Happy Holidays

So it’s Christmas here and we had a big potluck breakfast on the beach and did a secret santa. It was amazing. There is nothing like waking up hung over to mimosas and pancakes with lemon and sugar while watching sharks and turtles swim by as the tide moves out.

I know it has been ages since my last post and I have little excuse for not keeping up to date. It has been absolutely amazing out here on Lizard Island and I guess I have felt that it would be extremely boring to read a dozen posts about someone else’s fabulous travels. Thus, I have saved the ups and downs, highs and lows, good times and bad times all for this Christmas/New Years posting.

The Good:
I have now seen eight different shark species and almost as many ray species. I have seen dozens of nudibranchs, the largest lion fish I’ve ever seen, the largest octopus I’ve ever seen, schools of thousands of barracudas, schools of hundreds of jacks and schools of dozens of squids. The other day I saw bat fish that lay on their side and a shark get its teeth cleaned by cleaner shrimp a few feet from me. I have witnessed the disgusting (and smelly) act of coral spawning like there’s no tomorrow as well as fish spawning like there’s no tomorrow. And, I saw a pod of 6 – 10 blue whales from a mountain (which much like the whale shark, I alone spotted and no one believed until another group came upon them two days later, and another group and another group).

The Bad:
Don’t purchase Canon cameras! My camera broke almost immediately upon arriving here. I sent it to Canon and paid $85 to fix a $0.49 fuse and they sent it back not working, I sent it away again and got it back yesterday not working for the second time. Thus, I have been without camera this trip, which has been a major bummer. However, I have been collecting photos from other people and borrowing cameras and these photos can be found at flickr.com/photos/jhines/ (also the photos on the right should link to my other photos on flickr).

The research I was assisting on ended recently and I am now just volunteering for the station, which is alright. It means less diving and more free time. It also means a lot of grunt labor like digging deep holes for compost, during which my iPod broke from intense sweating.

The Ugly:
I reckon I have had five of the top 10 best parties of my life here over the past month and a half (Again, pics to be found on my flickr site). The party themes have been a crazy hat party, a disco line dance party (head lamps tied to a ceiling fan make for an awesome strobe light), a table dance party / naked rugby, and a night at the resort staff bar / naked mud slinging in the ocean. Obviously much of these pics I can’s post, but there are some good ones up.

So I was planning on celebrating my 30th in San Francisco, but due to my grandfather being sick, I am coming home a bit early. I will be in Albuquerque from Jan 12 –19. I still will celebrate my birthday over the three-day weekend of the 17th. Hopefully this means you NM folk can join in the festivities (TBD) and anyone who can make it from out of town will have a place to crash.

Hope all is well. Happy Holidays. Miss you. Jarrett

Beached On a Deserted Island

I arrived on Lizard Island (Click Here) five days ago after spending two tedious days in Cairns tending to logistical stuff such as attaining a Queensland Speed Boat License. To get this license I had to sit through a six-hour course with several Aussie red necks that continually diverged into lengthy conversations about engine size, flag color and safety violations. I have never been so bored in my life. My braking point was during lunch when I was asked what I had watched on the plane ride over from the states and eagerly replied, “The Chasers: War on Everything,” expecting them to show excitement over the fact I chose to watch Australian programming. Instead they angrily replied that Chaz and crew should be put in jail for their APEC stunt, (Click Here). The Casers are brilliant and if you are not acquainted, I highly recommend checking some of their stuff out on YouTube.

Now in order to get from Cairns to Lizard Island, one must fly in on a small chartered plane. As I flew in on Wednesday, the plane circled past the research station making its way around the island towards the small airstrip in the middle. A couple of hundred feet from the shore and no higher in altitude, I looked down into the water and saw five huge sea turtles and a medium sized whale shark (approximately 10-15 meters). WOW, A WHALE SHARK!!! There was no mistaking it. It was feeding at the surface and I could see its spots and everything. It was absolutely incredible. They are not common here so immediately upon landing everyone grabbed snorkel gear and we went out in four vessels to unsuccessfully searching for it. That night over dinner and copious amounts of Toohey’s and Victoria Bitter (NOT FOSTERS) beers, I was ridiculed.

Whatever, I saw my jaguar shark.

After that fiasco, my first two days on the island consisted solely of introduction and orientation. I didn’t go in the ocean at all; partly due to the hectic nature of arriving on a small island and meeting the half dozen researchers I will be spending the next three months with and partly due to the healing my body still needed from all the bumps, scrapes and bruises I received in Maui.

My third day on island, I went in the water. I first had a snorkel and later a couple of dives. However, these did not compare to my fourth day. Yesterday (Day 4), the directors of the research station took us to the outer reef. This is a remote area. We are on a remote island and it takes a good hour on a fast boat to reach these reefs. They are the reefs at the edge of the actual continent of Australia. It was incredible!!!

The first dive was at a spot called “Cod Hole.” It is called this because there are giant, +200 lbs Potato Cod that frequent the area. However, the cod were only a slight distraction to the numerous sharks and other large fish in the area. It is perhaps the most amazing place I have ever seen. The visibility was superb and the density and diversity of the fish populations was unreal. I felt like I was occupying a dream as I let my body be dragged by the current over coral mesas, valleys, ravines, cliffs and towers. The Technicolor display of life in the sea was mind boggling. I was able to film much of it and can’t wait to show you the videos, especially one of me following a shark up a coral ravine.

The second dive rivaled the first in terms of fish density, diversity and color. It was a site called “Wall of Fish.” Given, it is not a very creative name, but you get the picture. We swam along a huge coral wall checking out the millions of fish, coral and fans reaching into the deep blue that was to our backs. This was truly the end of the continent of Australia. Below sloped down into +2,000 feet of the unknown. Though the site was littered with thousands of organisms, I saw no sharks around until the end.

After most people were back on board the boat, I decided to take a leisurely swim along the reefs edge. I dumped my wetsuit, fins and gloves in the boat and headed off in swimsuit, mask and snorkel. A couple of hundred meters away from the boat, I looked back and realized I could only see our vessel at the peak of a wave passing by, so figured it was a good time to head back. I turned and began swimming. After a short 10 or 15 meters I passed over a crevice that I had already swam past. It was about five feet wide, ten feet deep and led right into the deep blue expanse.

I hadn’t noticed the first time I swam by, but this time in this crevice lay the largest shark I have seen while diving. My heart burst through my chest. Here I was so far from the boat that I had to be several feet in the air to see it. Sharks can sense fear, right? I started swimming back towards the boat. The current was not strong, but it was against me. Stay calm, I thought. Don’t kick too hard. Did I wake it? Is it behind me? Could it be circling me? Don’t look back, just swim.

As I got within ten meters of the boat I saw Anne, the research station director, snorkeling alone and taking photos. “Anne, Anne,” I shouted. “I just swam over the largest shark I have ever seen. It’s in a ravine a couple hundred meters down.” I said this not sure if she would want to investigate or get herself back on board. She chose the former.

As we swam down along the reefs edge, beautiful electric colors to our left and rich, deep blue to our right, I started to doubt myself. Perhaps I mistook a rock for a shark. What if I can’t find the correct ravine? Why did I make the director go for this long swim? And then, boom, below, there it was. As long and bulky as I remembered. I felt like the Road Runner digging my heels into a screeching stop. I began to paddle back towards Anne and I indicated with my finger, down in there.

I watched Anne’s reaction intently as she reluctantly peered slightly over the edge into the ten-foot pit that washed into the deep blue. She swam around to the other side, peered in again and then swam to me. “It’s not a scary one. Scary one’s usually don’t rest on the bottom,” she said as she treaded above water. I watched as she made a couple of swoops partially down into the crevice and took photos. “It is a huge one though,” she said bobbing her head back out of water, “I think we’re the last out, reckon we should head back to the boat?”

Anne began to swim off. I turned to follow, but then got the impulse to dive down into the crevice and get a closer view. A few feet from the beast it didn’t seem quite as big as on the surface, but it was a good eight or nine feet long. What made it so intimidating was its bulk. It must have been three or four feet across its widest point and its pectoral fins extended out a couple more feet. The shark was massive and elegant. I surfaced, took a breath from my snorkel and swam quickly after Anne, back towards the boat, heart still racing.

Bon Voyage!!!

Well I made it back to the mainland in time for Halloween. Had a blast celebrating it with friends in the Castro District of San Francisco. It was off the hook and I’m sworn to secrecy on the details. I was in town for 48 hrs, which was just enough time to feel dry for my first time in a month as well as let all my cuts and scrapes heel. My clothes still smell salty, but that is the price you pay for staying in the tropics I guess. So I leave for Australia Tonight where I will spend a few days in Cairns before heading off to Lizard Island Research Station. As requested, I have hyperlinked the links in my first post. Thank you Leti for the HTML. Hope all is well and I should have some pics from down under posted in a few days.

My First Travel Post

As most of you know, I am in Maui on my way to Australia. I have been doing some diving here, but not as much as I initially had planned as my body is continually plagued with injuries. The latest came on a dive last week I did with my cousin, Luis, where I cut my ankles pretty deep with my own fins.  Nice!  This would not normally be a big deal, but wounds never seem to heal when you are going in the ocean daily and I am terrified of Staph.

Despite this, the dive was incredible.  We saw schooling spotted eagle rays, a moray eel and a cleaning station with at least 15 turtles in a twenty foot radius.  We were at a site called Mala Ramp, which is an old concrete pier that was hit by a hurricane and sunk. It is now a bunch of broken, twisted metal and concrete that is reminiscent of WWII battle torn Europe images, but covered with coral and fish.  Pretty Awesome.

I took Luis there to see sharks.  This was the only time I have never seen a shark at that spot.  Though we did not see sharks, the rays more than made up for it.  However, I did dive the site a few days before Luis and I went and did see sharks.  In addition, I was able to spot numerous nudibranchs.  Images from these and other recent dives can be seen on the side bar, but there are much more on my flickr site, which can be found by clicking the photos.

Other than that, everyone in the zajac family is doing well.  Frank is working hard, Marian is heading to the main land to see her family and Luis is dillegently working away at his SAT studies.  

I am getting pumped for my work in Australia.  Below is an actual quote from the Univeristy's coordinator that I received the other day regarding ordering food while there, which is a big deal because a barge only visits the island once every two weeks.  Planning seems essential, but thus far this is the only information I have received, if that says anything about how cool Australians are.

"This is probably THE most strenuous part of a Lizard trip, working out your booze budget cos you absolutely, under pain of death DON’T want to run out before the barge gets there otherwise you’ll be drinking straight ethanol out of a plastic bucket wishing to hell you’d ordered just one more case of beer…..then afterwards running around naked with your underwear on your head cos you just drank a PLASTIC BUCKET of ethanol."

Blog Dedication

Angiosperms, or flowering plants, are some of the most beautiful, diverse and widespread groups of all plants. Amborella trichopoda is the first flowering plant and can still be found in New Caledonia. This is my first attempt at blogging and Im not sure that I totally understand the point and purpose, but I needed a way to share my thoughts and photos from my journeys and this seemed like it would work.  Though the primary function of this blog is as a travel journal, from what little I do know about the blogging process, it seems appropriate that I open with an opinion piece. So here goes my first attempt at blogging:

It is a beautiful day here in Maui. The sun is shining and there is a cool breeze. A few hours from now the Phillies will have undoubtedly defeated the Rays in the first game of the World Series and Obama will be next door to me on Oahu visiting his grandmother. Despite all these pleasantries, it seems to me that things in our world are continually slipping into the gutter, literally. 

My brother sent me a Washington Post article the other day titled, "Risk of Disease Rises With Water Temperatures" (Click Here). This is a well-written short article by Kari Lydersen about frightening links between epidemics and disease outbreaks; specifically, disease outbreaks due to the affects of global warming on our outdated infrastructure that are predicted and have already begun. Needless to say, this is scary stuff.

Now we all know health care, education and the economy are in the dumps, but it seems like every aspect of our world has been inflitrated by thoughtless evil.  For example, I read a few years ago one of the biggest threats facing our National Parks is from an ATV moratorium lifted by the Bush/Cheney Administration.

We've borrowed and imported billions from China (financiers of human rights abusers such as the the Janjaweed Militia) to pay for an illegal war that has funneled billions into the oil sector, inefficient contractors like KBR, and fundamentalist mercenary armies like Blackwater.  

I believe government should legislate on those issues related to common goods; i.e., education, defense and healthcare. Instead Bush/Cheney have privatized those sectors and instead legislated on marriage and who can provide my internet at what cost. It is absolute madness.

The Bush/Cheney Administration has accomplished the most sweeping victories for privatization and against personal privacy ever.  They hide our dead soldiers by denying media access, they treat our injured soldiers as embarrassments by bringing them home in the middle of the night, they callously outed the identity of a CIA operative, and they cover up whistleblower testimony related to their illegal activities (see WSJ article from 2006, http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13506).

It is sad that as American's we buy into all of this.  The media is liberal, social healthcare is inefficient and bad (what US hospital have you been to lately that cannot be described that way? what British hospital have you been to that can?), environmentalist are to blame for the high gas prices (which happen to be dictated by the collusion of the largest cartel known to man whose distributors, big oil, make record profits of ant company EVER quarter after quarter), and immigrants and homosexuals are the source of all our financial woes and natural disasters. 

Next the collapse of our economy will be the fault of Obama when he needs to borrow another $700 Billion to bailout the greedy speculators that are our banking gurus. 

To me these issues are huge, but the biggest problem we face is the growth in evangelical fundamentalism. When Palin said at the RNC, “As for oil and gas, take it from a girl that knows the North Slope. We’ve got lots of both,” she was talking about a lot more than lining her pockets with for-profit legislation.  She was talking about an evangelical movement ("I think God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that") in this country against the very thing that sets us apart as a species, REASON.  

Palin was saying, don't analyze the cost of getting that oil financially and environmentally, don't debate about the hundreds of thousands of acres of land that is known to have oil reserves in the lower 48 and is being leased to the oil companies who are not drilling on it, don't come up with a plan before drilling to use that oil as a means to carry us over to a renewable solution, don't think about these things because education is elitist and you have the freedom to drive your 5,000 pound vehicle two blocks to buy gum, which is all that really matters.  

These are the philosophies of the evangelical movement that is sweeping our nation and seeks to brand thought, reason and attempts to acquire these as elitist. Forget the fact that John McCain doesn't know how many houses he has.  That's not elitist.  We can all relate to that problem.  

This is really critical to consider when you think about what has made this nation great.  We have grown to our level of affluence and success through innovation.  This innovation was made possible through the access and quality of our education system.  Our economic growth over the past several years has been based on consumption and debt.  We have been creating business through anti-capitalistic measures like our irrational protections of the telecom companies and American steel instead of creating new and better products.  

What does this mean for our future? Well it is going to cost a lot. We are going to have to pay for the excesses of this administration to the tune of several trillion dollars, we are going to have to fight for a better health care system (not supported by either candidate), we are going to have to end this war and repair our image globally, we are going to have to regain control of the corporations we have come to serve (as opposed to the other way around), we are going to have to renew our commitment to public education and access to higher education and we are going to have fund science at much higher levels. 

I know this is a bleak forecast.  We are headed for difficult times, but it is critical we stay involved and not get disillusioned as the current trend is the more educated you are, the less children you are having.  So if we don't remain active, we can look forward to a nation of uneducated and unskilled religious fundamentalists who hate us.  They will be the most angry and entitled bunch this country has ever seen.  If history teaches us anything, all people who are rational and believe in education should be very afraid.

As a kid I always imagined we would end up like Star Trek, men and women wearing the same androgynous jump suit while cruising the universe seeking knowledge, but something went terribly wrong.

I believe Obama will get elected and that will be nice, but he will change very little as he has already shown to be his ambition (he supports off-shore drilling, the wall on the border of Mexico, immunity for the telecom companies, continued violence in the middle east, an armed and militant Israel, and on and on).  The republicans through their greed and gluttony have got us in this mess, but the democrats were supposed to be the party of dissent.

As a means to start making a difference, I sincerely suggest looking into the efforts of Ralph Nader.  A good place to start being the award wining documentary, An Unreasonable Man, http://www.anunreasonableman.com/.  Also, I saw him speak recently and he discussed a new citizen lobbying effort he will begin in the new year, which is the most promising solution to combating the corporations who control our lives that I have heard thus far.

This blog will primarily be about my travels, but it is dedicated to those who remain skeptics of everything and continue to work for change and seek knowledge instead of becoming disillusioned, apathetic and cynical.

Evolution is truth.  I can PROVE it!!!

Jarrett