An Introduction to Manawai

A Pack of Hyenas

September 26th, 2022

Today was our first day at Manawai (Pearl and Hermes Atoll). After three consecutive days of land debris at Kauihelani (Midway Atoll) everyone was eager to get back in the water and start swim surveys. Notorious for its shipwrecks, Manawai has been the final destination for at least eight known ships. Manawais’ reef spans almost 200,000 acres making Kamokuokamohoali’i (Maro Reef) look like a crumb.

In the morning we assessed the weather, it was forecasted that a thunder storm would move in after 5 pm so we decided operations were a go! This was our first time navigating through the complex maze of Manawai and we did it with ease. Once at our first reef it was like clockwork: assess the reef, make a plan of how to efficiently survey it, and get to work! I put on my new webbed gloves I brought to increase my swimming speed and started swimming my assigned location. I was assigned the outer reef which is my favorite survey area to do due to the large amounts of aquatic life that lurk there.

Only 8 minutes in and out in the distance I saw the distinctive diamond pattern of a trawl seine net sitting deep where the reef drops off. When I got closer the net was fully strung out and it felt like it would never end, with the final dimensions being 50 x 20 feet. Imagine all the coral that was suffocated by this monstrosity! On the bright side, when nets are stretched out it allows for an easy removal. Nāmele, one of my teammates, went down to tie an ice line (plastic polymer line) on one side of the net so that we could carefully peel it off the reef. At a depth of 30 feet, we had to use two ice lines to make it to the surface where we could start pulling the net up. With only 5 experienced team members we were able to snake the net in. All the commotion from pulling in the net brought in a posse of ‘omilu, two 4-foot white tip reef sharks, and two bruiser ‘ulua both weighing over 100 pounds just waiting for crabs and small fish to fall off the net like a pack of hyenas.

From that point on these two curious ‘ulua followed me around the rest of the reef, occasionally nipping at my fins. The next net was found by my fearless team leader Derek who was swimming the inner reef. After that we found one more net and finished the survey, there was radio chatter between the Imua (our mother ship) and us about the storm, which unfortunately had approached on us a lot sooner than expected. Although I would have liked to keep swimming with my two new ‘ulua friends, we took the conservative measure and headed back to the Imua. When the large trawl seine net was weighed it was a total of 1,525 lbs! This was our 6th day of 17 straight days in a row of operations, so being safe and coming back at lunch meant we could all catch up on some well-deserved rest.

Meet the Author

Kalai’i Sim