Station ALOHA: A laboratory for studying the sea

Oceanographers retrieve a sediment trap, above, pulled from the sea at Station ALOHA. The trap captures sinking particles in the ocean. Image courtesy of Paul Lethaby.

“Aloha” is the Hawaiian word for love and affection, commonly used alone or in phrases of fond greeting or farewell. Sixty miles north of O‘ahu, at a lonely spot in the Pacific Ocean, the word has a different meaning: “A Long-term Oligotrophic Habitat Assessment.” This year marks 25 years since Oceanography professors David Karl and Roger Lukas established Station ALOHA in a 6-mile-radius circle centered at 22° 45′ N, 158° W. Since then, the remote outpost has become legendary: as part of the Hawaiian Ocean Time-series program (HOT) it has offered up an invaluable long-term record of the chemistry and biology found at a typical deep spot in the subtropical North Pacific.

Read more about it in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser (subscription required). Image courtesy of P. Lethaby.