Ashton Abroad

Saturday, June 20, 2015

Soccer, submarines, and s'mores dip!

Since I last updated this blog, I've been to two cultural festivals, touched a real live carabao, obtained four loaner cars, tried to out-swim a submarine, and went to my very first FIFA World Cup game! Let's start with the most exciting news:

Guam beats Turkmenistan and India!

Guam's national soccer team, known as Matao, won both their matches against Turkmenistan (1-0) and India (2-1) in qualifying games for the FIFA 2018 World Cup! I neither care about nor know the rules of soccer, but it was exciting nonetheless. Plus, one of the players is a friend, so that makes it more fun!

Here's some photos from the match, taken from the local newspaper. Guam is blue, Turkmenistan is white. Read the article at GuamPDN if you want to know more/like soccer.

Photo by Mark Scott/GuamPDN

Matao will play another qualifying match against India next week, and the team will travel to Iran (!!!) in September for their final match in this round. (If you're wondering why Guam has a national team despite being part of the USA... I have no good answer for that. Nobody seems to. Just go with it.)

Mango Festival... and Micronesia Festival

Last weekend was the Mango Festival, held in the village of Agat. I haven't really ever been exposed to mangoes; they were always that weird expensive exotic fruit that I didn't know how to pick at the grocery store. I bought a mango when I first got to Guam, but it didn't smell good so I waited for it to ripen, but it started exuding brown fluid so I threw it away.

Now, if you're thinking, "Ashton, you've eaten a lot of weird stuff, how have you never tried a mango???" then I have no good answer for that either. Sometimes that's just how things work.

So basically, I tried my first mango at the Mango Festival! I ate a mango-cream cheese pie, which I think was essentially a poor/lazy-man's mango cheesecake. It was very good! But then I ate a pickled mango, and that was absolutely gross. I tasted spicy mango jam, which made my mouth hurt. I ate some mango fry-ice (which is basically juice poured onto a super-cold surface and mixed around until it freezes) and that was alright but I don't think it was made with real mangoes.

There was also a mango competition! I think the festival was a little dampened by Typhoon Dolphin, which apparently knocked all the mangoes off the trees and made it a bad mango year. Still, I didn't know there were so many types of mangoes!

This one really should have one, in my opinion.

The sign said don't touch the mangoes!!! I almost called the mango police on this crazy rule-breaker.

I've heard so much about "the fry ice lady" since I got here, but this was my first time seeing her. (If you're wondering what the Japanese word next to the thumbs-up sign says, it's "oishii," which means "delicious.")

It's really the opposite of frying. The metal is super cold and freezes the juice.

This lady is very popular!

Finally, at the end of the festival, I was generously given a real actual mango! It smelled good and I was really excited to eat it... but it was gross. It tasted like the butter they use on movie theater popcorn. Oh well, it's always fun to try new things!

The Micronesia Festival, unfortunately, wasn't that exciting. I did get to pet a monitor lizard and a coconut crab, but it was very crowded and there wasn't much food. (Which is, of course, always my priority.)

Submarine scariness

I went on my first non-work boat dive this past weekend! It was nice, but honestly neither site impressed me much. We saw some nice fish, so it wasn't a total bust. I guess I'm getting spoiled!

Those who follow me on instagram may remember this picture...

SUBMARINE! Is it weird that I'm in my twenties but still get stupidly excited about submarines? They're just cool! #guam #submarine #awesome

A photo posted by Ashton Abroad (@ashtonabroad) on May 29, 2015 at 1:41am PDT

Well, my wish finally came true. I saw the submarine up close and personal while diving. We were warned by the boat captain that it would be going around, and that we should try to stay away from it because it's mildly dangerous and can suck you into its propellers. A guy in Saipan (a nearby island) recently lost his leg to a submarine! We spotted it a few times during our second dive, but it wasn't a big deal--until the end of the dive.

See, sound travels differently underwater, so it's nearly impossible to tell where or how far away the sound of a sound is. We heard the submarine during the whole dive, a high-pitched whirring noise, but we rarely saw it. Then, during our safety stop, it suddenly came out of nowhere and was right there, coming straight for us! We tried to swim away, but the submarine was faster. It was scary!

It's about 40 feet long and can move a lot faster than I can underwater!

Were we in any real danger? Probably not. But it was still loud and fast and coming right for us, and I would prefer to never see that submarine again!

Other updates

My car is still waiting busted and waiting for parts to be installed. I ordered the parts from a sketchy website but they showed up in a week! (That is super fast here.) Until my car is running again, I'm relying on the charity of friends to either give me rides or loan me vehicles. Fortunately, I've got a pretty great little community around here and I've obtained FOUR cars in a span of two weeks! (I'm returning them as I go, I'm not just collecting cars.) I feel very lucky to have such a generous social circle!

I was invited to a barbecue last week, which was fantastic and full of delicious food and wonderful people. I saw something called "s'mores dip" making the rounds on the internet and knew I had to try it, so the barbecue was the perfect opportunity! It's very simple: pour a bag of chocolate chips into a pan, stuff the pan full of marshmallows, then bake it until everything is gooey and golden brown. Then you use graham crackers as the chips! Brilliant.

Before photo...

A photo posted by Ashton Abroad (@ashtonabroad) on Jun 6, 2015 at 3:54am PDT

...and after photo. IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL.

A photo posted by Ashton Abroad (@ashtonabroad) on Jun 6, 2015 at 8:22pm PDT

I also got to take this selfie with their pet carabao!

Carabao selfie!!!

A photo posted by Ashton Abroad (@ashtonabroad) on Jun 6, 2015 at 10:33pm PDT

Here's a short video of the carabao:

It's a carabao! :D

A video posted by Ashton Abroad (@ashtonabroad) on Jun 6, 2015 at 10:32pm PDT

And that's about all that's happened in the past two weeks! Watch out for more underwater photos soon! :)

Cheers,
Ashton

Saturday, June 13, 2015

Underwater Photos: Orote

I promised underwater photos and now it's time to make good on that promise! I love diving and I love taking photos, so this is basically my favorite hobby.

One of my work sites is Orote, a dive site near Spanish Steps on the Big Navy base. I was able to test out my new camera there and while I'm not super-impressed so far, I think I will be more impressed as I learn the tricks and more detailed settings of the camera. The camera I'm using is a Canon S120, which has some very cool features--most importantly, the underwater setting and the macro setting.

The underwater setting applies a red filter to everything, which is nice because I normally have to do that in processing. (Water filters out red light first, which is why underwater photos often look very blue.) Unfortunately, because I like to dive in shallow water, it sometimes makes my photos too red or makes certain colors pop out strangely. I think I prefer to apply the red myself, because then I can make sure it's just the right amount!

The macro setting is also something I'm learning to use, since I've never had a camera with that setting before. It's pretty neat but I have to hold very still for it to take a good photo. That's actually really difficult to do when you're floating around, especially if there's even a slight current. But hopefully I'll get better at it.

Another thing I have to get better at is identifying what I'm seeing! I knew most of the fish in Bonaire and most of the corals to genus level, but I know barely anything here. Fortunately I can take photos of what I see, so I can identify it later! And if it's cool or pretty, it goes here on my blog. If you happen to know more than me and think I'm wrong about an ID, make sure to tell me! :)

www.guamreeflife.com

I owe a huge thanks to Dave Burdick and his website guamreeflife.com, which helped me with a lot of these IDs. He maintains the biggest and bestest photo database for Guam's marine life, and his photos are pretty incredible. He's also a super cool guy and he works at the Marine Lab!

Time to ID some sea stuff! Remember--click any photo to see it bigger!

This guy here is a tiger cowry, Cypraea tigris. Adult tiger cowries eat coral, while the juveniles eat algae. They're native to the Indo-Pacific, although shells of this species have been unearthed at Pompeii, where they're believed to have been used ornamentally. They're still popular in the shell collection trade, and have decreased in abundance in recent years. I see these used in wall decor at the local markets. They're very beautiful!

Pretty, and quite large! Also, heads up for the ladies: don't bother painting your nails if you're going diving--the seawater just dissolves it right off. I've learned my lesson. :(

If you've been following my blog for a while, you've seen this guy before: the lionfish. In the Caribbean these fish are highly invasive, eating everything on the reef and multiplying like crazy. Fortunately they're endemic to the Indo-Pacific, and they don't cause any problems here. (Are they just as delicious here? Hopefully I'll find out.)

They're certainly more reddish here than in Bonaire.

Here's something I learned today: there are 11 recognized species of lionfish! The species in Bonaire are Pterois volitans, the red lionfish, and P. miles, the common lionfish. Both species look extremely similar, with two major differences: the red lionfish has 11 dorsal-fin rays and 7 anal-fin rays, while the common lionfish has 10 dorsal-fin rays and 6 anal-fin rays. However, both of those species have flag-like bits at the ends of their dorsal-fin rays. Therefore, I think we're looking at P. antennata!

It's a shame they're so destructive in the Caribbean because they really are beautiful fish.

This guy here is an orange-lined triggerfish, Balistapus undulatus. Pretty!

Balistapus undulatus.

This here is a wide-view photo of the reef. Orote has really great topography--lots of places for wonderful little creatures to hide!

Who wants to go to Mars when we've got places like this???

Speaking of work, I had a bit of a surprise Orote when I put down my bag...

Do you see what I didn't? (The focal length is kind of weird in this photo... the eel is actually about three feet from the bag.)
Also, notice that the bag is sitting on algae/dead coral. We try not to damage the corals!

That's right, it's a HUGE FREAKING EEL. Nearly gave me a heart attack.

Huge!!!

Now, of course I love moray eels. They are majestic, sleek, beautiful animals. But they also have very, very sharp teeth that I generally like to keep more than a meter away from my face. They aren't necessarily aggressive, but they certainly can be. A few days ago (at a different dive site) I was hammering in a sediment trap and an even bigger eel (about 8 feet long!) came up looking very indignant about all the noise I was making, bit my sediment trap, and swam away. I'm glad he didn't try to bite my hand instead!

This guy was about 5 feet long.

This is a Giant Moray, Gymnothorax javanicus. You thought I was exaggerating about the size? It's literally called a giant eel.

Okay, maybe "giant" is a little bit of an exaggeration. "Very large" is more accurate. But still, MY FACE. I like my face and I don't want any chunks taken out of it by a hungry moray eel!

Back to pretty fishies. I love butterflyfishes but there are just so many of them that I usually can't remember their names--but I remember this guy! This is a saddle butterflyfish, Chaetodon ephippium. I guess this one is pretty easy because no other butterflyfish has that big black saddle on their back. They eat algae, coral polyps, small invertebrates, and fish eggs.

Chaetodon ephippium.

This one took a little digging but I think I've got it down to genus level! This is a type of ascidian tunicate called Rhopalaea, which I definitely had never heard of until today. Tunicates, also called "sea squirts," are invertebrate filter-feeding animals. They have a sac-like water-filled body with two tubular openings that they use to draw in and push out water. Most of them are sessile (they don't move) but some swim around in the water column. There are over 2000 species of tunicates identified, one of which can grow over a meter tall!

Because they're so small and long, I had to focus on the different parts individually. Look closely!

This photo is focused on the front part of the ascidian. As you can see, there are two tubular openings, each ringed by yellow dots.

In this photo you can see the middle section. It looks kind of muscly, doesn't it?

The rear of the ascidian is in focus in this picture. That's the end of the tube!

I think these are really pretty!

Pretty Rhopalaea!

Through the power of photoshop, I was able to black out parts of the photo to focus solely on the sea squirt!

I kiiiiinda want to frame this on my wall.

Now you see the background...

Now you don't see the background!

Okay, on to more tiny things: gobies! I just love, love, love gobies. They are so small and beautiful, and there are so many kinds! I've spent hours just looking for gobies. The big stuff is cool, but once you start to pay attention to the small stuff, it's hard to go back.

This one is in the genus Eviota, also known as "dwarfgobies" or "pygmygobies." They're tiny; this one is only about 3cm long. Guamreeflife.com calls it Eviota cf. guttata, which means that it looks a lot like Eviota guttata but is probably a separate undescribed species.

This next thing... not really sure. It appears to be some sort of tube-dwelling hermit crab. I searched for "tube-dwelling crab" and I got exactly one promising result: Discorsopagurus schmitti. Only two papers talk about this crab, published in 1995 and 1996 respectively. If anybody can shed some light on this, I'd appreciate it!

Definitely looks like a crab...

Here are some cute adult, shell-dwelling hermit crabs with matching shells!

Their eye stalks make them look so dopey!

The next few photos were taken with the macro setting on my camera. Hopefully I'll learn to stay more still and get some cool photos in the future!

I think this is another type of ascidian/sea squirt. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Algae! At one point I knew what this was, and it's probably buried somewhere in my head... but after I took my final exam for algae class, my brain locked all that algae info away in a dark corner. But it's very pretty, isn't it? Like a beautiful, soft, fluffy pink galaxy.

Look closely. It looks like space!

This is another type of algae, probably a green alga... I don't recall ever seeing this in class. I'll ask my classmates, maybe they haven't put up a mental block against algae?

Very tiny... each little snowflake is probably less than 0.5cm in diameter.

Coral close-ups! You should know by now that coral is an animal--or rather, a colony of animals. And now we can see their mouths!

Okay, so I can't really see the mouths here. But it's very close-up and that's kind of cool!

Here we go! In the center of each of those "flowers" is a little mouth. The mouths are currently closed. The bits you see now are all hard, but at night the mouths open like tiny anemones and feed!

They kind of look like fingers reaching out... creepy.

And last but not least... my first nudibranch photos from Guam! I enlisted the help of some bona fide nudibranch experts and they decided that it's definitely in the genus Thuridilla, possibly Thuridilla undulata. The colors are a little weird for that species though. Oh well, sometimes that's how it goes!

Pay attention to the antennae--they're orange, then a little band of blue, then green. The back ridge detail is also outlined in blue!

Sea slugs are the best!!!

Whole slug is about 1.5 inches / 4cm long.

This photo makes me think it's T. undulata because it looks like the back ridge will grow out more?

That's all for today, but expect more photos in the near future! :)

Cheers,
Ashton

Sunday, May 31, 2015

Typhoon Dolphin, and school's out for the summer!

May has been an exciting month! Between work, school, and life, I've been pretty busy. It's also gotten very hot and muggy (shocker, I know) so my roommate and I have finally caved and turned on the aircon to a balmy 85 degrees. It makes such a difference! Here's the major points of my life lately:

Typhoon Dolphin

I experienced my first typhoon! And to be honest, it was a little bit of a let-down. I was expecting Hurricane Katrina. I was expecting death and destruction. I had my flashlights, chlorine tablets, gas siphon, bottled water, canned food, camping stove, gas canisters--all the supplies a girl needs to survive the apocalypse.

You know what I got? Some rain and a bit of wind. Now, of course I'm not upset that it wasn't bad. I'm glad that nobody died and nothing terrible happened.

We didn't have power for a day, and we didn't have water for about four days, but other than that it was all good. And I'd rather have power than water--gotta keep all my food cold!

School's out, yay!

My first semester of graduate school ended mid-May and I'm happy to report that I'm not going to get kicked out for bad grades just yet! I was really worried about failing that algae class and being asked to leave, haha! Actually, I got all A's, but grades for grad school classes are really just a formality so don't put too much stock in that. (Dear family, don't brag about that please--it really doesn't mean much.)

Now that school is over, don't expect to find me at the beach every day, because now I can work a lot more! I'm limited to 20 hours a week during the school year, but over the summer and breaks I can work up to 39 hours a week. Yay money!

Work, work, work

My job as a research assistant involves a lot of diving, which is awesome! Our dives always go the same way. First, we have to find the starting point, which is marked by a buoy attached to the reef. This is sometimes the hardest part, especially if the water is murky. After we find the buoy, I lay a transect line, which is basically a very long measuring tape, along our pre-determined path. I lay three lines that are each 30m long and 20m apart, then we swim back to the beginning, attaching zip ties as we go along. These zip ties are used to find the exact same path the next time we come back.

Back at the beginning, my boss starts the survey. This basically involves her counting corals, identifying them, measuring them, and recording all the data. If we're very lucky, we have other people along on the dive who will do the surveys. That leaves us time to find corals to tag and monitor for disease. If we have coral-expert buddies to the survey, each dive takes about two hours and we can hit two sites in a day. If it's just the two of us, this whole process takes about four hours and we can only do one site. Either way, that's a lot of time underwater, and it's great!

A picture of (part of) our transect line. Really nice topography at this site!

My boss collecting data!

Extra bonus: when we have our coral-expert buddies, that leaves me a lot of extra time... to take photos! The project required cameras to take photos of the corals, but when the camera isn't being used for that, I get to take photos of anything I like. Obviously my primary job is to stick near my boss as her dive buddy, but apart from making sure she doesn't die (not a huge concern for an experienced diver at 20 feet below the surface) I'm free to take photos! I'll post some photos soon--two hours leaves a lot of time for picture-taking, so I have some sorting out to do!

Car troubles

Big bummers all around. My car, Irma, is out of commission. Last week my roommate went to China, and I figured that was the perfect time to take my car in to get checked out because I'd be able to use her car. Now, my car was running pretty okay, but it was burning oil and huge plumes of grey smoke came out every time I started it up. It wasn't an urgent problem, but I wanted to do the adult thing and get it checked out before I got stranded somewhere. So last Thursday, I decided to do the adult thing and get Irma in for a diagnostic test.

The shop I took Irma to is right down the street, and they weren't very helpful. The mechanic basically said, "Your engine is busted. You should consider buying a new car, otherwise you'll need to replace the engine." I drove her home and about two hours later, she totally crapped out. I had her towed to another (more reputable) shop, where the mechanic actually explains what's wrong. We're waiting for a part but hopefully Irma will be back on the road within a few weeks! And hopefully I won't need a new engine, ouch.

But as (bad) luck would have it, I'm not the only one having car problems. My roommate's car died on Friday, and another lab student's car died yesterday. These cars are dropping like flies, yikes!

Mount Lam Lam

I've only done one hike in the last month but it was a nice one! Mount Lam Lam is the highest peak on Guam, and the hike up to the tippy top is lovely. Fun fact: the elevation change from the top of Mount Lam Lam to the bottom of the Marianas Trench is the world's largest in such a short distance! There's a great 360-degree view of the island from up there, I definitely recommend it.

There are also a number of religious crosses and a candle-shrine on the way up the mountain, which is a little bit creepy. I hear that on Easter someone actually nails themself to a cross and walks to the top. Yikes.

Here are a few panoramic photos I took on the hike! I strongly suggest clicking them to make them bigger, so you can fully appreciate how beautiful Guam is.