A little background

As news of my new activity has made the rounds of friends and former colleagues it has become apparent that a little background on Tern Island is needed. Tern Island is about the same latitude as Cabo San Lucas so the weather is mild. The island is part of a large shoal area called French Frigate Shoals. It is a coral atoll that grew up around a long extinct volcano. The rock is eroded away except for one piece of the original volcano that shows above water and it is known as Le Perouse Pinnacle. Depending on wind and wave action there are 8 - 10 coral islands that show above the water at French Frigate Shoals. The total area of all the islands combined is about 100 acres. All of the Northwest Hawaiian Islands were set aside as a wildlife refuge by Theodore Roosevelt in 1909. The only Island of any size in the whole chain is Midway which became well known during WWII. None of these islands is open to human visitation except by permit so for a naturalist such as myself it is a dream come true to live in the refuge for a number of months. Tern Island is approximately 350 feet wide and 3500 feet long. It was enlarged to this shape and size during WWII and used as a refueling stop to get planes from Honolulu to Midway. The population of the island varies from 2 or 3 people to a high of 11 or 12. This small group of people is the only human population for about 500 miles in any direction. This island is a paradise for sea birds but life is a little rough around the edges for humans. There will be several hundred thousand nesting seabirds on the island during the months that I will be there so the sound and smell is pretty impressive. There are birds everywhere! There are nesting Green Sea Turtles on the beaches and critically endangered Hawaiian Monk Seals sometimes pull out on the island. It is a wildlife paradise but it is not the Hawaiian paradise of stage and screen. Here is another link to a blog that was written by a volunteer on the island in 2007.


http://timmarcella-ternisland-2007.blogspot.com/

Tern Island Volunteer

After writing and submitting my first resume' in 25 years I was recently chosen as a Tern Island volunteer. Tern Island is part of a national wildlife refuge in the remote islands 500 miles north and west of Honolulu. I will leave Oroville in early April of 2008 and return in August of 2008. It is an exciting time but also creates some trepidation. Four months is a long time to be away from home and family. This quest began with a short 2 hour visit to Tern Island in June of 2000 as part of my Teacher at Sea voyage on the Townsend Cromwell, so the island's environment and location are not completely new to me. I have been researching online for the past few days and here is a site that has been helpful:

http://www.ternisland.com/

Also, Google Earth has a neat view of the island and the surrounding French Frigate Shoals. Enter this set of coordinates 23 52.11N, 166 17.00W