Coral Reefs of Ulithi Atoll - Yap, Micronesia

BulBul Island and the "Blue Hole"

Just back from another week spent in part snorkeling the vibrant coral reefs of Ulithi Atoll. Ulithi is located about 90 miles East of the island of Yap located in the Federated States of Micronesia. The crystal clear waters around Ulithi make it a snorkelers ( and divers ) paradise. Healthy coral reefs provide excellent habitat for a variety of creatures and unlike many other places we still encounter reef sharks here on a regular basis.



I have been coming to this area for about 8 years now with Oceanic Society groups and this is still one of my most favorite places to explore with ecotourists. The island that we stay on, Falalop, is populated by about 400 persons. In 2005 after securing permission from the island Chief Oceanic was given the go-ahead to start bringing in small groups of ecotourists. With only about 100 visitors per year Ulithi is a location few others get the chance to explore. Below are just a few pictures from our most recent trip.




Cleaner wrasse go to work on a tilefish, the Blue Blanquillo.




A more adventurous cleaner wrasse in the mouth of a moray eel.




Here an octopus gets friendly with a lurking grouper.




Healthy reefs never fail to disappoint.




Some Fourspot Butterflyfish in search of food.




A Guineafowl puffer apparently whistling away the day.




A Peacock Razorfish moments before he disappears into the sand. Click this link to see his quick escape.


Our groups days were spent snorkeling, but this was really a trip about sea turtles. These four participants are part of a growing number of ecotourists that are taking part in what is being referred to as "voluntourism" where individuals pay to participate in conservation projects. In this case we were in Ulithi specifically to work alongside the 16 local sea turtle monitors employed by the Ulithi Marine Turtle Project. So while our days were spent searching the reefs for cool critters our nights were devoted to tagging and measuring the green sea turtles that nest on the islands of Ulithi Atoll. In the next few days I will share more about that effort.

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Green Sea Turtle Tracking on Midway Atoll

Today I am headed back to Midway Atoll with an Oceanic Society group of 16 persons. Three of these volunteers will be part of our Green Sea turtle "Scoping" mission. I will be joined at Midway by Marc Rice, Director of the Science and Technology and Sea Turtle Research Programs from the Hawaii Preparatory Academy. We will be working closely with sea turtle guru George Balazs, senior sea turtle biologist from the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries science center. Marc and George have been researching sea turtles at Midway and in Hawaii for over 30 years. When I worked at Midway in 1998 to 2002 I was lucky enough on occasion, to get out in the field with George & Marc, and with FWS biologists to help tag and monitor sea turtles there. The last time either Marc or George have been able to get back to Midway was in 2001. We have proposed a Sea turtle scoping project through Oceanic Society to the Midway Atoll NWR in an effort to look at what might be possible in the way of population assessment and monitoring of the sea turtles residing at Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.

Over the years about 180 sea turtles have been tagged at Midway with much interesting information coming from this effort. When Midway was closed to tourism in 2002 the main basking beach (Turtle Beach) utilized by the sea turtles there was afforded extra protections. This was also coincident to a reduction in overall human activity due to the reduced number of people accessing Midway. Over the intervening years the amount of turtles using the beach has increased. It is not uncommon these days to visit Turtle Beach and see 20 to 30 turtles out basking in the sun. In addition the first successful nesting activity ever recorded at Midway was observed in 2006. With a few more nests being sighted in the last few years. The efforts of FWS to manage the important resting areas for turtles and reduce overall disturbance events seems to be paying off in increased numbers of sea turtles basking and nesting events. As the numbers of turtles sighted on Turtle Beach has grown it may prove interesting to explore ways to monitor the activity and see if certain individuals are regularly sighted. By ID'ing individuals it may be possible to interpret whether sea turtle numbers are actually increasing at Midway or if simply more of the turtles that have always been at Midway have started to bask on the beach due to less regular disturbance.

During this week we will try and get a good assessment of basking activity, sex of animals basking, and whether animals are out on the beach at night, possibly an indication of predator avoidance rather than basking. Marc has worked on a project at big Island with the Hawaii Preparatory Academy using video cameras to remotely monitor the behavior and successfully identify (and re-identify) individual turtles over time at the monitored sites. Using facial scale patterns and descriptive keywords it has been shown by Marc and others that sea turtles can be monitored without causing any disturbance to their resting behavior.

Oceanic Society has a long history of helping in the research and protection of sea turtle populations with their volunteer projects. One of our longest projects has been working with leatherback sea turtles in Suriname. We also have partnered with a great researcher in Ulithi Atoll, Jennifer Cruce, who is working with local communities to protect and monitor green sea turtle populations there. Through this preliminary fieldwork with FWS and George and Marc on Midway, we hope to continue that tradition. Offering a way to learn from the wonderful turtle activity we are witness to each year during our visitor programs at Midway. It will be great to be back out in the field with Marc after a 9 year hiatus. Stay tuned for updates on what we see and other interesting flora and fauna observed on Midway over the next 3 weeks.