Josh and Fale sorting out the catch during the cobb trawl on Thursday March 15, 2012. Sorting the catch was one of the hardest thing to do because we have to use tweezers to sort the catch in to 4 to 5 different groups. John, Don and Jennifer thanks the boys for their help and they make the job look easy for the scientists on the Oscar Elton Sette.

Sione Lam Yuen Jr assisting Jennifer Fry, John Denton, Aimee Hoover, Megan Duncan and Don Kobayashi with measuring Myctophids, Non Myctophids, Crustaceans, Cephalopods and Gelatinous Plankton's mass, volume, weight and length.

Sharptail Mola (Masturus lanceolatus) caught during cobb trawl

During a Cobb Trawl on March 15, 2012 Thursday at 12:00am, scientists on the Oscar Elton Setter caught a Sharptail Mola in the net when they were trawling at night for Myctophids. The ship crew and scientist were busy during this time to free the fish and you can watch how the fish was released in the water by clicking the link: capture of a large sharptail mola

Conductivity, Thermal and Depth (CTD) station

Tafito Aitaoto working with Scott Allen, Megan Duncan, and Evan Howell at the CTD station. Sione Lam Yuen Jr was assisting Louise Giuseffi and Emily Norton with their Issacs-Kid mid water trawl (IKMT), Manta Net and 1 meter ring oblique net which collects plankton from the water column down to approximately 230 meters. Josh started the trip with helping Jamie Barlow, Meagan Sundberg and Ryan Nichols with the small boat operations and Fale Tuilagi assisted John Denton, Aimee Hoover, Jennifer Fry and Donald Kobayashi with the Cobb Trawl.

DMWR participants ready for work

from left to right: Donald Kobayashi, Fale Tuilagi, Sione Lam Yuen Jr, Louise Giuseffi, and Josh Tuaumu; getting ready to deploy the Issacs Kidd Plankton Net in the water. The Plankton net is towed alongside of the ship, and the materials that they collected will be examined by scientist in the wet lab. Some other cool stuff scientists found in this type of net is fish larvae.

Sione Lam Yuen and Alison Green during the Marine Think Tank Session at ICCB conference 2011

Sione attended the ICCB conference in Auckland, New Zealand where he met Alison Green. Alison Green use to work for the Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources back in the 1995. Alison was the facilitator for the Improving Effectiveness of Community Managed Areas for Fisheries Management, Biodiversity Conservation and Climate Change Adaptation session during the Marine Think Tank of the ICCB conference 2011.

Members from American Samoa who attended the ICCB conference 2011 at Auckland, New Zealand

Sione Lam Yuen Jr a representative from the Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources and Hideyo Hattori a representative from the Department of Commerce at American Samoa who were representatives that got accepted to attend the 25th International Congress for Conservation Biology Conference 2011 at Auckland, New Zealand.

Pacific Islanders Applicants who got accepted to ICCB Conference 2011

There were seven members from the pacific who got accepted to the 25th International Congress for Conservation Biology Conference in 2011 that was held at Auckland, New Zealand. People from Palau, Solomon Island, Fiji, Guam and American Samoa got accepted last year during the conference in Auckland. It was a great experience, learned a lot, and met new people that work for other Marine Protected Area programs in other parts of the world.

Kiso, Ledwina and Sam presenting on Enforcement Division

Kiso and Ledwina along with their intern Sam presenting on the Enforcement Division here at DMWR to students from Pava'ia'i Elementary. They explained the types of fishing that are legal and fishing that are illegal. The rules and regulations that DMWR Enforcement have based on the marine and wildlife that is around American Samoa.

Alden Tagarino presenting on Marine Mammals

Alden is presenting on his field which is dealing with Turtles, Whales and Dolphins. Alden also work with DMWR staff during a dolphin or a whale stranded. DMWR had whale stranded in 2010 and 2011 at Matu'u and Faganeanea, and Alden and some people from off-island trained DMWR staff to activate a group of people when there is a whale stranded on the island. Students were amazed when Alden showed them the types of Whales, Sharks, Dolphins and Turtles that are found here in American Samoa.

Tee Jay, Tasha and Sa'olotoga presenting on the Bio sampling Project

Tee Jay and Sa'olotoga along with their intern Tasha are actually showing students on a live microscope which is connected to a television how to dissect a fish to collect otolith and gonads to determine the fish age and life history of a fish.