Greg McFall – NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries
After a slow start to the trip (we had to return to Honolulu for a couple of days) we're back out in the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument; our first stop is French Frigate Shoals. French Frigate Shoals was named after Jean-François de La Pèrouse who nearly lost two of his frigates while sailing across the Pacific to the port of Macau. French Frigate Shoals is the largest atoll in the Hawaiian archipelago and the nearby La Pèrouse pinnacles are named after the Captain who “found” them. I use the term “found” in quotations because this atoll was undoubtedly discovered and used several hundreds of years prior by native Polynesian cultures; it is odd how we often use the word "discovered" or "found" as synonymous with "the rest of the world knowing about it." Surely the native peoples of this area could have told many stories of the atoll and how it was used both culturally and for subsistence on their many voyages of 'discovery.'
I had the honor of sailing to this area with the native Hawaiian Navigator, Nainoa Thompson, back in 2002. I’ll never forget all the information that he would provide about how the ancestors would navigate without the use of instrumentation by virtue of being truly "connected" with their environment. At risk of great oversimplification on my part, they 'knew' the habits of particular birds and sea creatures, they knew what different colored clouds meant in terms of proximity to particular atolls or islands and everything meant something; all were clues to where you were and where you needed to be. I smile and think of Nainoa every time I see green low-hanging clouds which are reflecting the color of the shallow water inside the lagoon (which can be seen from miles away) or when I see the ‘Iwa (frigate or "robber bird") which rarely ventures far from where they roost. Don’t get me wrong, technology is wonderful in so many ways but it saddens me a bit to realize just how disconnected we are from our environment as a result of it.
|Dr. Carl Meyer |
replacing an acoustic receiver.
|Table coral and fishes at Rapture Reef in French Frigate Shoals|
Tomorrow we sail for Gardner Pinnacles which will undoubtedly have more secrets to share on this "Monumental Voyage of Discovery."