Northwestern Hawaiian Islands | Page 4

December 6, 2015 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

‘It’s Different’

These weren’t the words expected by the questioner in my response to what I thought about my first trip into the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (now the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.)

I think she was expecting words like: spectacular, pristine, resource rich, special, abundant, etc.

Yes, it’s all those descriptors, too; and for me, therefore, “different.”

I wasn’t trying to be cute, but, rather, acknowledge the responsibility we faced in protecting this place. (I have been to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands several times, each time reinforced the feeling.)

My first trip – a 3 ½ plane ride there, 3 ½ hours on the ground and 3 ½ hours back – was to Tern Island at French Frigate Shoals (it looks like an aircraft carrier in the reef.)

French Frigate Shoals is the largest atoll in the chain, taking the form of an 18-mile long crescent. It is estimated to be 12.3 million years old.

Tern Island (approximately 30-acres) in the atoll is the site of a Fish & Wildlife Service field station, which occupies a former U.S. Coast Guard Long-Range Aids to Navigation (LORAN) station that closed in 1979.

A relatively deep (80 to 100 feet) coral reef at this atoll has been recently discovered to function as a spawning site for Ulua (the giant trevally); a rare discovery of spawning sites for top predators.

The lagoon is also unusual in that it contains two exposed volcanic pinnacles representing the last vestiges of the high island from which the atoll was derived, as well as nine low, sandy islets.

The sand islets are small, shift position, and disappear and reappear. These islets provide important habitat for the world’s largest breeding colony of the endangered Hawaiian monk seal.

On a tour around Tern Island we saw monk seals and turtles resting on the sandy shore, as well markings in the sand of a turtle who laid her eggs the night before.

And lots of birds … mostly terns —> Tern Island.

On that trip, we were unexpectedly greeted by Jean-Michel Cousteau; he was on the island during his filming of “Voyage to Kure.”

Here’s a link to the Google ‘Street View’ on Tern Island.

https://goo.gl/fE0dni

I also visited Midway. Look at a map of the Pacific and you understand the reasoning for the “Midway” reference (actually, it’s a little closer to Asia than it is to the North American continent.)

Kuaiheilani, suggested as a mythical place, is the traditional name for what we refer to as Midway Atoll. Described in the legend of Aukelenuiaiku, the origin of this name can be traced to an ancient homeland of the Hawaiian people, located somewhere in central Polynesia. (Kikiloi)

According to historical sources, this island was used by Native Hawaiians even in the late-1800s as a sailing point for seasonal trips to this area of the archipelago.

The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, and in particular Midway Atoll, became a potential commodity in the mid-19th century. The United States took formal possession of Midway Atoll in August of 1867 by Captain William Reynolds of the USS Lackawanna.

Midway’s importance grew for commercial and military planners. The first transpacific cable and station were in operation by 1903. In the 1930s, Midway became a stopover for the Pan American Airways’ flying “clippers” (seaplanes) crossing the ocean on their five-day transpacific passage.

The United States was inspired to invest in the improvement of Midway in the mid-1930s with the rise of imperial Japan. In 1938 the Army Corps of Engineers dredged the lagoon during this period and, in 1938, Midway was declared second to Pearl Harbor in terms of naval base development in the Pacific.

The construction of the naval air facility at Midway began in 1940. At that time, French Frigate Shoals was also a US naval air facility. Midway also became an important submarine advance base.

Here’s a link to the Google ‘Street View’ on Midway Atoll.

https://goo.gl/NaAi28

Here’s a short video of some of the albatross on Midway.

https://youtu.be/cG7JOpL2tEA

Here’s a link to the Google ‘Street View’ on Laysan Island.

https://goo.gl/63WGFK

Here’s a link to the Google ‘Street View’ on Lisianski Island.

https://goo.gl/e8kYHW

Here’s a link to the Google ‘Street View’ on Pearl and Hermes Atoll.

https://goo.gl/9kuFWZ

While I was Chair at DLNR, we created the Refuge rules whose intent is “To establish a marine refuge in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands for the long-term conservation and protection of the unique coral reef ecosystems and the related marine resources and species, to ensure their conservation and natural character for present and future generations.“ Fishing is prohibited.

This started a process where several others followed with similar protective measures. The BLNR unanimously adopted the State’s Refuge rules, President Bush declared it a Marine National Monument and UNESCO designated it a World Heritage Site.

Some ask why we imposed such stringent limitations on use in this area. For me, it ended up to be pretty simple; it is the responsibility we share to future generations, to allow them to see what it looks like at a place in the world where you don’t take something.

Check out more on the Monument (look at the Images and Videos, you’ll see this place really is different:) http://www.papahanaumokuakea.gov

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Clouds of reef fish and corals, French frigate shoals, NWHI

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Jean-Michel Cousteau – PTY

Heading out to French Frigate Shoals

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October 25, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Churchill

“Among the many tales of shipwreck on the Pacific few are more thrilling than that of the rescue of the captain and crew of the schooner Churchill on French Frigate shoals”. (Star-bulletin, October 31, 1917)

Whoa … let’s look back.

In 1850, Captain Asa Meade Simpson, a Maine shipbuilder, came west, drawn by the California Gold Rush. In 1855, he arrived at the “north bend” of the Coos Bay estuary, Oregon. Recognizing the value of the region’s coal and timber, he set up a sawmill; the businesses expanded and turned out a variety of wood products, from fruit boxes to fancy doors.

He also established a shipyard (the first in Oregon) and hired master craftsmen to build ships that would carry lumber products worldwide. Simpson’s son, Louis Jerome (LJ) Simpson, arrived in North Bend in 1899. He purchased the adjacent undeveloped town site of Yarrow, which he merged with his father’s land in 1903 to create the City of North Bend.

From 1859 to 1903, at this location he would have 56 ‘world class’ tall ships built for the growing lumber empire. (Tall Ships SFO) Large wooden schooners were the economic mainstay of American shipping between the Civil War period and World War I. They were the sailing workhorses of the Pacific. (NOAA)

One of them was the Churchill.

Launched on March 4, 1900, the 178-foot, 600-ton four-masted schooner Churchill was built by the Simpson Lumber Co for their own account. Later, the Churchill was owned by Charles Nelson & Co of San Francisco.

Then, the fateful voyage.

“The Churchill left Port Angeles on May 27 with a cargo of lumber for Sydney. After discharging at Sydney the vessel proceeded to Tongata, where a cargo of about 800 tons of copra was placed aboard. Her destination from there was Seattle.”

(Copra is the dried meat of the coconut. Coconut oil is extracted from it and has made copra an important agricultural commodity. Also coconut cake is extracted mainly used as feed for livestock.)

On board the Churchill were Captain Charles Granzow, his two sons Carl (age 7) and Loftus (age 14,) and nine other crew members (Chief Officer: Henry Anderson, Second Officer: Fred Wilson, Carpenter John Wessick, Seamen: A. Anderson, William Miller, Daniel Pinzoin, Pedro Romos, Sterling Jones and Hugo Munch.)

“Capt. Granzow has been master of the schooner Churchill for the past three or four years. She has called at Honolulu on infrequent voyages, but been chiefly in the lumber trade between the Northwest and Australia.”

“The Churchill was 27 days out from Nukualofa, Tongata, when she drifted upon a reef of the French Frigate shoals. This was after winds had carried her westward from her course and following a calm of several days. ‘Currents after that was the only reason for the wreck,’ declared Mate Anderson”.

Fortunately for them, some folks from the Islands were nearby fishing from the Makaiwa.

“The power sampan Makaiwa left Honolulu on Monday, October 22. In the party were Harold W Rice; Lieutenant KE Ferris, USN, formerly captain of the Kestrel; Arthur Rice, HL Tucker and the captain and crew of the sampan, as follows: William Feuerpeil, crew captain; Johnny Vasconcellos, chief engineer; Manuel Deponte, second engineer; Levi Faunfata, a Samoan seaman.”

“Arthur Rice, who had intended only to fish as far as Kauai and leave the party there, carried out his plan, so he was not with the sampan when it turned westward from the Hawaiian group. The party had fished on the way to Kauai and also after starting for Bird Island.”

Rice and the rest of the party “were bound for the Western Islands on a fishing trip when they sighted the Churchill … slowly pounding to pieces.”

“Captain Granzow told the Honolulans that the night before, that is the night of October 25, the schooner had struck the big reef about 9 o’clock. The vessel seemed to come off after striking, but then went on again and pounded heavily all night.”

“The Churchill was sighted in acute distress on the morning of Friday, October 26, by the fishermen and the sampan immediately went to her rescue. … Had it not been for the timely arrival of the sampan at French Frigate shoals, Captain Granzow and his men believe they would surely have perished by fire, water or sharks.” (Star Bulletin, October 30, 1917)

“That he was true to all the traditions of the sea is the tale told of Capt Charles Granzow, master of the wrecked schooner Churchill, by the members of his crew.”

“Unable or unwilling to relate their own experiences these sailors of the destroyed schooner tell how Capt. Granzow elected to remain aboard the doomed vessel while the only remaining hope of surviving the wreck was made by five others in a small lifeboat.”

“But while Capt. Granzow with other volunteers remained aboard the vessel as the water rose about her hulk he ordered his two sons into the lifeboat which he placed in command of his first mate, Henry Anderson, while they attempted a landing on the only promontory not washed by the ocean’s waves.” (All were saved)

In October of 2005, the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center’s Coral Reef Ecosystem Division reported a potential shipwreck site to NOAA’s Maritime Heritage Program after spotting anchors and scattered rigging at French Frigate Shoals.

In 2007, a team of NOAA maritime archaeologists were able to begin to investigate the site. The 2007 survey uncovered clues that may help solve the mystery of the unidentified shipwreck. Diagnostic artifacts at the site, anchors, rigging, pumps and deck equipment, all correspond to the Churchill’s size and construction.

In August of 2008, a team of NOAA maritime archaeologists returned to the site to complete documentation and interpretation of the shipwreck site. (Lots of information here is from NOAA, Oregon Historical Society and Star Bulletin, October 30 and 31, 1917)

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July 12, 2014 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kānemilohaʻi

July 12, 2003 was an extraordinary day in my life; the experiences that day helped me as Chair of Board of the Land and Natural Resources make the recommendation to the rest of the BLNR (and we then voted unanimously) to impose the most stringent measures to assure protection of the place.

That action created Refuge rules “To establish a marine refuge in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands for the long-term conservation and protection of the unique coral reef ecosystems and the related marine resources and species, to ensure their conservation and natural character for present and future generations.“ Fishing and other extraction is prohibited.

Let’s step back.

Kānemilohaʻi is the first atoll to the northwest of the main Hawaiian Islands; it’s also the midpoint of the Hawaiian Islands archipelago and the largest coral reef area in Hawai‘i.

This low, flat area is where Pele is said to have left one of her older brothers, Kānemilohaʻi, as a guardian during her first journey to Hawai‘i from Kahiki (Tahiti.) Pele continued down the archipelago until finally settling in Kīlauea, Hawai‘i Island, where she is said to reside today. (Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument)

It is located 550-miles northwest of Honolulu. The day I went there, it took 3 ½ hours to fly there, we were on the ground for 3 ½ hours, with the same 3 ½ hour return flight (we left at dark and arrived back at dark.)

We were unexpectedly greeted by Jean-Michel Cousteau; he was on the island during his filming of “Voyage to Kure.” (I brought snorkel gear, but passed on that to take advantage of having extra time to speak with Jean-Michel.)

The crescent-shaped atoll of small islands is 18-miles in diameter. The lagoon is unusual in that it contains two exposed volcanic pinnacles representing the last remainders of the high island from which the atoll was derived.

The largest pinnacle, La Perouse Pinnacle (rising vertically about 120-feet above sea level, 7-miles south of Tern Island and is named after Jean Francois de Galaup, Compte de La Pérouse who sailed there in 1786) is a rock outcrop in the center of the atoll. It is reportedly the oldest and most remote volcanic rock in the Hawaiian chain.

Making up the rest of the atoll are nine low, sandy islets. The sand islets are small, shift position, and disappear and reappear. The “main” island is referred to today as Tern Island. Terns are birds … there are a lot of terns on Tern Island.

The islands first played a part in World War II when they were included in Japanese plans for refueling seaplanes from submarines in the sheltered waters of the atoll.

Such a refueling was successfully carried out in 1942 by two Imperial Japanese Navy flying boats that were refueled by a submarine. The seaplanes then mounted a bombing raid on Pearl Harbor, although they were thwarted from hitting their targets by inclement weather.

Then, in 1942, the 5th Seabee Battalion arrived on Tern Island to begin construction of a US airfield. The island was only a few hundred feet long, yet was expanded by dredged coral to create a 3,100-foot by 275-foot runway and a ramp area sufficient for 24-single engine aircraft (expanding the Island’s area to 27-acres, of which 20 were taken up by the airfield.) (Tern Island resembles an aircraft carrier.)

A station was commissioned in 1943 as an auxiliary of Pearl Harbor and also served as an emergency landing strip and refueling stop for fighter squadrons transiting between Honolulu and Midway. Quonset Huts were erected to serve as housing; the typical complement was 118-men, who rotated from Pearl Harbor on a three month tour.

In February 1949, the Navy abandoned the airstrip and facilities to the Territory of Hawaiʻi. In January 1952, the Coast Guard to build a LORAN navigation beacon tower on Tern Island, along with a 20-man support facility. (LORAN (LOng RAnge Navigation) is a radio navigation system enabling ships and aircraft to determine their position and speed.) The Coast Guard installation continued until 1979.

Tern Island also played an interesting role during the early days of space flight. The Pacific Missile Range had a portable tracking station located at one end of the island that helped track the US Discoverer spacecraft, as well as the Soviet Union’s space efforts, including their first manned mission (April 12. 1961.)

When the tracking installation obtained data from a particularly important track, the data tapes would be put in a fiberglass canister, attached by a nylon rope to a grappling hook at the top of a pole erected on the runway. This would be snagged by a passing C-130 in mid-air above the runway.

In recent years, Tern Island became part of the Hawaiian & Pacific Islands National Wildlife Refuge Complex. A ranger station occupies the former Coast Guard buildings and is occupied by small groups of researchers. The runway continues to be used for occasional personnel transfer & supply flights.

These islets provide important habitat for the world’s largest breeding colony of the endangered Hawaiian monk seal and also provide nesting sites for 90-percent of the threatened green turtle population breeding in the Hawaiian Archipelago.

On a tour around Tern Island we saw monk seals and turtles resting on the sandy shore, as well markings in the sand of a turtle who laid her eggs the night before.

When asked what I thought after my visit there, I simply say, “This place is different.”

Puzzled, many expect to hear “fantastic,” “pristine” and the range of other expressions that note the abundance and diversity of resources there. Compared to what we see in the main Hawaiian Islands, Tern and the other islands, reefs and atolls to the northwest are “different.”

In helping people understand what I mean, I have referred to my recommendation to impose stringent protective measures and prohibit extraction as the responsibility we share to provide future generations a chance to see what it looks like in a place in the world where you don’t take something.

The BLNR’s action started a process where several others followed with similar stringent protective measures.

Kānemilohaʻi is now part of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, a State and Federal (State of Hawaiʻi, Department of the Interior’s US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) co-managed marine conservation area. The monument encompasses nearly 140,000-square miles of the Pacific Ocean – an area larger than all the country’s national parks combined.

On July 30, 2010, Papahānaumokuākea was inscribed as a mixed (natural and cultural) World Heritage Site by the delegates to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO.) It is the first mixed UNESCO World Heritage Site in the United States and the second World Heritage Site in Hawaiʻi (Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park was inscribed in 1987.)

Oh, the modern name for Kānemilohaʻi?

On November 6, 1786, French explorer La Pérouse, aboard his frigate, the Broussole, accompanied by the Astrolabe, was sailing westward from Monterey to Macao. In the wee morning hours, men on both ships sighted breakers directly ahead; both boats were immediately brought about and avoided the breakers.

At daybreak, they sighted the pinnacle and later explored the southeastern half of the atoll. Before leaving, he named his new discovery Basse des Fregates Frangaises, or Shoal of the French Frigates. In July 1954, the US Board of Geographic Names adopted the name, French Frigate Shoals. (Amerson) (Lots of information from Management Plan, hawaii-gov and Abandoned Airfields)

The image shows some of the reefs and islands of Kānemilohaʻi (French Frigate Shoals.) In addition, I have added others similar images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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