The Wall

While tiring, our first dive today was probably one of my best tows EVER. The water was clear and the west side of Howland island is as steep a wall as I have ever seen! We were litterally closer to shore than we were to the bottom. We dropped in deep and then towed in to the wall so as to keep the boat from going ashore. On the way in, while we were still in deep water, we towed past a school of 20-25 scalloped hammerhead sharks. REALLY amazing. They were just hanging there, barely moving, and paid us no attention at all. All the rest of the tow there were huge fish everywhere. We saw 3 Naploeon wrasse the largest of which was about 5 feet long. The crowning glory, however, was when 12 Dogtooth Tuna swam into the transect. I ACTUALLY GOT TO PUT TUNA ON MY DATA SHEET!!! :-)