I Am NOAA Sea Grant

My work with Sea Grant

As many of you know, I have been working on a couple of projects here in Hawai'i through the Sea Grant Program at the University of Hawai'i(see youtube video). Some of you have asked what exactly I am doing. To start with Sea Grant is a program that is run through universities along coastal areas and is charged with supporting research and educational outreach surrounding marine resources. The program is federally funded and reports to the National Science Foundation. Their goal is to improve environmental and economic impacts within coastal and Great Lakes state. A great example of a valuable project that Sea Grant has been part of is right here in Honolulu. Hanauma Bay is probably the top snorkeling spot in Oah'u however it was extremely overused for a long time and the quality of the reef was deteriorating quite rapidly. Sea Grant created an education program that everyone must participate in before they are able to enter the water. That coupled with Sea Grant's efforts to reduce the maximum number of participants per day has greatly reduced the impact on the reef and restored its health. Sound research and education, I am certainly on board for both of those qualities in a program!

The first project that I am working on is in Hawai'i Kai. There is a bay called the Maunalua Bay that is used by many people for both recreation and as waterfront property. As part of a research project through Malamamaunalua (a local organization) and Sea Grant, I am interviewing the water-based recreation businesses in the bay to gather information on their understanding and perceptions of the environmental concerns surrounding the bay. This information will in turn help Sea Grant to pursue future projects with a better understanding of how they can utilize the businesses (educational outreach) and what issues are important to the businesses. It also gives Sea Grant a good picture of what the businesses actually know, allowing for correction of any misinformation.

The second project I am involved with is in Kailua. There Sea Grant is conducting a survey of the residents to find out perception and understanding of their marine resources which will in turn provide the Kailua community with information to consider in future planning alternatives. These recommendations and strategies will enable the residents of Kailua to make better informed decisions regarding possible solutions to the natural hazards and climate change challenges that threaten their economic and social well-being (i.e. beach erosion & flooding). My responsibility is to take the most critical questions in the survey and conduct face-to-face interviews with some of the residents. This will provide a deeper understanding of where some of the perceptions originated as well as allow for a broader range of comments from residents to identify areas of interest or concern. I am also coordinating with the two high schools to have the entire junior class complete the survey in its entirety. This information is extremely valuable when looking at the future of the region.

So there it is in a nutshell folks. I am happy that I can be participating in two very worthwhile projects while I am here in Hawai'i since I can't be teaching :)

A Lesson in Hawai'ian...

In trying to immerse myself into the lifestyle and culture here in the islands, I have failed miserably at the Hawai'ian language. You see, the Hawai'ian alphabet consists of only 13 letters. Five of them are vowels and the other eight are consonants. Here are the vowels and their "sounds":

A="ah"

E="eh"

I= "ee"

O="oh"

U="oo"

Now, if there is a line over the vowel then you hold the sound of the vowel longer but the sound itself doesn't change. If there is a "glottal stop" which would be comparable to a pause in English. The consonants used in Hawai'ian are H, K, L, M, N, P, W(pronounced V).

For example, Haleakala (please pretend there is a line over the last a since I can't seem to figure out how to make that happen on my keyboard) is pronounced:

Hale a ka la(again, make sure you are visualizing the line over the last a)

and the translation means House of the sun. So now you have completed your Hawai'ian language lesson for today...aloha!!

Maunawili Falls

My trusty guidebook told me that Maunawili was an integral part of the complex farming system that fed ancient Hawai'ians, including Kamehameha the Great (the celebrated King who united the Hawai'ian islands). I can certainly attest to the richness of the soil...only on the day I went, it was mud. The kind of mud that one pays oodles of money to have spread all over them and calls it a "spa treatment". I saw people in slippahs (that's flip flops to you mainlanders), water shoes, and even bare feet trudging through this muck. I had my hikers on and they were coated by the time I returned to the car. The saving grace was the water fall and pool at the end of the trail. It was crowded but there was plenty of room to spread out on a rock and catch some rays after jumping off the rocks and swimming around...and yes my peeps, if you look closely, that is me getting ready to jump off the rocks...

Diamond Head Crater

"I Survived Diamond Head Trail" t-shirts...seriously?? This wasn't tough at all, in fact it probably was one of the easiest "hikes" I've done. I say "hike" because really you were just walking up the path along with several hundred other touristy people (the line came to a standstill more than once...). The most amusing part was at the very top when you actually had to crawl through a fairly tight space to get to the actual viewing area (this was of course a military spot in ages past). Sarah, Kim, and I wondered (silently to ourselves until we were safely back in our vehicle) how some of those people squeezed through...

Diamond Head (or Leahi in Hawai'ian) was formed during one brief eruption, approximately 300,000 years ago. The Hawai'ians named the crater Leahi because it resembled the forehead of the Ahi fish (fish have foreheads???). In the 1700's, when Western explorers mistook calcite crystals on the slope for diamonds, they dubbed it Diamond Head. And the name stuck.

The view of course was beautiful but this hike was memorable because of the company I was with :)

Kava...

What would a trip to Hawai'i be without a traditional Kava ceremony? What, you may ask, is Kava? Where shall I begin...

Kava is a liquid (you drink it but I wouldn't really call it a drink per say) that is made when the roots of a particular species of pepper tree are chewed up and spit into a bowl (traditionally by adolescent boys-apparently the flavor isn't so good once they hit puberty?) to be combined with coconut milk. It is then strained and decanted to achieve the full flavor. The ceremony is held for the most important guests (Hilary Clinton and the Pope are among the Kava connoisseurs) so I guess I must rate pretty high. The ceremony has a great religious significance and is seen to connect the user with ancestry and the gods. I don't know about connecting with my ancestry, but I really do believe that I did come close to connecting with a god...the porcelain god. The stuff tasted like bad cardboard (hmmm...is there a good tasting cardboard?) and it made your mouth numb. I kept dragging my teeth across my tongue to make sure it was still there. During the ceremony, the Kava bowl is placed in the middle of the group. The chief begins by drinking a cup (probably as we did, as fast as possible) and then fills it and hands it to the person next in ranking importance. In our case, we went to the right. Apparently this ceremony traces back to almost all of the Pacific islands in some form and is still carried on today. Thanks to Regina for the enlightening experience!

Paying Respects...

One of the most important places I wanted to visit while in Hawai'i was the WWII Memorial at Pearl Harbor. It held a fair amount of significance to me since it is representative of one of the greatest travesties on American soil. However since Scott is now a major part of my life, the importance of my visiting the memorial and continuing to build my background of the organization that he has devoted his career to increased that significance tenfold. To say that I felt a presence when I visited would be an understatement. From the moment we left the car I had goosebumps. It was a very intense feeling that stayed with me throughout my visit and well into the evening. I went with Megan Hawkins and Jesus Yuriar, and being that Jesus is from Mexico, I am almost ashamed to admit that he knew so much more about Pearl Harbor and WWII then I would ever know.The first place I walked through was the memorial circle. It is here that every vessellost during WWII, the date, location, and list of crew members is listed. My heart went out to every single one of those heroes and their families and even though we are approaching the 69th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor invasion, I still felt a connection. As I walked around looking at all of the plaques, my thoughts drifted to the heroes from the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I wondered if the next generation will remember them as heroes like those from WWII are remembered or if they will not be properly honored until many years later, such as those heroes from Vietnam. In the end, each of those men and women served under the belief that they were part of a greater cause, not necessarily because they believed in the decisions made by those in charge. For that Ithink we should be forever honored to include them in our history.

Probably the most intense part of my visit to the Pearl Harbor Memorial was the trip out to the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial. This photo is an overhead view of the Arizona itself and the memorial that has been created above it.

"The USS Arizona is the final resting place for many of the ship's 1,177 crewmen who lost their lives on December 7, 1941. The 184-foot-long Memorial structure spanning the mid-portion of the sunken battleship consists of three main sections: the entry and assembly rooms; a central area designed for ceremonies and general observation; and the shrine room, where the names of those killed on the Arizona are listed

on the marble wall."

That is the information given by the National Park Service, which operates the site. A couple of additional facts that I found powerful were that 37 sets of brothers were lost on the Arizona as well as one father and son pair, and that oil still leaks out of the vessel at a rate of one drop every 20 or so seconds. It is a constant reminder of those still trapped. The park service guide told us that many of the survivors have requested to be cremated and return to their brothers. One man even commented that he had been

living on borrowed time since that day and wanted to go home to his family. I wonder how many of us have that strong sense of loyalty to anything?