Coconut Island

So many of you know that my new job is with the University of Hawaii on Coconut Island. The island is just 29 acres and is located in Kaneohe Bay on the windward side of Oahu. For those of you who haven't heard, Coconut Island is the very island pictured in the opening credits of Gilligan's island. To funny.

The island actually has a very interesting history full of Hawaiian royalty, Movie stars, infant burial grounds, rich Japanese investors, ancient sacrifices, and land ownership controversy throughout the years which eventually lead to state control and finally, a permanent home for the Hawaiian Institute of Marine Biology. The entire story, incidentally, is being written into a book by Phil, the man we are renting our little house on the hill from.

Apparently, there used to be a bowling alley, a shooting range, and several small cottages all surrounding a man-made salt water lagoon with slides and diving boards. Today, the bowling alley, shooting range, and many other of the left overs from the times of the movie star vacations are gone and all that remains on the north side of the island is a stagnant pond and several buildings in disrepair. Now that the island is fully owned by the university however, many of the older buildings are finally being restored.

The majority of the island is dedicated to laboratorys, classrooms, and all things marine science. Everywhere you look are large tubs of creatures in sea water with pumps and pipes and tubes and wires. Some of them are the size of 10 or 20 gallon aquariums, some as large as round above ground pools. All are experiments in progress. Sedimentation, calcification, bleaching, etc. Those are just the ones I know about.

There are several buildings at the top of the hill in the middle of the island. These house classrooms, administrative offices, and a very new building containing several molecular and genetic labs as well as the island library.

My office however, is the "point lab". This is the second to last building at the end of the point on the southeast side of the island. It's about a 10 minute walk from the dock. The majority of the contents of the lab have been there for who knows how long. Remnants of past experiments, books, papers, beakers, pipettes, and loads of stuff that I have no idea about. For the most part, it's all kinds of neat stuff to have around however I'm guessing that as time goes on, the shear clutter of it all might make me a little crazy if I can't claim a corner of my own for me to tidy. It's the OCD in me I guess :)

So, for the obnoxious pictures...

The Point Lab

Our Lunch Room
My Desk

My View :)

All the STUFF!