I stood in the coffee aisle at Costco a few weeks ago with tears in my eyes. It wasn’t the price of coffee that made me cry. It was an email. Ordinarily, I don’t read emails when I’m shopping, but I was on deadline for a story and waiting to hear from a source. That…
Tag: monk seal science
Malama Monk Seal Voyage #10: Kure
Her name was “New Girl” for a while. My two-hour seal watch started just after midnight. The sky was clear, half of it dedicated to a waxing moon that drowned out stars, the other half riddled with sparkly constellations that sent stars streaking across the sky. We were hopeful New Girl would be the balm…
Malama Monk Seal Voyage #9: Midway Atoll
The bikes represent much of what I love about Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, the most well known atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Island chain, thanks to a battle fought in these waters during World War II. The biggest of the islands, Sand, is so small all you need is an old beach cruiser to…
Malama Monk Seal Voyage #8: Pearl and Hermes Reef
Every time we climb down the Jacob’s ladder into a small boat, and our coxswain pulls away from the Oscar Elton Sette, I say, “This is my favorite part of the day.” I’ve been on the ship for more than two weeks, but nothing beats being this close to the water just after sunrise. So…
Malama Monk Seal Voyage #7: Lisianski
Heading to our small boat safety briefing, I overheard the Commanding Officer tell our Chief Scientist that a tropical storm was headed for Laysan in the next 48 hours. Laysan: the island we’d most recently departed. The same island on which we’d re-deployed one of our field campers, Carrie, and dropped off two bird biologists…
Malama Monk Seal Voyage #6: Meet Ama`ama.
The commanding officer, chief bosun and I were aft on Oscar Elton Sette in the early evening when Dr. Michelle, our onboard veterinarian, threw both arms in the air and started an exuberant dance. If it had been an NFL Sunday, I would have thought her team had scored a touchdown. Next to Hawaiian monk…
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