Just Another Daily Update...

Dear Internet,

Umm, hey there. It's been a while, hasn't it. Don't worry, I didn't forget about you... it's just that things came up - you know how it goes. Anyway, plenty has happened in the past few weeks. I've been working, snorkeling (both at work and on days off, especially now that my friends have all purchased their own gear as well), and generally enjoying island life.

Work is going well, though some of my friends insist that my pronunciation of the word "work" should be accompanied by a set of finger quotes (that annoying bit of pseudo-sign language), but I'm chalking it up to jealousy rather than deafness. Somehow I have become the guru of all things planktonic at CAOS, as I have been slowly changing and adapting a few of the programs to be a little more catch-and-release and much more big-picture as far as the oceanic food chain goes. I have brought the Moorea light traps back into play, so now whenever I lead the week's night snorkel excursion, there's a little light trapping on the side to catch plankton. It works well for a few reasons, not least of which is the fact that it makes me look really really smart. The funniest part about all of this, though? At UCLA I hated studying plankton. Loathed it, really. My least favorite class of all four years was the one I took on phytoplankton, and yet here I am. Planktonic Purgatory.

A few friends and I had the day off today and went for a snorkel. I have been to this particular site on many occasions while guiding the Winchester-Swann's snorkel trips, so I know the reef there fairly well. When we showed up, however, there were a few new additions to the regular wildlife:


Jellies! When one thinks of a jellyfish, one typically envisions something like this - a distinct bell with tentacles trailing behind it. This individual, however, was one of only two "traditional" jellies that I saw today. To be honest, I have no idea what kind of jelly this particular species is (scyphozoans aren't really my thing), but it's an interesting contrast to the other types of jellies we swam through on our snorkel.


The majority of our excursion consisted of us swimming through an unbelievably large smack of comb jellies. Yup. Jellies come in smacks. I fully expect you all to put that tidbit to good use (remember, I am trying to be vaguely educational here). Anyway, there were thousands and thousands of these comb jellies in the water today. In all of the snorkeling I have done, both here on the island as well as abroad, I have never seen so many jellyfish or so many different types of jellyfish. I tried to take pictures of as many as I could, but it's surprisingly hard to take pictures of small transparent animals floating through the water column. Go figure. Anyway, these comb jellies are so named for the rows of cilia, or tiny hairs, running along the length of their bodies. The cilia are used for propulsion, as well as to help cycle water through the tentacles in its center. Technically these guys have stinging cells in their guts, but they aren't nearly strong enough to penetrate human skin.

That is not to say that we didn't get stung. Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while may remember the Great Siphonophore Swim of '06 (otherwise christened "The Snorkel of Stings"). Well... they're baaaaack! I had gotten stung a couple of times on a tour at work yesterday, but thought nothing of it. I definitely thought something of it today! The stinging was pretty much nonstop for the 90 minutes we were in the water. After a while I simply tuned it out and ignored that certain prickly sensation, but those little buggers certainly can pack a punch.



After snorkeling, my buddies and I sat around talking at a nearby restaurant for a few hours until the sun finally went down. Pretty typical for a day off around here. One could certainly do worse.