December 2022 Seawords

SEAWORDS

TheMarineOptionProgramNewsletter

December2022

Alohaand Welcometo theDecember issueof Seawords!

Pleaseenjoyour final issueof 2022! Theyear hasbeen filledwith learningabout theoceanfromthetiniest marinebacteriatoglobal climatesystemsandweareexcitedtocontinueour explorationsinthe new year!

Thismonth,wearepleasedtointroduceour newest Seawords writer,SofiaFloresPina! Readher articlecoveringthecreatureof the month,thehumpback whale,or Kohol?,onpage12.

Learnabout thebenefitsof marineprotectedareas(page4) aswell astheconsequencesof over-fishing(page8).Onpage16,explorethe latest researchon coral bleachingandtheimportanceof coral'salgal symbionts.Finally,onpage20,findout what happenstomicroplastics whentheydegradeintheocean.

HappyHolidaysMOPers!

What wouldyouliketoseemoreof inSeawords?Sendinyour thoughts,andfollow usonTwitter andInstagramat @mopseawords!

AbbieJeremiah,SeawordsEditor

Contents

2:LETTERFROM THEEDITOR

4:SPILL-OVERAT THEPAPAH?NAUMOKU?KEA MARINE

NATIONAL MONUMENT

8:SNOW CRABSMISSING:LAST SEEN IN THEBERINGSEA

12:CREATUREOFTHEMONTH:KOHOL?

16:CORAL'SALGAL SYMBIONTS

20:OCEAN PLASTICDEGRADATION

24:MOPCALENDAR

PhotoCredits

Front Page:Humpback Whale.Photoby:EdLyman/NOAA,Flickr.

Tableof Contents:ChristmasTreeWorm.Photoby:RichardLing,Flickr.

Back Cover: MantaRayCleaningStation.Photoby:EdLyman/NOAA, Flickr.

Spill-over at the Papah?naumoku?kea Marine National

By: Chloe Molou, UHH Seawords Liason

YellowfinTuna.Photo by:William High,NMFS;Wikimedia Commons.

the Papah?naumoku?kea

The catch rates of tuna outside the Papah?naumoku?kea Marine National Monument has provided some promising evidence for the largely debated ?spill-over?effect, as shown in a recent study published in Science. This effect highlights the benefits that marine protected areas (MPAs) can provide to the larger marine environment, helping to nurture various marine populations that inhabit the surrounding waters, as well as those within the MPA.

Papah?naumoku?kea Marine National Monument (PMNM) was first established in 2000, covering an area of 360,000 square kilometers. In 2016, the reserve was expanded by U.S. President Barack Obama to cover more than four times the original area, becoming the world?s largest protected ocean reserve and covering a total of 1.5 million square kilometers, or 580,000 square miles.

PMNM was recently the focus of a study conducted by researchers from the University of Hawai?i and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The team found an increase in catch rates of two tuna species within 600 nautical miles of the reserve boundary. Data was collected from the U.S. Marine Fisheries Service Pacific Island Observer program that monitors catch numbers of species like bigeye and

yellowfin tuna in Hawai?i. The researchers focused on deep-set longline fishing data collected from boats between 2010 and 2019, comparing catches from 2010-2013, before the expansion, to catches from 2016-2019.

The data revealed that each of the studied species showed an increase in catch rate, the largest being yellowfin tuna, or ahi in Hawaiian, with a 54%increase, followed by bigeye tuna with a 12%increase, and finally 8% for all other fish species caught outside the boundary. The team also noted that there was no significant increase or spillover effect recorded before 2016, highlighting how the expansion of PMNM has shown to have benefited the larger marine ecosystem in Hawai?i.

This amazing spillover effect is expected to continue and strengthen, which could mean more support for the construction of well thought out MPAs that serve larger purposes and ecosystems. The research team assumes that in this case, PMNM is either acting as a nursery for young fish populations or simply providing a safe place for the fish to aggregate and feed ? or both. Whatever the reason, these results highlight the importance of these areas and their impact on fish populations found both near and far.

Blue FinTrevally.

Photo by:James Watt,Flickr.

Snow Crabs Missing: Last Seen in the Bering Sea

By: Lucian Anderson, UHM MOP Alumnus

Alaska.Photo by: ColinDavis,Flickr.

Snow crabs inhabit the North Pacific Ocean and are a staple in fine dining restaurantsin North America and Japan.The snow crab catch is integral to the livelihoods of fishermen in Alaska and the industry itself provides $132million dollars to the local economy.

The Alaskan Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) monitors snow crab populations.They have found that the snow crab population has experienced a major crash,estimating that in the three years between 2018 and 2021,the snow crab population decreased by 8 billion crabs, or 87%of the population.The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) also collects crab specimens in the Bering Sea.

Their snow crab count went from the thousands to mere hundreds.A local extinction became a real concern,and so officials decided to cancel the snow crab fishing season this year.The cancellation has received widespread attention, leaving many with the same question: How have billions of snow crabs disappeared?

The ADFG expertsand officials say the population decline is due to climate change driven factors.The snow crab lives in the cold waters of the Bering Sea, particularly where ice melts. Alaska is the fastest warming state and temperatures in the Bering Sea have increased in recent years.The water?s warming and freshening from the melting glaciers created undesirable conditions for

snow crabs.

Crustaceans in warmer watersneed to speed up their metabolism,meaning they need to eat more.This leads to speculation that the snow crabs may have resorted to eating the juvenilesfrom the population boom in 2017. Juveniles prefer colder water so the populations may have created pockets rather than the population being widespread.Warmer temperatures also bring in cod which eat the juvenile crabs and increase competition for food with the snow crabs.The smaller distribution likely made some populations easy food for the cod.Some crabs may have relocated to other waters.Others hypothesize

disease as a culprit for the population decline.However, climate change driven factors remain the most likely reasons.

The snow crab has become yet another victim of climate change.The rapidly changing environment in the Bering Sea created unpredicted population booms and crashes.The red king crab season was also canceled for the second year in a row in Alaska.Officials say it?ll be years before the population is sustainable enough to allow harvesting again but are hoping the population will substantially increase in the next few years.For the time being, there will be no snow crab on the menu at the fanciest restaurant in your town.

Snow Crab.Photo by: nelgdev,Flickr.

Creatureof theMonth:

KOHOL?

By:SofiaFloresPina,UHM MOPStudent

Humpback Whale.Photo by: Ed Lyman/NOAA,Flickr.

Often seen breaching closeto thecoast in a display of fins and great splashes, theiconic humpback whale, known as kohol? in Hawaiian, is easily identifiableby its white undersideand largepectoral fins. Kohol??s scientific name, Megaptera

novaeangliae(Megaptera meaning ?big winged?and novaeangliaemeaning ?New England '') references the area wherethey werefirst spotted by European whalers.

Mostly black, with a bright whiteunderside, Northern Pacific humpbacks aredistinguishableamong the14 distinct humpback populations as having fewer whitepatches along their undersides and flukes.

Flukes, or tails, arespecific to each whaleand areas uniqueas a fingerprint. Individual whales can be identified by scars and pigmentation on their flukes alone. Measuring up to 18 feet wide, colossal flukes propel thesenearly 40-ton giants through thewater with ease.

Despitetheir massive size, thesemarinemammals havea tastefor rather small prey, namely krill and small schooling fish such as anchovies. Baleen, a filter-feeding system madeof keratin, allows thesegreat beasts to eat such small prey. Kohol? uses a host of methods to captureprey including theuseof sound, theseafloor, pectoral fin motions, and bubbles. One method of feeding

involves sending curtains of air bubbles to disorient and corral prey. Group-coordinated bubblenets condense corralled prey and push them to thesurfaceto be consumed. Many humpback whalepopulations usesome form of bubbletactics to captureprey, however, there appears to beregional variation in bubble-feeding methods across populations. For kohol?, much of the warmer months arespent eating and building fat reserves, called blubber, in order to sustain them through thewinter months when they don?t feed.

It is during thewinter months that Northern Pacific Humpback whales migratefrom Alaska to

Hawai?i. Kohol? travels a distanceof nearly 3,000 miles in a mere30 days, maintaining a paceof 3 to 7 miles per hour, rarely stopping. Oncein Hawai?i, kohol? hug theshore, swimming in shallow, warm water near reef systems. To ensurethegroup stays together, humpbacks travel in formation. At thefront arejuveniles and yearlings, followed by adult males and females, and lastly, pregnant females. In themonths of January and February, an estimated 8,000-10,000 humpback whales arrivein Hawai?i to mateand give birth. Calves areborn after an 11-month gestation period and typically stay with their mothers for a year beforeweaning.

Early Hawaiians have long noted theexistenceof kohol?. TheKumulipo, the Hawaiian creation chant, speaks of thebirth of kohol? and its living in the sea,?H?nau ka palaoa noho i kai.?In somechants, kohol? is known by another name: Kanaloa. Kanaloa

Kanaloa reigned as a deity of theocean and its

inhabitants of saltwater and freshwater alike, and of growth on land and in thesea. Kohol? was believed to beKanaloa?s physical manifestation. Just as theancestors of NativeHawaiians made their way across theocean, kohol?, too, migrateacross theseas to producelifein thesewaters.

HumpbackWhaleand Calf. Watercolor on paper. Illustration by:Ayssa Perez, UHM MOP Student.

Coral's Algal Symbionts

By:HaleyChasin,UHMMOPAlumna

Coral.Photo by:Doug Finney,Flickr.

Coralsareamongthemost diverseandeconomically important ecosystemsintheworld.They providecoastal protection,food,and natural resources.However,corals arealsofacingmany threats.The most pressingissuethey facetoday iswarmingoceantemperatures whichhaveincreasedby over 1? in thepast century intropical locations.Somecoralsdemonstrate moreresiliencetotheserising temperaturesandsomearenot as resilient.

Coralshousesymbioticalgae, knownasSymbiodiniaceae,which providemost of theenergy corals needtosurvive.Scientistswere unsureif theSymbiodiniaceae respondedtochangesinthe environment or if thealgaechanged fromonelocationtothenext. However,they aresurethat the risingtemperaturesaffect the dinoflagellates(family Symbiodiniaceae).Thepresence and diversity of thesedinoflagellatesis animportant contributor tohealthy andsuccessful reef-buildingcorals.

Coral bleachingleadstothe expulsionof thesedinoflagellates, after whichthecoral?shealthdeclines until thecoral skeletonisall that remains.Bleachedcoralsbecome threatenedandmoresusceptibleto diseaseandmacroalgaeovergrowth, decreasingtheir chancesof survival. Theadaptivebleachinghypothesis positsthat coral bleachingmay offer coralsthechancetorecruit more thermally resilient algal symbionts. However,it isacontroversial hypothesisbecauseit wasthought that most coralshost only onealgal taxon,andthoughcoralschanging their symbiontshasbeenobserved, after ableachingevent many corals recover their original symbiont type.

Corals.Photo by:Yin Kee Chan,Flickr.

Thereare11 describedgenera of theSymbiodinaceaeeach providingdifferent physiological characteristicstohelpthecorals surviveor dowell indifferent environments.Cladocopium (previously knownasSymbiodinium CladeC)andDurusdinium(or SymbiodiniumCladeD)arethemost commondinoflagellatesinthe PacificOcean.Cladocopiumisamore general taxonoccupyingthe greatest number of nichesandthe most coral species.Durusdiniumis foundmoreinshallow water corals allowingfor increasedtoleranceto thermal stresswhilealsobeing energeticallycostly tothecoral host.

A paper by RochadeSouzaand teamfromtheHawai?i Instituteof MarineBiology studiedthecoral speciesMontiporacapitatainthe K?ne?oheBay.They identified283 Symbiodiniacaetypes,withM. capitatacontainingmostly the Cladocopiumsymbiont at 85%,while while15%belongedtothegenus Durusdinium.Overall,43%of M.

capitatasampleswerefoundtohost only Cladocopium,11%hostedonly Durusdiniumand46%hosted both symbionts.Thedifferent drivers affectingthevariability inthealgae includedepth(61%),varying temperatures(19%),maximum temperature(9.9%),anddegree heatingweeksor DHW (4.8%).

K?ne?oheBay provides different environmental extremesin thenorthernandsouthernendsof thebay andcoralshost different Symbiodinaceae,whileother types of Symbiodinaceaedominateinthe central part of thebay.Thissuggests that thealgal symbiont canmatch thecompositionof thesurrounding holobiont,settingthestagefor how thesedinoflagellatesaredistributed spatially andtemporally.

Understandingthesefinescale parametersisimportant in understandingthefinescalespatial patternsincoral biological responses,likebleaching,andtheir susceptibility tochanging environments.

Coral Reef,Shark Island Lagoon, FrenchFrigate Shoals.Photo by: LindseyKramer/USFWS,Flickr.

Ocean Plastic Degradation

By:Alexandrya Robinson,

Plastic Degradation

Evidence of human impact on the marine environment is easily visible to the public eye; biodiversity levels, overfishing, coral bleaching,and the hottest topic ? pollution.Multiple sources of pollution find their way into the ocean,from nutrient runoff to trash.Each has its own effect on the ecosystem.New research from Institut de Ciències del Mar in Barcelona, Spain suggests that plastics have unintended consequences for the ocean. The research team studied what plastic degradation can do to the surrounding water.When exposed to sunlight, polystyrene plastic has been shown to release CO2 and chemical additives, which vary depending on who produced it.The Institut de Ciències del Mar team wanted to understand the effects of sunlight exposure on other plastics to determine if the same CO2 leaching was present for other plastics.Plastics made from polyethylene, polystyrene, biodegradable polylactic acid, and plastics were collected from beaches that had already been

Robinson, UHM MOPStudent

Microplastics.Photo by:Brenna Bartley,Flickr.

exposed to sunlight radiation.

Of the plastic collected that fit within the size range of microplastics (less than 5 mm in diameter), the team found that 65 %were polyethylene plastic particles,30 %polypropylene particles,and 5 %polyvinyl chloride particles.The most abundant polyethylene plastics seem to be for packaging use, but tracing plastics to their source is difficult because manufacturers keep their plastic recipes a trade secret.

Much like polystyrene, polypropylene has a variety of application uses,but the most common use is for packaging and clothing because it is durable, low cost, and can be waterproof. Polyvinyl chloride, most well-known for PVC piping and structural supports, was the least abundant group of plastics found. All of the plastic found on the beach showed significant levels of degradation.The team was able to observe the samples visually and with a scanning electron microscope,indicating that environmental exposure had

already been at work.First, the beach plastic was sorted and grouped.Then they,along with samples of non-degraded plastic, were observed under laboratory exposure to UV radiation, simulating sunlight.These samples were then compared to untreated control groups.

The beach plastic showed the most considerable change, demonstrating that the CO2 leaching caused significant changes in the pH after only six days.The drop in pH indicates that plastics degrade under environmental exposure and undergo acidification, making them a contributor to overall ocean acidification, which is highly concerning.In the past, the study of ocean acidification contributors has primarily focused on atmospheric greenhouse gasses. However,these findings show that there are other areas that need to be addressed.Plastic production and consumption and, consequently pollution,is still on the rise.

Ocean acidification affects all species within the ocean.For

example,ocean acidification causes animals reliant on calcium carbonate, like some species of phytoplankton and crustaceans, to struggle to build their skeletons to protect themselves.In an acidic environment,corals?calcium carbonate skeleton growth rate slows.Multiple species, from the bottom of the food web to the large species, all feel the effects of ocean acidification.

If this pollution problem is not addressed, and solutions for

removing already degrading plastics are not established, the effects of ocean acidification will only worsen.It is estimated that global pH has only dropped by 0.1 due to human impact, which on a grand scheme sounds like a meager number, but already there are widespread detrimental effects at just this "low"level change.What will the ocean look like if there is no intervention and the pH continues to drop faster than marine organisms can adapt?

TrashonThe Beach.Photo by: Matt MacIntosh/NOAA,Flickr.

Volume XXXVII,Number 10

Editor: Abbie Jeremiah

Dr.Cynthia Hunter (eminence grise) Jeffrey Kuwabara (eminence grise)

Writing Team: Chloe Molou,Lucian Anderson,Alexandrya Robinson, Haley Chasin,Abbie Jeremiah,Sofia FloresPina

Seawords- Marine Option Program

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Seawords isthe monthly newsletter newsletter of the Marine Option Program at the University of Hawai?i.Opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the Marine Option Program or of the University of Hawai?i.

Suggestions and submissionsare welcome.Submissions may include articles,photography,art work,or anything that may be of interest to the marine community in Hawai?i.and around the world.

All photosare taken by MOP unlessotherwise credited.