Saved by the Hat

Noon Fashion

Yet again I have avoided a major Hurricane by escaping to its origin in the Caribbean. While poor Anna is getting hit by the storm at this very moment back in Baltimore (and getting two well needed extra days off school) I am sipping on a cold beverage and looking back at yet another sunny day on the clear waters outside St. Thomas in US Virgin Islands. Some would call it unfair. I call it work.

Local fruit Juice  

Shit happens... Just not to us

Now before you stop reading because you already got sick of me telling you how great it is to work down here mapping coral reefs (and it is), I might make you a little happier by confessing that out of the 7 days I have been down here at least 3 of them have been long 10 hour days with me quite seasick (yesterday I fed the local fish population to much enjoyment of my colleague Bryan and our boat captain Kevin). Also, there is not much shade to be found at noon and the sun here turns you into a lobster in no time if you are not careful. Fortunately Kevin made my week by getting me a beautiful straw hat!

A new kind of commute

Looks like the end of that rainbow is our boat...

So what are we doing down here you might ponder? NOAA and other organizations has numerous projects that works towards restoring the health of the US Caribbean marine environment (although it is a daunting task). The coral reefs here have taken a very big hit and are only a shadow of what they once where. Climate change is one of the factors, but most likely development on land (which causing erosion and pollution) and overfishing have had the biggest toll on the reefs. On the bright side there are some coral comming back in areas where the environment have improved again, so its not all doom and gloom.

New recruitment of the endangered Elkhorn coral brings hope for the future.
It looks kind of lonely though...

Me and Bryan are currently collecting ground validation data (under water video) of shallow water habitats that we will later use to interpret areal imagery (ortophoto, laser survey and satellite imagery) to create detailed habitat maps of prioritized areas around St. John and St. Thomas. The maps can then be used as baseline data by local managers and partners to initiate further studies, plan restoration efforts and to better manage sensitive areas (hallelujah!). For us it means that we are zooming around in a boat to over 400 sites with a camera that we lower to the seafloor on pre selected sites, and when it is to shallow for the boat to navigate there is no choice but to hop in the water and go for a swim. Somebody HAS to do it.

Getting the camera ready

Habitat mapping in action - Seagrass on sandy bottom

Bryan collecting habitat info on a shallow reef

Just doing his job

Captain Kevin

No Tape No Science

My new cubicle

Swedish Fish?

One of the more colorful site we encountered, captured with my goPro
Camera while testing out high resolution photos for mapping.

Today we had two people from the The Nature Conservancy on board our boat so they could learn more about our work down here. It was pretty great as we got some extra hands to help us out and we also got to see some of their coral restoration sites.

Eric and Anne Marie from the Nature Conservancy helping us out for a day

Young Staghorn Coral in a TNC restoration area,  attached to
the rock with the help of epoxy and man power

Relatively pristine habitat with the endangered staghorn coral that used
to make up much of the reefs down here

Meeting with the Park Service to inform the local managers of our results
and get valuable feedback on how to make our products more useful to them

Sneaking around St. Thomas in search for GeoFix points (used to
control the areal imagery) in our not so camouflaged automobile...

The hat saved my day. Once again.

Do I want the water to be warmer or colder? Hmm.. I might just go with what we have

Who said you could not eat science?

Tomorrow awaits yet another day at work, this time we are taking on the mangrove lagoon by kayak. It might as well be me.

Big in America

The family is expanding!

Me and Anna are settling in fine for yet another year in the States. We got ourself a car, a fine car I would like to say (although the mechanics might think differently), and even more importantly - we got a canoe! The two go hand in hand and are a secret strategy (huusshhh...) of mine to be able to kidnap Anna when she get to much work to do in school. So now we have a fine house, a fine car(!), and a very fine canoe. And we got an extra room for visitors, so friends and family are strongly encourage to come for a visit. And as you can see from the rest of the pictures there is plenty to do here in the rat city!

Bigger is better (?)

Local specialty (hopefully not in the diner)

Local Specialty nr 2, more tasty but with a strong pinch

A visit to the Chesapeake Bay turned crabby.

It was pretty easy catching them blue crabs but did not feel all
that relaxed walking around in the murky crab infested estuary

Another hungry fellow, American Museum of National History, NY 

Me and Anna exploring Hudson Valley with Alex and Karen
during a weekend getaway to downtown Manhattan

Alex, Karen and Anna enjoying the leaves turning just
 a short train ride from New York

Pub crawl turned into a great house party on Annas Birthday
(Lesson learned: we had way to much beer in the fridge for people to leave...) 

Party in the fridge

Our "garden". Finally got the hammock up just in time for winter

Baltimore is a little behind when it comes to infrastructure...
(The photo is unfortunately taken from our hammock...)

Yesterdays Virgin Voyage! 12 mile float on the Potomac river from Harpers Ferry.
She stood the test and neither me nor Trevor got particularly(...) wet, rapids and all  

I am sitting in the airport in San Juan, PR, waiting to board my flight to St.Thomas, Caribbean, to work for 10 days together with my colleague Bryan. We will do some ground validation work on the shallow costal reefs surrounding the Island. Should have some nice pics for you next time I write.