June 13^th, 9:40pm

Up at 6am today.  Listened in as Michelle briefed Sara on some corals and procedures, and Sara in turn trained us interns on initial tasks.  We made transect lines from 10m lengths of measuring tape weighted at either end, turned PVC pipes into 50cm measuring sticks, and prepped our slates with underwater data sheets on each side.  Then we snorkeled out and transected the waters beyond the lodge!  This reef is our first site.  Along each 10m line, we record each coral, its length, width, height, morphology, and nearest coral neighbor (aka, coral size-frequency).  This paints a picture of the quality and diversity of the reef and what kind of fish habitat it provides.  And the Ulithi kids joined us on our second run out to the site that day! We actually had some (slightly) more formal introductions with Junior as guide earlier in the day.  We will be teaching them to do what we are doing, with hopes of continuing participation and data collection after we are gone.  They are all just super awesome people, and they all have a vested interest in the health of their home ecology, of course.   

Prior to getting in the water with them, we did practice transects we set up on the ground (chaos), and then we did it for real out on the reef (more chaos).  The resulting data was not the best, but it was the best time ever so at least there’s that.  Currents were strong and the tide was high!  We broke for dinner but reconvened later that evening for a fish presentation by Giacomo.  It was short and sweet.  The Ulithi kids have these fish species down pat, but Giacomo imparted details about their biology and life histories. 

The sky at night here is a brilliant haze of stars, so dense with their glitter that it kind of looks blurry.  Or maybe I just need my glasses.