Biologist Account: Jaap:
“Since Kanaha is right next to Mokuhooniki, we had been looking at it for about a day before actually landing on it. When Lawrence, our helicopter pilot, dropped us off at Mokuhooniki he flew around Kanaha a few times and looked for landing spots. When he came back to pick up Sheldon and myself he mentioned that he was unable to land the helicopter on the islet the previous day, and although today he brought a smaller helicopter, he was unsure if he would be able to drop us off. We found a reasonably flat spot on the northern end of the islet and were dropped off without any problems. We were able to move around on the ridge all along the length of the islet, and on the east facing slope. Vegetation was similar to Mokuhooniki, but a few species found there were not present on Kanaha. We did find Nohu and Naupaka, which we did not see on Mokuhooniki. The most common plant on the islet was actually the endangered Panicum fauriei. We spent the full three hours collecting inverts from the different plant species on the islets, and even from a dead shearwater. We found a lot of shells and shrapnel on the small islet, which has been used for target practice for the military in the past. Fortunately for the plants and birds they stopped doing that a while ago. Lawrence showed up fifteen minutes before we expected him, so we had to scramble to pack our stuff and put on our flight suits, while making sure none of our equipment fell off the cliffs in the process. We hopped into the helicopter after he circled around us a few times so we could get ready, and flew along the beautiful north shore of Molokai back to the airport. Seeing the whales from the air was a great ending for the trip.”