Tour of Tern Island

This is a map of our Atoll, French Frigate Shoals

Tern Island aerial view

Tern Island map

The way Tern Island looked in the 30's

This picture is from the 70's. Notice the lovely Iron wood trees, sidewalk, manicured lawn, and  tennis court.

This is the way it looks now. The side walk is cracked in many places and mostly covered in vegetation. The Iron wood trees are now stumps and the tennis court now serves as a catchment pad for rainwater. 

This picture is also from the 70s. Notice that the barracks do not yet have solar  panels, and there is no large bush  in front of the building.

This is a picture of what it looks like now. The Iron wood trees are missing but we now have a large bush and a palm tree in front of the barracks. 

 Tern Island also used to have a playboy club. The clubhouse was on the south beach area just below (east of) the tennis court. (Thanks to Jerry Murdock for the pictures and information!)

This is a picture of our courtyard (Picture by Lindsey Kramer)

View from the kitchen (Picture by Lindsey Kramer)

This is the common room before I painted the back wall. (Picture by Lindsey Kramer)

This is the common room after some painting on the back wall.  We have a pool table, foose ball table, ping pong table, TV, large stash of movies, books, and games for entertainment. (Picture by Lindsey Kramer)

The pantry. It is getting pretty empty these past couple weeks, but soon the Searcher will be here to bring fresh supplies. (Picture by Lindsey Kramer)

The workout room, complete with TV for P90X. (Picture by Lindsey Kramer)

The common room and eating area (Picture by Lindsey Kramer)

Our fleet of boats, pictured here is the Eva and the Spam

We hoist our boats in and out of the water here instead of using a ramp. (Picture by Lindsey Kramer)

 Here is a basic tour of Tern Island. I probably should have made this post several months ago, but I was too excited about getting pictures of  the birds and fish. So here is where we have spent the last 7 months. 

Manta rays, immersion suits, and East island seabird monitoring

Kristina swimming with a manta ray, there were about 10 large rays in the area.

The water was really deep and murky, but it was still fun

Masked booby chick banding

Lindsey with a masked booby chick

The Christmas Shearwater chicks have hatched!

Christmas Shearwater and chick

Red-footed booby chick trying to scare off some sooty terns

Red-footed booby and parent

Great Frigate bird and chick

This Great Frigate bird chick was trying to look intimidating 

We picked up this albatross to band and found that his leg had coral wrapped around it. It looked as if the coral had been there for quite some time and his leg had grown a little awkwardly. He seemed much happier after we removed his coral anklet. 

Albatross banding on East Island.

Jimmy is trying to coax an albatross chick to come back to shore.  The chicks can't fly quite yet and it is dangerous for the chicks to float around in the shallows where they can easily be picked off by Tiger sharks. 

Double banding on East Island

Masked booby banding on East Island

Kristina and Lindsey testing out their life jackets 

Immersion suit training - raft formation

Goofing around in our immersion suits while a turtle checks us out

Jimmy and I in our immersion suits - this is now what we wear for sun protection :) 

Fun on the boat

This has been an exciting week. We started setting up East island for seabird monitoring plots. In the past only Tern Island in the French Frigate Shoals has had seabird plots and now East Island will too.  We started the project by banding Albatross and Masked Booby chicks.  There is still a lot left to do, but we will have to hand everything over to the next group of volunteers that will be getting here in the next week. After a hot day banding on East Island we had immersion suit training. We keep immersion suits in our tsunami and hurricane emergency kits, so it is necessary to know how to use them properly. It was also nice to get in the water to cool off.  After safety training we headed down to Manta Ray Bay where 10 to 15 large Mantas were feeding on plankton. Despite the water being deep and murky it was an incredible experience. The Manta Rays were doing beautiful and graceful acrobatic flips and turns in the water. It is a memory we will never forget.

Friendly Fish and Turtles at Whale Skate

Lindsey's Birthday snorkeling trip

The guys with the birthday girl

Jimmy and I at Whale Skate

Curious sea turtle

Jack alley near Whale Skate

A trail of chubs followed us everywhere we went

Green sea turtle swimming though fish

The fish were very interested in Jimmy

This past week we have been working on lots of data entry and wrapping up our plots and projects. It was Lindsey's birthday on Sunday so we went on a snorkeling trip to Whale Skate. It was one of the most beautiful snorkeling spots we have ever been to. There were hundreds of friendly and curious fish in all directions. Wherever you went a long line of chubs would follow and play in your bubbles. There were many sea turtles swimming or laying on top of shallow parts of the reef. It was a beautiful day.