The pass through the atoll connects the ocean that drops to depths of 2000 feet within a half a mile of the pass to the blue green atoll waters, 30-40 feet deep. An open wooden deck overlooking the pass was our lunch spot today. We sat at the deck edge but the sables extended back under the covered porch. Whenever one person pointed to the pass as if there was a dolphin several tables from the back would empty as the diners abandoned their food to cluster at the edge the platform to gaze at the water. The dolphins, who faithful leap in the standing waves of the pass on ebb tide draw people to the atoll and the water's edge.

The dolphins have seen some change over time. The arrival of the deck, the tourists, the sailboats and the cruise ships are a recent addition to the environment. The arrival of the original Polynesian settlers 1000 years ago a fairly recent change too. The dolphins witnessed bigger changes when the sea level during the last glacial was 120m lower. With ice covering much of North America and Northern Europe and high sea levels, there would have been no pass and no water in the atoll. Since the modern dolphin is only ~5 million years they have watched these changes. When sea level was lower the pass did not exist and the fishing was not very good.

We frequently discuss the origin of atolls around volcanos. The first island chains we visited, the Galapagos and the Marquesas, both formed around when the modern dolphins emerged, ~ 5 million years ago. These volcanos have few fringing reefs. The Tuamotus volcanos, now invisible, form the footing for these atolls erupted much earlier, before the dolphins and before the Marquesas. They erupted 40 million years ago in a very different world. During the eruptions, temperatures everywhere were warmer, CO2 was higher, no large ice sheets covered Antarctica and sea level was a lot higher. No dolphins witnessed these eruptions, only the sharks. Sharks who evolved more than 400 million years ago saw the Tuamotus volcano grow. The sharks watched at the volcanos form and fringing reefs grow. Sharks took advantage of the shallow waters of the atoll when sea level breached the ring of the atoll. The warm sheltered lagoons for nurseries mad of good nurseries.

We are very short-term visitors. From our harbor table, we watch the flux of residents to school and work, the dropping and raising of anchors on sailboats and cruise ships and the prop airplane flights from Tahiti bring in more visitors who turn on the lights in the seaside rooms. The sharks watched this atoll form and the dolphins have watched the pass they love to fish in come and go. What future we will witness remains unclear. The dolphins and sharks will watch the planet evolve and maybe humans will develop a more thriving sustainable future.