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The zodiac fetches Gordon in the morning. He has found his beetle, as well
as a spider, a centipede, and other specimens. He says the evening was punctuated by some rains squalls, with rain flying upward off the steep cliffs. He huddled near a rocky shelter in his rain poncho and then went out to do his nocturnal collecting.
Click for larger image
By 7:00 a.m., the Rapture pulls anchor and we are speeding at over ten knots
toward French Frigate Shoals, about 80 miles away.
At 1:30 p.m., the captain reports sighting a school of dolphins, then waves
breaking the eastern end of the Shoals, which is shaped like a crescent moon facing west, about 14 miles wide. The only rock outcropping left from
this once high island is the small La Pérouse Pinnacle. Sand islands rim the
northern edge of the Shoals. Like the other Northwestern Hawaiian Islands,
they are slowly eroding into the sea.
As the Rapture prepares to drop anchor off Disappearing Island at the southern end of the shoals, a huge school of
ulua (above) begins swarming around the ship, exciting the dive teams. By 3:30 the divers are in the water
videoing and recording the kinds, sizes, and numbers of fish along the pre-set transect line. The fish teams are followed by the coral,
invertebrate, and algae teams, who identifying and counting species.
Click for larger image
At night the captain of the Rapture shines flood lights off the stern to attract
sealife.
Malolo (flying fish) surface. Three large dolphins appear and begin feeding on the
malolo. A couple of scientists scoop the water for plankton. One captures a transparent ribbon of life, about six inches long
and half an inch wide, with two black eyes at one end. I touch it. It thrashes. Someone suggests it is a baby eel. It goes into a plastic bag for
later identification.
Tomorrow the Rapture plans to move toward Tern Island at the north end of the Shoals for more dives.
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