The University of Hawai‘i Sea Grant College Program faculty and their collaborators will lead two separate projects to 1) improve coastal water quality across the state and forecast fecal bacteria levels in Waikīkī, and 2) assist communities on the North Shore of O‘ahu to adapt to climate change. To read more about this article, and to access the full list of projects and their funding, click here.
Aerial image of Waikīkī. Credit: Hawai‘i Sea Grant.
An insightful cross-disciplinary team of University of Hawai‘i (UH) at Mānoa researchers, working for over a decade, published a study recently revealing that a key number of hours of darkness during the lunar cycle triggers mature “Hawaiian box jellyfish” (Alatina alata) to swim to leeward O‘ahu shores to spawn.
Angel Yanagihara with a Hawaiian Box Jellyfish. Credit: Keoki Stender.
Maui Nui Marine Resource Council partners with the Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System (PacIOOS) Water Quality Sensor Partnership Program to monitor water quality at Māʻalaea Harbor. The MauiNow news article can be found here.
Maui Nui Marine Resource Council Project and Research Coordinator Grace Silver prepares a site in Māʻalaea Harbor for a new underwater data sensor borrowed through the Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System (PacIOOS) Water Quality Sensor Partnership Program.
Ocean features called surface slicks are an interconnected highway of nursery habitat for more than 100 species of baby fishes. Learn more about surface slicks in the story map created by NOAA Fisheries - Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center.
Ocean slicks run parallel to the shore just west of the Big Island of Hawaii. Credit: Joey Lecky
A scribbled filefish, about 50 days old and 2 inches long, surrounded by plastics. (Photo credit: National Geographic)
National Geographic: Baby fish have started eating plastic. We havenʻt yet seen the consequences.
NOAA PIFSC webstory: Prey-size Plastics are Invading Larval Fish Nurseries
Honolulu Star Advertiser: Even baby fish are eating plastics, Hawaii study finds
Vice: Baby Fish Nurseries Are Riddled With ‘Prey-Sized’ Plastic, Alarming Study Finds
Huffington Post: Plastic Trash Has Overwhelmed Feeding Grounds For Baby Fish
Research being conducted by UH graduate students at Heʻeia Fishpond in Kāneʻohe. (Paula Moehlenkamp photo)
Learn more about microplastics in surface slicks in the National Geographic Focus Story. Researchers from our lab found highly concentrated amounts of microplastics in surface slicks, an important nursery ground for larval fish.
“Microplastics outnumbered larval fish by more than seven to one. On average there was almost 130 times as much plastic inside slicks as outside.”
“For newborn fish, to eat is to live another day; if their first meal is plastic, they’re not consuming the calories they need to sustain them until the second. The most critical moment is that first feeding. If they get a piece of plastic, that could be it. A single thread in the stomach of a larval fish is potentially a killer.”
Changes in the survival of larval fish can have cascading effects up the food chain with large impact on fish populations.
