Ocean Watch

By the time you read this, I will be in heaven. No, I haven't contracted a terminal illness. I'm healthier than ever, a good thing since I'll be spending the next three months on a desert island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

My isle, called Tern Island, is located inside French Frigate Shoals, an atoll about 500 miles northwest of Honolulu.

The place is heaven to me because the island is a biological field station in the Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge, stretching 1,200 miles from Nihoa to Kure.

Managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, this far-flung refuge almost always needs volunteer workers. Oh, twist my arm.

I signed up for the minimum three months.

This isn't my first trip to Tern.

Once I went as a journalist, and then as a nurse on a military medevac flight. Since the doctor didn't need my services on the trip home (the ailing biologist turned out to be OK), I stayed on Tern and helped with bird counts.

Another time, I volunteered to work with the National Marine Fisheries Service's Monk Seal Recovery Team.

During my six weeks at French Frigate Shoals, we rescued and fed six orphaned seal pups and recovered a satellite tag glued to a seal. Just in time, too: The expensive transmitter was starting to fall off with the seal's naturally molting fur.

My fourth adventure on Tern involved digging up hatched sea turtle nests to count empty shells and unhatched eggs.

The reward for this somewhat stinky job was rescuing and releasing baby turtles caught in the collapsing sand nests.

Those were all special-circumstances trips; this one is more the norm. While on the island, I will do whatever needs doing for the animals and the refuge.

This includes biological and ecological monitoring plus keeping the place habitable for the animals and people residing there.

Usually, four to eight people live on Tern Island, mostly biologists, volunteers and students from various agencies and universities. My arrival this week will bring the human population to five. Some of these people will leave while I'm there, and others will arrive.

Most of us won't have met before landing on the island, but we don't stay strangers for long.

Workers at Tern Island are linked by a love of wildlife, a penchant for adventure and the desire to help right some of the wrongs we humans have inflicted on Hawaii's marine life.

We also live together. Our dwelling is a former Coast Guard barracks located at one end of the 34-acre island. This large, drafty building is comfortable but can get a little ghostly, especially on stormy nights.

I've been asked a lot of questions about my upcoming adventure (no, I'm not taking a gun), and I have some of my own.

The good news is, I can continue my weekly columns from Tern Island and will send them via satellite phone.

I won't be getting e-mail directly, but a friend will download, print and send my letters on the monthly supply plane. I look forward to your questions and comments about this heavenly place.