Heading to bed

I am off to bed after another hard but wonderful day out on the water. The seas were flat calm and the water was warm and clear. Chief made curried lamb last night and chicken wrapped in pastry dough. It was exquisite. Tomorrow is our last day at French Frigate and then we have two days of transit back to Honolulu. We will leave the Northwest Hawaiian Islands with mixed feelings. They have been spectacular, but have reminded us how much work we have to do. We are in the middle of the ocean, 2500 miles from anywhere, and yet most of the beaches of these remote islands look like a landfill. On Midway alone we saw countless bodies of dead albatross and frigate birds, their decaying carcasses filled with plastic. Cigarette lighters, glow sticks, bottle tops, and other bits and pieces unrecognizable.


We have marked and done our best to retrieve fishing nets, lost or tost by open ocean trawlers, now tangled in the coral. The fish stocks aren't looking much better. On our last mission to these islands in 2006 we recorded 1500 large jacks, this year we have only seen 400. In 2006 we saw 200 sharks, this year ... 41. It is frustrating to be working so hard to make a difference when so much seems against us. When it comes down to the reefs and the economy, do the reefs really stand a chance? If there is "pressure at the pump" will we really hold off drilling in these spectacular areas? It doesn't help that the day-to-day operations seem governed by so much minutia. Were we back to the ship at 4:30 or was it 4:45? Are we using the right computers to enter our data? Would someone have to get paid overtime in order to take that nightime CTD sample? I know these must all be important concerns at some level, but in the face of it all, it makes what we are trying to do so much harder. I am so tired right now. It's not the diving ... it's everything else.