I’m now more than half way through this swing and I can’t believe how boring it has been. I never thought I would dislike staring at the ocean for 12 hours, but I do. It would be different if we were doing transects or some scientific study, or actually moving. This mitigation work is just mind numbingly dull. All I keep thinking about is having a beer with good friends and family, taking Reef for a hike, and surfing my board. It doesn’t help that I’m stuck in a wheel house full of LOUD people speaking freaky deaky Dutch…I don’t understand why they need to yell to carry a conversation. Good god it’s annoying. And they keep pointing out the damn turtles. YES, I see the turtles; I’ve been watching them for the past 6 hours. It’s nesting season for crying out loud (which you won’t stop doing!). On a more positive note, I’ve been seeing more Wilson’s Storm Petrels and boobies. No not those boobies, it’s been weeks now since I’ve encountered them. I’m talking boobies of the Pelicaniformes variety. They are a nice change from the numerous terns flying about around the vessel, diving after fish that leave the shadowy protection of the hull. The highlight of today was a Bridled Tern standing on the flat back of a flatback turtle. At first I thought the turtle was dead, but it proved me wrong after lifting its head for a breath then down for a quick dive. I’m assuming the tern was picking off ecto-parasites, or perhaps it just needed a spot to perch; they seem to take advantage of any floating object out here (mooring lines in particular). It was a pretty strange sight.
I kept my mind busy yesterday by studying some pieces of sea floor extracted from the backhoe dredge. The rocks were riddled with mollusk fossils consisting mostly of bivalves from the late Cenozoic Era, representing the period of time between the KT boundary (when the Dinosaurs were obliterated) 65 million years ago to the present. They are very strict about taking items from the island, or in this case from the waters surrounding the island, so instead I snapped a few photos. Most of the specimens were only a few millimeters in diameter, smaller than the nail of your pinky finger. 
Fossils are awesome and boobie jokes never get old, well at least to me.
ReplyDeleteKeep your chin up and just remember this is not something you have to do forever and how much more you will think everything is when you are finished.
Mike, it's good to see your humor has not diminished. Your writing always puts a smile on my face. Hang in there...it seems all jobs have a glimmer of boredom unfortunately, but thanks to our attitudes we can keep them interesting. Continue your quest to explore and learn! Take care.
ReplyDeletei imagine most people find their work boring... i obviously found mine boring and am moving on... hopefully this next one is less boring than the first.
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