september seawords

September 2012Th e Marine Option Program Newsletter

MOP Celebrates 40 Years

A Northern Fur Seal Turns Up on a Foreign Beach

Seawords Goes Online

Seaw rdsSeaw rds

Seawords, September 2012

September2012Page 3: Letter from the Editor

Page 4: MOP Celebrates it’s 40th Birthday

Page 6: Lost Fur Seal

Page 7: Generation Blue

Page 8: Recycled Beach

Page 10: Ocean Art

Page 12: Solar Powered Research

Page 13: Events at Hanauma Bay

Volume XXVI, Number 9, September 2012

Editor: Naomi Lugo

Assistant Editor: Jessi Schultz

Dr. Cynthia Hunter (éminence grise)

Seawords- Marine Option Program

University of Hawai‘i, College of Natural Sciences2450 Campus Road, Dean Hall 105A

Honolulu, HI 96822-2219Telephone: (808) 956-8433, Fax: (808) 956-2417

E-mail: <[email protected]>Website: <http://www.hawaii.edu/mop/>

Seawords is a monthly newsletter of the Marine Option Program at the University of Hawai‘i. Opinions expressed herein are not

necessarily those of the Marine Option Program or of the University of Hawai‘i

Suggestions and submissions are welcome. Submissionsmay include articles, photographs, art work, or anything that may be of interest to the marine community in Hawai‘i and around the

world.

All photos are taken by MOP unless otherwise credited.

Seawords

Cover Photo: A swimmer imitates a shark cruising by the camera. Photo taken in the 2011 MOP Underwater Photo Class.

From June 29, 1985 Seawords

Seawords, September 2012

Letter From the EditorSeawords is undergoing some changes.In the new online version of Seawords you will see an updated format with color photos, multimedia, clickable links, and a user friendly reader.

Seawords has long served as record keeper and a way to keep Marine Option Program people connected. MOP has just celebrated 40 years of people and memories, and Seawords will continue to update its readers on ocean news, MOP happenings and other ocean interests.

As always we accept submissions on ocean related articles, photography, poetry, artwork, short stories, etc. We are now able to take multimedia videos, and sound bites, so get writing and producing and submit your creations to us at [email protected]

Mahalo for reading and supporting MOP!

~~~Naomi Lugo, Editor

Subscription CornerClick the buttons below to get Seawords

Mailing List

Online

From 1986 Seawords

Seawords, August 2012

MOP Celebrates 40 Years of Ocean EducationNaomi Lugo, Editor

40 years of experiential ocean education was celebrated on Thursday, Aug. 16th.

Alumni, affi liates, and friends of the program from all over gathered at the Waikīkī Aquarium to talk story and reminisce about the program that has contributed so much to their lives.

MOPs network spans throughout the marine community, and this celebration served to bring them back together.

“We’re thriving,” said Master of Ceremonies and UH Mānoa MOP Coordinator Jeff Kuwabara, “We’ve become more than just a program, we’ve become a family.” After welcoming everyone to the celebration, Kuwabara then introduced James Gaines, vice president for research at the University of Hawai‘i who spoke in behalf of President Greenwood. Vice Chancellor for Research at UHM Gary Ostrander and Sea Grant College Program Director Gordon Grau then gave a few words about the importance and success of the Marine Option program.

Former MOP director Sherwood Maynard was up next, to refl ect on the last 40 years. “MOP has been a passion for students; it is a passion for me and still is,” he then continued, “I’m always surprised at how many paths I cross with MOP alumni.” Then after reading words from the fi rst MOP directors Barry Hill, John

Craven, and John McMahon, Sherwood Maynard walked off the stage to a standing ovation from his alumni and friends. Current MOP Director Cindy Hunter wrapped up the opening remarks by talking about the future of MOP, including plans for expanding MOP across the Pacifi c, and strengthening support at the UHM campus.

Afterwards food was enjoyed, ocean-related prizes were given out and old friends caught up.

MOP would like to thank Terry White for the wonderful celebration cupcakes


The Marine Option Program would like to say mahalo to our event sponsors and the MOP 40th planning crew.

If you missed the celebration and would like to be added to the list to hear about future MOP events, send us an email at [email protected].

All Photos: Ryan Tabata/Marine Option Program Alumnus


Local

Cara Ballard

Northern Fur Seal Found on the North Shore of O‘ahu

Naomi N. Lugo, Editor An unusual sighting at Rocky Point Oahu occurred on Tuesday, July 31. A local couple saw what they thought to be a baby monk seal out on the beach. The animal instead turned out to be a northern fur seal, normally found in the Aleutian Islands or California.

“I grabbed the camera, made some comparisons, and it defi nitely looked like a northern fur seal, really cute but not supposed to be here in Hawai‘i ,” Cara Ballard, who fi rst sighted the seal, said to Hawaii News Now.

The couple then called the NOAA Marine Mammal Response Program, and the identity of the seal was confi rmed as a young adult female.

It is speculated that the seal arrived on the island, far south from its habitat, as a stowaway, on debris, or that it was swept up on a current. According to NOAA, Northern fur seals can be in the open ocean for “extremely long” periods of time. The fur seal usually takes a path from Japan through the

Bering Sea to reach the California Coast. The Northern fur seal is not found in Hawaiian waters; this is the fi rst documented fur seal to visit the Hawaiian Islands.

When the seal was found it was in an emaciated and weak condition. It was taken and quarantined temporarily at the Honolulu Zoo to prevent any possibility of disease transfer to the endemic and endangered Hawaiian monk seal population. The seal will be tested for morbillivirus, which can be transferred to other seals.

Now the fur seal, nicknamed Golden Missy after US Olympic swimmer Missy Franklin, resides at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, California where she will be rehabilitated and hopefully released back into the wild. Veterinarians at the Marine Mammal Center say that Golden Missy is consuming a healthy 6 pounds of fi sh a day, and may be at the center for a couple of weeks if no medical issues are detected.

To see Golden Missy’s recovery process and or make a donation click the image above.

right shows two of the factors. The global average was 60.

Ocean FundraisingTh e 23rd annual Wa-terman’s Ball was held in August. Th e event is held by the surf industry and also honors environmentalists. Th is year the event raised over $400 thousand to support environmental organizations.

Measuring Ocean HealthThe Ocean Health Index has recently been devel-oped to measure the overall health of the ocean. Each country has been ranked by their exclusive economic zones. Ranked fi rst is Jarvis Island with a score of 86 out of 100. The scores are calculated with major factors like fi sheries, biodiversity, tour-ism and carbon storage in mind. The graphic to the

Ocean Health Index


Th e ocean spans over 70 percent of our world.

It is responsible for regulating temperature, food production, sustaining numerous marine species, and is a source for inspiration among multiple other things.

Th e ocean gives us so much and it is time for us to return

the favor and take actions to make the ocean ecosystem healthy again. Almost every action that we take aff ects the ocean in some way. Our everyday choices can be tailored to support a healthy ocean.

Here are some examples of green acts that will keep the ocean blue!

1.Read Seawords online! With our new format on a new easily accessed reader it’s easy to go green and read about MOP online. If you are not subscribed to our mailing list, sign up on the MOP website-it’s free.

2. Clean Kailua Beach on International Coastal Cleanup Day. On September 15th Sustainable Coastlines Hawai‘i will be hosting a beach cleanup of all of Kailua Beach. For more information on where to meet and who is involved head to: sustainablecoastline-shawaii.org

3. Volunteer at a marine sanctuary. As an example, there are opportunities to volunteer at the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanc-tuary are available on O‘ahu, Maui, Kaua‘i, and the island of Hawai‘i. If you are not in Hawai‘i, marine sanctuaries also exist worldwide.

If you have a suggestion for a green act, email us at [email protected] with subject line Generation Blue to submit your idea.

GENERATION BLUE: Actions for the Ocean

Naomi Lugo, Editor

Green News


Recycled BeachNaomi N. Lugo, Editor

On the shores of a beach located in Fort Bragg, California, beach-goers will fi nd where the

ocean has reclaimed its coastline. Glass Beach is a place where the ocean has turned human waste into a recycled environment.

The multicolored shards of smoothed down glass are a testament to the power of the ocean, and to human waste. The area was used as a dumping ground in the forties and in 1967 the North Coast Water Quality Board started cleaning up the area. What the board was not able to clean up, the ocean took care of leaving a glass covered beach.

The area that used to be known as The Dumps by residents in the area now is an off-the-path tourist attraction owned by the California State Park System and a part of MacKerricher State Park. There are three glass beach sites at Fort Bragg, with two accessible by foot and one by kayak or boat. Other glass beaches exist, including one in Hanapepe, Kaua‘i. However it has been said that tourists have harvested the sea glass on the Kaua‘i so that only brown and clear shades

remain. The Fort Bragg Glass Beach has its sea glass protected by state laws, and it is a misdemeanor to take glass from the state park.

As glass breaks in the ocean or on the shore it is worked by the ocean and smoothed down to become sea glass. It can take from 10 to 30 years for sea glass to form according to one of the founders of the North American Sea Glass Association. Sea glass is found around the world, but its rarity is determined by its color. Green and brown sea glass is more common and formed from beer and soda bottles. Other colors like lavender and pinks are considered more rare and were originally from clear glass containers. Blues come from specifi c bottles, but the rarest are called fi re glass. Fire glass comes from glass that has gone through fi re, like what was able to happen at Fort Bragg. Fire glass can also have things sealed inside of it.

Sea glass quality is measured by terms like clarity and color or inclusions in terms of what is found in fi re glass. Some sea glass also is found in a frosted state.


...Continued from page 6

LeVar Th omasFragments of glass smoothed by the ocean over the years create glass beaches.

The uniqueness of the Glass Beach is in part due to the increasing value of the sea

glass for crafts, jewelry, or even just as collectibles. The North American Sea Glass Association holds an annual festival to celebrate sea glass. Two contests are held at the festival to fi nd the collector and shard of the year.

Sea glass may become even more collectible with the continued replacement of glass with plastic packaging. The ocean breaks down plastic into smaller pieces like it does to glass, however plastic never breaks down completely. There are even parts of the ocean where the degrading plastic may be changing the oceans chemistry, like the Great Pacifi c Garbage Patch.

Glass Beach at Fort Bragg has a sea glass museum just outside of the city limits to inform visitors about the beaches unique feature. “Sea glass goes back in history for as long as man has had glass,” the museums website informs. Pollution may have helped create the glass beaches, but continued pollution with plastics and other marine debris threatens the oceans and the marine plants and animals that inhabit it.


MysticetiThe moonlight waning still swam in his eyesShe could see them now, all of them like dragonfliesIn the dreary balm of the beach in the middle of the night

Its long fingers still casting pearl visions onto the sand where they liedLaying in wake in hopes of the coming tideSitting there dreaming of the angelfish brushing through salt hairEarlier in the caves of another world Caught in the snares of a long drip of rain chasing one after the other, foreverIn the balmy dream of the fallout night

Nestling together in pools shining back at the skyFloating flying and awake, the shore’s music cut the tangles of her mindWhirling red hair rising above the worldAwake, walk yourself back to the seaThe idea was brand new in the everlasting green momentAlways had been, lying there in the sandWashed up in the morning of eternityLet’s dive far as the Mysticeti and follow her downThe sun can’t reach us, the morning won’t comeHe told her to take his hand walking down toward the swellOf foamy hymn and the gull’s sound

He promised it wouldn’t take longTo get as far down as the beast’s songWhere the stones are older than the Earth and The seaweed trees reach their bows like vines around the currentThere will be turquoise eves of fresh coral fields, he saidNear the bottom of everything

His hand reached to hers, their feet marched to meet the water’s edge

Ocean Poetry, Jessi Schultz, Assistant Editor


Hibiscus petals floated in the soapy whiteness of tideLike a kind of beckoning howl and then receding somewhere safeLike the breath shared between lovers

The water was cool and bright in the damp night retreatWhen it touched their toes and rose to ankles, cool like liquid autumn airSoft as a growing rose in the long blue nightThey watched smoke rise from the city on fire in the distanceHazy smog rested on the mountains beyond that until their eyes fell awayAnd unto the horizon which drifted back and forth from sea and skyThey were the remnants They were the sand They were the puddles full of reflectionsAnd as their bodies gave in to the subterranean darknessThe full moon cast out far off incantations of aurora light bellowsAnd lullabies that could make the leaves cryMothers by their windows could sense the downpour

He promised the ocean would cradle them to what’s aheadNot a light to follow, but the Mysticeti song drifting in rivulets of muse and loveA shark’s spirit moved beside the arguing eels and brooding tortoise finsAnd conch shells sunrising in the undertowThe way of the rising wave above them, the way through to the moon

Awake, shake dreams out of your long hair,My wind and rain, see the sun and choose the stories you sayLet your sign float into the constellations rising in timeImmensity of midnight in the darkChoose now under the ancient orb beside the insane lake

What do you see? A last glimpse of the lunar smileResting sweet above a dream. And the booming shadow of creatures flying in a world encased in glass.


Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology

Solar Power at Coconut IslandJessi Schultz, Assistant Editor

Hawai‘is sun is being put to good use with the help of renewable solar energy panels being added to

the roof of the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology at Coconut Island. The project began with the University of Hawai‘i signing a 20 year power purchasing agreement with SolarCity, an American business which installs solar energy resources. It will inevitably save money on electricity costs by using the sun instead of burning fossil fuel for energy. Th e Center for a Sustainable Future provided fi nancial aid for the project’s startup costs. Funded by the Edwin W. Pauley Foundation and the Harold K.L. Castle Founda-tion, the Center gave a grant to the University of Hawai‘i Foundation to handle power purchasing agreements like this, which is a fi rst in the state. Th e photovoltaic systems will add solar-generated elec-tricity at the Institute. Th e panels convert the sun’s radia-tion into direct current electricity which will work well at Coconut Island in Kāne‘ohe. Th is will ease energy budgets, especially because the University of Mānoa will not pay anything up front. SolarCity has already begun to install and maintain the system.

More info on the project can be found at http://www.uhm.hawaii.edu/news/article.php?aId=5220

Th e solar panels may generate up to 260 kilowatts which will provide nearly 25% of the energy needs for the entirety of the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology. UH is expected to save $2.3 million in energy costs over the course of the contract. UH Mānoa Chancellor Tom Apple explained that this opportunity will help expand renewable resources on campus, as well as throughout the state. Having 25% of renewable resources campus-wide is the goal by 2020. Constant sunny days, the swift breeze and waves make Hawai‘i a great place for renewable energy resources to expand. Not only aff ordable, this project is logical for sustaining energy needs on the Coconut Island campus. Solar energy is a clean alternative to carbon dioxide emis-sions that trap heat in the atmosphere and increase the acidity of the ocean. Th is is only one step closer to fi nding a solution for climate change and the state of the envi-ronment in this century. With the help of this project, there may be more support for marine scientists to work toward a cleaner future with more renewable energy advances.

September EventsEverything Fishy

September 6, 2012Managing coral reef fi sheries under catch limits: Approach and challengesMarlowe Sabater, Fishery Analyst, Western Pacifi c Fisheries Management Council

September 13, 2012 Fish spillover from Pūpūkea-Waimea MLCD: Can a marine reserve benefi t fi shing?Kosta Stamoulis, MS Graduate, UHM Geography Department

September 20, 2012Demographic trends in an introduced Hawaiian reef fi sh (Cephalopholis argus) Mary Donovan, UHM, Graduate Assistant, JIMAR

September 27, 2012 Red fi sh, blue fi sh, old fi sh, new fi sh: How old fi sh get and why you should care?Allen Andrews, Research Fish Biologist, NOAA/NMFS/PIFSC

For more information or questions please contact:Hanauma Bay Education Program

100 Hanauma Bay Rd. Honolulu, HI 96825Phone: (808) 397-5840 Email: [email protected]

http://hbep.seagrant.soest.hawaii.edu/


Calendar of Events at UH Sea Grant’s Hanauma Bay Education

ProgramMarine Science in East O`ahu

***Presentations take place in the theater of the Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve, beginning at 6:30 p.m. every Th ursday evening***

hbep.seagrant.soest.hawaii.edu/

From June 30, 1987 Seawords


Sep

tem

er 2

012

University of Hawai`i at MānoaSeawords, Marine Option ProgramCollege of Natural Sciences2450 Campus Road, Dean Hall 105AHonolulu, HI 96822-2219

Address Service Requested

S

epte

mer

22201

2

From January 6, 1983 issue of Seawords

Seaw rds

Upcoming MOP Events September

Monday, Wednesday 10th & 12th: QUEST Fish IDs

Saturday 15th: International Coastal Cleanup Day

Sunday 16th: Underwater Photography Class

Monday, Wednesday 17th & 19th: QUEST Invert IDS

Sunday 30th: Tsunami Warning Center

september seawords

Documents

seawords seawords

marine option program

marine community

mop happenings

ocean artpage

ocean news

ocean interests

mop underwater photo