Palmyra Review

5/18: As we motored through the narrow channel into Palmyra’s west lagoon, we were greeted by a group of 6 Mantas performing barrel rolls along the port side of the RCS. A single grey reef shark swam a few meters alongside us just as we cruised out of the channel. Later that day, a few of us rode the defender to the the Nature Conservancy’s research station, where we took our first steps on land in 3 weeks. After hiking through sand flats filled with brilliant yellow butterfly fish, banded snake eels, and more hermit crabs than any of us had ever seen, we emerged out of the forest onto a pristine swimming hole. Maitri, Mark, and I snorkeled around the clearing, as Drive and Dakota took turns taking off a rope swing into the crystal-clear water. At one point, I climbed a slanted palm tree about 12 feet above the swimming area, and watched my first blacktip reef shark of the trip cruise directly beneath me, just a few feet from the swimmers. Our time on Palmyra would be very different from that spent on the high seas.

5/19: My second day in Palmyra was my first chance to snorkel the iconic reef. The first thing I noticed about the habitat was the incredible 3-dimensionality of the corals. In addition to being vibrantly colorful, the reef, which ranged from 0 to about 15 feet in depth, was characterized by unique and intricate geometries. My snorkel buddy Dakota and I first circled the boat, taking in the sensory overload of fishes, invertebrates, and coral that we had been waiting so long to see. However, as soon as we stared down our first subadult blacktip, we had a new goal - finding as many sharks as we could. In total, we counted around 9 sharks that day. My favorite encounter was a whitetip reef shark that I intersected as we each rounded the same patch of coral. I suddenly found myself just a few feet directly above the shark, and it allowed me to follow it from above for what felt like 2-3 minutes as it cruised through coral around our site.

After returning to the boat in the afternoon, Dakota, Mark, and I climbed onto the bowsprit, where we watched two mantas cruise directly beneath us. We watched the mantas circle around the boat and under us for thirty minutes, before heading below deck for dinner. Later that night, Sydney taught me how to extract DNA from a potential anglerfish sample that we had each placed bets on.

5/20: Hiking through the sand flats and forest of Strawn Island are what I will remember most about my time in the atoll. I spent my entire third day in Palmyra traversing the uninhabited island, and finding just about every terrestrial vertebrate Palmyra had to offer. As we motored toward the island, JP pointed out a turtle 15 feet off our boat, and I knew the day would be good. Hiking alongside the water, we were greeted by juvenile blacktips on our left, and dozens boobies on our right. At one point, hundreds of mullet began jumping out of the water. It looked as if one huge mass was galloping through reef, surely being chased by a hungry blacktip.

Diego helped identify nesting brown and masked boobies, and I took some of my favorite bird photos ever on the hike. He also spotted a small gecko just off the water, and I had the chance to get a photo I’ve been imagining for a while - a small lizard on a tropical coast, with palm trees in the foreground and untouched beaches in the background. Once we had spotted many more geckos and boobies, we emerged onto a larger sand flat from which we could see the RCS in the distance. Audrey met us for lunch, bringing apples, hard-boiled eggs, peanut butter, and honey. As we all wolfed down what felt like one of the best meals of our lives, Karthik (who had brought a plastic ziplock instead of a water bottle), Mark, and I tried our hardest to open coconuts on some rocks.

Soon, Chinmay, Matt, Mia, and Jenny arrived after a successful morning Manta mission. A few of us took temperature measurements throughout the sand flat for a fun project idea we had thought about while at Hopkins. Next, the group hiked through the forest and explored a series of World War II era bunkers. Inside one of them, we found the only mature coconut crab encountered on the trip. We were all really excited for Matt, who had been excited about seeing coconut crabs for many weeks, and happily shared all the facts he knew about their life cycle.

5/21: I finally got the chance to join Chinmay and Matt on a manta mission, and we set out with high hopes to deploy a net-tow, perform CTD-casts throughout the channel, and possibly see some mantas. Although no mantas made an appearance, we all had a great time. Barb cracked jokes as the net deployment turned out to be a failure. Chinmay, Anna, Matt, and I marveled at the groups of sharks that would circle our boat every time we stopped, dipping our heads into the water to spot blacktips, red snappers, and titan triggerfish from both up close and afar. I returned to the boat excited, but wanting more than ever to see new marine animals.

5/22: Before settling on studying white shark migration to Hawaii, Mia and I had planned to study how the thermal structure of sand flats influenced blacktip shark movement. Although we didn’t get to make it a full project, we were able to spend time on our second day at Strawn setting up some cameras and taking temperature measurements across the nearest sand flat. All the other Palmyra projects had made me jealous to do science around the reef, and sampling along our transect along the flat reminded me how much I love conducting field work, and how it helps me better appreciate interesting habitats. After the transect, we spent the rest of the morning further exploring Strawn. Camille collected coconuts to bring back to the boat, and JP ventured off to photograph boobies. 

5/23: My final day in Palmyra was spent appreciating the coral reef the atoll is so well known for. I departed for Penguin Spit (our most common snorkeling destination) with Matt, Chinmay, and Karthik, and we all formed a big snorkel group as soon as we got there. On my first snorkel trip, I felt overwhelmed with all the unfamiliar animals surrounding me. However, this time I was able to focus, and take everything in. We didn’t spot as many sharks this time, but we were able to marvel at a group of massive barracuda cruising through the reef, and schools of hundreds of fishes traversing corals.

Extra: Although we have left Palmyra - the pinnacle of our voyage, our days have been anything but devoid of action. A few days ago, Mark helped reel in a 100 + lb yellowfin yuna, and we tagged three yellowfin in total. It was my favorite day of the trip. To celebrate Ashely’s birthday, we had a meal of yuna prepared in three different ways, all of which were delicious. We recently found out that eDNA samples (tirelessly collected by Tanvi, Sydney, and Shaili) from along our cruise track included ghost shark, megamouth shark, thresher shark, mako shark, blue whale and other DNA. Today was Mia’s birthday, and we celebrated with cookies and ice cream. I also reeled in our first skipjack of the voyage, which later turned into a delicious poke.

Jaden Clark