NOAA Ship Hi'ialakai surveys French Frigate Shoals

NOAA Ship Hi'ialakai returned to port Sept. 30 from a 33-day mission to the French Frigate Shoals, the largest atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, completing the third leg of a research cruise in support of the Hawaiian Atolls Reef Assessment and Monitoring Project. During the mission, the ship, NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program team and partners conducted reef monitoring and damage mitigation work. Crew members also recovered a derelict fish aggregation device fom the reef on the east side of the atoll. To stay up-to-date with project, check out the NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program's Facebook page.