Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology and Honolulu Cookie Company partner to save stranded whales and dolphins

Honolulu Cookie Company announces its partnership with the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) to save stranded whales and dolphins in Hawaii. The Company will donate part of the proceeds from the sale of its Whale Collection cookies to support HIMB’s Marine Mammal Stranding Research and Rescue Initiative, and is asking for the public’s support with HIMB’s research and conservation efforts.

Every year there are at least 25 reported strandings of marine mammals in Hawaii. Many of these stranded mammals can be saved with sufficient volunteers and the facilities equipped to enable care and rehabilitation. In 2016, HIMB will open operations in a new marine mammal-stranding center, also known as a whale and dolphin hospital, to respond to and rescue stranded marine mammals throughout the Hawaiian Islands. The hospital aims to save the 20 species of dolphins and whales found in Hawaii, which are a crucial part of the state’s delicate marine ecosystem. HIMB’s care for and research of rescued whales and dolphins is only possible through the generosity of the public’s donations and support.

Every box of Honolulu Cookie Company’s Whale Collection cookies will include a special insert explaining HIMB’s Marine Mammal Stranding Research and Rescue Initiative and include a call-to-action to support HIMB’s conservation efforts. Additionally, Honolulu Cookie Company has partnered with HIMB to create a website to educate the public about the Institute’s research and rescue efforts: whale.soest.hawaii.edu. The Company will also provide educational information about the program at their retail locations on Oahu and Maui.

To kick-start the initiative, Honolulu Cookie Company will donate $5,000 towards the research efforts of HIMB.

The public can get involved and support HIMB’s efforts through donations. Visit whale.soest.hawaii.edu or call (808) 236-7401 for more information. Another way for the public to get involved is to stop by Honolulu Cookie Company’s retail locations to get more information about this initiative.

Beneficial bacteria in Hawaiian squid attracted to fatty acids

The small but charismatic Hawaiian bobtail squid is known for its predator-fooling light organ. To survive, the nocturnal cephalopod depends on a mutually beneficial relationship with the luminescent bacterium, Vibrio fischeri, which gives it the ability to mimic moonlight on the surface of the ocean, and deceive monk seals and other predators that would happily make a meal of the small creature.

A study published recently in Applied and Environmental Microbiology by Edward “Ned” Ruby, professor at the Pacific Biosciences Research Center and colleagues from the University of Wisconsin–Madison revealed that Vibrio fischeri has a novel type of receptors that sense the presence and concentration of fatty acids, a building block of all cell membranes. This class of receptors allows a bacterium to migrate toward short-chain fatty acids—a phenomenon referred to as chemotaxis.

The newly discovered fatty-acid sensors are not required for the bacterium to initiate symbiosis with the squid. Thus, the ability to migrate towards fatty acids appears to play a critical role in some other aspect of the bacterium’s life history.

“Interestingly, in Vibrio fischeri the gene encoding the receptor has duplicated, so that the cell has two copies of similar, and apparently functionally identical, genes. Such genetic investment in this receptor suggests that the ability to sense and migrate toward fatty acids may be important in the pathogenicity of other Vibrio species like Vibrio cholera [which causes cholera], Vibrio vulnificus [which causes necrotizing skin infections and gastroenteritis] and others,” said Ruby.

All organisms, even humans, use chemotaxis to attract beneficial microbes to specific tissues. For example, as human infants are exposed to bacteria in their environment, they must attract desirable species to particular tissues—gut, skin, teeth, reproductive tract—that must be colonized by these bacteria. Understanding how this colonization takes place will lead to greater understanding of how Earth’s many microbiomes become constructed and, thus allow us to better construct and manage them.

Read more at UH News, Star-Advertiser (subscription required), and Hawaii Public Radio.

Tsunami detection network uses navigation systems on commercial ships

Accurate and rapid detection and assessment of tsunamis in the open ocean is critical for predicting how they will impact distant coastlines, enabling appropriate mitigation efforts. Scientists from SOEST are using commercial ships operating in the North Pacific to construct a network of low-cost tsunami sensors to augment existing detection systems.

The researchers, funded by NOAA, are partnering with Matson, Maersk Line and the World Ocean Council to equip 10 ships with real-time geodetic GPS systems and satellite communications. The newly built pilot network of GPS-equipped ships enables each vessel to act as an open-ocean tide gauge. Data from these new tsunami sensors are streamed, via satellite, to a land-based data center where they are processed and analyzed for tsunami signals.

“Matson was an obvious partner for this project due to their long history in Hawaiʻi and shared interest in community safety and coastal hazards,” said James Foster, HIGP associate researcher and lead investigator for the project. “The World Ocean Council’s unique connection within the industry allowed us to bring Maersk Line into the collaboration.”

Read more about it in the Huffington Post, UH System News and the Hellenic Shipping News.

Evidence for both mixing and layering of Earth’s interior clarifies debate

Earth’s mantle, the large zone of slow-flowing rock that lies between the crust and the planet’s core, powers every earthquake and volcanic eruption on the planet’s surface. There has been a long-standing debate in the geosciences on whether the lower and upper mantles are different in composition or well mixed. A study published in Science Advances by lead author Maxim Ballmer, senior scientist at ETH Zurich and former postdoctoral fellow SOEST, suggests that mixing due to mantle flow indeed occurs on a global scale, but discrete layers where material with similar composition has aggregated are nevertheless maintained.

Whereas the composition of Earth’s upper mantle can be estimated from lava outpourings on the ocean floor at mid-ocean ridges, the lower mantle remains poorly understood. Chemical observations indicate that the composition of the lower mantle may be different from the composition of the upper mantle. On the contrary, seismic tomography—creating images of Earth’s interior using earthquake-generated waves—provides evidence that the whole mantle is stirred, and presumably well-mixed.

Read more about it in the UH System News.

SOEST named ʻElele Organization of the Year

SOEST was celebrated by the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority (HTA), Meet Hawaiʻi and the state’s tourism industry leaders as the ʻElele Organization of the Year for its outstanding work in helping to bring potentially more than $100 million in convention business to the state.

SOEST’s Dean Brian Taylor accepted the award on behalf of the university system on December 7 at the Hawaiʻi Convention Center. It is the second award from HTA/Meet Hawaiʻi given to an entire organization.

“The University of Hawaiʻi School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology has played an integral role in securing convention business for the state,” said Randy Baldemor, chief operating officer for the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority. “The international and national relationships of our ʻElele ambassadors are important for maintaining and expanding our repertoire of business. We greatly appreciate their efforts and look forward to continued partnership in the coming years.”

Read more about it in Pacific Business News and watch the video report in the UH System News.

Mahukona: Lesser-known volcano is submerged some 30 miles west of Kohala

Most have never heard of Mahukona, one of the smallest volcanoes in the Hawaiian Island chain. That’s probably because, even though Mahukona’s summit stands at about 9,500 feet — making it taller than the highest prominence in the Canadian Rockies — it has probably only ever come within a few hundred meters of the surface of the Pacific. The volcano is submerged some 30 miles west of Kohala and named for the Hawai‘i Island ahupua‘a (land division) off which it sits.

Mahukona is the most recently discovered shield volcano in the Hawaiian Islands — it was identified and named in 1987. But it wasn’t until Geology and Geophysics (G&G) professor Mike Garcia and his team dredged lava from the surfaces of Mahukona in 1990 that scientists knew definitively that they were looking at a distinct volcano. In 2009, they took the research vessel Kilo Moana to the waters just above Mahukona to better understand its shape.

Read more about it in West Hawaii Today.

Major ocean energy project planned off Hawai‘i waters

Hans Krock, an emeritus professor of Ocean and Resources Engineering (ORE), and veteran Honolulu engineer Alfred Yee, president of Honolulu-based Yee Precast Design Group Ltd., are leading an effort to develop a major ocean energy project that could help push Hawaii toward its 100 percent renewable energy goal. The ocean thermal energy conversion, or OTEC, project, would be built off Barbers Point in West O‘ahu.

Krock and Yee have formed Energy Harvesting Systems LLC to develop OTEC projects around the world. Their first project is being built in the Marshall Islands, with the goal of showing the benefits of this project to others, including Hawai‘i. They have spoken to Hawaiian Electric Co. regarding their plans, although the firm is putting its focus on getting its Marshall Islands project up and running, with the help of other nations, including France, Japan and Germany.

Read more about it in the Pacific Business News.

Ocean Station ALOHA Designated a Milestones in Microbiology Site

Ocean Station ALOHA, the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa’s (UHM) research site 60 miles north of Oahu, Hawai‘i, has been designated a Milestones in Microbiology site by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM). ASM Milestones in Microbiology program recognizes institutions and scientists that have made significant contributions toward advancing the microbial sciences.

This open-ocean research station “has played a fundamental role in defining the discipline of microbial oceanography, developing a comprehensive understanding of the sea, and educating the public about the critical role of marine microbes in global ecosystems,” ASM officials noted in their citation.

While microbial oceanography was emerging as a field of inquiry, scientists at the UHM School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) proposed a bold new program – the Hawai‘i Ocean Time-series (HOT) research program – and selected Station ALOHA (A Long-term Oligotrophic Habitat Assessment) as the deep ocean site representative of the vast North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, one of Earth’s largest biomes. Since the program’s inception in 1988, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has been the major funding agency, with UHM and SOEST providing invaluable support including efficient operation of its oceanographic research vessels.

“It soon became a trans-disciplinary collaboration among individuals who traditionally did not interact (microbiologists, physical scientists, oceanographers, mathematicians, and educators), and created unique opportunities for scientific discovery, knowledge transfer, and outreach to society at large,” said David Karl, HOT co-founder, Victor and Peggy Brandstrom Pavel Professor of Ocean and Earth Science and director of the Daniel K. Inouye Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education (C-MORE). “Station ALOHA may be viewed as the birthplace of microbial oceanography.”

Since 1988, teams of scientists have conducted pioneering research at Station ALOHA that has transformed the ecological understanding of the most abundant life forms in the sea – microorganisms. The teams have discovered complex microbial interactions, numerous novel microorganisms and unprecedented metabolic pathways; and have made significant contributions to the understanding of the impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems.

In 2006, the capacity of the HOT program was enhanced with the creation of the NSF-supported C-MORE, one of only 15 Science and Technology Centers in the nation. This multi-institutional collaboration was established to investigate the identities and impacts of microorganisms including their potential responses to climate change. In addition, C-MORE has an important education mission: to train a new breed of inter-disciplinary microbial oceanographers; to develop curricula at the undergraduate and graduate levels; and to increase the number of students and teachers engaged in science and engineering, focusing on underrepresented groups, especially Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.

A third research program, the Simons Collaboration on Ocean Processes and Ecology (SCOPE), was created in July 2014, to complement the objectives of HOT and C-MORE. Discoveries await the SCOPE scientists who will investigate, in greater detail than ever before, the microbially-mediated processes that govern the flow of matter and energy at Station ALOHA.

Through public and private partnerships with the NSF, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Simons Foundation, Ocean Station ALOHA has increased public awareness of the science of microbial oceanography and its global importance

On November 17, 2015, UHM will host a commemoration ceremony wherein the ASM will present UHM with two Milestones in Microbiology plaques – one to be placed in the lobby of C-MORE Hale and the second to be displayed aboard the R/V Kilo Moana which makes frequent trips to Ocean Station ALOHA. In conjunction, the inaugural lecture in the newly-established Pavel Distinguished Lecture Series, “Waypoints in Microbial Oceanography,” will be presented by Professor Rita Colwell, former director of the NSF, on November 16, 2015. Both events will be open to the public.

Hawai‘i assembling management plan in response to coral bleaching

The state of Hawai‘i is gathering information from the scientific community and local stakeholders to create a comprehensive coral reef management plan, but officials said on Monday 16 November 2015they will not yet impose a requested moratorium on collecting aquarium fish.

Officials said that after gathering more information they hope to be able to start implementing a management plan by the end of 2016. Their goal is to emphasize resilience and restoration of reefs that are suffering in the face of global warming.

Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) director Ruth Gates, one of the world’s leading coral reef researchers, said that while any disruption in the reef ecosystem can be damaging, there is not a strong link between the aquarium trade and the bleaching being seen around Hawai‘i. “I think the types of problems that we’re facing are probably a little bit beyond the aquarium fishing trade,” she said. “The problem is a big one, we’re talking about global warming-related issues right now.”

This summer, the state’s coral reefs suffered a second consecutive year of bleaching, a process in which the coral expels its symbiotic algae in reaction to hot ocean waters. When coral loses its algae, it also loses the nutrients the plant provides, and consecutive years of bleaching can kill coral. In early October, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said that coral reefs worldwide were experiencing bleaching. Scientists say about 30 percent of the world’s population of coral has perished as a result of above-average temperatures, El Niño’s effects and acidification.

Read more about it at ABC News and Nature World News.

A closer look at Kohala Mountain: The Big Island’s oldest above-water volcano

There’s little new geologically about the Big Island’s oldest above-water volcano. Its summit — north of Waimea — has been dry land for more than 500,000 years, and it last erupted more than 65,000 years ago. Yet modern scientific findings continue to morph our understanding of the extinct volcano’s past and how it has shaped life on Hawai‘i Island for centuries.

Though Kohala is not as massive as Hawai‘i Island’s other volcanoes, and probably never was, the understanding of the area encompassed by Kohala has changed in the past 20 years. “Kohala is an elongate volcano running northwest by southeast,” said Geology and Geophysics (G&G) volcanology specialist Scott Rowland, who was a part of the comprehensive mapping of Kohala’s lava flows in the mid-1980s. “I think many scientists (who study Hawaiian volcanoes) are coming around to the idea that the Hilo Ridge — north of Hilo and underwater — is probably part of Kohala.”

Between 250,000 and 300,000 years ago, a huge avalanche consumed a slice of the volcano’s northeast flank more than 12 miles wide at the shoreline. The debris spilled more than 80 miles out and onto the ocean floor. The lasting effects can still be seen today in the sheer cliff walls of the windward Kohala shoreline.

Read more about it at West Hawaii Today.