East Island, Big and Little Gin.

Though it has been a busy week so far, it has also been one of the most exciting. We took a boat trip to some of the outer islands to do some seabird censuses. It was a great day on the water, clear skies, cool temp, and seas cooperated with only a slight swell. We first went to East Island. East Island is where the old Coast Guard field station was set up. The Coast Guard lived on the small 12 acre island in a tent city. Now East Island has been reclaimed by the turtles, seals, seabirds and unfortunately flotsam. So much plastic and other debris was piled all over the island. In the summer, during the turtle mating season, East Island has a one resident that lives in a tent, works by night, and monitors the sea turtles nesting on the shores. A large pole also houses a camera that can be maneuvered by computer on Tern Island to aid in the sea turtle monitoring. Our goal for the day was to count the nests and chicks of the seabirds nesting among the marine debris (all told we found 11 glass floats on the island). After a picnic lunch we shoved off and traveled a few nautical miles south to Gin Island and its neighbor, Little Gin. These are small islands that have no vegetation, but plenty of life. The sea turtles and Monk Seals were so thick on both the shores we couldn't risk anchoring. Two people from each of the boats (2 total) had to jump and swim ashore to complete the census of the nesting birds. 3 more glass floats were found for a total of 14 on the day.

I am currently working on uploading more photos onto my webshots website, but it can take a while to get them all up with this satellite Internet connection.

Hope all are well. Aloha ~Tim.