Hashing, diving, and dolphins!

I HAVE AN AWESOME JOB

Work has kept me busy with lots of diving!  I am working on a project for the National Park Service right now, doing benthic surveys and helping with fish surveys.  A few weeks ago the weather was awful, then we had exactly one week of fantastic weather, followed by another week of bad weather.  Apparently we're having more storms than usual this year!

I had never seen the ocean as calm as it was last week, so naturally I took a ton of photos.

So smooth!

I mean, really, could you ask for better conditions?  (No, you could not.)

Picturesque day!

Sliiiightly choppier near the reef, but still can't complain!

Our wonderful dive team consisted of me, two ladies from the Hawaii section of the National Park Service (one of whom graduated from the marine lab master's program a few years ago), and another marine lab graduate who now works for the local government.  We got along famously and everyone had a great sense of humor.  It's fantastic to have such a cohesive and friendly dive team, because when you're stuck on a boat for 8 hours every day, it makes the project so much more fun!

SUPER COOL DIVE TEAM

Every day our team met up around 7am, loaded up our gear and 13-17 tanks (3-4 dives, 1 per person per dive, plus a spare) onto the truck, and none of that stuff is light!  We'd then take that gear off the truck and load it onto the boat.  We'd do three or four dives per day, during which we lay out transects, survey fish, and take photos of the bottom.  It's pretty easy and fun!

We saw lots of wonderful stuff during our first week of diving!  In one day we had spinner dolphins on the bow of our boat, a sea turtle, an octopus, and...

WE WERE IN AN UNDERWATER EARTHQUAKE!  It was so cool!  Out of nowhere, we suddenly heard an insanely loud noise.  It sounded like a giant cruise ship was going directly over us!  It was so loud that it physically shook us, and lasted for about ten seconds.  We had no idea what it was.  When we ended the dive and boarded the boat, our captain informed us that there had been a 4.9 earthquake just 20km away!  Definitely one of the best dives I've ever done.

The water was so smooth that the dolphins got bored...

...and came to play on the waves our tiny boat was making!

I counted three or four dolphins riding our bow.

Spinner dolphins are so pretty!

They are also much smaller than bottlenose dolphins, which is what most people think of when they hear "dolphin."

If only every day could start like this!

So shiny!

My favorite photo of the day!

Aren't they tiny and cute?

None of our other days were that exciting, but I still have at least another week of diving to do on this project so who knows what else we'll see?


HASHING

Hashing is something I've been hearing about ever since I got to the island.  It's an activity where 30-40 weirdos get together and run through the uncharted jungles of Guam.  I went for the first time and spent two hours running through rivers, jumping off waterfalls, climbing small mountains, fighting my way through swordgrass, and swimming through pools of muddy leptospirosis-filled water.  It was so much fun!

I didn't bring a camera (this time...) but another hasher did, so I borrowed this photos from facebook.  Thanks, Hasher Gojira!

The hash begins.

At first everyone is really crowded together, but it spreads out over the hash.

Getting into the jungle.

First beer stop!

Those coolers are full of beer... if you want water you have to lay under the orange cooler!

The first of several large hills.  (The photo doesn't do it justice!)

There aren't really paths so much as vague routes indicated by yellow (biodegradable!) tape.

Basically straight up.  Fortunately people are pretty good at helping each other on tough parts!

Muddy water, and people trying to climb a small waterfall.  I watched two people fall off and then found a different route.

I think you can see someone falling in this photo.  That's me on the left with a big blonde bun.

Hash buddies!

All that swordgrass is super sharp!  Notice that there's no real "trail."

The views are hard to beat up there!

Hashing is a great way to see parts of island that you usually wouldn't get to see!

Lots of red dirt up there.

That's me in black!  Notice how we're all wearing gloves?  That's to protect our skin from the swordgrass.

Look at all that swordgrass!  I had about a millions tiny cuts on my arms and legs because nobody told me to wear long socks.

Post-hash party.  (Most people still weren't back yet when this was taken; a bunch of people got lost.)

During the hash there are beer/water stops, and after the hash there is plenty of beer, soda, and snacks to feed a small army.  It was really fun and I can't wait to go again!


MY CAR

Finally, after 2.5 months, I got Irma (my car) back!  The check engine light is still on, and there was a slight snafu with the oil getting clogged, but it all seems okay for now.  It may have cost a fortune and taken forever, but I do like that car a lot, so hopefully it'll be worth it!


PRETTY PICTURES

I've seen Oka Point from boats, but a few weeks ago I finally drove around until I found it.  It's very pretty, if a little dangerous!  I guess it was supposed to be a hotel resort but never got finished.  Now it's a great place to watch the sunset!

Oka Point is a cliff, but there are (semi-dangerous) concrete steps that lead down closer to the water.  Not too close, because the waves are pretty crazy there, but close enough to get wet!

Remember that you can click on photos to see them bigger!

As you can see, the steps are old and have no railings and are kiiinda crumbling.

At the top of the cliff is railing, which I would NOT lean against because at least half of it is missing.  People seem to throw trash off the top a lot, which is sad.  Why do people feel like it's okay to litter on such a beautiful island?  I'll never figure it out.

You can see how part of the railing at the top is missing.  Good thing the view is worth a little danger!

A better view of the railing and the crumbly old steps.

There's some pretty serious wave action down there!

My phone has a weird "surround shot" feature, which makes for some unusual photos.  But not bad, right?

It's back to more diving this week, so hopefully I'll see some cool stuff!  Wish me luck!

Cheers,
Ashton

Cocos Island

Just off the southern tip of Guam lies a tiny island called Cocos Island.  It's about 1.5km long and 200-300m wide (that's roughly a mile by 600-1000 feet).  Cocos isn't extraordinary on its own, but it has... BIRDS!

Black noddy.

Lots of black noddies.

White tern.

Kinda pretty.  I dunno, I'm not really a birder.

There are almost no birds on Guam because all the babies get eaten by the invasive brown tree snake.  But the snakes haven't made their way to Cocos yet--mainly because people take the brown tree snake problem very seriously--so there are lots of birds.  Perhaps too many birds, actually.  The main beach smells like poop and old fish.

View of Cocos from the ferry on the way over.

A baby bird that fell out of his nest.  We moved him underneath a tree full of birds, but he's probably gonna die anyway.  Sorry, baby bird.  :(

Cocos is mostly a tourist trap catering to Japanese families, but it's run-down and expensive.  I've seen the "Cocos Island Resort" advertised in Tumon (where all the tourists stay) and it's supposed to have a pool, volleyball court, cafe, restaurant/bar, ice cream shop, and watersports equipment rentals.  The word "resort" is a bit of a misnomer, seeing as you can't actually stay there overnight.  The pool and volleyball court are present but not exactly functional.  I didn't see a cafe or ice cream shop, but I did get a free buffet meal with my ferry ticket/entry fee ($25 for locals/$40 for tourists) and that was decent.

To give you an idea of the condition of the facilities, here's the pool... notice that it's half-full, littered with algae and dead toads, and that there are no lounge chairs around it.  Hmm.

Hmm, pretty sure this isn't open for use.

A toad desperately clings to the bloated corpse of another toad.  Very Titanic, don't you think?

The island "resort" advertises jet-skiing, parasailing, etc. for exorbitant prices, but we didn't do any of that.  We went to see birds and lizards, because we're biologists and we like that sort of thing.

Pretty!

Selfie with Guam!

Cocos Island is also home to a few Guam Rails, which I've talked about before.  These birds used to be common on Guam, but the brown tree snakes ate them all.  Now they're extinct on Guam except for a few kept in a captivity.  They've been reintroduced on Rota (a nearby island) and a few have been placed on Cocos.  We looked for them but sadly didn't see any.

We did, however, find some pretty cool lizards!  I spotted a good-sized monitor climbing up a tree, and I (carefully) got my hands on a few little skinks!

IT LOOKS LIKE A TINY VELOCIRAPTOR!

These guys have pretty neat little feet!  Their feet can suck onto stuff like tiny remora-shoes.  Cute!

Cute feet!

They were pretty chill lizards, easy to catch and quickly resigning themselves to their fate.

Not even trying to escape.

Just chillin'.

Eventually this little guy decided it was time to leave, and crawled up my arm before literally flinging himself away from me.  What a cutie!

Anybody who's ever caught a lizard probably knows that little skinks are kind of delicate.  Manhandle them too much and their tails will fall off.  I was very careful not to hurt them because they are awfully cute, and also because writing detached tails are gross.

But that isn't the only lizard on Cocos!  Look at all the other cool ones!

A wee tiny anole!

Anole and skink!

Pretty cute, aren't they?

Blue-tailed skink!

Hmm, not super sure what this is.  I think it's an anole?

I think this is the same as the last one?  I don't know, I'm a MARINE biologist!

There are ongoing efforts to prevent brown tree snakes from invading Cocos, which is why snake traps are abundant on the little island.  Unfortunately this poor mangrove monitor got stuck!

This is a mangrove monitor, locally known as a "hilitai" in Chamorro.

Sorry, buddy.

He's not getting out of there any time soon.  :(

The Cocos forest is pretty and flat.  I like flat places when I'm wearing flip-flops (aka "zories" on Guam).

Jungle path.

Jungle flower.

Other jungle flower.

Southernmost tip of Cocos Island.  This was not so fun in zories (flip flops).

We stumbled across a few WWII relics.  They appear to be engines but I don't know what they're from.

Near these old rusty relics you'll find an unused pier.  It seems to be in decent condition, but I'm not exactly an expert in maritime structural integrity.  

Pretty!

This poor hermit crab is using trash as his shell.  This is why it's so important to pick up your trash and not litter!

Poor mister hermit crab.  :(

I found this in the forest... empty.  Notice that hole in the side?  Something escaped... very Jurassic Park-esque, don't you agree?

I personally nominate Guam as the home of any future real-life Jurassic Park attempts.

We tried snorkeling here, but there was a strong current and not much happening in the water here--bummer.  I ended up getting bored and wandering into the forest without a timepiece, and we accidentally missed our ferry, which was 100% my fault.  We ended up catching the last one home.  It was just us and the staff on the ferry.  Whoops!

This pier is actually quite a bit nicer than the unused one.  Guess that's why they use this one instead?

I enjoyed Cocos and all its lizards and birds, but I don't think I could recommend it for tourists!  It's just not very nice or well-kept.  Sorry, Cocos.

Work has kept me busy lately, but don't worry, my job is awesome.  I get to go diving, can't complain about that!  I can, however, complain about the number of very heavy scuba tanks we have to bring on the boats...

Come back next week to hear about hashing, dolphins, and underwater earthquakes!!!

Cheers,
Ashton