Dr. Sylvia Earle/Wyland Visit

You can usually tell when I've had a busy week, because I skip my blog.  It's been fun though.  This week we had a visit from the artist, Wyland, whom most of you probably know from his marine paintings on buildings all over the world.  Dr. Sylvia Earle also came to Midway.  She has a very long resume, but she is one of the premier ocean explorers of the last century and was a major influence on the creation of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument.  I had a good time snorkeling, driving the dive boat, and showing them around.  Here is a link to an article about their visit on the USFWS Midway Atoll NWR website:

http://www.fws.gov/midway/whatsnew.html

If you want to find out more about Wyland, here is his website:

http://wyland.com/

And if you want to find out more about Dr. Sylvia Earle, here's a link to one of her sites with a nice slideshow of their visit:

http://blog.sylviaearlealliance.org/

Here is a link to a few more photos on Flickr, some that I took, most that others took.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwspacific/sets/72157628789649819/with/6668259253/

I'll write a bit more on Sunday, but here's a few photos for now.

This is the wall of Charlie Barracks before the painting began.

 This is the finished product.  Wyland didn't do his usual undersea scene because he wanted to highlight just a few animals (and algae under the turtle).

Here are Wyland and Sylvia Earle about to go on their first dive together.  I'll show some more photos of their visit on my next entry, but here's a few other photos I took this week.

                            

 This is a large Hawaiian spiny lobster under an overhang.  We found a spot with about 5 or 6 of them hiding in the holes.

 This is a Hawaiian green lionfish.  I used to see them a lot at French Frigate Shoals, but the only other one I saw at Midway was in the duck seep after the tsunami.

 Dan celebrates a strike at Sunday night bowling.