Ocean expedition maps Lō‘ihi’s deepest reaches

The Lō‘ihi Seamount is an active underwater volcano just over a half-mile below the ocean’s surface, 21 miles southeast of the island of Hawai‘i. Now there is a greater understanding of the youngest volcano in the Hawaiian island chain, and the role submerged volcanoes play in Earth’s history, after a scientific expedition in the summer of 2014 led by SOEST researchers aboard Schmidt Ocean Institute’s R/V Falkor. “Lō‘ihi is a very wonderful natural laboratory in our backyard for studying earth processes that have happened in the past,” said Brian Glazer, associate professor of Oceanography. “So while today, Lō‘ihi might be unique, there are times in Earth’s history that much of the global ocean looked like Lō‘ihi does today.”

Read more about it and watch the video at UH System News.

Invasive lionfish likely safe to eat after all

Scientists have learned that recent fears of lionfish causing ciguatera poisoning, caused by toxins produced by single-celled dinoflagellates that reef fish sometimes eat, may be unfounded. If so, current efforts to control invasive lionfish by fishing derbies and targeted fisheries may remain the best way to control them. A new study published in Environmental Biology of Fishes may have an explanation for why, although lionfish often test positive for the toxin, as of July 2014 there are no known cases of ciguatera from eating them. Lead author Christie Wilcox of the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) thinks it may be because venom proteins in the fish might act as toxin mimics. The fish’s proteins degrade with cooking, making them safe to eat, while ciguatoxins do not.

Read more about it at PhysOrg and Nature World News.

New research reveals vog’s effects on Hawai‘i’s weather

One might assume that a tropical storm moving through volcanic smog (vog) would sweep up the tainted air and march on, unchanged. However, a recent study from atmospheric scientists at SOEST revealed that although they are microscopic, gasses and particles from Kilauea volcano exerted an influence on Tropical Storm Flossie — affecting the formation of thunderstorms and lightning in the sizable storm. “We have a lightning detection network. We found when the vog plume was entrained in the deep clouds associated with Flossie, there was a great enhancement of lightning,” said Atmospheric Sciences professor Steven Businger, co-author with graduate assistant and lead author Andre Pattantyus of the paper in Geophysical Research Letters.

UPDATES regarding Hurricanes Iselle and Julio: an interview with Businger at Hawaii New Now and an article at Smithsonian.com. Watch the video interview with Businger at Hawaii News Now; read more about it at KITV4, West Hawaii Today, Reporting Climate Science, and in the UH System News. Image courtesy of Pattantyus and Businger.

False killer whale helps study of hearing, echolocation

A pseudorca (Pseudorca crassidens), also called a false killer whale, is helping scientists at the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) on Coconut Island with some very important research. Scientists say Kina is friendly, patient and incredibly smart — and the only false killer whale in the world dedicated to research. “We primarily look at the hearing and echolocation of dolphins and whales. We are really interested in how the animals hear and how they’re affected by loud sounds,” said Paul Nachtigall, director of the HIMB’s Marine Mammal Research Program (MMRP).

Read more about it and watch the video at KHON2.

Navy investing in Kāne‘ohe wave energy testing

Work at the Wave Energy Test Site (WETS) located in Kāne‘ohe Bay off Marine Corps Base Hawaii has received $9 million from the U.S. Navy. The funds from the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) are directed to the Applied Research Laboratory at the University of Hawai‘i (ARL/UH), working with Hawai‘i Natural Energy Institute (HNEI), to support industry testing of wave energy conversion devices. “It’s going to be the first grid-connected Wave Energy Test Site in the United States,” said HNEI director Richard Rocheleau. The funds will also benefit divers and remotely operated underwater vehicles.

Read more about it in Kaunānā, Pacific Business News, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Hawaii News Now, and UH System News. Image courtesy of Northwest Energy Innovations.

PacIOOS wave buoy in Majuro helps keep islanders safe

For people living on Majuro Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), if the ocean swell is too high, the safety of fishermen transiting out of the lagoon to open waters is threatened, homes and businesses may be flooded with seawater, roadways may become impassable, and even the runway strip at the airport may be rendered useless for large commercial aircraft. On 10 July 2014, the Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System (PacIOOS) collaborated with partners to deploy a new Datawell Directional Waverider buoy named “Kalo” about one mile off the eastern shore of Majuro to provide a data stream of wave height, wave direction, wave period, and sea surface temperature every 30 minutes.

Read more about it in the UH Mānoa News.

New tools forecast potential sea level flooding events

Seawater overtopping roadways or flooding homes and businesses in low-lying communities can threaten the public health and safety of Pacific Islanders. A team of physical oceanographers, including Oceanography postdoctoral researcher Martin Guiles and Oceanography professor Doug Luther, working with Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System (PacIOOS) has developed new tools to forecast potential inundation events so that affected communities can better prepare and respond to such threats days in advance. The forecast models are called the PacIOOS Six-Day High Sea Level Forecasts and the most recent developments include Apra Harbor in Guam and Malakal in Palau.

Ocean’s most abundant organisms have daily cycles

Communities of ocean microbes have their own daily cycles, and they are not all about the sun. Photoautotrophs — bacteria that use solar energy to help them photosynthesize food — have been known to sun themselves on a regular schedule. But in a new study published in the journal Science, researchers working at Station ALOHA, a deep ocean study site 100 km north of O‘ahu, observed different species of free-living, heterotrophic bacteria turning on diel cycling genes at slightly different times, suggesting a wave of transcriptional activity that passes through the microbial community each day. Oceanography professor and C-MORE co-PI and co-director Ed DeLong was head of the MIT team that made this discovery.

Read more about it in NSF’s Science360, National Geographic’s Not Exactly Rocket Science, Kaunānā, PhysOrg, and the UH Mānoa News.

Whales revealed as marine ecosystem engineers

A paper in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment evaluates decades of research on the ecological role of great whales. The researchers suggest that the influence of these animals have been substantially undervalued because scientists have underestimated the degree to which the decline in whale population has altered marine ecosystems. The paper summarizes a strong body of evidence indicating that whale recovery “could lead to higher rates of productivity in locations where whales aggregate to feed and give birth,” supporting robust fisheries. Oceanography professor Craig Smith, one of the co-authors, is an expert on the ecological importance of “whale falls” — whale carcasses on the sea floor.

Read more about it in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser (subscription reqired), Kaunānā, the UH System News, Tech Times, and iol scitech.

Four scalloped hammerhead shark populations at risk

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has classified as endangered and threatened four distinct populations of scalloped hammerhead sharks, a species whose fins are favored in shark fin soup. The central Pacific population, which includes animals living in Hawai‘i’s waters, is considered fairly healthy and isn’t being listed. Carl Meyer, assistant researcher at the Hawai‘i Institute for Marine Biology (HIMB), said demand for the scalloped hammerhead fins is driving overfishing of the species because the high number of fibers in the fins makes them particularly desirable. They’re better off in Hawai‘i in part because there isn’t a market for sharks as a commercial species in the islands, said Kim Holland, also a researcher at HIMB.

Read more about it in Honolulu Star-Advertiser.