Last of the evaluation

Saipan, CNMI – 2/18/2006

Today is my last day on Saipan. This afternoon I fly to Hawai’i, arriving there earlier in the day than when I leave. Crossing the date line is pretty strange.

Yesterday was a cosmic day for birding once the evaluation wrapped up. The forest birds of Saipan have not been wiped out by brown tree snakes that invaded Guam. I got nearly all the island’s endemic bird species, including Bridled White-eye (Zosterops conspicillatus), Nightengale Reed-warbler (Acrocephalus luscinia), Golden White-eye (Cleptornis marchei), White-throated Ground-dove (Galliocolumba xanthonura), Mariana Fruit Dove (Ptilinopus rosicapilla), Rufous Fantail (Rhipidura rufifrons saipanensis), the Saipan sub-species of the Common Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus guami), and the Mariana Swiftlet (Aerodramus bartschi). The only thing I missed was the Micronesian Megapode. Shelly, the ornithologist from the CNMI Department of Fish and Wildlife was my guide. She was very generous with her time and after she got a brief glimpse of a megapode we spent quite a bit of time scrambling around the steep hillside around the site of the “Last Command Post” (Japanese) where she saw it. Unfortunately I never did get look at it and it refused to call.

Thursday we made a trip to Rota, one of the other inhabited islands of CNMI. We met with the Mayor of Rota, one of the CNMI staff people stationed on the island, and made a site visit to see a harbor construction project. The meetings went well but because of a delay in leaving Saipan due to aircraft issues, our visit was shorter than planned. I didn’t get to see the Rota Bridled white-eye or the Mariana Crow, but I did see some good seabirds including Brown Booby (Sula leucogaster), Red-footed Booby (Sula sula), and White-tailed Tropicbird (Phaethon lepturus). In addition I saw Micronesian Starling (Aplonis opaca) and the introduced and aggressive Black Drongo (Dicrurus macrocerus).

Dr. Joyner surprised everyone by suggesting to the Mayor of Rota that John Mcleod and his wife Jennifer should renew their wedding vows. The Mcleods were either good sports or still in shock when the Mayor pulled out the wedding vows and conducted the ceremony then and there!

We also visited an ancient quarry where the Chomorro people created latte stones, thought to be used in supporting large buildings. The latte stones were no longer in use by the time the Spanish made first contact with the Chomorros though so no one knows for sure what the latte stones were for. Stones of various sizes are found all over the islands though so they must have had an important use. The image of the latte stone is a popular symbol as well and one can see it throughout modern building structures and in modern culture.

At the end of the day, after returning to Saipan, the Mcleods, Dorrina and I made a quick trip up to the top of Mount Tapochau to stand on the top of thhe largest mountain in the world. Although only a portion of the mountain rises above the sea, the base of the mountain is at the bottom of the Marianas Trench, some 36,000 feet below sea level. It took ten days of what must have been brutal fighting before the marines of the 8^th Marine Regiment took the top of the mountain on June 25, 1944.
These days it seems that few Americans have even heard of Saipan but from most military history accounts it was the site of one of the most decisive battles of WWII.

Tropical learning

Garapan, Saipan, CNMI -- 2/15/06

I'm struggling with a very slow dial-up connection so I'll be brief now and maybe make this post pmore complete in the future. The picture is from Obyan Beach, one of the top three dive sites on Saipan. The structure is an old japanese bunker from WWII. There is some amazing WWII history here and I hope to have more time to explore things a bit before I leave. We had a very short field trip to Obyan and LauLau beaches in the morning. The CRMO has some really great plans for fixing problems with the steep gravel roads that erode and send sediment onto the reefs at the beaches. This erosion is quite damaging to the reef and with the structural improvements proposed, they should really provide a significant improvement.

We got a chance to see Black Noddys, a Phillippene Turtle Dove, and a Yellow Bittern.

Later in the morning we met with the CNMI legistaure and let them knnow how good the CRMO program here is. Later in the day we met with members of the Saipan Zoning Board who are trying to restart zoning on the island. We wrapped up with a public meeting where there were 4 people in attendance.

In the Mariana Islands

Garapan, Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands 2/13/2006

Yesterday (and today I guess) was one of my long travel days. I didn't change
my watch crossing all the time zones until I got into the hotel Hyatt Regency,
Saipan) at about 2 a.m. That was about 26 hours after I woke up on the 11th.
I lost a day crossing the international date line so I left Hawaii on Saturday
around noon and arrived in Saipan on Monday in the wee hours. There was a brief
(1.5 hr) layover in Osaka at around 7 p.m. local time but it was dark there
and I really couldn't see anything of Japan.

I met the rest of the evaluation team thismorning at &:30 a.m. and we had

our first meeting with the Coastal Resource Management Office staff at 8:00
a.m. Dr. John Joyner is the Director of the CRMO and was very recently appointed.
Steve Tilley is the Deputy Director. I know I've seen Steve before at Program
Managers Meetings in D.C.

We had a full day of meetings, getting to tour the office and meet staff as

well as talk with a variety of partner agencies. There is a large number of
departments that make up a board that works on permitting, monitoring and enforcement.
This permitting focus took up most of the day.

Here and there I got a few glimpses of interesting birds. I'm not getting any

real opportunities to do serois birding, but instead spotting things over lunch
or when we are driving. So far the highlights are Fairy Terns, Micronesian honeyeaters,
and Collared Kingfishers. The Honeyeaters are hanging out in the trees below
my hotel room balcony. It is 2 in the morning at home as I write this. My biological
clock is so screwed up after yesterday that I don't know what time it feels
like to me. I'm going to go off to meet with some of the rest of the team for
dinner here in a bit. I guess I'll just try to act as though I'm on this time
zone and maybe my body will believe it.

Hanauma Bay

Honolulu HI 2/11/2006

Hanauma Bay was so cool I thought I'd do a post just on it. Dorina and I came back at 6:00 a.m. to get in some snorkling before our flights out to Saipan. It was still dark when we got there and we wandered around a bit until a staff person directed us to the path to get down to the beach. Once there we had to wait a little while before it was light enough to see anything. The water was a bit chilly but I snorkled for about an hour and a half. It was just like swimming in a giant salt water aquarium. I saw so many different types of fish that I couldn't even remember what they yall looked like when I finally purchased a guide to Hawaiian Fishes. One I did remember was a rockmover (Novaculichthys taenirus). The place was so cool. And because it was early I guess, it was not at all busy.

From the Honolulu Airport

Honolulu HI -- 2/11/2006
I've got a couple of hours before my flight leaves for Osaka (arriving at 6:66 p.m.) and then Saipan (arriving at 1:15 a.m on 2/13) so here is an update.

Yesterday (Friday) we met with Mike Molina from the USFWS at his office in downtown Honolulu and heard about some of the more significant issues FWS is dealing with. One of them is a project to salvage spanish gold from a sunken galleon, the Santa Margarhita. The current modifications to the permit that are being reviewed sound like they have significant potential to really damage the reef and a turtle nesting beach.

We then met with Al Eerson from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). They have a person stationed on Saipan that is working with the CNMI Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Coastal program and others so it will be good to get to meet her.

After these meetings we ate lunch at the Waikiki Yacht Club. Our team leader is a yacht club member back home and he got us in through their reciprocity program. I had a cheesburger and fries and it didn't even cost me $25 like it would have just about everywhere else.

From there Dorina and I went out on an expidition to examine some local coastal resource conditions. We took a drive through Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve but it was getting late in the day and it was a bit busy so we decided we'd wait and come back early in the morning.

We drove around the SW side of the island and visited a number of scenic overlooks. One of the coolest was Pali Lookout. The picture above is from the lookout where King Kameamea pushed the Oahu warriors over the cliff to will victory over the last resistance to uniting the islands.

Beginning the Evaluation

Honolulu HI, -- 2/10/2006

I met the rest of the evaluation team yesterday morning at John Mcleod's hotel . John is NOAA's Team Leader for the evaluation. Dorina Frizzera is from the New Jersey coastal program. The three of us spent some time going over the issues and history of the coastal program at the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands where we will be working next week. We met John Parks, the Program Specialist from NOAA's Coastal Programs Division at the NOAA Pacific Services Center in Downtown Honlulu. After meeting with John Parks we took a lunch break and then explored a bit of downtown. We were able to take a quick look at some famous landmarks, including the Iolani Palace, pictured above, where Hawaii's royalty lived when it was a kingdom. On the grounds they have a huge kapok tree and some impressive banyon trees. Then it was back to the Pacific Services Center for meetings with the Bill Thomas, the Director, Kristina Kekuewa the Deputy Director, Ed Carlson the regional geodetic advisor, and Meghan Gombos, coral reef sepecialist.

Following out meetings at the Pacific Services Center we took a ride over to the University of Hawaii at Manoa to meet with Peter Rappa from the Hawaii Sea Grant program. Peter is an extension agent for coastal resource management with experience in CNMI. By the time we finished with that meeting it was time to wrap things up for the day.

I ended up at a very busy japanese seafood buffet named Todai for dinner. It was huge and filled with peolple moving quickly back and forth from the various buffet lines. The food was pretty good, not as good as last night, but it was a lot less expensive. I still have not seen any SPAM sushi yet. By the time I finished eating there was a line of people waiting to get in the door. I was worn out and ready to crash so I made it back to the hotel and called it a night. The hotel had already brought my luggage up to my new room so I just had to unpack and relax. By 10 p.m. I was asleep. Unfortunately even with trying to stay up as late as I could, (not very late by the local clock) I woke up at 3:30 a.m. this morning. That is 7:30 a.m. according to my biological clock which has obviously not gotten adjusted to the new time zone. It probably will adjust as I'm ready to fly out to an even more out of sync zone later in the week.

I think I'm going to get ready for the sun to come up and head down to walk around on Ala Moana Beach Park and Ainamoana State Recreation Area, both are spots I can see from my hotel room. It looks like today's agenda should have less sitting and meeting in conference rooms, but I don't know if we are going to have much time to explore today so I better get it in now. Aloha!

In the Pacific -- Day 1

Honolulu, HI -- 02/08/2006

My Pacific adventure began today. I left Duluth on an 8:25 a.m. flight. After
a 2.5 hr layover in the St. Paul/Minneapolis airport I got on a direct flight
to Honolulu and arrived in Hawaii about 4:00 p.m. local time (about 8 p.m. biological clock time.) It took a while to get my suitcase and find the shuttle and even longer to get through the traffic of the big city but fortunately my hotel,
the Hawaii Prince, was the first stop and I was able to get checked in.

The check-in was a bit of a problem. It seems that some mis-communication between

my travel agent and the hotel resulted in my reservation being for a check-in
on Saturday, not today (Thursday.) They were able to straighten things out at
the front desk but I'm going to have to change rooms tomorrow which will be
a bit of a pain. At least I have a place to stay tonight!

It is a room with an amazing view. The picture is from my room on the 22nd
floor. After dumping my bags in the room and admiring the view, I slipped on
sandles and strolled down onto Waikiki beach to watch the sunset, walk in the
ocean and get a glimpse of Diamond Head. The second picture is of Diamond Head
from Waikiki Beach.

I found a sushi place for dinner and now I'm trying to stay awake so I can get adjusted to the time change. I think I'm going to give up soon and crash and get some sleep so I can be ready for a full day of meetings tomorrow.