7/22/18 - Departure Day

On Saturday, 7/21/18, I came down with a serious URI and Thierry Work found that a Brazilian student he was going to work with was coming in to HNL 1 week early. Since I was sick and couldn't dive and Thierry had to head home, we both canceled the Shark Dive and went to work trying to change our flight to make our way home as soon as possible.  We were able to get a seat on the Sunday flight which leaves Nadi at 1710 and arrives in HNL at 0130 or so... a direct 6.5 hour flight which is much better than the 9.5 hour flight down to Fiji which goes through Apia, Samoa.  Pat was able to rearrange my Hawaiian airlines flights although I got it all wrong because of the date change and she had to do  the whole thing twice!!!
So, we got up early on Sunday and went downtown in Suva to have breakfast  Suva is nearly 200 Km from Nadi where all flight for HNL originate so we had to make our way to Nadi.  There is a bus that takes nearly 3 hours, a taxi that will cost about 150 FJD or a van shuttle.  The van shuttle looked really good until they arrived at our hotel and we found the thing jammed full of locals.  We forced our way in and we're basically sitting on our luggage and stuffed into a very tight seating arrangement for 3.5 hours.  Needless to point out, we will not take that particular route again!!!

We finally made it to the Nadi Airport about 3 hours before our flight.  We got checked in and the rest went pretty smoothly. 

Suva on a Sunday morning... everyone goes to church.

The cathedral right behind our hotel ... lots of beautiful singing.

Our one and only rest stop at Shigatoa.

Our van in the back ground, the little stand with snacks to the right.  Whenever we had to get out of the van, we had to unpack the luggage.

The, not to clean, restrooms cost .5 FJD

I think we all bought a bag of potato chips as a snack.

Our van, into which was stuffed as many as 14 people and luggage.  It also made a lot of stops dropping off people and picking others up.

7/21/18 - Satelllite Tag Attachment

Health assessment and satellite tag attachment workshop.  Thierry Work did an external health assessment on the turtle that was captured at Makogai Island, Nasay Bay a few days before.  It was a 72.5 cm / 35 Kg turtle... very clean and beautiful but undernourished.  This turtle was from a sea grass area where the lastest typhoon destroyed much of their food (the sea grass beds).  Anyhow, we used this turtle seen below.

At dinner with Rosie Coney, Thierry, Marc, Graham Webb and Georg after the first day.

The 72.5 cm CCL turtle used in the demonstrations of health assessment and satellite tag attachment with subsequent release into the bay.

Talking about the process of Satellite tag attachment and the various steps necessary to do it effectively and safely.

Some of the students of the marine turtle research program at USP learing about attaching the tag.

Thierry started with a health assessment of the turtle.

He talked about both the dorsal, ventral and oral areas.

Once Thierry was done we got started with the satellite tag attachment demo.

Attaching the tag with silicon polymer.

Putting on the first coats of glass cloth and resin.  Shritika Prakash and Susanna Paviono observing.

Giving Shritika a chance to practice painting on the resin.

Posing with the Fiji Fisheries Department folks.

When we were just about ready to release the turtle we stopped to take a group picture.

Andrew (student helpter from Min.) and Dr. Susanna Paviono posing with the sat tagged turtle.

One of the interested students.

A short clip of "Lucia" moving back into the water with her satellite tag in place.

7/19/18 - first day of conference

Thierry and I joined George Balazs in Suva on the afternoon of 7/18/18 (Wednesday) after our flight from Vila to Suva.  We checked in to the Town House apartments Hotel.  The place has seen better days but seemed to be  clean and reasonably well run.  The staff are very friendly and helpful.  A note: The internet connectivity in Suva is very bad.. almost to the point of "it isn't worth trying.  There are no free connections anywhere.  Nadi does have 1/2 hour of good speed internet connectivity in the airport.
Thursday morning we traveled by taxi the 4 Km to the University of the Pacific, Laucala Campus, marine sciences division.  It is located right on the ocean and is also very pretty.  We set up our first day in the large lecture hall where I was to give the first presentation (20 minutes on our HPA Sea turtle research program focusing on how it helps to create scientists, concerned citizens and conservationists. 
The day went on until around 1700 hours with several Tea breaks and a nice lunch hosted by the Fuji Fisheries science department.

The University of the South Pacific Campus is very beautiful and clean.  It seems that the students are very respectful of their environment.

Conference attendees in group photo.

Marc giving his presentation "Increasing the Impact of Research:  Involving students  produces conservationists and scientists.

Venu for the first day of the meeting.

The Bula where we will do the health assessment and satellite tag attachment demonstrations.

7/17/18- Tuesday, on our way back to Port Vila

On Tuesday, 7/17/18 Thierry and I headed back to Tanna airport to catch a flight back to Port Vila for the night.  We traveled with Werry and another passenger from New Zealand in his truck and made a few stops along the way.  The pictures below are basically of the Narua family compound and our trip back to Tanna Airport.

Resolution Bay, Tanna Island.  A beautiful bay where Capt. Cook first landed in the "New Hebrides" or, as it is known now,  the Repuclic of Vanuatu

The point at the mouth of Resolution Bay.

Must not be too much to do out here ... a stack of "Tusker" beer bottles.

The Bluff where Werry Narua's family has its land is above Resolution Bay.  It is a very quiet area with chickes and lots of vegetation ... but, fortunatley, not too many mosquitos.

The road out near Werry's place... mostly cinder and occasional a little rock.  The heavy rains seem to really cause some problems at times.

Werry tells Thierry and a guest from New Zealand about the history of the missionaries.  He is about to lead us down a path to the grave of one of the missionaries.

Moving down into the jungle to view the grave - the moquitoes were very abundant here!!!

The grave site.

The plaque indicates this is the burial site for Mary Ann and  her baby Peter Robson

Our transportation about Tanna.

A little different view of Resolution Bay.

Werry's truck.

Typical road view.

The cinder field at Yasur Volcano.

Yasur Volcano.

Ash field that we drive across to get to Resolution Bay

The slope up to the crater of Yasur.

Ash fields around the base of Yasur.

The country side and the only road to the volcano.

Looking back to Mr. Yasur.

There is a small portion of the road that is "kind of paved/surfaced."

Road construction... 

Pig crossing road... more important not to hit a pig that it is to hit a human.