Kwajalein Island Adventures

I went on a great dive yesterday just off of Emon Beach. We saw a big sea anemone with a few good-sized clownfish, a moray eel, a large grouper, a large porcupinefish, another smaller pufferfish, two little boxfish, an octopus, a giant sea urchin, and a giant clam. All of the following photos were taken with my 100mm macro lens and one strobe.

This is a shrimp goby. I’ve mentioned these before, but have yet to get a decent shot of one as they’re so fast. They’re often found hiding just outside a little hole, guarding a shrimp. As soon as you move past, the shrimp and goby quickly go back down the hole.

Clownfish

A startled (or angry?) clownfish!

Moray eel

He kept opening his mouth just a bit to show his teeth, so I never did get a shot of a wide open mouth (that was reserved for the clownfish). Morays actually open and close their mouths to breathe, but it makes them look more threatening.

Another gaping look

WHOA!!! This face startled ME!! I just love the wide open mouth and fins out expression.

The more serene and sad-looking buddy.

A large grouper, hiding out. Just look at those big lips!

A porcupine pufferfish. I love the rather comic look of these fish, what with the big eyes and small mouth.

You wouldn’t be able to tell very well from the photo, but this was a rather large fish and I had to back up a ways to capture more of the body.

I know this goatfish photo is a little out of focus, but I like the way the “whiskers” appear, nicely spread out so you can see them. I see large schools of goatfish all the time, but have yet to get a good photo of one or several. I’m still trying.

A small boxfish. There were actually two of them; one is just out of frame. They kept approaching each other’s faces as if to kiss (or maybe they were challenging each other).

A cute pufferfish. While not a sharp shot as he was a little farther away than I would have liked (the photo is slightly cropped down), I like how he’s actually facing me with mouth open. Most of the time the puffers are rapidly swimming away from me, so it can be hard to get a good shot of one.

I did get a few photos of the octopus, but none are as good as the ones I took three months ago (of the same octopus, I’m pretty sure).

I made it back to Kwajalein today after a fantastic and fun-filled week of vacation with my family! I have a lot of photos to sort through and post, so will try to not bite off too much at any one time.

For now here are just a few photos from the first day, when I went to the USS Missouri at Pearl Harbor (see a couple posts down for a bit about the battleship).

BEST. DIVE. EVER.

When well over a dozen manta rays are swimming all around you in a feeding frenzy and bumping into you, it is utter chaos, and yet thoroughly exhilarating!!!!

Yesterday I went on two dives off the coast of Kona with Jack’s Diving Locker. The first was in the late afternoon, and just before we got in the water, we saw over a dozen spinner dolphins! A couple of the dolphins were taking huge leaps out of the water, and acrobatically spinning around in the air before gracefully diving back in.

On the dive I saw a couple of moray eels, three manta rays, and a number of interesting fish.

The second dive was a night dive in the same area. We all turned on our lights, which attracted plankton that the mantas feed on. Some of the divers counted at least 15-16 mantas; it was insane!

Without further ado, here is a (rather large) selection of some of my favorite photos from both dives.

Raccoon Butterflyfish

Triggerfish

One of three mantas we saw on the first dive

Night dive!

As you can see, the mantas were not shy about running right into our heads! Our lights attracted the plankton, which caused a feeding frenzy for the mantas.

Flying in formation

Cue Jaws music...

I love this photo as it looks like they are about to do a chest bump!

Watch out!

I believe this one, with no tail, was called Captain Kirk (they have names for nearly 200 mantas around Kona)

Slipper Lobster and a pencil urchin

Slipper Lobster

Crown of Thorns Starfish and a pencil urchin

Crown of Thorns Starfish, eating a piece of coral

Undulating Moray Eel

“Grande hot chocolate!”

I’d been waiting to say those words for months.

Today (yesterday?) I flew out of Kwajalein for the first time. I’m beginning a week-long vacation with my family, who I will be meeting up with at the Honolulu airport here in another 30 minutes or so (they’re flying here to meet me). We’ll then take a flight together to the Big Island, where we’ll spend our week.

I’m so excited!

I arrived at 3:30 am local time (1:30 am the next day, Kwaj time)…so in effect I’m living the same day twice (April 30th). I suppose it makes up for missing a day of my life when I flew to Kwaj  over 9 months ago.

As I had a long layover while waiting for my family, I went to Pearl Harbor and toured the USS Missouri. It’s a battleship that played a key role in the Pacific part of WWII, and on which the Japanese signed their surrender to General MacArthur. The USS Missouri was also part of Desert Storm. It was a fascinating tour, and also provided great views of the coast. Thanks to Paul for taking me there, someone I met through this blog and who was leaving after a two-week TDY work assignment on Kwaj.

Photos will be posted probably later this week. I’m actually hoping to catch up on posting a number of photos this week, while taking advantage of faster Internet speeds. 🙂

Also look for new photos from Hawaii later this week or early next week, including the volcanoes, sea turtles, and manta rays on a pair of dives I’m going on from Kona in a couple of days. 🙂

On February 23rd, I went on a night dive at the Japanese ski boat area wreck. I put on the 100mm macro lens as I wanted to photograph the yellow tube anemones. I did not get the photo I had envisioned, but I think it was a decent start.

I then saw a large pufferfish, and was not able to fit much of the fish into my frame of view, but it was still pretty cool.

And THEN, I saw this coming at me (uncropped!)…and wished I had a 60mm macro lens:

Yeah, I know, you can’t see the eye, but I thought it was actually rather amusing.

This belonged to a filefish that was over 2 feet long!

Here’s the eyeball, also uncropped:

Now here’s a REALLY fun one:

How could that not be the happiest fish ever????

I did get a couple shots of the eye and mouth together, but they weren’t very good as the fish was either swimming away and/or I couldn’t get the focus and composition right. Here are the best.

THIS is what I’m here for. This is what pays for all of us to come and enjoy Kwaj.

Vandenberg launched a Minuteman III as a test (Google it for more info) and my fellow meteorologists and I provided weather support for the reentry corridor. Aside from a 45-minute delay due to weather at Vandenberg, so far as I’ve been permitted to know, it was a successful mission.

Next week there will be another one, so I’ll have another chance to try for an even better photo, provided the sky is as nice and clear as it was tonight.

Last night I went on a night dive at Emon Beach and saw not one but TWO octopuses! Other highlights include seeing one of the red carpet anemones ball up (first time I’d seen that, it was pretty awesome) and a moray eel.

Moorish Idol

Threadfin Butterflyfish

Red Carpet Anemone starting to ball up

Note the little Porcelain Anemone Crab peeking out on the left side of the anemone

A boxfish that allowed me to get quite close before it turned around and swam towards me

Moray eel, heavily cropped. When I first saw this from a bit of a distance, I thought it was an eel, but wasn’t positive, so took a photo. When I got closer, I just saw all the leafy material and thought I may have been seeing things. Once I looked at my photos, I confirmed it was indeed an eel!

Some sort of butterflyfish

One of the beautiful octopuses, just hanging out

This morning I had the pleasure of accompanying one of the weather station technicians on a brief trip to Gagan, an island on the northeast side of the atoll, not far south of Roi-Namur. The big reason I wanted to go was to ride on my first helicopter.

Leaving Kwaj. Note the big tide pools on the oceanside (more of a turquoise blue). I went snorkeling there for the first time on Sunday, and look forward to going back.

Another view of Kwaj, looking across the lagoon

Approaching Gagan (right side)

Gagan

The chopper I was on, on the helipad at Gagan. This is a LUH-72 (Wikipedia article), also known as the Lakota. It was a full flight with 5 people on board, aside from the 2 pilots.

As soon as we got off, the helicopter left. We had about 45 minutes before it would come back, so while Ernie (weather station tech) did his work, I wandered around and took some photos.

Thanks to Ernie for taking this photo of me (note–despite what the sign says, we didn’t actually have to check in). No one lives on Gagan, but there are various instruments there that Kwaj workers maintain.

Walking along the lagoon side of Gagan

Looking to the islands north of Gagan

Thanks again to Ernie for taking a few photos of me while on the helicopter. Note we’re required to wear life jackets while on the chopper (we’re traveling entirely over water) and ear plugs (it was quite loud).

On our way back to Kwaj, we briefly stopped at Meck to drop a couple people off and pick up a couple more. Meck has a launch pad for occasional anti-ballistic missile tests. No one lives on Meck, either, but a number of people from Kwaj go there frequently to work. (Note the white ship next to the pier…that’s a catamaran from Kwaj.)

Another view of Meck

This is Bigej, the island I’ve gone to several times to go snorkeling at

Ebeye, home to over 10,000 Marshallese (just north of Kwaj)

Approaching Kwaj

Where I work–the weather station is the building with the dome on top, to the lower right of the weather radar near the left side of the image. It’s situated on a 9-hole golf course (the other 9 holes are on Roi).

I had a great time; thanks to Ernie for inviting me along!

It’s hard for me to believe sometimes that I’ve been on Kwaj for over 6 months. A week from Sunday I’ll actually be at my 7-month mark. How time flies!

Other than keeping busy at work, I have been able to keep myself very busy staying involved in fun activities.

Here are some highlights:

• Open water, nitrox, and advanced open water scuba dive certifications
• Scuba diving
• Snorkeling / free diving
• Working on getting my B-boat (powerboat) license
• Sailing
• Becoming completely obsessed with underwater photography: purchased a full DSLR underwater camera system, from a Canon EOS 7D (love LOVE LOVE that camera!) and a 100mm macro lens and 10-22mm wide angle lens to an Aquatica housing, two Ikelite strobes, and all manner of accessories. Have been reading up on underwater photography and taking my camera with me almost every time I get in the water (yes, yes, while I’m still very new at this, I’ll get to posting some of the photos on my blog at some point hopefully in the not distant future)
• Revived interest in astrophography due to fairly dark skies (very clear nights are rather hard to come by at times, though)
• Making friends and engaging in above water activities with friends (noticing a theme here? Perhaps related to being on a tiny island surrounded by water?)

This next week I’m scheduled to ride in a chopper up to Gagan, one of the islands on the northeast side of the atoll, with one of the weather station techs. He’s going there to download some data or check instruments or something; I’m just along for the ride, as it’ll be my first ever ride in a helicopter, something I’ve long wanted to do.

My first (plane) trip off of Kwaj will be in 2.5 months, when I’m planning on meeting my family in Hawaii to visit and travel the Big Island for a week. I’ve already booked a manta ray dive for myself off the coast of Kona. 🙂

Alright, here are a few teaser photos.

Coral at Bigej

Cornetfish

Pinnate Spadefish (aka Batfish) on an LCM ferry wreck in the ski boat area at Kwaj

Humbug Dascyllus

Rainbow Runner (fish) and sponges under a buoy off of Kwaj

Star trails around the South Pole; Kwaj weather radar in the foreground

One of the perks of living on Kwaj is seeing interesting ships and aircraft stop in from around the world.

The Indonesian Navy tall ship Dewaruci recently arrived (see photo, below), and today the crew marched through the street of Kwaj in a parade. I think there is a potluck tonight for the crew (they said to just not bring pork), and they’re playing in a soccer game at some point this weekend I believe. Tomorrow the ship will be open for tours.

The 60-year-old ship is at the beginning of a tour around the world (the weather station here was actually asked to give them a forecast when they were about 100 nautical miles west-southwest of here), and not long after it makes it back to Indonesia, it will be decommissioned. See the Wikipedia article for a little bit more about the ship, including its dimensions (it’s 120 feet tall!).