Biologist Account: Heather:
"Well, I had a sneak peak at this islet last week when I had the opportunity to photograph an aerial bait drop (to get rid of rats) at nearby Mokapu Is. Mokuhooniki was nice and green and I could seed native plants from the helicopter when we circled over. I was excited to start the survey and the islet didn’t disappoint. We were dropped off in the middle of the ridge and the three of us immediately began admiring the carpet of native plants, ‘Hey, look at all that akoko!” and “Check out the carpet of Panicum torridum, it’s awesome!” Nobody ever said biologists weren’t nerdy. Anyway, Jaap and I headed out to conduct the botanical survey (the highlight being the charming cousin of beach naupaka, Scaevola coriacea, the endangered dwarf naupaka). In the meantime, Sheldon and David couldn’t get their aspirators out fast enough to begin collecting arthropods. With all those native plants, there must be some interesting arthropods as well, right? It turns out, not so much. Aggressive, Big-headed ants were covering every inch of the islet and likely had a big hand in decimating native species. We did, however, discover a rare native Odynerus wasp. Competition from non-native wasps as well as parasites that attack the Odynerus larvae and pupae have caused populations to crash and many species have gone extinct or have become very rare. This was an exciting find! We also enjoyed the Red-tailed tropicbirds cruising around the islet to court and search for nest sites. One was a little ahead of the game and had already begun nesting. Still, my favorite part of the whole trip was not even on the islet, but all around it – whales. Whales, whales and more whales. They continuously passed on all sides of the islet, breaching and fin slapping. Their blows were occasionally loud enough to wake us up at night. When we sat down for lunch, we saw a mom, escort, and young calf milling very close to the islet and we were fortunate to see the calf breech. In the end, we collected lots of interesting data and enjoyed a spectacular trip."