Helicopters and Lobsters

Aloha again! 10/29/10


Things have been a little hectic the last couple of weeks and there’s quite a bit to tell! I guess we’ll just start with the last backcountry trip two weeks ago…
This time they had us stay in the field for 7 nights instead of 6. It is amazing how long that last day feels when you’re used to getting out in 6!! We did have a few exciting things happen this time though. First of all I got to experience my first Heli-Op. Since these sights are so remote, they have to helicopter in supplies when we start to get low (water, CO2, propane). The helicopter pilot on the island is extremely skilled as he often has to land on very rough lava terrain and it was so cool to watch him fly in a load of supplies and then just plop down on jagged lava like it was nobodies business . We also had a little surprise of cold Gatorades in one of the bags that he dropped down for us! Felt a little like we just won a challenge on survivor…we savored those! We also got to try out a little surfing (without much success) because we found surf boards that locals had stashed in a cave at Halape. We knew that they were somewhere because locals stash a lot of things in the lava (there’s a guitar somewhere…) but it took us a good couple of hours of searching to finally find them! This trip we also had another excavation of a nest, this time without such a great outcome. The total success rate of the nest was 7.4%.....not so great. It was mostly fried eggs from sun exposure or just a gooey mess. REALLY stinky. It was a very sad nest, but we were able to save a few. In fact we kept one hatchling in a pot of sand and slept next to him all night so that we could release him at a good time in the morning (we didn’t want anything to dig him up at night).
So after the long trip we were very excited to finally have our 3 nights off…and then one other girl and I got sent into the field for another night…It was actually our choice because we wanted to see the nest that we had personally translocated at the beginning of the season hatching, but it did make for a very short break and not much time to revamp. So then when we did finally get our break we only had one full day off and then went back into Kamehame. We were a little exhausted but still had a great trip at Kamehame! That’s where our nest is located and we got to translocate it which ended up with about 42% success (not great but I’ve clearly seen worse!). Unfortunately when we got to it most of the live hatchlings had already made it out so we got to sort through the goo again, which was a little depressing, but we did get to release maybe 20 or so live hatchlings.

We had very high winds this time which made beach checks till 2am slightly miserable, but overall it was another great trip with some wonderful sunrises! And we met more local fisherman (I seem to be at the beaches at the right times). They actually stayed and fished for 2 whole days (fishing straight through the night) and around 1 am on the second night they came over with a bucket and asked if we had any coffee. There seemed to something alive in the bucket and when we gave them some coffee they handed us the bucket as a trade and there was a giant live blue lobster inside. We were pretty excited, but quickly realized that we had not idea what to do with this lobster aside from releasing him back into the ocean. They offered to kill him for us which they did in a very disturbing way (using the antennae to pull out the gut sac???) and after Jenna and I were thoroughly traumatized they threw it in a pot to boil and left to continue fishing. We ate it for breakfast the nest morning.


Another very entertaining couple of trips! The break this time has also been great, although its getting very cold and rainy in the park with the fall and winter approaching. Today we’re just getting ready to go into the backcountry again, this will most likely be our last trip of the season there because the nests are almost done. Well, that’s all I can think of for now. I hope that you are all enjoying the fall and baking lots of great fall foods! Have a wonderful Halloween and I hope to hear from you all soon!!!
Amy

More Hatchlings and Fish

Aloha!
Back at housing and time for another update (I know you’ve all been waiting on the edge of your seats ). This past trip was wonderful!! I was back at Pohue and got to excavate my first nest! We do an excavation after the nest has either surpassed its hatching window or has been hatching and stopped for a couple of days. This is to verify the percentage of hatchlings that survived by counting undeveloped eggs, dead hatchlings and egg shells left in the nest. I guess it can be quite disgusting digging it up if there are a lot of dead or decaying hatchlings (I’ll skip the details) but we got very lucky because we found a lot of live hatchlings! These particular hatchlings needed assistance getting out of the nest due to roots and rocks that were most likely inhibiting their emergence so it was a very good thing that we dug it up when we did. While doing an excavation you want to very slowly uncover the nest one shallow scoop of sand at a time so it took us a couple of hours. If there is any movement in the nest you stop and wait for the hatchlings to come out on their own and then let them imprint on the sand for a while before collecting them in a bucket and releasing them all into the ocean at the same time (safety in numbers). Total we found 110 hatchlings!!! It was probably one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen when we released them and 110 tiny hatchlings made their way to the ocean by moonlight. It’s incredible that they just know exactly where to go. Our total next success was somewhere around 65% which is actually really good. We did have one that was too underdeveloped to release and so we reburied him and dug him up two days later, not really expecting him to make it, but he looked great and had a fighting spirit! We named him Brave Heart and sent him out into the world .

Other than that we didn’t have any new mamas but we did get more fish from locals! These Hawaiians are seriously great! The owner of the property even brought us down some left over fried chicken one day and Gatorades! The fish was quite a process however because when we got them before, the locals had already fried them up. This time we received them alive and flopping around….after staring in the bucket for a while and examining the tools that we had to work with (a small propane stove, one pan and a slightly rusty steak knife) we made our plan of attack. It took us 2 and ½ hours but we eventually figured out a few things.

1. These fish are too small and difficult to fillet with a steak knife
2. You can’t eat through the scales
3. Don’t try to fry a fish before de-gutting
4. Don’t pierce the intestines

Out of 9 fish we managed to fry up 4 correctly and they were the best 4 fish I’ve ever tasted (probably just because we were so proud of ourselves by the end of it all).

We were feeling so good that we even decided to gather some opehe (sp?), kind of like a mussel, from the rocks and boil them. This was a bad idea because they were extremely chewy and made us all feel quite sick. Still working on that one.
Overall another great and successful trip, the weather is still beautiful everyday and we slept on the beach under the stars every night. Hopefully you are all still doing well and enjoying the fall (I do miss the changing leaves). Miss you, write if you get a chance.

Amy
P.S. If you want to see a video of the hatchlings check out facebook!!! Hopefully I'll have it uploaded

A beautiful brackish crack that we found. It is huge and about 20 ft deep.