Hao Atoll at Eye Level

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Research dives can be distilled down to lists of what is seen and what is not seen. Surveying the reef means figuring out what is there and what is missing. For the last few days, the science team has been …

Gambier, 800 feet above sea level

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After a 3.5 hour flight on the Golden Eye, we reached Hao to begin our third research mission in French Polynesia at Gambier. Hao is a large (56 km X 15 km), low-lying coral atoll at the southeastern end of …

Celebrating Fish Diversity

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Fish communities in the Tuamotu Archipelago have been much more diverse than in Society Islands, especially on the fore reef.  The fish are not only more abundant, but they are larger overall, meaning greater biomass, which is good for reefs …

Reefs Around Rangiroa, Aratika and Raraka

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After two weeks, we’ve completed reef assessments around Rangiroa, Aratika, and Raraka and are now examining Fakarava. Tuamotu reefs are dramatically different from Society Islands.  Besides the near absence of crown of thorns seastars (we’ve seen a handful in the …