Day 19

First thing today Team Hydro ™ headed to the embayment near Prince Kuhio Park. The embayment was rather small; I would guess 40m across at the widest point, with volcanic rocks along the coast. This did result in having some convenient seating while Courtney and Ali used our only two GPS units while collecting data.

I did miss out on seeing at least on sea turtle up close by not being one of the data gathers today however, that was a bit of a bummer.

After downloading the data from the level loggers (the devices that track temp, salinity and depth) we packed up and decided to take a little R&R before heading back to the house to prepare dinner for the rest of the crew (each team rotates through the dinner making).

Unfortunately one member of Team Hydro, Ali, was injured. From what I understand she hurt her back rather severely. She is going to be ok, but it will be several weeks before she is operating at 100%.

After dinner we had a lecture on Pacific Island archeology by Dr. Terry Hunt. Dr. Hunt is, as I understand it, a frequent co-worker of Dr. Lipo. In fact Lipo and Hunt collaborated on the research that led to the publication of the recent book The Statues That Walked. Dr. Hunts talk first focused on a bit of the macro geography that influenced human disbursement throughout the pacific islands. After the geography lesson, he went into a little detail of the history surrounding the academic theories about how humans settled throughout the islands which transitioned nicely into a discussion of the reasons why current theory differs from the ones established in the early 1900’s. Archaeology is a fascinating subject, but after seeing some of what is involved in the field work for it, I do not think I will become an archaeologist. However, I will greedily devour any papers and books on the subject that cross my path.