Cheating Death, x3

Sorry for the recent lack of posts. Here's the last couple days in review:

So we've started naming our various dive sites according to what happened the first time we went there. The sediment-gathering fiasco at the outer reef a few days ago has been dubbed the Transect of Tears (the Moorea version of the Trail of Tears). Well on Friday we added the Snorkel of Stings along the shore of the bay just south of the Gump station. Dr. Jacobs wanted us to snorkel from the mouth of the river towards the opening of the bay to see how the sediment type changes and the coral cover and composition changes with it. No one else in the class is really that interested in sediment, but we decided to humor him, especially considering the trip was mandatory. We drove to a church parking lot near the mouth of the river and got ready. When we jumped in the water, all we could see was murk, so we swam out far enough so we wouldn't accidentally run into anything hidden underwater. Of course, at that depth with a lack of visibility there really weren't any observations we could make. We started swimming toward the station (about 1-1.5 miles away), trying in vain to see anything we could. Suddenly something started biting us. At first it was little stings here and there, but soon we started feeling stings all over. Our little observational swim became a sprint to the station to get out of the water. A few people actually got out in peoples' backyards and walked back to the station, but I was far enough back in the group (my buddy and I were the last pair of students before Dr. Jacobs himself) that I didn't realize people were jumping ship, so to speak. Anyway, my buddy and I swam all the way back to the station, getting stung all the way there. The stinging wasn't that bad, actually - like little pinprick bites on any exposed skin, though the full-body diveskins some people were wearing turned out to be too thin to block it. Luckily I was wearing a long-sleeve rashguard and long board shorts, so all that was really exposed was my face, hands, and shins. I certainly felt bad for the girls who thought they'd just wear a bikini...

Yesterday was just as eventful. We've been having a rainstorm here for the past couple days, so we were all cooped up indoors working on our research projects. It looks like my first group's project has changed to building a better mousetrap - we're trying to come up with improved light traps to catch plankton while minimizing the risk that they'll eat each other, which is a rather common phenomenon. While they're all in the same trap together, tiny fish eat the zooplankton which eat the phytoplankton, and in doing so they all screw up the data. We're trying to come up with something that will allow for separation based on different size classes. All this project topic switching makes me feel like a freshman again, switching majors weekly (hi Moss!).

In the afternoon, Jess and I went with our TA Sandy to Death Snorkel to collect invertebrate samples for class while Sandy collected crabs from corals for her own PhD research. Remember that Death Snorkel is named for its abundant urchins and fire coral, and especially for its strong current. There was hardly any flow at all during our first visit with the rest of the class, but there's been a huge storm south of us in the middle of the Pacific, so the south of the island was being hit with huge waves on its southern shores. Well, big waves mean big flow at the Death Snorkel, and we got hit with it pretty hard. After the first 15 minutes of panic, Jess and I got the hang of it and it got pretty easy to maneuver and collect organisms. I'm happy to report that there were no injuries, and I managed to get a brittle star, two sea pearls, a snail, a few hermit crabs, and a bunch of empty shells that we can ID later.

After our little snorkel, we climbed back in the station truck to drive back to the station. About halfway back, there was a funny sound coming from the left side of the truck. Then there was a funny smell of burning rubber. Sandy pulled over, and sure enough, we had gotten a flat tire. The problem was, our truck was missing its spare, the jack didn't work anyway, we were still miles away from the station, we didn't have a cell phone to call back to the station, and we didn't know the station's phone number anyway. Oops. After a passing cyclist tried to help us, we decided to walk back and see if we could hitch a ride or borrow a phone. (A note, primarily for Mom's benefit: the Moorean people are extremely friendly and helpful. We routinely leave doors unlocked and gear laying around because no one thinks to steal anything. Everyone on the island knows each other and is interrelated, so it would be quite hard for someone to do something and get away with it. They're basically the opposite of Americans.) After walking for a few minutes, we reached the Moorea Pearl Resort, borrowed their phone and phone book, and reached the dorm phone in the station. Professors Jacobs and Hamner drove another truck to come get us and our gear, and we made it back to the station without further incident.

So yeah, it's been a rather eventful couple of days. I don't have any new pictures (though I was seriously wishing I had brought my camera when we got a flat), but perhaps I will in the next post - there are rumors of going to see the waterfalls later today.