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Yesterday, Larry Madin, Kate Madin, Alan Dynner, myself and a Fijian crew member named Koroi drove one of NAI'A's diving skiffs four miles off Nikumaroro and came to a stop. Except for a giant frigate bird hovering over above our heads there was nothing else visible part from waves slapping on the side of the skiff.

A NAI'A diving skiff during a previous Phoenix Islands expedition (Photo: David Obura)

"This looks good," Larry said, as we lowered a 150-foot line into the sea and prepared to dive. On this dive we were not going into look at fish or coral, but rather to survey the most abundant multi-cellular organisms on earth: Jellyfish, sihpnonophores, ctenophores and other gelatinous creatures that live in the open ocean water column, also known as the pelagic ocean environment.

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