating delightful squeaks with terrified screams), and the shades (it's the tropics, dudes). Photo courtesy of Morgan Lewis.

Morgan's selfie shows the effect of wind, salt spray, and a bouncy boat on a research student's countenance. Self control admixed with some serious adventure. Photo courtesy of Morgan Lewis.

The team photo upon arrival at the Arno Island dock. We may be wet and disheveled, but we are happy to be able to take on the world!

Back on land, we once again had to deal with our chattels, this time to load everything onto a couple of trucks for the drive to Arno Beachcomber Guesthouse.

We have arrived! This is the beach house, which sleeps six.

The view of the beach at Arno Beachcomber Guesthouse. This is the view taken literally just outside the front door of the beach house! No wonder that some of the team felt the immediate urge to drop everything and go snorkeling! Can't blame them...

Our first meal preparation. At left, Morgan Lewis and her assortment of sous chefs taking care of dinner, while Amanda Callahan sleeps it off. The boat ride and the snorkeling, that is.

Gehyra insulensis male. Photo courtesy of Kaitlin Rickerl. 

Hemidactylus frenatus, a species introduced into many parts of the world. Photo courtesy of Kaitlin Rickerl.

This is the undescribed species of Lepidodactylus, which is considered to be the paternal species of the widely distributed unisexual L. lugubris.

A specimen of Lepidodactylus moestus, considered to be the maternal species that produced L. lugubris. Photo courtesy of Kaitlin Rickerl.

This blindsnake (Indotyphlops braminus) is the first one recorded for Arno. Photo courtesy of Kaitlin Rickerl.