Fishy Friday - U of. Guam President and Barracuda Rock

Hi all!

(Derek [Flipper]with a dazzling butterfly who must have been injured or sick, because it did not fly away! -->)

Friday we met with the president of the University of Guam. He was a nice and we had a nice talk about academics vs. politics. Once again, we were told that Palau is going to mind blowing. I am SO excited!

Afterwards, we ate some food at the marine lab and headed out to the dock to load up on the same boat.

Our first dive was at Barracuda Rock in the open ocean. It's called that because of a large exposed rock on the surface of the water that looks like a barracuda head. The current was pretty strong here and there were significant waves. I was wary about the dive because of this. I was expecting to use up a lot of energy and air.

Underwater the current wasn't as bad as I expected. We laid out our 100 meter transect line and counted fishies and inverts, just like yesterday. Man, we are pretty dang good at this. We got in trouble though for picking up the transect tape while winding it in, rather than just leaving the end tied down and spinning the tape into the measure while swimming back. Oopsies, oh well!

Then we explored a bit. I saw Nemo! I also saw lots of butterfly fish, which have a cool geometric design on their bodies, of white lines crisscrossing. A lot of fishies swim back really fast into holes in the ground or the coral when we swim near, it's so funny! We swam through a tunnel under the big barracuda head rock, and then Jennah showed up and motioned for us to follow her back to the boat to ascend. On the way back, Kirby started making exaggerated pointing motions to something behind me... I turned... and saw... a

SHARK !!!!!

It was maybe four feet long, idk it was far away (sorry for the bold btw, it won't undo now that I've done it. oops). So cool! It was definitely Bruce from Finding Nemo.

We ascended and headed to our next dive side, this time in the wharf. It was Western Shoals, where our second Guam dive took place. I misspelled that earlier.

we had to lay a transect here at 20 meters, and the stupid tape measure jammed up at about 30 m out. I took it and wound it around itself and we decided as a group to use the 30 ft line as a reference and to swim about 20 ft deep. Eh, I guess it worked. Oh, and my pencil was broken before I even made it all the way down, so I was essentially useless. Awesome.

I was a bit frustrated, but that's ok. The ship mate Chase told us that we would find a lazy sea turtle down there. I definitely didn't see that and I told him that I was upset. :[ I did see lots of Gill fishies from Finding Nemo, thanks for the correction Kristin, so that was cool! But no turtle :[ (P.S. Yay! The bold type has gone away!)
(<-- that's Kirby) We came back to shore and it began to rain on us again. We unloaded everything and left, got groceries, and headed to the marine lab house to have a BBQ. The neighbors were already using the grill, which was nice because we didn't have to start it up then. But we did have to wait for them for quite a while.
(Bridget McD, the other Bridget -->)
We had Casey Quon's (aka Pearl) AHmazing Korean potato dish. OMG so so so good! And super healthy! AND you can make the dish with sweet potatoes, one of my most favoritist foods in the world, instead of potatoes. Um, yes. AND Derek Lazo--excuse me, Flipper--made his delicious steak dish. Yum yum yum. We never grilled the eggplant or corn like we wanted to, but I was not hungry at that point.

I also was hurriedly moving plates and dishes and things around and I accidentally.... knock Jim Haw's half-full expensive gin to the ground. Crack. Break. Splash. FAIL.

I felt horrible.

Everyone "ooo-ed" and "ahh-ed" at me, then tried to console me, saying accidents happen, it's ok, worse things could have happened. I'm such a klutz! I'll admit, as I'm writing this right now, it's the next day and I have been banned from the kitchen. Walking into the house, I was informed that I am not welcome in the kitchen and wary stares led me to sit far, far away on the other side of the room. Hehe. Oopsies.

We had a great time eating (and quenching our thirst ;D ) and talking with each other. There was definitely some bonding going on. I was sitting on a hammock under the stars (stars which I have never seen before in the Midwest), next to Christine, talking with my peeps, loving life. There was only one problem: bugs. I was nearly eaten alive, though not so much because my bug bite are itchy yet small. Poor Christine, her bug bite are HUGE. I think her body is more sensitive to the bites, because they are probably five times bigger on her than on me. Whoa. Poor girl. Really, it's pretty nasty.

Most of the group left, and it was just me, Sabrina, Flipper, Lauren, and David Ginsburg (professor). We had some nice talks and had a bunch of fun.

AND David showed us the ladder to the roof of the marine lab. OOPS should I not say that? Hehe oh well.

That is all. G'nite, B

Day 8* (for real, my bad) - Dives #3 & #4 and Ocean Current

Howdy!

I've mixed up my "days," I'm not sure what to do now... so I'll say that on Thursday we had dives number three and four.

Here are pictures from yesterday that I didn't get to upload:






























Breakfast, gear loaded, and we headed off of campus. We went back to the Department of Agriculture, where we visited on Tuesday.

We met with Suzanne and Brent again, to hear more details on the critically endangered bird species and problems in coral reefs with military build up, which is only too common.

Suzanne elaborated on the critical level of the ko'ko' (rail) population. It makes me sad to hear about their troubles. IIn 1984, 21 birds were captured and placed in a captive breeding recovery program. It wasn't until 1997 that 100 chicks successfully hatched and the program was really under way. I think it's hilarious how human-like the ko'ko' are in personality. They are so similar to humans! For example, they are very picky about who they want to mate with, and they are extremely clean creatures. If a male kills his mate or parents kill their young, they will carry the dead bird to the opening of their cage and present it to their human caretaker. Creepy...

Currently, there are 140 rails on Guam and 35 on the mainland, with some in Chicago yeah!

We learned more about the sihek (kingfisher) birds. Brookfield zoo also has some of these guys, yeah! This is the first year that the Dept. of Agriculture has a significant number of catched chicks. When interfering with the breeding process, the scientists in the captivity program discovered the problem: sihek parents do everything correct when caring for their young, expet for when it comes to feeding the young. They feed themselves when they are hungry just fine, but they do not provide food for their children. It's very sad.

Another bird we learnd about is the aga, or island crow. This is a sad story: scientists were finally able to assist successful breeding and the population numbers were increasing. They introduced the birds cautiously into the wild, a "soft release," and even designed intricate electric fence traps on the trunks of some trees with aga nests. This is meant to ward off the birds' most threatening predator, the brown tree snake. (Suzanne admits, they also find dead geckos :[ ). However, in a recent expedition, scientists found only two males alive in the wild. The reason for the bird disappearances is unknown. However, there speculations into whether ignorant people with shot guns had anything to do with the disappearances, perhaps people thinking the birds are a nuisance. So sad.

Brent told us about the MPA's (Marine Protected Areas) on the island. There are four currently, and they are important because you are limited as to what you are allowed to fish for or touch in these areas. There is a big disagreement going on between the environmental advocates and the military officials when it comes to coral reef--and other natural habitat--destruction. The military is often dredging the bottom of the ocean and destructing the coral reef, and the environmental advocates at least demand compensation. Right now plans are underway to dredge part of Apra Harbor. (Incidentally, exactly where we swam later in the day) The military is restoring wetlands in other parts of the island as compensation, but I find this a sad trade off. This is the first time compensation has resulted on public lands rather than on military training lands. I guess that is a plus?

Brent also told us about an illegal sea cucumber farming operation that was caught on Wednesday. Wow! I felt in the heat of the action. People are allowed to farm 100 sea cucumbers per person per day. However, this residence had four individuals and 11,000 sea cucumbers. Um, not okay. Furthermore, you are not allowed to export sea cucumbers, which is a common item in China for consumption. One of the residents is a Chinese woman, who apparently does not speak English... And the residents swear that the cucumbers are meant for a church function. Yeah, right. Not ok!

I was very cold from the A.C. and happy to step out in the ridiculous humidity after our lecture. We headed to the dock, ate some grub, and hopped on our dive boat.

I was partnered with Christine this dive. We were finally doing some work: it was our job, in three separate groups, to lay transect lines underwater and count invertebrate and fish indicator species.

We prepared charts on waterproof paper on slates and jumped in the water. I had my air turned on this time :). We were diving in the open ocean, outside of the harbor. I wondered if this meant different creatures to see...

My group (four of us) were instructed to go to 40', vs. the other groups at 20' and 30'. This means that we were taking on more nitrogen and had to be extra cautious about ascending slowly and waiting before the next dive. At around 40' depth, we held the transect tape end and Kirby and Sabrina swam off about 240 degrees. The current was particularly strong here, because we were on the edge of the drop off (like from Finding Nemo!). If I stayed perfectly still, I started drifting quickly away from the boat. Swimming at a moderate level of exertion into the current, I remained suspended above the same spot of reef. Eek! Breathing, therefore, was laborious and we had to make a point of watching our air levels often. Luckily, I must have small lungs, and I tend to sip air rather than gulp it.

Christine and I took off to count fishies after a few minutes. We passed Kirby and Sabrina, then turned around at the end of the 100 meters and counted invertebrates. When Kirby approached me, she indicated that she wanted to say something and wrote on her slate that the depth goes further than 50 feet, be careful. We were instructed to go no deeper than 50 feet, so this was a problem...

Indicator species I noted on dive three include: parrotfish (which are beautifully colorful, like a parrot of the sea!), sweetlips, and some kind of sea wrasse; inverts include sea cucumbers and long-spined urchins. Of course, I saw plenty of other creatures, but they were not listed on our indicator species lists, so I did not include them in the data. I just admired them personally :). Some of the fishies are so tiny! And I think to myself "that is definitely my favorite!" about every 20 seconds. I guess they're all my favorite!

Occasionally I dive vertically downward to look under coral that is sticking out, or into a hole. I just can't seem to find the scary stuff though.

At the end of the transect, it was Christine and my job to pick up the end and swim it back to the other two. We took off and met up with them eventually. However, the transect tape was terribly twisted and caught, and the more Kirby wheeled it in, the worse it got. It was hard to maneuver underwater, with the current, our slates, limited vision, and the tape, and having to check air level constantly. Kirby handed me her slate so she could try to untangle the tape mess, then Sabrina took it, then Christine, then me. With two slates and the tape measure, I tried to not accidentally float to the surface and get an air embolism. At one point I started floating up (and once you pop you just can't stop!), but Christine grabbed my B.C. and pulled me back down, phew! Kirby took her slate back and I wrapped the remaining length of the tape measure around the device for now, planning to untangle it as soon as we got back on the boat. We swam towards the boat a bit and approached 15' depth slowly for a 5 minute safety stop (to allow the nitrogen to off gas from inside our bodies).

Resurfacing, I announced that we had a wee little bit of a problem... then I held up the tangled mess of a tape measure for everyone to see, and most people laughed. It was ridiculous. Out of the water, Christine and I finally untangled it after maybe 20 minutes. Ugh. We also went deeper than 50 feet. I went down to 51' max, Kirby went the deepest to 55'. Oh well! Hehe.

Second dive, our group of four was assigned to 20 feet. Yay! We descended over a HUGE anchor sitting on the ocean floor. This time Christine and I swam the transect line out. I pulled it out and Christine made sure the line fell into a safe place on the reef in a straight line. Looking back occasionally, I would find that the current had led me wayyy off course and I was accidentally curving the line. Whoops! But we laid it successfully and began our invertebrate count, followed by the fish count. Then I wheeled the tape measure back in, correcting the twist that was around the 100 meter mark (the end) and wheeling the entire thing in without a problem. I have experience with tape measures, from when I was a gymnast, laying them out on the vault runway. I guess gymnastics taught me something useful.

At the end of our transect, there were a bunch of other divers nearby and we joined up with them to swim around and look for cool stuff at about 20ft. to 30ft. depth. Sabrina and Kirby saw a baby moray eel (jealous!) and the two Dans saw an octopus who was trying to blend into their surroundings (super jealous!!!). I saw a lion fish that Kirby pointed out to me under a big hunk of coral. Sick! We were wrecking havoc in the wreck. Chyeah.

Christine and I played a hand game underwater while we were off gassing. I did a backflip or two as well.

Back on the boat, we stood out front on the way back to air out a bit. It didn't downpour on us until we were all safely back in the vans and on our way home. Nice!

We showered in a group and headed to dinner, to a nice restaurant. I ordered a pan seared fish appetizer as a meal and it never came, so I ended up eating after everyone. Otherwise dinner was a ton of fun! Some people ordered parrotfish and it came as a whole, entire parrotfish just sitting curled up on the plate. Whoa. It was surreal to see this feat cooked up, after having just seen a bunch swimming around in the water alive. It didn't really bother me so much as make me look different at the prepared fish. Tasted great though!

Some of us felt light headed and sleepy. We blamed the lighting, but perhaps it was from all the diving. We're all okay, but it was weird. I was definitely feeling a bit loopy. Hmm... nitrogen narcosis on land? Idk.

After dinner I was exhausted. We bought groceries then made our way back to the dorms and passed out. Ahhhhhh that feels good. :) Later, B

Day 8 - Wednesday, Our First Dive in Guam!!!

NOTE: I have not uploaded any pictures to my computer yet, my apologies. I will post later today/tonight with a tons of pictures.

* * *

We got up later today than yesterday, as our bodies are probably getting used to the time difference. Instructions were to dress nicely, with you dive apparel handy to go straight to the dive shop and diving after some business.

I put on some shorts and a tank to walk down to the prof’s cabin for breakfast, and thank goodness I did. I was sweating as if I had run 10 miles! At breakfast we all hurriedly read the Guam EIS Proposal and any other documents we could about Congresswoman Madeleine Z. Bordallo. After walking back to the dorms, I jumped in the shower and put on my nice dress, feeling no difference in cleanliness due to the horrendous humid conditions. On the road again, we made it to her office and quietly walked inside, politely writing our names on a sign-in sheet and being as calm as possible. We were led into a conference room and soon came a girl, two old guys, and then a small little intern (who I later learned is my age). The lady talked most of the time, but the old guys turned out to be not Mrs. Congresswoman Bordallo, but in fact two other politicians, I don’t remember their names or positions, however. One was quiet and hardly said a word; the other was passionate about Guam and made some ery sad remarks about what has resulted from Japanese control over the island, U.S. purchasing the island, and recent moves to increase the naval/military capacity of the island. For instance, he said that the Japanese put a lot of Chamorros (native Guamians) in concentration camps, telling them that they were going to die. They didn’t kill them, but the Chamorros have since been relocated and their land is steadily becoming smaller and smaller in area. He says that he is bitter about looking out from his house on acres upon acres of military training land. He also said that Guam recently received an award for having the most men (of any state) enlist in the army. It’s only natural, he explained: there are no jobs but plenty of room for new marines.

It was a really interesting conversation, though. Dr. Haw pointed out to the politicians that my grandfather was stationed on Tinian (I showed him and the other profs pictures of my grandfather on Tinian the night before. Dr. Haw looked like a little boy on Christmas morning). The politicians seemed please, and the girl said that there is a celebration going on right now on Tinian. Oh, if only I could go there! I could arrange a flight to Saipan, then Tinian, but that costs money and takes time and guts, and I’m feeling kind of lazy. Oh well. The girl admitted that Tinian is gorgeous and has amazing diving. Some other day, perhaps?

After a group picture, we left the office and slipped our bikini tops on in the car as we drove to the dive shop. We had to get weights to wear so that we can be buoyant under water and, more importantly, so that we can manage a controlled, safe ascent at the end of the dive. Our tummies were grumbling and people were getting restless, but we made it to the boat dock eventually and stuffed our faces with peanut butter and jelly, Nature Valley bars, and bananas. With all of our B.C.’s, regulators, and personal dive gear situated, we loaded all of that stuff and two heavy air tanks each onto a big boat. It was nice the way there were plastic cylinder holders that held our tanks securely against the wall. Nice!

We started up and headed out of the dock. Mangrove trees lined our path through the severely shallow water. Where were we headed?! There were two huge ships with cargo on our way out. I could see the ocean through a break in the mangroves ahead, but we never made it that far. We stopped just short and prepared to dive. With my new rash guard on and sleeves rolled up to 3/4 length (it fits perfectly, dad!), I strapped on my B.C., defogged my goggles, and slipped on my flippers. I was ready to dive! First dive of the trip!

I put my regulator in my mouth and took a giant stride entrance into the water. Immediately, I noticed a huge problem. No air was flowing through my regulator! I could blow out into it, but not in. Shoot. The current was allowing me to drift further and further away from the boat. What was wrong? “Jerry! I need ya. I think there is a problem here.” Before he really heard me or had enough time to react at all, I realized the problem. Excuse me, let me amend that a bit: I realized the HUGE STUPID HORRIBLE FROWNED-UPON MISTAKE that I had made. I had forgotten to turn the air on! I tested the tank earlier for pressure, but turned it off for the voyage out to the dive site. Ahhhhh how stupid of me. I made it back to the boat and the captain Skip opened the valve for me. Stupid stupid stupid. When I made it to my dive group, my dive partner Dank gave me a nice slap on the arm. Much deserved.

We descended right away and headed off. Whoa! So much to see! Catalina has sharks and bat rays, but not brightly colored fish and crazy huge corals!!! I saw so many fish, I was sorry that I didn’t have an underwater camera. I do remember my favorite fish of the trip, though: a trumpet fish, with a long nose and bright yellow scales, accented with black and white. Just like the character from Finding Nemo... Scar? Idk his name, the old guy who brainwashes Nemo into trying to escape from the tank. Yup, it’s Scar. I just googled it.

ANYWHO, I also saw a kind of extra-long war jeep that looks exACTly like the jeep we have in our driveway from WWII! I was so excited when I saw that. I was all corroded and eroded and full of coral, but it still had the basic structure. Otherwise, the bottom of the ocean here was pretty plain, maybe sand? Not too much crazy stuff all the time, just blobs of coral with fishies around it. There was a steep slope of rocks to our right on the way out, left on the way back that looked very artificial. What else did I see? Hmm, well my goggles were kind of leaking and making the nose make a funny noise. Like, as if there was a sort of vacuum in my goggles and my nose was slightly clogged/freaking out. So I had a small window of clear to look out of, and I was holding my goggles to my head the whole time. I have figured out since that my goggles are too big for me, and I am boring a spare pair that is smaller. Mine press so hard on my forehead and nose (despite letting water in) and give me a HORRENDOUS headache. And lovely deep lines around my face after the dive that last at least 30 minutes. But I will stop complaining because the dive was so amazing! There were also these awesome black fish with metallic blue dots on their upper fins and disgusting yellow eyes, like those of a moray eel from The Little Mermaid, or a freaky feral cat. The way they watched us passing over was eerie but so cool! Jerry was our dive leader and he took some pictures of us and the nature, so I hope I get to see those soon!!!

Out of the water, we kicked on our backs like otters back to the boat, pulled off flippers and masks, and climbed up the boat to unload. Then we all jumped in the ocean and swam around. I love the ocean! I did a dive and a back flip into the water and felt amazing. Having no flippers on is tricky, though, after doing a 50 minute dive, max. depth 35 ft. with flippers.

We took off for another dive site, West Sholls, waiting a specific amount of time for our bodies to off gas the significantly large amounts of nitrogen bubbling in our bodies. At the site, some of us did dives off of the roof of the boat, me included. Ahhhh if feels so great to fly through the air! We suited up and got in the water (this time I had my air turned on hehe). Going down, we immediately noticed that this diving site was different: well, my goggles immediately filled up to the bottom of my eyes with water, but I left it there so that I could let is wipe my goggle lens clean and I could actually see the fish this time. But the reef was HUGE. It looked as if it was coral built up on old wreckage, with multiple layers and a few tunnels to swim under. I swam through one and bumped my tank on the upper layer, whoops. The girl before me got her octopus regulator stuck and I could tell she was very confused and uncomfortable. Jerry untangled her and she made it through just fine.

This was the dive that really excited me: I finally got to see a sea turtle!!! It was gorgeous and really big, too! The shell was probably as big as a large serving platter. His flippers moved slowly as he glided near the sea bottom, poking his Crush-like head (from Finding Nemo) into spaces to find a snack. I loved loved loved the turtle. I could have watched him all day. I spent a good amount of time making sure that everyone in my group had seen the turtle, which was stupid on my part because they all knew about it and I could have been watching the turtle do his thing. But that’s ok sooo cool!!!

We swam a bit and then started to resurface after about 40 minutes. I did some back flips underwater and stretched my joints to try and keep blood circulating and prevent nitrogen from pooling anywhere in my body. I have a theory that my left thumb traps nitrogen and gets sore often after dives.

Back on the boat, we ate some peanut butter and Ritz crackers and swam some more before starting in. We could see rain clouds ahead and drove right into the rain. It felt refreshing at first, but soon it felt like a thousand tiny needles poking my body. Ouch! I went under the boat top, dripping wet. I had not even taken my towel out at this point. When we docked, it was pouring. This was actually a good thing: we laid our gear out in the rain to rinse off the salt water. Unloading all of our gear, personal items, and air tanks, we were soon all drenched. Straight into the vans we went. SMELLY.

We went right to dinner, at Chamorro Village, where there are food vendors under tents and lots of tourist shopping. I put on the nice dress I was wearing earlier and my Birkenstocks. Lovely. My swimsuit made my dress very wet in all the most awkward places.

The village was awesome! I got in a long line that seemed popular and got some BBQ chicken and pork, a spicy hotdog, corn, rice, and some fried vegetable thingy. DELICIOUS. Wow, it tasted so good. I didn’t eat it all because that is a ton of food, but it was amazing. And, to make my day, I had a coconut!! The guy machete chopped off a small hole and stuck a straw in it, then when I finished the coconut water, he cut it again and put a little bit of soy sauce in for me to eat the meat. I don’t like the meat too much with soy sauce, I like it plain. But he also gave me wasabe paste, which cleared my sinuses nicely :]

I did some shopping and haggling, bought some souvenirs. I won’t say what because I don’t want to spoil it for people reading this!

I also got to hold a coconut crab, quite possibly the scariest creature on this island and the only ocean creature that Dr. Ginsburg is afraid of. The man showing off the crab said it was 34 years old and it was missing a leg, which he said it would regenerate. I was nervous and he told me to hold tight and hard, because the crab was fighting back hard. OMG scary. I held his claws together and tightly as I could without the crushing the guy, though I think that would have been quite impossible. I could feel his strength pushing against mine, and he was a very strong little guy. Jennah took a picture of me with him yay!

After our fill of fun, we left for the vans, went grocery shopping, and headed home. A shower was more than necessary. My hair was in a huge complicated knot. I might have lost a handful of it from detangling it with a comb :[ oh well. More dives today! Talk to ya later, B

Day 4-6: I Think? The Int'l Date Line

Eeeek so much to talk about! I haven't had internet, so please excuse the delay (mother).

To begin with, we had our last dive, a Nitrox dive, on Friday. Saturday, we had a quiz and lecture on coral reefs basics. This got us so excited to leave! I stole some lanyard from the camp group on Catalina and learned that Chloe is a natural-born lanyard weaving pro, and she wanted to bring lanyard on the trip but thought that no one else would want to make key chains with her. Bummer! My key chain lanyard is pretty sick: I’ve got hot pink, purple, sparkly-clear, and glow in the dark plastic. Yes!!!

At 3:30 P.M. we made our way to the dock with all of our gear. A small boat moved us over to the small town of Two Harbors, where we hopped on a Catalina Express that made a stop at Avalon, then proceeded to the mainland. Lots of people boarded at Avalon, and I decided to sit outside on the third floor. Bad mistake? I don’t know. It was very, very windy and chilly. People watching was quite fun though, and I had some alone time with my ipod and the ocean view.

We stayed at a lovely Renaissance Hotel by LAX, where my roommate Sabrina and I gorged on a splendid $65 worth of room service. Which was $25 over budget. Whoops. We didn’t get breakfast the next morning...

Awake and downstairs ready to go at 6:30 A.M., we lugged our Scuba gear and personal things to the airport and managed to check in with no exceptional problems. Our first flight was... long. A wonderful five hours to be exact. I sat next the window, with Chloe (Crocodile Chloe Dundee) on my left and Bridget McDonald next to her. We made a Bridget sandwich! I slept a lot and and had a strange dream that I was deaf. I think it was because the earbuds in my ears were playing really loud music. I also dreamt that I forgot to buy everyone souvenirs. DON’T WORRY, I won’t let that happen.

Flying into Hawaii was wonderful. The teal water looked tempting. Chloe and I were aching to jump in the water right there and then. Oh well. Without hesitation, however, my mother was prompt to call me just as soon as we landed and I turned my phone on. Her plane tracking skills amaze me, considering she has so little experience with computers and internet. Congrats Mama!

In the airport, we had about an hour to kill. I decided to splurge on a Starbucks drink because my ankles -- pardon me, kankles -- were making my voyage less than enjoyable. I was thrilled to find a mocha coconut frappuccino available. Coconut! Om nom nom. They even sprinkled coconut flakes on the whipped cream that I didn’t ask for but just accepted anyways when they gave it to me. :]

Going to Guam, I sat on the aisle seat in the middle section, next to Dan Kasang (Dank) and Bridget; another Bridget sandwich! All of the environmental students were pumped to find out that Oceans the short movie-type show was showing first on our 7 hour, 25 minute flight. We all watched with excitement, knowing that we would soon be looking at very similar creatures up close. The movie went into a segment about people Scuba diving to get closer to ocean life and we all looked over slyly at the people next to us. Oh yeah, that’s us all right.

We were fed a lot on this flight. Like, a LOT a lot. I was all yummy, but kind of a lot. Did I already say that? But for real, I was stuffed. Poor Dank got the reject meat items from all of the vegetarians on the trip, and he felt obligated to eat it all so that it would not be thrown out. Poor guy! I couldn’t help him out either because I was so full.

The longer flight actually seemed to go by faster. We crossed the date line and the writing on the screen turned into Japanese (I think). They also showed the path of light on the earth as we were flying. I could see Chicago watching a sunset, just getting dark, and be in the wee hours of the morning. When we landed, it was about 3:00 A.M. Central Time. And of course my mother called as soon as I turned on the phone. Bravo Mama! I am quite serious, though, when I tell you that I won’t be calling again. I’m sorry, but I don’t think you want to be paying the roaming and call charges. I’m alive!!!

Kirby looked over at Bridget McD and said, “hey, Bridget, guess what?”
“What’s up Kirby?”
“We’re in Guam.”

It was then that it hit me: WE’RE IN GUAM! Woohoo!

Off the plane, it was about 6:00 P.M. and my body is not feeling too good. I’ve got kankles and dry skin and a headache that’s driving me crazy. I guess that’s what a lot of flying will do to me. We made it through customs easily and filed into two vans and a mini van. (P.S. the above photo is so foggy due to the extreme humidity that hit us as we walked out. Yikes! The above right is Guam at night). Construction made the trip to campus (the University of Guam) slower than anticipated. Our grumbly tummies, sleep-deprived bodies, and overall exhaustion made us all a little testy. By the time we made it to campus, it was time to go to bed. However, a grocery trip was necessary to get breakfast items. Once in our room, Sabrina and I sat and talked for a while, Sabrina making up lyrics to Tik Tok about diving. It was hilarious. I’m really upset that I have the memory capacity of a fly and I can't remember a thing about it. I will be sure to keep a pen and paper with me at all times now. (The the right are our dorms).

After we had our laughs, we decided to look what other people were us to, because we thought the plan was to meet at 9:00 PM for a lab tour and to go get breakfast food from the grocery store. Knocking on doors, we found no one. Outside, no one. No one in the boys' hall, the eating area, no where. Sabrina and I were kind of really upset. How could they leave us like this? We want in on the fun/nonsense, whatever is going on. We tried calling our prof. and Flipper, but they didn't pick up, so we left kind messages ;D But really, where could they have gone? Without us? We decided to finally ask one of the university students named Floyd if he knew our classmates' whereabouts. He agreed that they had probably left (because two vans were missing), and that it isn't too safe for us to go walk around in the dark. Ugh. So we took showers (finally!) and went to bed. People showed up again just as we were turning off the lights. Apparently, no one noticed that we were missing, they had gotten food (and a lot had eaten food) and were going to bed. Oh well!

Sabrina hardly slept; I woke up every time she got up. Around 6:00 AM here we really got up, along with Mariah, and walked down to the marine lab. We saw a red millipede, beautiful navy blue butterflies, an inch worm, and a slug. Cool! We walked down to the beach at the lab and admired the coral that was everywhere. And we found a neat cone shell that was white with pinksih-red spots spiraled around it. We also saw an adorable little crab trying to hide from us. So cute! A local appeared and told us that we had missed the really red sunrise sky by about 30 minutes. That's for tomorrow, I guess. If I can get some sleep and wake up early.

We went to our professors' cabin (at the marine lab) and found coffee brewing and bacon already cooling. Ahhhhhhhh yummmmmm. That is such a nice way to start your day. I also had dark chocolate peanut butter that Loraine (an employee at the Wrigley Marine Institute on Catalina Island) had given to me as a parting gift. I love her! And I love dark chocolate peanut butter!!! I was a happy camper. Sabrina, Mariah and I hung out a while until our classmates started showing up for breakfast. Hehehe early birds catch the worm I guess. The bacon was not as fresh as it was before for us and the kitchen was crowded. Hehehe.

We put on swim suits and strapped sandals and headed to the Department of Agriculture at 9:30 AM. We were given a tour of birds that were being held in facilities to help them breed and become more abundant, as they are endangered. The first bird we got to see was the flightless Guam rail (locally called Ko'ko'). It was darling! More than other birds, these little guys have personalities. For real! The lady talking to us about them said they have trouble breeding them because they are picky little birds. She let us hold them. I can't remember the first guy's name, but the second was the only with a non-Chamorro name, Staples, given to him after he ate staples after a typhoon. Poor guy! They walk onto your hand carefully and think that your fingers are females. Hehe you can only image, the little guys were really having fun with our fingers. They also love toes.... ouch. Then we proceeded to check out the Kingfisher birds on display, which have a beautiful mating call and are very pretty indeed. I was even more excited to see the bat though. It was huge! Bigger than the tiny bats I saw in my bathroom in the jungles of Costa Rica last spring break. And it started to get really upset with all of the people in his room, so he was biting the guy holding him pretty viciously. The guy had to put him back for fear of a bad bat bite.

Leaving there, we headed to the beach, where we hiked probably at least half an hour to "The Lost Pond," where we gratefully jumped in the murky water. Kind of scary, not going to lie... but after that hike, so worth it! The hike was along the beach most of the way, and we stopped to pick up hermit crabs of all sizes. I saw a really awesome crab! I think they are my favorite animal of the trip so far. We learned from Dr. G's colleague Brent that we were on the northern part of the island, which is exposed limestone (old coral reef) and has no rivers, whereas the southern part of the island is an extinct volcano. The ocean views were more and more picturesque with each step. It was unbearable. I could have filled my entire memory chip with pictures of nature. But I resisted! Kind of... AND Flipper and Kirby managed to open up coconuts! That made my day. Actually, my trip. No kidding. All I need is coconut juice and some coconut meat, and I am a happy, happy girl.

The "Lost Pond" was amazing too. There were little tadpoles everywhere and fish that we couldn't see (you would have really loved that, mom). I sneaked up on Dan Killam (Danimal) and Flipper underwater and scared them pretty bad. Hehe. We left soon though cause we wanted to swim in the ocean! (That's the pond right thur -->).

It. was. amazing. The water was painfully salty and I could float in the water effortlessly. Not to mention, it was so warm I felt like I was taking a bath. After about a 1/4 mile of water that was max. 4 ft. deep, there was a circle of reef crest that was about 7 ft. deep. We all congregated there for an underwater picture. I hope it comes out well! With peanut butter and jelly and a few laps to the deep water, we were ready to leave. The walk back was reflective, until we started singing old camp songs and time passed quickly. Minus the nasty blisters on my feet from my new strapped sandals :[ oh well, nothing is perfect I guess.

Back at the dorms, we showered and prepared to go out to dinner. The Jamaican Grill. Not much more to say, except that it was AWESOME. Ribs and fish. Ahhhhhhh.

Now I'm back in my prof's place (no internet in the dorms), and it's really humid out. Oh yeah, forgot to mention it's pretty dang hot here, humidity wise. Though, maybe not quite as bad as Chicago's worst day in the summer. These wimps need to stop their complaining. Walking down here from the dorms, I used a headlamp (thanks daddy!) and an angry dog made Danimal and I jump, then walk a little faster. More dogs started barking until we were jogging then running to the prof's place. Eeek!

I seriously have at least two dozen more pictures, with more amazing things to see. But I'm tired and it's late and I have to read a 40 page Guam EIS Executive Summary before meeting with the Congresswoman from here tomorrow morning. So, that's it for now. Going to bed, more adventures tomorrow. *B

Yucky Saturday

Today was not too exciting... at all. I'm just writing to keep my mama updated and happy :]

We had a meeting last night to go over some more scheduling details, but it turned into a bonding fest. We were all starting to get so excited for the trip, we were just blurting things out and learning new things about Dr. G. Such as how he met his wife. Or the fact that Palauans have awkward ways of communication, such as staring at you, raising eyebrows slightly, or blinking slowly as a way of saying "hi." That's not creepy at all...

Today it was so cloudy when I woke up, it felt like I was walking through a cloud. There was no rain falling from the sky, yet I felt water droplets covering my bare arms, and everything looked moist. We had a quiz which was really more of a super basic worksheet to make sure we know the very basics about coral reefs and the history of Guam. Ex: who was the first explorer on Guam? Magellan. Bam. +1

We have been lazing around and packing up our gear to leave soon. Tonight we head back to L.A. and stay in a Marriott at LAX, where we are allowed to order room service for dinner, paid for by 'SC. Sweet!

We leave via Continental Airlines tomorrow morning around 9:30 A.M., two hour layover in Hawaii (Oahu), then off to Guam! Soooooooooo excited to get going. Talk to ya in two days (thanks to the date line), B

Night Dive and Day 3 on Catalina

OH my goodness, so much to talk about! (Sorry for the poor picture quality, btw)

To begin, last night we had our first-ever night dive. Whoa, what a scary concept. After a carb-filled pasta dinner, we waddled down the hill to the lecture hall to talk some notes on diving with nitrox (air with a higher percentage of oxygen and thus a lower percentage of nitrogen, increasing dive time and lowering risks of decompression sickness, etc.). If you haven't read my fbook status already; our dive instructor Jerry was late for lecture. He was taking a ride in a submarine. Nothing out of the usual on Catalina Island. Turns out, there is a 50,000 lbs. mooring that has fallen over and been dragged several meters. How? Nobody knows... there is also some kind of net missing and the hook is not-so-kindly torn off. Hmm, the mysteries of the deep never cease to amaze me.

Soon it was time... we headed down the bottom of the hill wearily and cold, sweatpants and jackets on. We found our wetsuits still wet. Surprise. Fun. Once you get it on, though, the 7mm protect your skin from wind and that does actually make you considerably warmer. We chose buddies -- I was with Dan Killam, aka Scuba Steve -- and got our flashlights. I picked the big flashlight and got to tie a glow stick to my tank too. Cool! Once on the dock in the dark, we were lucky enough to have two big ships nearby with nasty fog lights to give us some light. The ships belong to the bajillionaire who owns the submarine. Thanks, rich guy! In the light, before we even got in the water, we watch flying fish play around, just under the hungry gaze of some birds.

I hopped in the water and gave the okay sign. With only my flashlight for visual aid, I looked around me in the water and saw some red worm-like things squiggling around in front of me. Ew. Soon our group was assembled and ready. We descended and each covered our lights at the same time, experiencing total darkness (except for the glow sticks). Swimming around, we found a studly lobster trying to hide behind some coral. Ha, nice try. We surrounded it and gave it a heart attack I'm sure, because it soon fled under the kelp and into the darkness. Our group was confused and without direction, so for most of the 28 minute dive, we bumped into each other and made figure eights around the sea floor, kicking up a bunch of sand too. Not too fun, especially when you are cold. Resurfacing, we looked like torso-less heads bobbing in the ocean under tons of tons of stars. I love seeing the night sky out here, because you can see three times as many stars as Chicagoland area, about 1000 times more stars than L.A.

I wasn't as cold as I expected while getting out of the wetsuit, though it was still cold.

Day 3 on Catalina

Today we filled up our bellies with the first bananas we've seen all trip and peanut butter and toast, before embarking on our fifth dive of the trip. Today we planned our first nitrox dive and had to test each individual tank for the oxygen content and our maximum operational depth (MOD). That took a lot of time. So much time, in fact, we were soon hearing emergency alarms and seeing spinning lights. A helicopter was coming in to transport someone to a hospital on the mainland. Eek! We hurried to get all of our light gear away from the helipad, because we would lose it for sure in the high velocity winds if it wasn't hidden. Our Scuba tanks we left just nearby. We took the opportunity to run up the hill, play some volleyball and relax. We watched a boat come in with the person in distress on board. The paramedics (Baywatch) were working on them, stabilizing them I hope. The chopper arrived and we watched six big guys wheel the person to the chopper and inside, then it took off and we were back on schedule. The person was alive upon leaving; how much alive, we don't know.

We were nearly all geared up. I partnered with Jennah, who is a student like me but acting as a Scuba instructor, T.A., because she is already more than Scuba certified. She has at least 170 dives logged and lives in Florida. Go figure. We didn't not have our tanks on our backs yet. This is a process that takes a partner to lift up the 30? 40? lbs. tank, BC, and regulator up so you can strap it on. It's a wonder no one has broken their back yet. Anyways, out of no where, the alarm goes off again. Another chopper is coming! Shoot! We hurried to get our gear on and tanks on back as the chopper was circling the cove. We hurried down the dock just to discover... the helicopter was transporting the rich submarine owner and his friends and family. Ugh.

We hopped in the water and descended quickly. Today was the day we were to do our deepest dive yet. I went down as deep as 64 ft.! To be honest, I don't prefer the deep dives. It gets so cold down there, and there isn't that much more interesting to see. We slowly decreased depth and headed towards the kelp along the wall of the cove, where there is a lot of action. Bridget McDonald (the other Bridget on the trip--I know, what are the chances?) spotted and charged a huge HUGE sea hare. It was the size of a teddy bear, or small refrigerator, whichever you can visualize better. She hugged it close and you could read the excitement in her eyes. It was so big! I touched it with my gloved hand and the plump animal had a fat, elastic bounciness to it. Kind of like a sea cucumber (see the picture on the right, taken from http://www.flickr.com/photos/montereybayaquarium/3554171101/). Apparently the instructor we were following saw a huge moray eel as well. I'm happy I didn't see that. I heard a deep rumbling and realized there must be a big boat nearby overhead, but where? Approaching 15 ft. down for our three minute safety stop, I decided to get a little adventurous. I did some back flips underwater, and Jennah took pictures and video of us fooling around a bit.

Resurfacing, we were greeted by a boat full of families, coming to Catalina to stay for the weekend. Lovely. They looked on at us like a zoo spectacle, as I'm sure we looked quite odd appearing out of nowhere. I'm not too happy about all the people being here. They're going to eat all our food. Although this does me that we will be served better-than-usual food... ok, I can deal.

We took our nitrox exam and I don't think I passed. Actually, I think I did, but my grader marked it wrong... 7 wrong out of 50 means 86%, right? Then I should be fine.

I also recorded by dive information in my dive log. To date, I have been underwater diving for over seven hours. Woot!

Casey -- aka Pearl -- is back on the mainland and my textbook has been shipped to her house. The textbook that took the full two weeks out of the anticipated 7-14 days to ship. And it arrived the day that I left home. The timing was impeccable. We're being tested on much of the information tomorrow. Oh well, that's what classmates are for, right?

Happy Friday everyone, B

Day 2: Shark Spotted!

Today was the day; we saw the sharks! But before this phenomenon occurred, we had a tough schedule to deal with.

6:27 AM - Bridget wakes up due to noisy raven outside front door. Boohoo
7:30 AM - Breakfast. I stole some yogurt for later
8:30 AM - Meet at the dock and prepare for diving
9:00 AM - Dive #2: laying transect lines and counting fish/invertebrates
11:20 AM - Nap time

12:00 PM - Lunch. Fried chicken, fries, and salad. The meal of champions.

1:30 PM - Meet at the dock and prepare for diving. AGAIN
2:00 PM - Dive #3: laying MORE transect lines and counting MORE fish/invertebrates
... (Note: I am writing this note at this point in the story, so the rest of the schedule is for a later post)
6:00 PM - Dinner!!!
7:00 PM - Scuba lecture with Jerry
9:00 PM - Our first night dive!
BED TIME

Anywho, we were not too excited to get into our still-wet wetsuits (I suppose that's inherent in the name, wetsuit). This is, until we put on our wetsuits, booties, gloves, hoods, and tanks. We were quite ready to get into the water at this point because we were all sweating bullets! Down the ramp we went. And that ramp gets really slippery btdubs. Swimming out, I was assigned to lay the transect tape. It is the same kind of tape measure we use for vaulting in gymnastics, so I had no prob carrying an extra two pounds or so through the water. Derek was my partner. Well, his dive name is Flipper and mine is Flounder, so that is what I shall call him from now on. Once we got down, I was allowed to swim alone ahead of the group. It was SICK. Imagine being completely alone, hearing only your steady breathing, knowing where you're headed only by looking at a compass. Pretty sweet. It was a glorious 100 meters of free time. Then the tape measure stopped moving and my alone time was over :[ Writing on our slates on water-proof paper with water-proof pencils, I counted a bunch of bass, senioritas, and cone-shaped snail thingies (I need to work on my fish recognition skills). Then we were stopped while Dr. G consulted with another dive instructor. He wrote on a slate "all accounted for?" and the guy nodded yes. So Flipper and I were told to swim on. And swim on we did. Past the other group, past the last kelp where I remembered our group being behind, past where our group should have been. On and on and on until... a manta ray swooped directly over our heads. I swear I could feel the water move from the high speed impact. Sweet! The excitement made us swim faster until Flipper stopped and wrote something on his board. I looked over: "I think we're lost." Nice. We spun around a little. Hmm, what to do when you're 22 ft. down, 1400 psi air still in your tank, and an ocean of possibilities... good think Flipper and I are logical divers. We decide to surface and looking around, saw a few heads out where we were long ago, and some more heads near the ramp back to shore. Oh, whoops. So we took our time swimming like otters back to shore. We found out that everyone else was told to swim til they had 1000 psi left then surface and go in. Eh, nbd. Oh I almost forgot: it's too difficult to tell, but I am fortunate enough to get the most awesome BC ever in existence. It is the customary black, but with neon green and purple accents!!!! I think everyone else is jealous. Hehe.

Lunch was yummy. I'm still trying to get through the text book I'm borrowing from Laura The Biology of Coral Reefs. It's just so...wonderful, I can't put it down. Thus, I never pick it up.

Our third dive of the trip was a repeat of the second. I partnered with Christine this time. Swimming out, I was looking down into the water (rather than blindly swim like an otter). Out of the clouded background, I noticed a big, long, beautiful spotted shape squirming. A SHARK! A leopard shark actually. Then another, and another. Four! No, wait, six! And tons of bat rays and I think a sting ray too? Idk they all look kind of the same. Pretty sick. I thought everyone could see 'em, but actually all of the otter swimmers were oblivious, so I just kept watching with mixed wonder and horror. I wasn't so afraid that they would attack me, I know they wouldn't. I just was horrified that such huge creatures can swim so peacefully directly below me, in water that I will soon be surrounded in.

Once underwater, about 15-22 ft. down, we swam our transect and counted fish (again). On the way back, counting invertebrates, I got to battle the kelp for 3/4 of the 100 meters. Ugh. BUT I got a little adventurous and went head-on into the darkest crevices of the rocks only to find tons of sea urchins and a HUGE lobster! Hmm, dinner anyone? Tempting, but I let him be.

On the way back, Christine and I navigated using our compasses. Heck yeah. The boy scouts of Lake Forest and Camp Makajawan would be proud. We were maybe 5 ft. off of our destination.

Now I'm snacking on a sugar cookies. I deserve it! Three dives in one day? Psh. Lots of reading to do and napping to be had. I hope my hair untangles from this knot. Talk to ya after tonight's dive (yikes!), B