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Nicole Journal #2
Rangiroa, French Polynesia
Nicole - preparing for a dive
I have experienced my
first tropical paradise. There were turquoise blue waters, lush
palm trees, and beautiful Polynesian people. Most days were hot and
sunny and the nights included the occasional tropical showers. The
smells of a flower called Frangi Pani filled the air and the women
wore it in their hair. Smalls boats filled with men going on the
next fishing trip. Children swimming in the crystal clear waters at
a nearby dock.
Watching people dance to
the rhythm of Polynesian drumming. It was yet another magical
place.
But it wasn’t entirely
what I expected it would be. I thought there would be a lot of
tropical fruits. There were hardly any, mostly because the atoll
didn’t have soil to grow anything. Most of what they had in the two
major stores had to be shipped in from Tahiti or somewhere else.
But there were plenty of coconuts. It was a bit sad, only because
when we arrived to Rangiroa we had just completed a voyage of more
than two thousand miles and hadn’t had any fresh food on board for
six weeks. Another thing is that everybody here speaks French, only
a few words of English.
Rangiroa is the biggest
atoll in the Tuamotu Islands. What is an atoll? I asked myself
that same question. An atoll is a sunken volcano where the center
part of the volcano collapses into the sea and just the reef that
surrounded it is left. The islands that make up the atoll are the
top sides of the coral reefs which is why there are no sandy
beaches, just coral rubble. So the centers of an atoll used to be
the craters of a volcano. Of course this happened thousands of
years ago. But it is still an ongoing process because the corals
are still growing. I could never even imagine something like that
is possible. But that’s what it is. Pretty cool, huh?
I finally got open water
scuba diver certified. Some people don’t realize what an
accomplishment this is for a person from the deserts of New Mexico.
I was really proud of this achievement. I have come such a long way
from beginning my dive course to completion. I use to be so scared
to take the regulator out of my mouth and now I can ascend from 40
feet to the surface without taking a breath from the regulator. The
best part is that I feel real comfortable now than when I did in the
beginning. I was ready to join the underwater world.
I have already been on
some gorgeous dives that I never thought I would ever experience in
my life. My first real dive was on May 11th, I call it a
‘real’ dive because it wasn’t a dive where I had to do a skills test
while kneeling on the ocean floor. I actually went deeper that 30
feet and saw more than a few fish and sand. We went to the ‘drop
off’ where the coral reefs end and all there is is the deep blue
ocean. So we went in. As I was going down, I remembered when I
went to the aquarium in Albuquerque. There was a room where you
could just sit there and watch what swam by in front of the tank. I
remembered how blue the water looked in the tank, a deep navy blue;
I was in an aquarium. Eibes, the dive instructor, was in front of
us, I was in the back. Within a few minutes, Heather, the
scientific coordinator looked at me and then pointed at something
behind me. My first instinct was not to look. I even shook my head
‘no,’ because I knew exactly what it was. As soon as I turned
around I saw an eight foot shark swimming towards us and then turn
away. I looked around for Eibes, but he had a shark on his right
side, then there was yet another shark to our left. Three grey reef
sharks circling the four of us, two of which were new divers,
including myself. We were all huddled together, back to back,
keeping a 360 degree view, not letting any one of them out of our
sights. They kept circling us, looking right into our faces, with a
distance of only ten feet between us and what looked like hungry
sharks. They circled us, I wanted to cry, my heart was beating so
fast, but I had to regulate my breathing. They just kept circling
us. All of a sudden, there were tons of beautiful fish everywhere,
like a fully loaded aquarium, everywhere, just floating around me.
I thought ‘How beautiful. What a beautiful place this is. I am
floating. It’s like I’m in heaven.’ I made eye contact with one of
the sharks looking at me. ‘This is it. This shark is going to eat
me. Why did I come here?’ It swam towards us then it backed away.
I felt so helpless; there was nothing to do except fight back if it
came at us. They continued to circle us for what seemed like
eternity but was only ten to fifteen minutes. Then they slowly
backed off, we moved on, but they were still behind us. I looked
behind me at one point and one seemed to come straight at me. I
quickly grabbed my dive buddy and we both stared at it until it
turned in another direction. This happened a few times before they
were completely out of sight. I was really scared for my life. But
I survived my first shark dive, and it definitely wasn’t the last.
We made friends with a
man named Punoa, he had a lagoonarium. It was filled with sting
rays, a lot of fish, turtles, and nurse sharks. He feeds the sharks
everyday, and brings tourist to this ‘shark park.’ One day I went
to this shark pen. I touched one of these sharks. It feels like
rough leather. Then what I did next was something I thought I would
never do in my life. I held onto its dorsal fin. I held onto it as
it swam through the water. The shark was like a taxi cab. It lies
on the floor until you wiggle its fin then it gets up and goes. It
pulled me through the water until I let go. Who ever gets the
opportunity to ‘ride’ a shark?
Just to sum up a few of
my other dives; I have seen three sea turtles and touched two of
them. I have seen gigantic napoleon wrasses, a beautiful lionfish,
a huge school of barracudas, a cyclone of jack fish, and massive
schools of red snappers and a few moray eels. On my last dive at
Rangiroa I saw about two hundred grey reef sharks. In the pass,
there was a current of three knots sweeping us through the water so
fast. It felt like I was flying. Zooming through the water,
watching the fish and other underwater creatures swim around, eat,
or swim against the current. I looked below me, I felt like I was
superman flying over a city and watching people go about their
business. Then we came to a point where ahead of us all one could
see were sharks of all different sizes. They were all huddled
together, like they were having a pow wow. They didn’t even notice
that we were there, swimming past them. It was so beautiful and
scary at the same time. Even though they didn’t care we were there,
it was just the thought that at any moment they could all turn to us
and kill us in a matter of seconds. It certainly was a special
place to be.
In my time at Rangiroa I
truly saw how beautiful these creatures are. But they are slowly
diminishing due to the high demand of shark fin soup in various
countries. Corporations go out to slaughter sharks just for their
fins and throw the rest away. To think that some day these sharks
could all be gone saddens me. Then all we will have is short
documentaries of what beautiful underwater beings that used to roam
the oceans.
I also began the science
training. I learned about the different corals that were at
Rangiroa. I learned how to identify one coral from another. The
important part of the coral training was learning to determine the
status of a coral. We had to be able to decide whether it was a
healthy or unhealthy coral colony. On a dive this is called a
Vitareef study. There are about eighteen different codes to help
establish the condition of the coral. If a coral has damage to its
skeletal system, like a fish bite, that is a code # 5. If there is
sediment on a coral, such as sand, it can suffocate the coral – that
is a code #6. It took a lot of practice for me to be sure what was
affecting a coral from being healthy. This study was so important
to me. I wanted to make sure I was writing down the right codes.
The coral reefs are the
most important ecosystem to Planet Ocean. A new word I have learned
to describe Mother Earth, because she is more water than earth. In
my mind, this is what I am here for; to help Mother Earth. I have
learned that what happens to the coral reefs now will affect what
happens to our planet in the near future. The science dives I have
been on and the information I helped to gather are vital. The
information gathered is going to be known to the world. It will go
to the people who hopefully will get an idea of what kind of state
the corals are in. Then it will be up to them to do something about
it.
Coming from the village
of Santo Domingo, our connection to the ocean is through the shells
we use in our jewelry. I never expected to have a much closer
relationship to the ocean than I have had over the past year. I am
beginning to understand how much difference one person can make in
this world. I never knew what was really going on in the world. As
each day comes and goes, I become more aware of what is happening
out here. Not because I hear it on the radio, watch it on TV, or
click on a CNN website. I know because I am experiencing it as it
comes to me. I feel, I observe, and listen to what goes on around
me. Whether its staring a shark in the face or swimming with
Polynesian children, I’m soaking it up.
Nicole
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