September 2014 Seawords

Seaw rds The Marine Option Program Newsletter

September 2014

31ST ANNUAL MARINE OPTION PROGRAM STUDENT SYMPOSIUM MOP PRESENTS THE 86TH GRADUATING CLASS THERE AND BACK AGAIN: A MOPER’S TALE INTERVIEW WITH DR. CHRISTOPHER KELLEY NON-PROFIT: HAWAI‘I WILDLIFE FUND & PRESERVE HAWAI‘I

SEPTEMBER 2014 Volume XXVIII, Number 5 Contents Page 4: Letter from the Editor Page 6: Student Perspective: MOP Symposium Page 14: Student Perspective: Tour of the SEA Semester ship Page 18: MOP spring 2014 graduation Page 19: There and back again: a MOPers tale Page 22: Ocean Updates: To heal the ocean we must first heal ourselves; Former VP Al Gore speaks at UH Mānoa; Underwater goldrush; NOAA research indicates higher hurricane intensity at poles Page 26: Critter of the Month Page 27: Interview with Dr. Christopher Kelley Page 32: Generation Blue Page 34: Non-Profits: Hawai‘i Wildlife Fund; Preserve Hawai‘i Page 36: Ocean Art: ‘Uhu Reef Rescue by Margo Vitarelli Page 38: Hanauma Bay Calendar of Events Flashback Page 39: September Calendar of Events

About the Photography in this Issue -By Corey Mutnik, UHM MOP Student: -Table of Contents: A christmas tree worm on a coral head at Makapu‘u.

-Letter from the Editor: This saucy zebra moray got his mugshot taken at Pele’s Chair.

-MOP Calendar: -Cover photo by Priya Rashid, Associate Editor -This photo wraps around to the back cover in order to include everyone in the photo.

-All uncredited photos by: MOP

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As seen on the cover...

31st Annual Marine Option Program Student Symposium

pg 6

By Kathryn Lam, Editor; Priya Rashid, Associate Editor; and Brijonnay Madrigal, Assistant Editor On April 12, 2014 the Marine Option Program hosted their 31st Annual Student Symposium at Kapi‘olani Community College.

MOP presents the 86th graduating class

pg 18

By Brijonnay Madrigal, Assistant Editor On April 12, 2014 the Marine Option Program hosted their 31st Annual Student Symposium at Kapi‘olani Community College.

There and back again: a MOPer’s tale

By Kathryn Lam, Editor

pg 19

In a campsite by the beach lived some MOPers. . . and that means science.

Interview with Dr. Christopher Kelley pg 27

By Kathryn Lam, Editor Dr. Christopher Kelley, of the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, recently returned from two cruises to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

Non-Profit: Hawai‘i Wildlife Fund & Preserve Hawa‘i

pg 34

By Priya Rashid, Associate Editor Featuring the last two non-profit organizations from our mini-series.

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Seawords Volume XXVII, Number 5, September 2014 Editor: Kathryn Lam Associate Editor: Priya Rashid Assistant Editor: Brijonnay Madrigal Dr. Cynthia Hunter (éminence grise) Seawords- Marine Option Program University of Hawai‘i, College of Natural Sciences 2450 Campus Road, Dean Hall 105A Honolulu, HI 96822-2219 Telephone: (808) 956-8433 Email: <seawords@hawaii.edu> Website: <http://www.hawaii.edu/mop> Seawords is the monthly newsletter of the Marine Option Program at the University of Hawai‘i. Opinions expressed herein are not necessariliy those of the Marine Option Program or of the University of Hawai‘i.

Suggestions and submissions are 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 photos are taken by MOP unless otherwise credited.

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st

31 Annual Marine Option Program Symposium

Saturday, April 12, 2014 9am-5pm Kapi‘olani Community College, ‘Ohia 118 6|

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STUDENT PERSPECTIVE

By Kathryn Lam, Editor Priya Rashid, Associate Editor Brijonnay Madrigal, Assistant Editor

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n April 12, 2014 the Marine Option Program hosted their 31st Annual Student Symposium at Kapi‘olani Community College. The Symposium consisted of twenty-two presenters. Dr. Mark Hixon, Hsiao Endowed Chair of Marine Biology at University of Hawaii-Mānoa presented the keynote address on “Hawai‘i’s Changing Ocean.” MOP Director Cindy Hunter and Mackenzie Manning, assistant professor of Biology and Marine Biology at Kapi‘olani Community College, gave the welcoming remarks.

There were four sessions of presentations with a block of time in the middle for poster presentations each introduced by a faculty coordinator from one of the campus programs.

Session I: Hosted by David Krupp, Windward Community College MOP Gabriel Cohen, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Internship Last summer, Gabriel Cohen participated in two research cruises while interning with the Pacific Islands Benthic Habitat Mapping Center (PIBHMC). During this time, he was under the mentorship of Dr. John Rooney, Benthic Habitat Characterization Ecologist at NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration. The purpose of the first cruise was to evaluate different potential stock assessment methods for gathering fisheriesindependent data of Hawai‘i bottom fish populations. The purpose of the second cruise was solely for the testing and calibration of the AUV. While on the research vessels he worked with the team that was Gabriel Cohen, UHM responsible for the upkeep MOP Student and operation of a SeaBED class Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV). Cohen learned “valuable experience and skills towards a career in working aboard research vessels.”

Gabriel Cohen was awarded the John P. Craven Award for the most inspired and inspirational presentation by a MOP “Child of the Sea.” Lautisha Cleavenger, Windward Community College, Internship In order to become a Waikīkī Aquarium Interpreter, Lautisha Cleavenger, working under the mentorship of Guerin Earhart, Education Specialist of the Waikīkī Aquarium, spent last October undergoing SEPTEMBER 2014

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training sessions at the Waikīkī Aquarium. “I shared conservational and educational information to guests from all over the world,” Cleavenger said.

Cleavenger worked mostly at the Hawaiian Monk Seal and Observational Pool exhibits while instilling the basic “look, don’t touch and don’t take” idea into visitors Lautisha Cleavenger, at the latter exhibit. During WCC MOP Student her presentation, Cleavenger incorporated an example of what she did at the Observational Pool. Usually shy, Cleavenger said that this project helped her not only to spread messages of conservation but also to allow her to be more comfortable with public speaking.

Bradley Young, University of Hawai‘i-Hilo, Internship Bradley Young, mentored by Dr. Jason Adolf and Dr. Steven Colbert of UH Hilo and Dr. Pierre Flament of the UH Mānoa SOEST, spent the last year working as an intern on a project entitled: “Installation of coastal radar arrays to monitor ocean currents and Bradley Young, UHH improve community storm MOP Student preparedness: Hilo Bay, Hawai‘i Island.” Young helped to construct and install a new high frequency (HF) radar system at the Pacific Aquaculture and Coastal Resources Center in Hilo.

He designed his research project to “test the efficacy of the HF radar in the application of search and rescue operations in Hilo Bay, HI.” He also helped the Mokupāpapa Discovery Center (MDC) to construct new facilities that now displays an interactive kiosk to show HF radar data to the public.

Bradley Young was awarded the PACOB International, Hawai‘i Chapter, MOP Symposium Award for the best paper integrating marine science and technology with a Pacific focus.

Matthias Keller, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Internship

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UH Mānoa student Matthias Keller, mentored

by Mackenzie Manning of Kapi‘olani Community College, spent his 2014 Spring Semester as an intern at the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology Shark Laboratory on Coconut Island. He helped to care for many different shark species including scalloped hammerhead sharks, blacktip Matthias Keller, UHM sharks, reef whitetip sharks, MOP Student and sandbar sharks along with yellowfin tuna. Each of these species can be found in different holding areas around the island.

Keller monitored feeding data, activities, behaviors, and health conditions of each fish. This was carried out over each feeding trial that Keller conducted for the laboratory as well as his own project. He learned monitoring techniques, abilities to distinguish differences in different fish species and species behaviors, animal husbandry techniques, and entering and recording data in an organized format.

Session II: Hosted by Lisa Parr, University of Hawai‘iHilo MOP Koa S. Matsuoka, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Research From 2002-2012, both the general public and volunteers have been reporting data of monk seals to the Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program.

Koa S. Matsuoka under the mentorship of Tracy Wurth and Lizabeth Kashinsky of Koa S. Matsuoka, UHM the Hawaiian Monk Seal MOP Student Research Program, NMFS/ PIFSC, and NOAA, conducted research on trends and survival factors on monk seals in the Main Hawaiian Islands during that decade as monk seals and humans alike showed an increase in population. The goal of the research project was to categorize survival factors into naturally or anthropogenically caused and “gain an understanding of the common survival factors affecting monk seal survival and the rate at which they are increasing in the Main Hawaiian Islands.”

Kevin Bruce, University of Hawai‘i-Hilo, Research Not all the projects took place in Hawai‘i, however.

Kevin Bruce, mentored by Peter Tschaplinski from the British Columbia Ministry of Environment, worked at Carnation Creek for 9 years. For his project, Bruce compared the population Kevin Bruce, UHH MOP of rearing coho salmon fry Student across already established sections of Carnation Creek.

Bruce’s findings concluded which sections should therefore be protected from habitat alteration and disturbance via activities such as logging in order to increase adult coho salmon populations in marine ecosystems. To collect the data, the researchers only stunned the fish instead of killing them as that would have been counter-productive to their experiment.

Amber Forrestal, University of Hawai‘i-Hilo, Research Amber Forrestal also studied fish outside of Hawai‘i.

Mentored by Dr. Gary Fitzhugh, Research Fisheries biologist at Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) in Panama City, Florida, Forrestal’s research project focused on two Amber Forrestal, UHH species of reef fish from the MOP Student Gulf of Mexico, the grey triggerfish and the vermillion snapper, both of which have a relatively high site fidelity and similar spawning seasons. However the grey triggerfish male makes nests and has a harem of females while the vermillion snapper are pelagic spawners. They used phase angle and as an indicator of reproductive allocation, finding that the differences between their reproductive habits were probably due to energy storage in the grey triggerfish but no energy storage at all in the vermillion snapper.

Amber Forrestal was awarded Best Research Paper.

Emily Wallingford, University of Hawai‘i-Hilo, Research

Emily Wallingford conducted her research on the ecology of sharks in Hilo Bay, HI under the mentorship of Dr. Jason Turner from the Department of Marine Sciences at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo.

From March to November 2013, Wallingford captured, identified, measured, tagged, and released sharks in Hilo Bay. She laid stable Emily Wallingford, UHH isotope data over a growth MOP Student model for juvenile oceanic blacktip sharks that she created using the total length data to look for correlations between estimated age and trophic level. Wallingford found that the most abundant sharks in Hilo Bay were those around the one-year age mark and that trophic levels “varied greatly with possible indications of less variable diet with increased age.”

Posters George Huss, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Internship The following paragraph comes from the abstract George Huss wrote about his internship.

He was mentored by Dr. Hans Van Tilburg of the Pacific Maritime Heritage Program at the NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries.

For centuries, the Hawaiian George Huss, UHM MOP Islands have been a treasure Student trove for shipwrecks in the Pacific. Documentation for these shipwrecks is rare and scattered. There has never been a fully comprehensive shipwreck database created for the Main Hawaiian Islands. Bob Krauss, often regarded as the father of Hawaiian maritime history, left behind a finding aid critical to the emerging shipwreck database in the Hawaiian Islands. He created a database which consisted of hundreds of early newspaper articles regarding shipwrecks and maritime history of the Hawaiian Islands. These newspaper articles were scanned from microfilm, converted into PDFs and sent off to NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries Pacific Maritime Heritage Program as a contributing SEPTEMBER 2014

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element in establishing the first comprehensive shipwreck database in the Main Hawaiian Islands.

Kari Barber, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Research Under the mentorship of Dr. Cindy Hunter, Kari Barber investigated a region in Bellingham, WA called Teddy Bear Cove for signs of a “Wasting Disease” that has been affecting sea stars in the Pacific Northwest. Two of the most hard-hit areas, according to Barber, were just North and Kari Barber, UHM MOP Student Sough of Bellinghamd and Teddy Bear Cove which Barber had noticed previously had a population of healthy sea stars. After compiling data for over 60 sea stars of six different species and not finding any sea star that shows signs of the disease, Barber concluded that Teddy Bear Cove and concurrently the immediate surrounding areas had yet to be affected by the disease.

Kathryn Sulik, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Internship Under the mentorship of Aliza Milette-Winfrey at the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology, Kathryn Sulik participated in the Marine Mammal Research Program (MMRP) Internship where she was provided with the opportunity to conduct research and learn about marine ecosystems. “MMRP is Kathryn Sulik, UHM dedicated to the conservation MOP Student of marine mammals by conducting sensory and cognitive research in pens located offshore of Coconut Island,” said Sulik. As an intern, Sulik participated in husbandry care as well as research projects conducted by graduate students and visiting researchers.

According to Sulik’s abstract, “additional exposure to the maintenance required to sustain a safe habitat in open, seawater pens provided an ultimately new and challenging environment.”

Marat Khramov, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Internship Jellyfish, though beautiful have lacked organization 10|

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within their phylogeny.

“While many of us living in ‘Oahu experience box jellyfish aggregations on the south shores on a monthly basis, rigorous phylogenetic studies examining cubozoans are uncommon,” said Marat Khramov. “The taxonomic statuses of species within Alatina are currently in a state of disarray; it may be that Marat Khramov, UHM multiple recognized species MOP Student constitute a single species.”

Khamov’s internship focused on PCR amplification and sequencing of COI, 16S, 18S, and H3 gene regions to shed further resolution on cubozoan taxonomy, phylogenetics, and phylogeography, with a particular focus on Alatina moseri. The information gathered from this study will be used to clarify and identify species and types of jellyfish.

Christina Crocket, University of Hawai‘i-Hilo, Internship Under the mentorship of Dr. Jason Turner, Associate Professor in the Division of Natural Sciences at UH Hilo, Christina Crocket participated in an internship that worked with the rehabilitation process of injured wild sea birds in Christina Crocket, UHH California, specifically in Santa Barbara, Ventura, and MOP Student Malibu Counties. According to Crocket’s abstract, climate change, entanglement in fishing line, organic contaminants, habitat destruction, introduction of invasive species, and, of course, oil pollution all contribute to the declining health of wild seabirds. After rehabilitation, fully recovered birds were released either at the spot they were discovered or “an appropriate environment based on the species of seabird.”

Jenae Olsen, University of Hawai‘i-Hilo, Internship Water lacking the necessary amount of dissolved oxygen (DO) can have adverse effects on a fish’s ability to thrive, affecting both fish health and population.

For her research project, Jenae Olson collected juvenile

mullet from the Wailoa River and estuary. The fish were tested for DO tolerance in sealed jars until they lost equilibrium. After this they were allowed to revocer in water with high saturation of DO and released. The goal of Olson’s experiment was to determine whether Mugil cephalus (stripped mullet) or Valamugil engeli (Marquesan Jenae Olsen, UHH MOP mullet) have a competitive Student survival advantage. If was found that Marquesan mullet have a significantly lower DO tolerance than stripped mullet.

Jesse Adams, Kaua‘i Community College, Internship Jesse Adams always loved the beaches of Kaua‘i. When land started to move Adams wanted to investigate further. His internship followed the nourishment activities at two beaches: Waimea Beach and Kikiaola Small Boat Harbor. The erosion has caused problems for both a local cemetary and the nearby private property. Adams learned skills involving data collection and analysis as well as digitization of data, where he took data points and transects from the beaches and input them into computers to create a image and forecast of the beaches. “In my internship Chuck Blay, from TEOK investiagtions, and Steve Taylor taught me a lot about geology. I learned all about Jesse Adams, KCC MOP the formation of Kaua‘i Student and more importantly the materials that it is made of out.” said Adams. “I also learned survey techniques and polished my people skills since there was a fair amount of interest from the community. This project is on going and we intend to monitor the 100% state funded project to truck 80,000 tons of sand from one side of the harbor to the other. This is most likely a quick fix.”

Jana Rothenberg, Kaua‘i Community College, Internship Jana Rothenberg created a short film documenting

the changes and movement of sand on Kaua‘i beaches.

The beaches seemed to be expanding on the Pacific Missile Range Facility and diminishing in Kekaha, geologists science students were called in to survey the beach changes. Using film footage, music and interviews, Rothenberg produced “The Story of Sand, a story of the Jana Rothenberg, KCC sand along the Mana Coastal MOP Student Plain.” Kaua‘i Community College Marine Option Program students, with Professor Stephen Taylor and Geologist Chuck Blay, measured the beach and discovered amazing changes in beach size from November 2012 to May 2013.

Longshore currents carried sand for up to 25 miles around the western coast of Kaua‘i. You can view her completed piece here.

Ryan Pe‘a, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Research By using water quality buoys and Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCP), Ryan Pe‘a measured the currents, tide, and salinity in Kīholo Bay. This research project was conducted under the mentorship of Steven Colbert and Jason Adolf in the Department of Marine Science at UH Hilo. “The movements of currents present information that is useful in many different ways to a variety of people,” Pe‘a said in his abstract.

“Currents are often a factor that transports the inputs of freshwater in the ocean.

Establishing relationships and correlations of these currents to tides will allow knowledge of patterns in regards to where this freshwater is moving, and can provide insight into what Ryan Pe‘a, UHM MOP Student other factors may possibly be driving the movement of freshwater.”

Rebecca Rogers, University of Hawai‘i-Hilo, Internship Working with the Harmful Algae Blooms Observing System, Rebecca Rogers studied and worked with new automated, remote, and near real time sampling and SEPTEMBER 2014

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detection of harmful algae.

Algae,”plant-like” marine organism can have population explosions called blooms.

These blooms can wreak havoc on ecosystems and local economies. The internship involved daily readings and samplings. Roger’s learned technical skills like how to calibrate and check the mechanics of the HABSOS Rebecca Rogers, UHH remote data collectors. After MOP Student completing this internship, Roger’s believes that someday while we check for the weather we will also check for harmful algae blooms.

James Stilley, University of Hawai‘i-Hilo, Research James Stilley presented at the MOP 2014 Symposium on a research project conducted to assess the decline of the reef fish populations off the Eastern side of Big Island, HI. His survey encompassed two study areas in Puhi Bay and Richardon’s Ocean Center. He used 25m strip transects over a five month period and compared this to James Stilley, UHH MOP a 2001 study. Both benthic Student and depth factors were assessed to examine variation in species of coral, fish and benthic types. Stilley’s research led to some interesting conclusions. His results showed that there was no significant difference between species richness among the different sites but that coral species richness in 2013 was variable among different depths. Stilley hopes that in future studies, short term trends can be assessed as well as testing other factors not included in this study, to gain more valuable information on the reef fish populations.

Erica Donlon, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Internship Erica Donlon was interested in assessing the effects of alien algae species on native coral within the Hawaiian Islands. She utilized Benthic Photo Quadrant PointIntercept Surveys to cover as much area of the ocean floor as possible without counting singular organisms 12|

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for maximum efficiency.

Utilizing the software Coral Point Count (CPCe), 15 random points on each image of the reef surrounding the Hawaiian Islands were compared in amounts of coral vs. algae. Long term studies of this type have been ongoing to monitor the native corals response to the blooming algae that cause Erica Donlon, UHM the coral to die. As Donlon MOP Student states, “If we can, understand how the invasive species get to the reefs of Hawai‘i, then we can find a reasonable way to prevent it from happening again in the future, so we may protect the native populations in our reefs.” In the future, this data will be compared to NOAA’s benthic data for further comparison.

Jessica Frost, Kaua‘i Community College, Internship For her MOP project, Jessica Frost monitored marine debris found at Lepe’uli and Waipake beaches on the northeast shore of Kaua‘i.

She conducted a small-scale beach cleanups every day and cataloged the findings each week in order to create Jessica Frost, KCC MOP Student a thorough picture of the amount and types of debris that washed up on these beaches. The data from each month was then sent to the Surfrider Foundation and to NOAA to further their understanding of ocean processes and contribute to observations of patterns and trends associated with the Japanese tsunami of March, 2011. It was found that plastic was especially in abundance during winter months due to strong swells on the north side of the island.

Justin Miyano, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Internship For nine months, Justin Miyano interned for Ph. D. candidate Nyssa Silbiger assisting in her research of ocean acidification and its’ effects on coral reef bioerosion. He collected samples of coral rubble from

Coconut Island, monitored and maintained an aquaria, and helped analyze the water chemistry from various samples tanks. Bioerosion is normally a natural process that dissolves calcium carbonate structures which coral is made of. However, should bioerosion rates exceed those of coral growth rates, the existance of coral reefs could disappear all

together. The findings of the nine month period found that the future predicted climate conditions would lead to increased bioerosion rates of coral reefs. “As climate change escaltes there will be severe consequences on coral reefs,” Miyano wrote in his abstract.

Steven Matadobra of the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa was unable to attend due to a research cruise but he was awarded the Anna Toy Ng Memorial MOP Scholarship, for excellence in marine scholarship, ocean stewardship and contributions to MOP.  Justin Miyano, UHM MOP Student

Keynote Speech “For whatever we lose (like a you or a me), It’s always our self we find in the sea.” -ee cummings

By Kathryn Lam, Editor

K

eynote speaker Dr. Mark Hixon of the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa gave a brief presentation entitled “Hawai‘i’s changing ocean: a third century retrospective” at the student symposium.

Hixon named four major changes that he’s seen since he first began his studies in Hawaii 30 years ago: 1) less litter, 2) larger waves, 3) less beach and sand, and 4) the overfishing of ‘uhu, or parrotfish.

Education prevents littering As people become aware of what they are doing to the Earth they are starting to make things recyclable and also making recycling a more viable options. Putting out trash and recycle bins and having strict litter enforcements are among these things as well as education in schools.

“What’s happened now,” said Hixon, “is children are educating their parents and now there’s less litter on the beaches.”

Sea Level Rise Larger waves cause erosion which, in turn, decreases the amount of beach and sand. As the beach falls away to the ocean and the water creeps up closer to shore, a phenomenon called sea level rise, there is threat of beloved places like Waikīkī being underwater. An-

other symptom that goes hand in hand with sea level rise is temperature change, Although this might not resonate with some because temperatures go up and down daily, temperature increase on a global level could be devastating.

According to Paul Jokiel, researcher at the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology, “a few degrees will put our corals over the edge.”

Dr. Mark Hixon, Keynote Speaker

The plight of the ‘uhu Hixon asserts that there is reason for hope.‘Uhu, or parrotfish, are spectacular for coral reefs as they clean reef surfaces so that seaweed doesn’t overgrow reefs blocking out sunlight and causing coral bleaching. The neatest part of all though, is this- one ‘uhu can produce 7kg of sand per square meter per year which would replenish the disappearing beaches. Unfortunately, ‘uhu are also a popular food fish. Some fishermen participate in something called reef bombing in which they hunt for ‘uhu at night while they are sleeping to ensure capture of as many ‘uhu as possible.

Hixon thinks that education is the key. The more the public is made aware of what is going on and feel a connection to it, they will fight to preserve the ocean and bring it back to what it once was.  SEPTEMBER 2014

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Tour of the SEA Semester ship Photographed by Tate Wester, UHM Student Coordinator Compiled by Kathryn Lam, Editor

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MOP Graduation th Presents: The 86 G

By Brijonnay Madrigal, Assistant Editor

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n Thursday May 8, the Marine Options Program celebrated the graduation of the 86th graduating class in a ceremony held at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa campus.

Graduates, family and friends gathered to celebrate the accomplishments of twenty-five MOP students across six campuses. Nine University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa students and two Windward Community College students were present at the ceremony. Jeff Kuwabara, UHM MOP Coordinator, introduced the keynote speaker for the evening, Raymond Boland, the NOAA Fisheries Service Biologist and Pacific Region Unit Diving Coordinator. He presented an inspiring presentation on “Risk”, that encouraged students not to be afraid to take risks. He conveyed that life, science and exploration is all about risk. He entertained the interested audience with shark stories of his experience in the field.

Certificates were then presented to twelve well deserving students. From Windward Community College, Windward MOP Coordinator David Krupp, presented Lautisha Cleavenger with a Certificate in Marine Education for her project as a Waikiki Aquarium Interpreter. She will be entering into the Global Environmental Science program at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa in the Fall and wants to teach children in the future. The second Windward MOP student was Ihilani Gutierrez, who was awarded a certificate in Sea Urchin Studies in which she studied spawning research of Sea Urchins at the Hawai’i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB). She plans to start at UH Manoa in the Fall and is looking forward to starting a Bachelors and continuing her work at HIMB. This Fall, nine Manoa graduates were recognized at the ceremony. Kari Barber received her certificate in Sea Star research through research she conducted

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Windward Community College MOP Coordinator Dr. David Krupp with the two Windward MOP graduates, Lautisha Cleavenger and Ihilani Gutierrez. (Lam/Seawords)

on shoreline surveys looking for the presence of sea star waste disease in the Pacific Northwest US. Her future plans include participating in QUEST, helping with the” Summer by the Sea” program and then she hopes to move to Washington state. Sherine Boomla was the second student to receive her certificate in hermit crab research where she conducted a study on zonation of hermit crab species in Kupikipiki’o tide pools. She plans to look for a job that combines both in the field work with lab work. She conveyed that she truly enjoyed the MOP experience and will miss the program. Mattias Keller was then presented a certificate in marine predator husbandry. For his MOP project, he worked as an intern with the HIMB shark laboratory. In the future, he hopes to become a dive master and travel by sea, along the West Coast of the US and Mexico.

Marat Khramov worked with box jellyfish on a project looking at molecular systematics of jellyfish with a focus on A. moseri. With his MOP certificate in Marine Zoology, he plans to obtain a job in the zoology field

n Spring 2014

Graduating Class and continue on to graduate school within the year.

Stephen Matadobra joined MOP in 2009 and was awarded the Most Involved MOP student due to his commitment to the program. He obtained his MOP certificate in Maritime Archaeology, as his project was focused on a maritime archeology survey at a Hale O Kapuni site. He has completed QUEST, MAST and other programs through MOP along with working in the shark lab at HIMB. Stephen hopes to continue with diving and obtain his EMT/Diver Technical Training and will be going to QUEST this summer.

The next graduate was Koa Matsuoka, who received his certificate on Monk Seal Research as his project was categorizing survival factor reports of Hawaiian Monk Seals based on anthropogenic and natural factors. He hopes to travel in the future. Ceone Nojima received herMOP certificate in Sea Turtle Conservation. Her project was working on the Hawai’i Island Hawksbill Turtle Recovery project. Her future plans include returning to Portland and due to her bad case of the travel bug, she wants to travel and possibly attend graduate school in a foreign country. The final MOP graduate was Ryan Pe’a who received a MOP certificate in Nearshore Oceanography. For his project, he was analyzing relationships and correlations of factors affecting the movement of freshwater in Kiholo Bay on Hawai’i Island. He plans to work on Kona as afield assistant in the future. He plans to attend graduate school at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa for Natural Resource Management.

many MOP students.

Thank you to the friends, family and campus MOP coordinators that attended graduation in support of their students and to all the MOP faculty for helping out at the event. Thank you to Raymond Boland for giving the keynote address. Finally, thank you to Jeff Kuwabara for year after year planning graduation and Cynthia Hunter, for serving as director of the Marine Option Program. 

Congratulations, graduates!

University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Kari Barber, Certificate Title: Sea Star Research Sherine Boomla, Certificate Title: Hermit crab Research UH Mānoa MOP Coordinator Jeff Kuwabara and MOP Director Dr. Cynthia Hunger with the nine UH Mānoa MOP graduates (from left to right): Koa Matsuoka, Ceone Nojima, Gabriel Cohen, Sherine Boomla, Marat Khramov, Matthias Keller, Ryan Pe‘a, Kari Barber, and Stephen Matadobra.

(Lam/Seawords)

Dr. Cynthia Hunter, MOP Director, gave the closing remarks and expressed her joy at seeing all the MOP graduates that worked so hard to obtain their MOP certificates. She hopes that they will take the meaning of O‘hana onward with them because the Marine Option Program has truly served as an O‘hana for SEPTEMBER 2014

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Gabriel Cohen, Certificate Title: Oceanographic Research

Christina Crockett, certificate Title: Marine Bird Rehabilitation

Matthias Keller, Certificate Title: Marine Predator Husbandry

Kayleigh Flynn, Certificate Title Buoy Data Analysis

Marat Khramov, Certificate Title: Marine Zoology Stephen Matadobra, Certificate Title: Martitime Archaeolody Koa Matsuoka, Certificate Title: Monk Seal Research Ceone Nojima, Certificate Title: Sea Turtle Conservation

Zacharcy Gorski, Certificate Title: Invasive Algal Removal Jenae Olson, Certificate Title: Mullet Aquaculture Rebecca Rogers, Certificate Title: Marine Biotechnology

Ryan Pe‘a, Certificate Title: Nearshore Oceanography

James Stilley, Certificate Title: Underwater Survey Techniques

Windward Community College

Emily Wallingford, Certificate Title: Shark Physiology

Lautisha Cleavenger, Certificate Title: Marine Education

Bradley Young, Certificate Title: High Frequency Radar

Ihilani Gutierrez, Certificate Title: Sea Urchin Studies

Kaua‘i Community College

Leeward Community College

Jesse Adams: Certificate Title: Coastline Geology

Carla Mae Esquivel, Certificate Title: Marine Education

Jessica Frost, Certificate Title: Marine Debris Monitoring

University of Hawai‘i at Hilo

Jana Rotherberg, Certificate Title: Science Communication and Education

Kevin Bruce, Certificate Title: Salmon Ecology

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Amber Forrestal, Certificate Title: Fish Physiology

Seawords

There and back again- a MOPers tale:

QUEST

By Kathryn Lam, Editor

Susan Kelly/ Waik朝k朝 Aquarium

Photo credit: Tate Wester, UHM MOP Student Coordinator

I

n a campsite by the beach lived some MOPers. Not a nasty, dirty, loud campsite, filled with fire pits and litter, nor

yet a clean, bare campsite with nowhere to sit down or eat: it was a MOPercampsite, and that means science...

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Photo credit: Jeff Kuwabara, UHM MOP Coordinator

U

nder the palm trees, tucked away in the back of Ke‘ei Point on the Hawai‘i Island, is QUEST (or Quantitative Underwater Ecological Surveying Techniques). This year QUEST took place from May 19-May 31. Here, 24 divers split into teams of six, each lead by a team leader (more advanced students who have been to QUEST previously) and a faculty diver, take surveys of the surrounding reefs. The 24 team members who come from various University of Hawai‘i campuses as well as one out of state college are enrolled in MARE 264 at UH Hilo while the six team leaders are taking MARE 364. For the majority of the dives these students stay in their teams where they will compile papers and presentations to present at the end of the program.

During the last dive, however, at Hōnaunau, the 24 divers are split up into “super teams” based on skill set as decided by the team leaders. All the students are accomplished and talented divers who had to undergo rigorous training to get where they are.

In order to participate in QUEST the students must first be SCUBA certified as well as UH Scientific Diver in Training certified through the UH Diving Safety Program. In addition they must be able to identify about 200 different species of corals, invertebrates, fishes, and limu with their scientific names. All students who came scored an 80% or higher on the QUEST ID exam-- an exam they all retook upon arrival to the campsite. During the two week long field school, QUEST students get to go on various dives the utilize skills learned in the QUEST I.D. classes. They

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Photo credit

record data and use it to create research projects that they present at the end of the program.

The UH Divers were productive during their last dive, talking to beach goers and explaining QUEST as well as helping them in and out of the water at two step while managing their own who were also going in and out of the water. Team leader Bradley Young even took care of a local woman who had stepped on a sea urchin.

As part of the course students listen to various lectures from different presenters that touch on a number of subjects from the DAR (Division of Aquatic Resources) and recent policies to opportunities available after QUEST. The QUEST course set students up to be successful professionally in the various fields that they are studying.

If you are interested in applying to QUEST 2014 get started now, there are many requirements including dive certifications and identification exams to pass.

To learn more about how to apply to QUEST see our advice article in the November 2012 issue of Seawords.

Stay tuned. Over the next three issues, Seawords will be featuring interviews with each of the QUEST leaders with questions such as why they came back and why they think others should participate in the field school.

t: Kathryn Lam, Seawords Editor

Photo credit: Jeff Kuwabara, UHM MOP Coordinator

Q & A time with QUEST team members:

What has been the most exciting thing about QUEST?

How do you believe QUEST is going to impact your future career goals?

“When people see you’re a scientific diver it sets you apart because it’s really hard to become [scientific diver] certified. All the research stuff I want to help with requires you to either take the semester course or this one.”

Kuwabara/UHM MOP

Annie Hoag, UH Mānoa

“The diving, especially, and seeing the reefs here. They’re so much prettier than on O‘ahu and they made me mildly depressed that I’m going back.

Hearing all the opportunities is exciting and also overwhelming.

They were never options to me before I’m not that far away from being the person I never dreamed of being when i was a kid because I didn’t think it was a possibility.”

Kuwabara/UHM MOP

Jenna Budke,

What kind of advice would you give to future QUESTers?

UH Hilo “I’m not majoring in marine science because I thought it was something I had to wait for grad school. To realize it’s something I could start this summer, right now, today-- it helps expedite the process.”

Kuwabara/UHM MOP

“It’s a good idea to try and figure out what your interests are so you can get to know the staff members intimately. Have your own gear and order it early and do it through the school if possible Take scientific diving first, if you can.”

Kuwabara/UHM MOP

Cassia Patel,

Katia Chikasuye,

Wesleyan University

UH Hilo SEPTEMBER 2014

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OCEAN UPDATES To heal the ocean, we must first heal ourselves

By Priya Rashid, Associate Editor

S

cientists around the world are battling over how to “fix” our planet and its oceans from the effects of climate change. Unsure of whether humans will be able to stop the carbon emissions and pollution, scientists have turned to more drastic measures: geoengineering, the deliberate and large-scale manipulation of environmental processes in order to impact Earth's climate.

The ocean has become the star in the geoengineering saga because of its role as the world’s largest carbon sink, a natural or artificial reservoir that accumulates and stores carbon-containing chemical compounds In 2012, instances of rogue iron dumping shocked the international community. The weakness of international regulation quickly became apparent when the Haida Salmon Restoration Corporation under the leadership of businessman Russ George dumped over 200,00 pounds of iron sulfate off the western coast of Canada. The argument being that iron would trigger plankton and restoration of the local fish populations. The catch? Scientists were unable to predict to what degree this would alter the marine ecosystem and hypothesized that these imbalances might create an ocean of “dead zones” punctuated with pockets of human induced iron rich areas.

Other geoengineering ideas include launching Greenland-sized satellite mirrors to reflect more sunlight (costing an upward of billions to trillions of dollars.) Some ideas include brightening clouds, spraying selected aerosols into the air to increase the Earth’s net reflectivity. But they all come with a catch: either enormous costs or enormous risk.

It seems outrageous that scientists, many who are ardent conservationists and environmentalists would even consider this but they are among the most staunch supporters. Many people such as Jairus Grove, professor of Political Science at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, are beginning to doubt that humans can stop the emissions and pollutants.

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Geoengineer: Look at the ocean, she has such beauty, the majextic body of water, the deep blues. If we just heated up here, tucked her coast in a abit over there and added phosphorus over there...

Environmentalist: She’s sensitive about her body.

Rashid/Seawords..

“Geoengineering allows us to not face the consequences,” said Grove. “Many [people] are deeply concerned about our future but are at ends on how to approach the debate.”

As protocols and regulations such as the Kyoto Protocol go widely unheeded by the international community, geoengineers and geo designers say that geoengineering is a bandaid fix and that we must cut our emissions. But it is argued that humans have been geodesigning even as cavemen from discovering fire to learning to mine for minerals.

"Ultimately a full, immediate transition to renewables is the right imperative, but it cannot happen overnight due to the engineering costs and practicalities,” said Stuart Haszeldine, a geoscientist at the University of Edinburgh, specialist in climate change, and proponent of geoengineering. “So we must reduce our carbon emissions while we are still relying on fossil fuels.”

The debate runs so deeply that experts are publicly condemning the actions of international regulating bodies including the UN. April 2014, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a draft of their report, Mitigation of Climate Change, which was scheduled to be released by this month. According to the IPCC website, the report “lays out risks, uncertainty and ethical foundations of climate change mitigation

policies on the global, national and sub-national level.”

The report, written by Working Group 3 (WG3) of the UN IPCC, recommends geoengineering tactics to removing carbon emissions. Many scientists and scholars around the world have begun vehemently fighting and denying the efficacy of these solutions.

Stephen Salter, a professor emeritus of engineering design at the University of Edinburgh, has proposed cloud enhancement as one strategy to cooling the Earth. This would involve spraying seawater onto clouds to increase their reflectivity and decrease the amount of the sunlight hitting sheets of ice and the ocean itself. "Those working on geoengineering are largely doing so reluctantly. The concern is that we

need to ensure technology is available in case events occur more quickly than expected. A technique like marine cloud brightening could save the sea ice and help cool the climate with relatively little side-effects that can be controlled with careful application,” Salter said in the April edition of the Guardian.

As the debate continues, more perspectives and opinions will emerge. The scientific community has yet to reach a consensus but ultimately, the future is in all of our hands. 

Former VP Al Gore speaks at UH Mānoa

By Kathryn Lam, Editor

H

osted by the UH Sea Grant College Program, Chancellor Tom Apple, and U.S. Senator Brian Schatz, former Vice-President Al Gore came to the Stan Sheriff Center to speak on the issue of climate change as part of a day-long conference on clean energy and a sustainable future for Hawai‘i on Tuesday, April 15, 2014. The lecture was a part of the Stephen and Marylyn Pauley Seminar in Sustainability series that supports speakers on academic, cultural, and social issues.

Gore has previously garnered fame in the world of global warming activists through his 2006 Academy Award winning documentary film An Inconvenient Truth. The documentary covers Gore’s campaign to educate the world about climate change and global warming.

In Gore’s presentation at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, he discussed how things would have to change but with the message that as long as something gets done there is still hope.

“[Meanwhile] The Vatican is set to become the first carbon-neutral nation in the world to be completely powered by solar energy,” Gore said. “They have two things going for them. They’re a small nation and they have God on their side.”

Gore compared the denial of politicians and big oil companies regarding global warming to that of tobacco companies thirty years ago.

Climate change deniers now, he argued, are doing the same thing and it’s “immoral, unethical, and despicable, and we need to call them to account for it!”

Former Vice-President Al Gore speaking at University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa’s Stan Sheriff Center April 15 on Climate Change.

(Lam/Seawords)

Across the country people are starting to support a move towards green energy. Gore cited the example of the Sierra Club and Tea Party coming together in Georgia to create “The Green Tea Party,” an effort to oppose a tax on installing solar panels on residential homes.

“It is unstoppable!” Gore said. “The only thing we need is political will, and political will is a renewable resource!” 

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OCEAN UPDATES An underwater gold rush As plans to mine deep seabeds go forward, scientists are calling for a “new stewardship” towards the ocean floor.

By Priya Rashid, Associate Editor

T

he Canadian-based company, Nautilus Minerals, finalised an agreement with the government of Papua New Guinea (PNG) this month and will begin design on the world’s first ocean bed mine. The project will be the first largescale attempt to harvest ores formed on the seafloor.

PNG will control a 15 percent stake in the project and is currently contributing $120 million. The mine location will target an area surrounding hydrothermal vents. Extremely acidic water is naturally pumped at extreme temperatures into frigid seawater causing deposits of minerals to form. These deposits have a much higher mineral concentration than that found on land.

As the cost of metals continues to rise, investors are looking to new areas of harvest. “The deep ocean is a vast repository of resources, and looking over the long term - the next hundreds of years, say - we almost surely are going in there to mine,” said Prof. Lisa Levin, an oceanographer at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, in San Diego, California in an interview with BBC. The ores or polymetallic nodules include copper, gold, magnesium and other metals. These nodules are created over years at a time, making them one of the slowest geological processes on the planet. Concepts involving potential harvesting of the nodules began in the 1960s but never came to fruition due to economical difficulties in removing nodules and raising them from such depths, the potential for heavy international taxation and the relatively high availability of resources from land-based sources.

In the past two decades, these nodules have become lucrative commercial endeavours in the last two decades. As technology in hydrometallurgica methods, side-scan sonar and other ancillary components advanced, this once unfeasible notion is quickly becoming reality.

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This deep sea hydrothermal vent is one of the underwater ecosystems that researchers are concerned about being affected during deep sea drilling. Due to the high heat and acid concentration in these areas, nodules are often found here.

(Photo credit: NOAA Ocean Explorer under Creative Commons liscence, courtesy of flickr.com)

Companies including De Beers and Neptune Minerals are planning projects to harvest other less common resources including diamonds. Scientist are concerned that this underwater gold rush might result in a system of staking claims similar to the western gold rush where for an extensive period there were little to no laws regulating property rights, labor conditions or environment effects.

Researchers are concerned that unregulated mining will destroy unique undersea ecosystems such as those surrounding deep-sea hydrothermal vents, where nodules are often found buried because of the high heat and acid concentration.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982) and the establishment of the International Seabed Authority (1994) are responsible for maintaining the seabeds beyond national jurisdictions, citing they be “treated as a common heritage of mankind.” But to

the dismay of the international scientific community the Authority has continued to sign 15-year contracts with over 19 organizations. According to findings conducted by Dr. Adrian G. Glover and Dr. Craig R. Smith that were published by the Foundation for Environmental Conservation nodule mining has the potential to affect tens of thousands of square kilometers of deep

sea ecosystems. Because nodule regrowth takes millions of years, mining should be considered an unsustainable and nonrenewable endeavour. 

NOAA research indicated higher hurricane intensity at poles

By Brijonay Madrigal, Assistant Editor

N

OAA research has revealed that over the last 30 years the tropical cyclones are reaching maximum intensity closer to the poles. This shift is occurring in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres at a rapid rate of 35 miles every decade which is equivalent to half a degree of latitude. This change in hurricane distribution may mean reduced risk in equatorial regions and higher hurricane risks in polar regions.

Repercussions to the lower latitude areas may mean reduced water resources. Higher latitudes may be inflicted by extreme conditions. NOAA researchers have found that this migration is more prevalent in the Northern and Southern Pacific Ocean and the South

Indian Ocean.

Research is still needed regarding whether or not this same migration pattern persists within the Atlantic Ocean. Scientists recognize that future research is still needed.

“Now that we see this clear trend, it is crucial that we understand what has caused it - so we can understand what is likely to occur in the years and decades to come,” said Gabriel Vecchi, scientist at NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory and co-author of the study.

This new research will soon be featured in the scientific journal Science. 

Hurricanes Iselle and Julio were supposed to hit Hawai‘i over the summer. While Hurricane Iselle hit the Big Island and turned into a tropical depression afterwards, Hurricane Julio passed north of the Hawaiian Islands before it became a tropical storm. (Photo credit: Stuart Rankin under Creative Commons liscence, courtesy of flickr.com)

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Critter of the Month: 26|

Seawords

Photo by: Corey Mutnik, UHM MOP Student

Surge wrasse or Hou Scientific name: Thalassomma purpureum Uncommon in Hawai‘i, surge wrasses are one of the most difficult of the Hawaiian fishes to photograph.

Sometimes surge wrasses will swim alongside a large surgeonfish or parrotfish in order to ambush their prey.

Their range consists of depths up to 90 feet though they tend to stay in shallower waters with stronger waves.

In their initial phase, male and female surge wrasses look very similar, but terminal males (like the one in this photo) are brightly colored.

In Ancient Hawai‘i, the surge wrasse was captured for food at night while they slept in large tide pools. According to John P. Hoover’s Ultimate Guide to Hawaiian Reef Fishes, Sea Turtles, Dolphins, Whales, and Seals, they snore like human beings, with on elegend referring to them as as “celebrated snoring fish.”

Interview with Dr. Christopher Kelley

By Kathryn Lam, Editor Dr. Christopher Kelley, of the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, recently returned from the first of two cruises to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands in partnership with the Schmidt Ocean Institute. The Schmidt Ocean Institute is a non-profit, private foundation started by the executive chairman of Google, Eric E. Schmidt and his wife, Wendy Schmidt in 2009. The Schmidts have donated over $100 million dollars to the oceanography focused foundation that lets scientists use their research vessel, Falkor, at no cost.

Led by Dr. Kelley, the teams aboard Falkor consisted of scientists from NOAA’s Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center and NOAA’s observer program,, the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, the University of Sydney, the University of British Columbia, and other researchers from the University of Hawai‘i, including graduate students who will be aboard for a UH graduate-level course on the geology and geophysics of the Hawaiian Archipelago.

Q A

positions available and because it’s very expensive to do anything in the deep sea… In my particular case, an opportunity arose when HURL’s program biologist before me decided to retire and her position opened up. I happened to be there at the right time.

…I got interested in biology very early on in part because I would spend weeks every summer up on the East Coast where my grandparents and aunts lived, even though I lived inland. So I was always very interested in marine animals but I never got an opportunity to work in marine biology until after completing college and going into graduate school.

Q A

: Why oceanography and how did you get interested in it?

: Well, I’m a biologist, not an oceanographer, for the Hawai‘i Undersea Research Laboratory (HURL), which is a program is embedded into SOEST. Our administrative offices are here in the Oceanography Department; and I am an associate graduate faculty for the department’s biological oceanography division.

…The other part of it is that I’ve always liked the deep sea. It captures a lot of people’s imagination but it’s a difficult field to enter because there are very few

: What do you think about the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s mission?

Dr. Christopher Kelley, of SOEST at the University of : Obviously I like Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Behind the Schmidt Ocean Kelley is a map of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Institute. They have a Marine National Monument conservation angle but also they’re very interested showing what they mapped during the first of the two in applying advanced cruises. (Lam/Seawords) technology to marine

SEPTEMBER 2014

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research and how that can benefit or accelerate the progress in the field. What’s not to like about that? It’s terrific. They have acquired a ship and that’s their main means by which to assist researchers in the field. They make this ship available to researchers as a platform to conduct their research on and it’s not just any ship—it’s fitted with superb multi-beam mapping systems. For all of us on this last cruise it was probably the best data we’ve ever seen and we’ve done a lot of mapping on other ships. They’re continuing the work on building up the ship’s capabilities as well. I know they’ve spent a lot of money refitting the ship… They are coming to the attention of everybody in marine sciences right now. A lot of people a few years ago didn’t know who they were. Now everybody knows who [the Schmidt Ocean Institute] is and everybody is going to be competing for grants to use their ship.

This is the same map shown on Kelley’s computer on the previous page. It details the areas the scientists aboard the Falkor mapped. The holes in the middles of Pearl and Hermes, Midway, and Kure atolls are where good data already existed from previous NOAA mapping cruises.

(Courtesy: Christopher Kelley)

I thought the cruise I just came back from was one of the best cruises I’ve ever been on for many reasons.

One of them is they’re a dedicated group of people and they really prioritize succeeding at the project, making sure everything goes as smooth as possible. It’s a happy ship and the captain actually prioritizes morale for his crew and I think that works and I think the crew realizes that they’re part of something special. After 36 days at sea you can get a little grumpy but that didn’t happen on this ship.

they’re coming from a high-technology background and so they’re utilizing their background and strengths in aiding researchers to accelerate the progress of what we know about the oceans with the ultimate goal of doing something positive.

Q A

Q

: When you said that they had a conservation angle, what did you mean by that?

: The founders, Eric and Wendy Schmidt, are very, very interested in conserving the oceans. But

The more you know and the more you understand the more you are able to, perhaps, protect and sustain.

They fund basic research that is crucial for the whole process. They are interested and want to apply the leading edge of technology to marine research. : According to the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s website, this was the first of two cruises by the Schmidt Ocean Institute to continue mapping the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. What kinds of duties did that entail?

A

A view of the sunrise from on board the Falkor. The scientists and crew aboard the ship were on the Falkor for two cruises, each of which was 36 days long.

(Courtesy: Dr. Christopher Kelley)

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: The overall goal was to a complete the mapping of the monument. It has a huge area of seafloor within its boundaries, 50% of which had been mapped during previous cruises over the last decade and a half. I originally had the naive idea that we could finish the other 50% of the seafloor but soon after we left port and started mapping realized that we’re weren’t going to be able to do it even though we had 72 days of ship time on the Falkor. So we focused on the northern more inaccessible half of the monument.

Since NOAA’s Benthic Habitat Mapping Group had done a lot around the shallower portions of the various atolls and banks such as Midway, Kure and Pearl and Hermes, we mapped the deeper areas starting where they left off and going all the way down to

over 4,000 m depth. We actually wound up mapping approximately 17% of the seafloor on the first cruise and 19% on the second cruise, which came out to a total of 127,000 km2.

Q A

: What sorts of instruments did you use to carry out your research?

: Our primary instruments were their multi-beam sonar systems which were already installed but we also arranged to get funding from the [National Science Foundation] to lease a gravimeter from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and a magnetometer from University of Hawai‘i.

Q

: Seawords also has a readership of non-science major students or who might not have a background in ocean research, so I was just wondering if you could briefly explain what the multi-beam sonar system, gravitometer, and magnetometer were?

A

: Multi-beam sonar is the state of the art technique used for large area mapping of the seafloor…

The system is ship based and is composed of an array of transducers mounted on the hull that are sending acoustic pulses or beams to sea floor. These pulses bounce off the seafloor and back up to the ship where they are detected by receivers. Computers then determine the depth of the seafloor by how much time it took the pulses to make the roundtrip down and up. They also determine the nature of the seafloor by how distorted the pulses were when they got back to the ship. Since the system emits lots of these pulses, thus the name multi-beam, you get lots of data on the topography of the seafloor. You can see ledges and craters and other types of seafloor features like pinnacles and seamounts. The system can identify

This 3D map of Nero Seamount, which has a flat top and is therefore considered to be guyot seamount was created by Colleen Peters, the SOI Multibeam technician aboard the Falkor. She also helped coordinate the cruise. (Courtesy of Christopher Kelley).

sediment and hard rocky areas as well. So when you put that together you can get a map that shows the whole topography and its composition.

The gravimeter, and I don’t know much about it because it’s very complicated, is used to try to identify where the volcanic centers are on the various features of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands because there’s a higher gravity signature at the location of the original volcano that created that particular atoll, bank, or seamount. This has to do with the density of the rock at the core. Often times, the actual volcanoes are hidden underneath layers of carbonate rock that were built up by corals over thousands of years. Gardner Pinnacles, for example, has a huge carbonate bank surrounding these two small rocky features sticking out of the water.—Are the pinnacles and the surrounding bank overlying one or more than one volcano? Gravity readings can help us answer that question.

The magnetometer can also give some information on the age of the rocks and where the original volcano was as well. From my very limited understanding, it has to do with the way the crystals in the rocks line up, which effects their magnetic properties and, depending on how old they are, can be different.

Belinda Decknik of the University of Sydney, Australia manning the multibeam watch stand. (Daniel Wagner)

Q A

: Did you find anything new or unexpected?

: Yes. And it kind of goes hand in hand with some of their [Schmidt Ocean Institute’s] website blogs.

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…If you take a look at the results of the first cruise, basically every single major feature that we knew about in the northern section of the Monument has now been completely mapped. So now we have a really good idea of what they looks like… We counted 18 seamounts. In addition to these, we surveyed slopes all the way down to 4000 meters around Pearl and Hermes, Midway, and Kure Atoll. Particularly for a geologist but also for a biologist you can see everything now. What was surprising is that we were able to identify four different types of features up there.

First, you have atolls, or features that are breaking the surface right now- Midway, Kure and Pearl and Hermes atolls. Second you have features like Ladd and Nero Seamounts that have relatively shallow flat tops. These are called guyots and are believed to have been atolls at the surface in the past and have sunk.

The way you get these is through erosion but also through coral reef growth which tends to flatten the whole topography out over time. The islands, reefs, and lagoons of Midway and Kure also have flat tops, which they will retain when they sink sometime in the future. We call those drowned reef terraces. Third, we identified deep flat top features or guyots. These were a bit of a surprise because their tops were at 1400 meters and that’s really deep. It’s hard to explain how those features were near the surface but they had to be, and probably a very long time ago to have sunk so deep. Then the final feature you have are these deep but volcanic looking features that have cones shaped tops. Those are volcanoes that never got to the surface therefore corals and erosion never flattened them out.

So there are four things: original volcanos, something that was at the surface but is now really deep, something that was at the surface but now is relatively shallow, and things that are at the surface now.

We can’t prove our findings until we go down and get

Colleen Peters of SOI about to deploy the University of Hawai‘i’s magnetometer. (Christopher Kelley)

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Two of the science team members, Daniel Luers and Frances Lichowski, on whale watch. In addition to mapping the seafloor of the monument, the Falkor also took data of whales and dolphins it came across.

(Courtesy: Dr. Christopher Kelley)

some samples, but [there are some features that] we do not think are Hawaiian in origin. What do I mean by that? There were already seamounts (i.e., no longer active volcanoes) present on the seafloor when the Pacific plate moved over the Hawaiian hotspot. The Hawaiian volcanoes then blew right through and around these existing structures! There is even one feature called Bank 9 that we previously thought was a single seamount but now believe it is two merged together when a Hawaiian volcano was formed right next to, and partially on, an older existing one.

We think these older structures came from the southeast, closer to another part of the Pacific called the East Pacific Rise. It’s a spreading center close to the boundary of the Pacific Plate. They were formed there and then slowly over millions of years gradually transported, carried by the plate, over to the Central Pacific. The interesting thing about it is that the features we consider Hawaiian in origin are about 2430 million years old but these other ones that came from the East Pacific are about 80-90 million years old.

So there appears to be a mixture of older and newer seamounts in the monument, making the picture very complicated.

Q A

: So going off one of the blog posts, it seemed that the amount of birds correlated to the topography of the sea floor. So how does this work?

: There were a lot of birds feeding up there [Turnif Seamount]… Presumably the seamount is creating an upwelling event. This could bring up nutrient rich water which is a feeding source for animals. Fish aggregating around that area would draw birds. This particular seamount could be very important in sustaining seabird populations on Kure Atoll.

Q A

: What about the whales?

: We were required to have a whale observer on board in the Monument. We didn’t just want to have someone up there informing the brig “there’s a whale over there, watch out!” We wanted to create a study and determine whether or not our activities could be affecting whale behavior. Particularly because we’re using acoustics… We were documenting each and every encounter with whales or dolphins during the cruise- where did it occur, which multi-beam sonar system was on, where was the ship heading, what direction were the whales heading at the time, what happened as we passed the whales, how far away were they from the ship? Did their behavior change when the ship passed? Then all that data was incorporated into a geographic information system where we plotted all the encounters. We had 66 encounters and we’re trying to determine if we have enough to submit a report. We’re trying to look at this kind of mapping activity and its effects [on whales and dolphins].

Q A

: If you had to give advice to a student who wanted to make their way into this field of study, what would it be? : If you’re trying to get into a field like this, keep your grades up and keep your eyes and ears open.

Watch for opportunities and go after them as best you can. If you’re expecting something to magically occur, it won’t.

Q A

: Is there anything you would like to add?

: Yes, I just want to make the point that this was a collaborative effort. To me it was a model of collaboration. We had the NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem experts, UH experts, Monument experts, graduate students, and the NOAA observer program.

The Falkor is a very international crew. They come from the Philippines, Germany, Poland, the U.K., Canada, and the U.S. It was an amazing cruise because there were so many specialties and different backgrounds- it was fantastic.

You can follow The Falkor’s journey through a series of blog posts at: http://www.schmidtocean.org/story/show/2568 by clicking on the “cruise log” button.

Additional photos and information can also be found on the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s website: http://www.schmidtocean.org/.

Disclaimer: This interview was edited to fit the page limit but no drastic changes were made.

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THE OCEAN SPANS OVER 70 PERCENT OF OUR WORLD. It is responsible for regulating temperature, food production, sustaining numerous marine species, and is a source for inspiration among multiple other things. The ocean gives us so much and it is time for us to return the favor and take actions to make the ocean ecosystem healthy again. Almost every action that we take affects the ocean in some way. Our everyday choices can be tailored to support a healthy ocean. Here are some examples of green acts that will keep the ocean blue.

GENERATION

BLUE

Actions for the Ocean

By Priya Rashid, Associate Editor

Eco-Party Planning Pay attention to the plastic.

Instead of bringing water bottles, bring two-liter containers or jugs of water. Use paper or recycled cups to cut down on plastic use. Fifty people at a party can create a lot of plastic. On the other hand, if it is a small party, having everyone bring their own reusable cup can make a big difference. It will save you money, and partygoers are more likely to keep their cup the entire event.

When disposing of the plastic rings that come with six-packs, always cut them into smaller pieces. The intact plastic rings can easily get stuck or entangled in the limbs of aquatic animals including monk seals. They can also be easily mistaken for jellyfish by sea turtles and ingested. When ingested they began to block the intestines. The sea turtle slowly dies of starvation because of the intestinal damage.

Go local on your menu.

Especially when it comes to Hawaiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;i, buying local helps the environment and the economy. Offseason and shipped fruits and vegetables have an exponentially heavier carbon foot-print. Farmers markets tend to have lower prices and lower chemical usage. They often are GMO free. Even if you head to your local supermarket, try domestic ingredients. Choose local meats, wines and cheese over products that may have travelled from miles away. Try to buy local or domestic meats or if you live near the coast, try the local seafood.

Be selective of your sunscreen.

As you are out on the beach on Waikiki, you will notice a filmy layer of oil on the beaches of most resorts.

This is residual sunscreen. Though great to prevent skin cancer, many sunscreens have chemicals that may not be the best for you or the environment. Many including oxybenzone and octisalate (both of which go by different names) may disrupt different hormones in the body. For one person the dosage may be too small for long term health effects but the daily onslaught of chemicals to the beach has been shown to destabilize ecosystems and alter natural reproductive cycles. Also the accumulation of chemical UV filters has been shown to build up inside the cells of many species of fish. Choosing sunscreen without endocrine disrupters helps you and the beach ecosystem.

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Aloha MOPers and Friends of MOP, Seawords is always looking for submissions for Critter of the Month, Ocean Art, as well as any article.

If you have photos of cool critters you think should be featured in one of our upcoming issues or have a talent for drawing, painting, or writing please let us know!

Subissions are always welcome!

Send your critter photos or art piece to seawords@hawaii.edu to be featured and be sent an issue of Seawords in color and a MOP sticker.

If you have a suggestion for a green act, email us at seawords@hawaii.edu with subject line Generation Blue to submit your idea.

SEPTEMBER 2014

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NonProfits

By Priya Rashid, Associate Editor

The season for giving is not just December. This is our last installment of a short series The first non-profit we featured was AccesSurf, a non-profit that helps the disabled pa Hawai‘i Wildlife Fund and Preserve Hawai‘i.

Hawai‘i Wildlife Fund

F

or a state with over 1,000 miles of coast, most of the indigenous and endemic creatures can’t be found on land but in the sea. The Hawai’i Wildlife Fund (HWF) focuses its efforts on protecting aquatic an- A green sea turtle. The Hawai‘i Wildlife Fund works imals unlike organi- to protect animals like this green sea turtle and the zations in other states Hawaiian monk seal to the right. Photo credit: Jeff which have many Kuwabara/UHM MOP more land-dwelling creatures. This non-profit organization encourages conservation of native Hawaiian wildlife. Under the leadership of Dr. Bill Gilmartin, Director of Research and Hannah Bernard, President, both cofounders of HWF, the organization has long been a leading environmental advocacy group for Hawaii’s sea creatures.

By funding research, education and advocacy programs the organization has increased in its scope and impact since its inception in 1996. Gilmartin and Bernard, both former National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) researchers, founded the 501(c)(3) non-profit to support the protection of the critically endangered Hawaiian monk seal in its population recovery program.

The organization partnered with both NOAA and NMFS to design monk seal watch programs, awareness and education events, and initiated a marine mammal stranding response team.

HWF began branching out to other Hawaiian species including the Hawaiian

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hawksbill sea turtle using the same strategies that have been employed in their continued efforts to protect monk seals.

These programs include nest watches and protection programs, tagging programs, unhook, disentangle, rescue and education programs. By 2000, HWF also implePhoto credit: MO mented this strategy for the Hawaiian green sea turtle expan search in basking behavior, route migra disease and injuries.

Their work has expanded statewide and sound state legislation. They were crucia on Maui and Big Island and hope to exp 1996, the organization has sponsored in grams to increase the spirit of “environm

Their mantra is “Ho’okuleana.” This phr sponsibility.” Check them out at their we like their Facebook page: https://www.f

Preserve Hawai‘i

P

reserve Hawai‘i is a forum and hu environmental and conservation Hawai‘i. According the website, P what’s happening week-to-week.”

s on non-profit organizations making ocean sized contributions to the community. rticipate in ocean activities such as surfing. This month we want to you meet the

OP

ding their programs to include reations, and documenting incidences of

d includes lobbying for environmentally al in implementing the plastic bag ban pand the ban to all of the islands. Since nternships and naturalist training promental volunteerism.”

ase in Hawaiian means “to take reebsite: http://www.wildhawaii.org/, or facebook.com/hawaiiwildlifefund

Unlike other organizations Preserve Hawai‘i is 100 percent online. It uses new media such as wordpress, Twitter and Facebook to reach out to locals and tourists. The organization features over 100 nonprofit groups that work to protect the island and its creatures.

Categories include specific islands and Some marine debris that washed up on Big Island. also interests.

Cleaning up beaches is one of the activites that can be Preserve Hawai‘i found in the list of organizations that Preserve Hawai‘i which is partner with keeps on their website. Photo credit: John Coney/UHH Malama Hawai‘i offers Physics & Astronomy a wide range of ways to get involved from beach cleanups to signing local ocean minded petitions.

For MOP students, preservehawaii.org is a great place to look for a potential projects or internship oppurtunities.The site is updated daily and includes long term projects and short term volunteer oppurtunities.

Preserve Hawai‘i has begun to work with local educators including the Kohala Center: ReefTeachers and Honolulu Zoo to encourage community service.

Check out their website at preservehawaii.org or search Preserve Hawai‘i on Facebook for more information and for opportunities on the main Hawaiian islands. 

ub where organizations can recruit volunteers in Preserve Hawai‘i is a “place to find out

SEPTEMBER 2014

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ART

By Margo Vitarelli

M

argo is a printmaker whose works are inspired by the natural environment of the Pacific- the tropical rainforests, sea creatures and daily life in the islands.

Her art is influenced by traditional Pacific Island design motifs and local legends. Margo works mainly in the medium of screen printing and sometimes gives her artwork a whimsical or humorous twist.

Margo’s original screenprint, “Uhu: Reef Rescue” depicts the colorful parrotfish crunching on corals, its favorite past time.

The print shows an idyllic view, but in reality our corals are in deep trouble and the parrotfish that help them stay healthy are being overfished. Few people realize that parrotfish play a key role in promoting the health of coral reefs. Parrotfish graze on algae around coral reefs, thus providing a clear space and a suitable habitat for new corals to settle and build those reefs. Parrotfish are also the creators of sand that replenish our beaches. Overfishing of parrotfish poses a risk to corals, so by protecting the fish, the health of our reefs and shorelines will improve.

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SEPTEMBER 2014

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Calendar of Events at UH Sea Grant’s Hanauma Bay Education Program Marine Science in East O‘ahu ***Presentations take place in the theater of the Hanauma Bay Education Center, beginning at 3 p.m. every Sunday afternoon. Events are free and open to the public with no charge for parking after 5:30pm***

September Events Hawaiian Monk Seals

SEPTEMBER 7, 2013 “The Hawaiian Monk Seal: Current Status, trends, and Recovery Efforts” Tracy Wurth, Team Lead, Main Hawaiian Islands Monk Seal Population Assessment SEPTEMBER 14, 2013 “Complexities of Conflict: Lessons from the Critically Endangered Hawaiian Monk Seal” Rachel Sprague, PhD, Hawaiian Monk Seal Recovery Coordinator, NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service SEPTEMBER 21, 2013 “Male Dominance and Aggression in the Endangered Hawaiian Monk Seal” Thea Johanos-Kam, Research Wildlife Biologist, Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program, NOAA Federal SEPTEMBER 28, 2013 “The Apocalypse Scenario: Foreign disease introduction into Hawaiian monk seals and vaccinationefforts to prevent extinction” Michelle Barbieri, DVM, MS, Conservation Veterinarian, NOAA Fisheries & the Marine Mammal Center For more information or questions please contact: Hanauma Bay Education Program 100 Hanauma Bay Rd. Honolulu, HI 96825 Phone: (808) 397-5840 Email: hanauma@hawaii.edu http://hbep.seagrant.soest.hawaii.edu/

FLASHBACK: 1997

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This photo appeared alongside an article about QUEST in the 1997 July issue of Seawords. The photo was taken by an Anthony Pico, and the caption read: “A QUEST diver uses a quadrat to survey the biotic reef at Puako.”

September

MOP & Community Events

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Labor Day No classes

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Back to School BBQ Bellows Beach 9 am - 4 pm

QUEST Fish Ids Dean Hall, 104 6 - 9 pm

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QUEST/MAST Informational Meeting Dean Hall 104 4 - 6 pm

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QUEST Fish Ids Dean Hall, 104 6 - 9 pm

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QUEST Invert Ids Dean Hall, 104 6 - 9 pm

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MOP Snorkel Trip Three Tables 8 am - 5 pm

QUEST Limu Ids Dean Hall, 104 6 - 9 pm

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17 QUEST Invert Ids Dean Hall, 104 6 - 9 pm

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24 QUEST Limu Ids Dean Hall, 104 6 - 9 pm

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Coming up next month: QUEST ID Exam Oct. 1; 6 - 9 p.m.

Dean Hall, 104

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University of Hawai`i at Mﾄ］oa Seawords, Marine Option Program College of Natural Sciences 2450 Campus Road, Dean Hall 105A Honolulu, HI 96822-2219 Address Service Requested

Thank you for reading!