Yesterday I went out with the shark team and did only one dive, oh my god what a dive. It was only 24 minutes long but it will leave memories for a lifetime. An eight-foot male Hawaiian Monk Seal surprised us. He showed signs of curiosity and aggression; I believe it was a territorial display. He ran the shark guys out of the water and I just kept shooting. I was concerned that it might bite me so I kept backing up with the camera rolling. His nose was touching my lens with its nose and occasionally looking at my moving fins. It was intense and I had to use my judgment as to how to behave cause a wrong move can be painful. Such a beautiful creaturean what a privige to see one, they are on the verge of extinction, with only 1200 left.

As I finished my slow accent to the surface a few Galapagos sharks zoomed up from the deep toward me. They startled me a little and made me feel unease while I was floating, waiting to be picked up by the dive boat.

Click Here to Watch the Monk Seal video

Its no picnic being out here. you are completely in the mercy of Mother Nature. This vast oceanscape of the monument forces us to travel 1200 miles to reach our research location. It took us five days of transit to get here, three days of none stop rain and 10ft swell are not much fun.

Once here, you are exposed to the elements and have to watch your step to prevent any injury as much as possible. Even a small scratch can turn into an ugly infection and will end ones ability to complete their task.

When you jump in the water in this wild environment, which is not used to people, you become a part of the food chain and a potential meal. It is amazing to feel the hungry eyes of top predators checking you out from a very short distance, testing your reaction and occasionally come in for a bite. Usually, after only few moments in the water, you will see sharks and uluas approaching.

I got nailed by an undulated moray eel. It was caught by researchers using a lobster trap and was brought to the boat where a piece of its tail was clipped for DNA studies. I was filming the process and for the eels release back to the water I sat on the edge of the boat with one of my legs overboard for balance. As soon as the poor panicked eel took off it went straight for my foot and bit it real hard and deep. Blood was spraying from the top of my foot.

At the ship I was taken to sickbay where I got eight stitches. I am lying in bed now with my swollen foot up in the air. Unfortunately, that’s most likely the end of my diving for this expedition. I feel sadness and naturally upset.

Not only that walking on crutches on a rolling ship is not fun its also dangerous. Also if the wound get infected than a coast guard evacuation from the middle of the sea is complicated. thats why the ship doctor and chief scientist decided that they are going to leave me on midway atoll and continue their way to he next location tomorrow afternoon. the first flight out of Midway is on Wednesday back to Oahu. I was happy to spend four days on Midway.

Lisianski showed up 335 miles from Gardner. We started to see more corals but visibility was not good. It looked kind of murky because of the sandy nature of this atoll. When we went with the dive boat to collect a predator tracking receiver 250 yards from shore, I noticed two obvious things; there were many sea birds on the small sandy atoll as well as lots of human trash (such as floats, plastic tubs, coolers etc.).

355 miles further, Gardner Pinnacles came next and the magic clearly started to unveil. It is a rear opportunity to be able to dive Gardner since the sea is usually rough here. Just two little pinnacles, barely rising above the surface, in the middle of this endless blue.

Here I found myself in tears of joy while diving. So this is what an undisturbed system looks like, so that’s what we could achieve if we were all taking care of nature. The site of many herbivores (Millet seed butterflies and chubs) in the foreground while behind the carnivores (sharks and jacks) touched me deeply and engraved into my soul.

WATCH VIDEO FROM GARDNER PINNACLES

On a research expedition to the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. I am blessed that I was chosen to go out to the remote North Western Hawaiian Islands, on the NOAA research vessel, the Hi`ialakai.

We were scheduled for twenty-five days of intense diving in the most untouched marine environment on this planet. I am working on an outreach film for NOAA that will describe the significance of keeping this area closed to visitors and highlight the important research that is being conducted out there. We left on July 7th 2007.

Our first dive location was 245 miles from Honolulu, Nihoa, A sheer rock coming up from the deep.

The corals were not as abandon as I expected, I realized later that only in certain areas one could find an abundance of corals since the winter in the middle of the Pacific accommodate harsh weather and strong storms. I was surprised that there weren’t too many fish. Since this area is outside of the monument it is very likely that its being fished.
But non the less, I enjoyed seeing white tip sharks, many chubs in black and yellow and my first underwater sighting of the extremely endangered Hawaiian Monk Seal.