Ambassadors of Malama ‘Āina
By Linda Copman
Photo: Two Cornell students interned with the ReefTeach Program at Kahalu‘u Bay, helping to educate visitors about anthropogenic threats to Hawai‘i’s reefs.
The Kohala Center bids a fond aloha to the 2009 Cornell EES (Earth and Environmental Systems Field Program) cohort. Like previous EES program graduates before them, these students have become ambassadors for Hawai‘i, ambassadors with a deeper and more complex understanding of our culture, our politics, history, and society, and of course, our connection to the land. We share a summary of each student’s internship here.
Jackie Meyer: Hawai‘i County Council
Jackie spent her internship working in the Waimea Council Office of Hawai‘i County Council member Pete Hoffmann. Jackie learned the differences between communications (informational documents), resolutions (recommendations which do not carry the force of law), and bills (laws). “There is a whole lot of formality in the legislative process,” she said. “Council members have to vote if they want to take items out of order, and if they remove just two words from a piece of legislation, sometimes they have to postpone voting on this item for at least two weeks.”
One piece of legislation that passed during Jackie’s tenure in Councilman Hoffmann’s office was a revision to the County’s Energy Code (Bill 385). This portion of the Hawai‘i County Code had not been updated in 19 years, while every other county in the state had updated their energy codes within the past 10 years. The new code will impose new building efficiency standards within the County.
Other notable legislation that passed during Jackie’s internship included a resolution to the State legislature urging them to respect county authority to set future agricultural policy regarding GMOs (genetically modified organisms), and a resolution requesting the State DLNR (Department of Land and Natural Resources) to discontinue aerial hunting of cattle on Hualālai.
Photo: The Hawai‘i County Council in action.
When asked if she would like to continue working in the field of public policy, Jackie answered in the affirmative: “Pete’s office is proposing legislation which is really making a difference on the island. Though I can’t imagine myself being a politician, I would like to work on public policy—behind the scenes,” she said.
Marissa Mnich: Hawaiian Volcano Observatory
Photo: Marissa’s red lines show the expansion of the vent at Halema‘uma‘u Crater from April 1, 2008 through May 6, 2009.
Marissa spent her internship at the US Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO), studying changes in the vent at Halema‘uma‘u Crater since it first opened last March. Marissa reviewed the HVO’s archive of images of the vent, taken every day since the vent opened. She measured the size of the elliptical opening of the vent in these photos, and charted the expansion of the opening from 29 meters in March 2008 to 100 meters in March 2009. She correlated changes in the size of the opening with explosive events or collapses, and her graph showed that the most dramatic changes were closely associated with these explosive events. She calculated that the area of the opening has increased from about 900 square meters to its current area of 9,000 square meters—roughly the size of 1.5 football fields.
Marissa also measured changes in the height of the gas plume emitted from the vent, again using photographs taken over the course of several months. She explored the possibility that deflation or inflation (DI) events at the summit, the site of the plume, might be related to the volume of lava entering the ocean. She found that though the magnitude and duration of DI events at the summit did not seem to directly relate to lava flows at the ocean entry, there did seem to be a connection between the two. Typically a DI event at the summit exhibited an effect on the lava entry anywhere from 17 to 31 hours later.
Marissa concluded by stating that the volume of gases emitted from the vent has increased as the vent opening has expanded. She did not offer any predictions as to the future outlook for emissions from the vent, except to point out that the trend so far is upward.
Beth O'Malley: Dolphin Quest Hawai‘i
One of Beth’s duties at Dolphin Quest Hawai‘i was to help divvy up 36 coolers of frozen fish amongst the facility’s 12 Atlantic bottlenose dolphins, who each consume about 20 pounds of fish every morning. Beth helped to prepare the coolers by sorting through the fish to remove those with missing body parts and those with any scrapes or abrasions. “If the fish wouldn’t look like this in the wild, then we don’t feed them to the dolphins,” said Beth. “Having marine mammals in human care is unusual. We have to clean a lot so they stay healthy.”
Beth also participated in helping with dolphin training. The three primary techniques she used were mimic, target, and capture. Mimic involves teaching a young dolphin by having that dolphin watch its mother perform an already learned trick. The mother dolphin models the desired behavior and the young dolphin is rewarded with treats (fish!) for following its mother’s lead. Target training involves using poles with a buoy attached. The trainer taps the water with the pole, raises the pole, and the dolphin then jumps over the pole. This type of training is reinforced with clapping and whistling, which keeps the young dolphins enthusiastic and on task. Capture is a technique which works by having the trainer spot a dolphin perform a desired behavior naturally. The trainer then rewards this dolphin with fish treats and with clapping. The tricky part is getting the dolphin to associate the desired behavior with a specific hand signal.
The “tricks” the dolphins are taught are engaging for human audiences, but they are also important in terms of dolphin husbandry. “They need to know how to open their mouths and roll on their backs and stomachs, so we can monitor their health,” explained Beth.
Beth also assisted with research which involves looking at a dolphin’s beating heart, collecting milk and blood samples, measuring dolphin hormones, studying calf mortality, and behavioral monitoring of the captive population with the intention of extrapolating the findings to wild populations. “I helped gather samples of urine, blood, milk, gastric fluids, and fecal matter. I did ultrasound monitoring, measured the length of the dolphins, and tested the salinity of the lagoon water every day,” said Beth.
Photo: Beth answers questions about the dolphins posed by visitors to the Dolphin Quest Hawai‘i facility.The Dolphin Quest (DQ) Hawai‘i facility opened in 1988. The goals of the program include education and raising public awareness about marine mammals. Beth helped with public outreach by talking with visitors about the dolphins and answering their questions. The DQ staff also host Splash programs for public school students on the island, in which the students are invited into the water with the dolphins, as well as classroom outreach sessions with DQ educators.
“A facility such as this makes it possible to study dolphin behaviors like we cannot possibly do in the wild,” says EES Program Director Alexandra Moore, who supervised the Cornell internships. “What impressed me the most about this program when I visited Beth is the indisputable affection these animals have for their human trainers, and vice versa.”
Tiffany Walker and Salley Gould: ReefTeach
“Although coral reefs occupy a mere .7% of the ocean floor, they account for roughly 25% of known marine species. Coral reefs are home to over 4,000 species of fish and over 700 species of coral.” So began Tiffany and Salley’s presentation on their time spent as volunteer ReefTeachers at Kahalu‘u Bay. Of the 400,000 people who visit Kahalu‘u Bay each year, 40% of them are passengers on the cruise ships which dock in West Hawai‘i. Most of these folks are inexperienced snorkelers who tend to put their feet down when the waves surge and trample the coral. This happens because visitors don’t realize the damage they are doing.
The premise of the ReefTeach program is that educated snorkelers will not do nearly as much damage to the fragile reef ecosystem, and the data collected by Tiffany and Salley confirms that this is indeed true. “As ReefTeachers we engage people. The program is effective—80% of uneducated visitors will stand on coral, but only 20% of the visitors we educate will stand on the coral. We follow snorkelers, both ‘taught’ and ‘untaught,’ in the water for ten minutes. This is a little awkward, but this is how we know it works,” reported the young women.
Tiffany and Sally pointed out that the State of Hawai‘i has an inordinately small budget for fish and wildlife conservation compared to other states in country—a fact which makes preserving Hawai‘i’s coral reefs very, very challenging. The economic value of reefs to the state’s economy is estimated at $364 million per year, which translates to $79,000 per acre of reef.
Current threats to the reef at Kahalu‘u Bay include standing on coral, touching or holding reef organisms, feeding the fish, entering the water without waiting 15 minutes after applying sunscreen (which contains at least four chemicals known to be harmful to marine life), and litter.
“Standing on coral completely kills them, they only grow ¼ inch per year. They grow in inches and die by feet. People don’t know they are standing on coral, they think they are standing on rock. We try to educate them before they go out so they know what coral looks like,” explained Tiffany and Salley.
Half of coral reefs worldwide are considered in poor or fair condition and are declining over time. “We spoke with people who visited Kahalu‘u 15 years ago, and they report that corals were much healthier then. The ReefTeach program is trying to turn the tide and restore the health of coral reefs at Kahalu‘u Bay,” explained Tiffany and Salley.
George Dang: Environmental Planning
George Dang explored the world of environmental planning through his internship with a private consulting firm, Marine and Coastal Solutions International, Inc., under the mentorship of David Tarnas and Carolyn Stewart. George split his time between two quite different projects: one assisting with the preparation of a watershed management plan and the other reviewing an EIS for a large-scale aquaculture project.
Photo: Nearshore sedimentation is clearly visible in this photo.
George assisted Carolyn Stewart with the preparation of the Wai‘ula‘ula Watershed Management Plan, which will apply to all of the lands that drain into the Waikoloa Stream in South Kohala. George reported that the challenges facing the Wai‘ula‘ula watershed are significant, and the pressure from rapid population growth in the surrounding communities is great. According to U.S. Census records, the population in this area has increased 17.7% over the past ten years and 34.1% increase over the past eight years.
Sedimentation is a major problem because it deposits a layer of silt on the coral reef at the stream outlets, smothering the coral and adding excess nutrients to the sea water, which causes algae blooms. The causes of sedimentation include cows wallowing in mauka (upland) streams, eroding their banks by treading on the soil, adding nutrients by relieving themselves in water, and eating riparian vegetation which magnifies erosion. The Wai‘ula‘ula Management Plan will recommend the establishment of riparian buffers to help filter sediments out. Urban development also directly increases the amount of runoff, as water flows faster over paved surfaces, picking up pollutants and further eroding and deepening stream channels.
George also served as a third-party reviewer of public comments received in response to a proposal to build the world’s largest open ocean ahi (tuna) aquaculture project in waters offshore of Kawaihae in South Kohala. Hawai‘i Oceanic Technology, Inc., has submitted an application to launch twelve 54-meter diameter fish pens, which would be untethered in the ocean water. The pens would be entirely self-sustaining and self-propelled, relying on internal thrusters to navigate and ocean thermal energy conversion to generate power. The draft EIS for this project was released on February 28, 2009, prepared by George’s mentors and their environmental consulting firm.
George’s assignment was to read through the public comments on the document and assess the validity of the concerns expressed about the project. Further, George was tasked with determining whether the objections were adequately addressed in the draft EIS, or not. Some of the points of contention include that no aquaculture project of this scale has ever been built before; the threat of disease to wild populations of ahi; the possibility that sharks would be attracted to dead fish in the pens; the possibility that the operation would disrupt the habitat of humpback whales and other native species; and concerns regarding the composition of the fish food; which is primarily comprised of soy products. Opponents felt that this soy-based feed relies on unsustainable land practices to produce the product.
George enjoyed this opportunity to act as an unbiased evaluator for this project. He remarked that several of the comments which were not fully addressed in the draft EIS would be responded to in the final EIS.
Bridget Hass: Hawai‘i Wildfire Management Organization (HWMO)
HWMO has broad ranging responsibilities, managing over 40 projects with a staff of just five people. In order to help manage wildfires in the dry leeward areas of West Hawai‘i, HWMO establishes living fuel breaks (as opposed to the traditional practice of clearing grass); advocates for managed grazing and herbicides to control invasive grasses; promotes community education; assists with the installation of dip tanks for fire fighting; and conducts research and development to determine best practices for local conditions. HWMO’s work is vital to protecting the endangered dryland forests of West Hawai‘i from the threat of wildfires.
Bridget’s research focused on looking at the succession of vegetation after burn years, such as 2007 when a large number of wildfires occurred. Using wildfire history maps, combined with soil types and precipitation indices, Bridget surveyed fire sites to determine the current dry biomass species composition, as well as the percent of native vs. non-native species which repopulated these sites after the recent fires.
Photo: Bridget helped to sample the vegetation at eight sites near Waikoloa Village that have burned in recent years.
Bridget and her HWMO colleagues set up 100-meter transects within the burn sites and looked at the distribution of each species within the study area. The team calculated the percent of fountain grass, buffel grass, rocks, etc., within each area, as well as the number, size, and kind of shrubs growing there, in order to estimate the volume of fuel in that area. Their results will serve as baseline data to use when assessing the impacts of future fires. HWMO is also planning a prescribed burn of an 8-acre plot, in order to gather detailed data on this site as a basis for comparison for future fires.
Bridget reported that a few native species do seem to come back after fires, but buffel grass, fountain grass, and haole koa (an invasive tree) also come back strongly. Bridget learned a lot about native dry forest restoration from her work with HWMO, and she was also able to discern the effects of recent wildfires on nearshore coral reefs, as a result of sedimentation.
Noah Slovin: Go Green
Noah’s internship was based at Hawai‘i Preparatory Academy (HPA), the Cornell students’ home away from home while they are on the island. Noah assisted HPA’s Dr. Bill Wiecking with the school’s Go Green initiative. The Go Green effort is part of the school’s five-year plan to position HPA as a leader in green development, education, and community outreach. Go Green addresses everything from the school’s energy use, energy sources, waste stream, food service, and material flows to the goal of changing the lifestyle habits of its students. The goal of the program is to make the school more sustainable, to save money and resources, and to get HPA students involved in the process of “greening” the school. HPA is currently building a new energy lab which will serve as a focal point for research, design, and development of new renewable energy technologies to be implemented at the school.
Graph: Noah’s graph of nutrient and pH levels along Pu‘u Laelae, the site of HPA’s new energy lab. Noah compared the pH preferences of various plants, nutrient and pH levels in the soil, and other environmental factors as part of his internship at HPA.
Noah’s work combined science with anthropology, as he analyzed soil samples on Pu‘u Laelae mauka of the new energy lab. Noah’s job was to try to determine what kind of plants will grow well at different elevations of this pu‘u (hill), based on an analysis of soil nutrients and weather patterns, as well as research into what kind of crops were grown here historically by the Hawaiian people. Noah’s goal is to determine what will grow best here, should HPA decide to plant bio-fuel crops in order to produce its own ethanol. Historical accounts show that Pu‘u Laelae was one of the more fertile areas of South Kohala. By surveying sites ranging from just behind the energy lab to the top of the pu‘u (at 200-meter intervals), Noah found that phosphorus peaks in one part of the pu‘u, making this a particularly good planting site. The next steps in the study will be to determine which crops would be suitable to this site.
Earth Team (Brad Davis, Grace Ha, Alex Steiger, and Victoria Wells): Watershed Management
The Earth Team interned with John Pipan (a Cornell EES program alumnus who now lives and works on Hawai‘i Island) of the Mauna Kea Soil and Water Conservation (MKSWC) District, one of 16 soil and water conservation districts in the state, and one of six such districts on Hawai‘i Island. MKSWC consists of 730,000 acres of land. The Earth Team’s work focused on watershed management and the need to approach this work from a multidimensional perspective, for example by considering the effects of sedimentation runoff on coral reef habitats in the ocean.
Photo: The Hi‘ilawe Falls plunge pool was one of three sites which the Earth Team monitored.The stressors within the MKSWC include human activity; overgrazing; fertilizers and pesticides that pollute the watershed; and invasive species such as strawberry guava, which absorbs and takes water out of the watershed making it unavailable to other plants.
The team’s work involved water quality monitoring of mauka sites at the Kohala Bog and in Waipi‘o Valley, both at the back of the valley and at the stream’s ocean entry site. Team members graphed turbidity and nutrient levels at these three sites, concluding that makai (coastal) sites had elevated levels when compared to the mauka sites. These results could be due to human inputs, possibly from agriculture.
The team then surveyed the coral reefs at three ocean sites, to assess the percent of live vs. dead coral and the composition of the sediments at each site. Team members used coral reef transects at three South Kohala sites: Pelekane Bay, Mauna Kea Beach Resort, and Mau‘umae Beach, to assess coral health and they also analyzed sediment samples taken from each site. Their results showed that there is more dead coral than live coral at all three sites, with some variation in the percentages among the sites. The Earth Team stated that they “saw a lot of nasty stuff out there, and that more studies of the reef to determine the effects of terrestrial runoff are needed.”
Angelo Bardales: EES Carbon Neutral Quest
Angelo worked with EES Program Director Alexandra Moore on compiling data to assess the extent of the program’s carbon footprint. The first step was to calculate how much energy the group consumed. By far the largest impact was the 272,000 air miles the EES program participants clocked, emitting the equivalent of 44 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The group also consumed 5,000 kWh of power, 76 gallons of propane, and emitted another ten tons of carbon via ground transport in vans and cars. The group was, however, able to cut their propane use in half over last year’s cohort, by using solar power to heat their water.
Angelo also tracked the group’s waste output, relying on the average statistic that each person generates approximately 1,000 pounds of waste per year, which is cut in half to 500 pounds per year by aggressively recycling.
Angelo estimated the impact of purchasing and eating locally grown food on the carbon footprint. This calculation was complicated by a number of factors. For example, Angelo tried to assess how buying local beef would affect the group’s footprint. He discovered that local beef is processed in Hilo and then shipped to California for packaging, so, in fact, much of the beef that is labeled “local” is not processed here on the island. Angelo also considered whether grass-fed beef has less of an impact than grain-fed beef. Again the answer is complex because grass-fed cattle emit more methane as they digest their feed than do grain-fed beef.
After estimating the group’s impact, Angelo assessed the group’s efforts to offset their carbon footprint. He found that planting trees and other plants had the greatest impact on reducing emissions. The EES group, consisting of 15 people, planted a total of 300 trees while they were on the island. Assuming that 85% of the trees survive, these trees will sequester approximately 380 tons of carbon dioxide by the time they reach maturity. Two species of trees were especially good at sequestering carbon: the single‘ōhi‘a tree the group planted accounted for 4% of the total, and five koa trees accounted for 20% of the total.
Just counting the 300 trees, Angelo determined that the group emitted a total of 70 tons of carbon dioxide and sequestered 380 tons. “We sequestered four times more carbon than we emitted,” he concluded.
Cornell Professor Lou Derry believes that Angelo may very well have underestimated the group’s total carbon sequestration. “We planted trees, vines, ground cover, and shrubs—helping to restore the whole forest ecosystem. When you consider that 20% of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions worldwide are due to deforestation, restoring forest ecosystems in this manner is significant and a fairly powerful lever,” explained Derry.
Finding a Sense of Purpose
By Kathleen Kawelu
As a child, I attended Keaukaha Elementary School in Hilo. My school provided a nurturing environment where you knew all the staff people, who were your uncles and aunties in the community. Many of the teachers had been at the school for years, and your classmates were either family or the children of long-time family friends.
Photo: Kathleen Kawelu visiting the San Francisco Zoo in the fall of 2007.
In the seventh grade I was fortunate enough to be accepted into the Kamehameha Schools, where I boarded for six years. I have fond memories of my time at the Kapālama Campus, which understandably was tough in the first years for a young girl away from home. But I wasn’t alone, and the other boarders and I, who were experiencing the same homesickness, grew to be very close. Some of my closest relationships today are the friends I made boarding at Kamehameha. Living away from home we learned to be independent, washing our own laundry, managing our own spending money, completing daily and weekly dorm jobs, and managing our time. We also learned to be creative with our free time. After school and on the weekends, when we weren’t involved in athletics, we came up with goofy activities to occupy our time, good clean fun that seems so innocent and naive now.
I also remember the kindness and support of the faculty and staff there. I was lucky to have great dorm advisors like Mrs. Peloso and Mrs. Lake who acted as surrogate moms, both disciplining and caring for me. I also appreciate those teachers who challenged me, like my chemistry teacher Mr. Kim, who was so knowledgeable and passionate about his discipline it made me want to excel. My history teachers were also influential, for they showed me a world beyond Hawai‘i.
I’ve been interested in different cultures most of my life. As an elementary school student I was fascinated by Egypt. One of my teachers at Keaukaha Elementary had our class do research papers, and I did one on the pyramids of Egypt. Their methods of construction, their associated gods, and the beliefs of the Egyptians greatly interested me. In high school at Kamehameha I had great history teachers who introduced me to the pasts of people around the world and within the United States. I was struck by the parallels between the history of the Hawaiian people and the history of Native Americans and of African Americans.
Photo: Kathleen recording a slab lined hearth in a rectangular enclosure, Leeward Kohala, June 2007.
With an interest in history and culture I entered Beloit College in Wisconsin. The emphasis in the Beloit History Department was on European and American history, but I was more interested in exploring the histories of cultures beyond that focus. So I chose to study anthropology. My anthropology professors taught me about cultures throughout the Americas, Africa, as well as the South Pacific. However, it wasn’t until my senior year of college that I began looking at my own culture anthropologically.
To be honest, my motivation for seeking a doctoral degree was not driven by some grand plan. I simply enjoyed learning and I wasn’t quite ready to move back home. I knew I would eventually move back to the islands, but I wanted to see what else was out there in the world. Looking back I realize how naive my decision was, and I would suggest anyone looking into graduate school should have a better reason for entering into academia than my own.
I think one of my challenges in finishing my degree stemmed from the fact that I did not have a greater purpose for being in graduate school. As someone who grew up in Hawai‘i, where being a part of a larger community is important, I struggled with the isolation of graduate school. The process of obtaining my degree seemed self-serving, and I struggled to make my degree and dissertation relevant to the communities who helped to give me the educational opportunity to attend graduate school. Once I found a research topic that gave me a sense of purpose and a way of giving back to those communities, I was able to complete my degree in a timely fashion.
I was first motivated to learn Hawaiian as a means of satisfying my language requirement in graduate school at UC Berkeley. By that time I had focused my studies within Hawai‘i and so learning the Hawaiian language was the obvious choice. I was dismayed to hear that my decision to use Hawaiian to fulfill my language requirement was initially questioned by some of the anthropology faculty, but other faculty members recognized the importance of Hawaiian and agreed that I should be able to use this language to fulfill my requirement.
Photo: Kathleen celebrating her graduation with her mother, Luana Kawelu, and her graduate advisor, Dr. Patrick V. Kirch, in May 2007, Berkeley, California.
I didn’t grow up hearing as much Hawaiian as I hear today. I never heard my Grandpa Hiram speak Hawaiian, and I only learned that he spoke it fluently when my brother happened to walk in on him and his sister speaking in his hospital room just prior to his passing. It’s unfortunate my Grandpa felt he could not speak or teach Hawaiian to his grandchildren, but I’m glad our people don’t have to carry that burden any longer.
It’s been ten years since I took my first intensive language course at UH Hilo, and prior to moving home in the fall of 2007, I hadn’t had many opportunities to speak the language regularly. However, now that I’m back home in Hilo, in an environment where the language is flourishing, I’m looking forward to reintroducing myself to the language.My current research looks at the politics of Hawaiian archaeology and the relationships between archaeologists working in Hawai‘i and the people whose history is often the subject of archaeological inquiry in the islands, namely Hawaiian descendants. The last 30 years of Hawaiian archaeology have been volatile, and I’m interested in this sociopolitical history and the present-day consequences of this past.
The character of archaeological inquiry changed in the 1960s and 1970s with the rapid increase in land development and the simultaneous advancement of historic preservation laws meant to protect cultural and historical sites on the landscape. This increase in the amount of archaeological work being done, as a result of legal mandates, created a perceived association between development and archaeology; one in which the discipline and its practitioners were viewed not as tools for preservation, but as harbingers of development, loss of land, site destruction, and burial desecration.My desire is to improve the way archaeology is practiced in Hawai‘i, so the communities who seek to perpetuate and preserve Hawaiian culture can work together to create a more sustainable home—in which responsible development can occur, but not at the expense of our culture, our past, or our future.
For the last two years I’ve also participated in a collaborative research project along the Leeward Coast of Kohala directed by Patrick Kirch of UC Berkeley. The project includes archaeologists, demographers, geochemists, and ecologists. Our archaeological team has focused on the spatial, temporal, and structural arrangement of residential sites primarily along the coast, but also in the cooler uplands.
Photo: 2008 Leeward Kohala field crew. (Front row from left to right) B. Gunn, A. Brown-Rubiero, L. Richards, and K. Spurgeon. (Back row from left to right) D. Smith, A. DiMaccio, K. Kawelu, J. Field, and R. Connors.
The habitation structures we are investigating along the leeward Kohala Coast have been used as far back as the 1400s. These cultural sites have been occupied by people making use of the coastal resources in distant times and in modern times as well, as evidenced by the midden, or the waste products of day-to-day life such as shell and fish bone, revealed during excavation. The long-range goal for this work, in collaboration with researchers in other disciplines, is to understand how resource use, population, and cultural systems interacted to develop into the stratified social structure that characterized Hawaiian culture in the late 1700s.
In terms of the rapid development of land in Hawai‘i, archaeology has become quite relevant to Hawaiian communities. Archaeology can serve as one means of protecting sites, although working toward protecting large-scale landscapes and places is a goal that archaeologists and Hawaiians can’t achieve alone. That is why having like-minded individuals on the County Planning Commissions, Department of Land and Natural Resources, Hawai‘i State Legislature, and elsewhere is essential to making change happen.I feel my work has great potential to change the way archaeology is practiced in the islands, particularly when I help to train local archaeologists to participate in the discipline. When our Anthropology Department at UHH is able to create a master’s program, I think we’ll directly have an effect on the demographic make-up of practicing archaeologists, thus changing the perspectives and understandings of those archaeologists working in Hawai‘i, who may be more attuned to the dynamic history in which archaeology is currently practiced. I believe an investment in the place and people where archaeology is practiced is essential, and training Hawaiian and other local archaeologists is one step in achieving such an invested and committed archaeologist. Not only is there great potential to inculcate a more academically aware archaeologist, but a more culturally aware and attuned practitioner as well. An archaeologist who is both academically and culturally trained will be a great achievement.
One of my primary goals is to assist the next generation of Hawaiians in whatever way I can, whether or not they choose to seek a post-high school education. Not everyone wants to be an academic, and I believe we need Hawaiians in many different fields, in various positions, in order to promote Hawaiian ways of viewing and operating in the world. In terms of my academic goals I want to see more Hawaiians and local people in general in the field of archaeology. I not only want to see Hawaiians in archaeology, but also in decision-making positions where their actions can have a greater impact on the future of our islands.The best part about finishing my degree has been moving back home, rejoining those communities I’ve been away from for so long, and having the opportunity to positively contribute to my communities. Since moving back home I have been more involved in helping my mom, Luana Kawelu, run the Merrie Monarch Festival, which takes place in Hilo every spring. My family has been involved with the festival since my grandmother, Dottie Thompson, volunteered to run it in 1968. Five years ago my grandmother handed down this responsibility to my mother.
I feel honored to be a part of the first cohort of Mellon-Hawai‘i scholars and to be included with such engaged Hawaiians. Having received my graduate degree from a university outside the islands, I did not readily have opportunities to interact with other Hawaiian scholars at my home institution. So I appreciate having this opportunity to establish relationships with other Hawaiians working to improve Hawaiian scholarship and scholarship in general. I would like to thank The Kohala Center, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Kamehameha Schools for recognizing the need for Hawaiian perspectives in academia, and for creating opportunities for Hawaiians to obtain and succeed in positions where we can mentor others.
The Mellon Hawai‘i Fellowship has provided me with an opportunity to work on my book manuscript, which will not only make my research available to an interested public, but will also contribute to securing tenure in my academic career. My appreciation for those individuals and institutions that had the insight to create such a fellowship is great, and I hope my future actions will express my aloha more than my words can.
Monitoring the Health of Kahalu‘u Bay
Compiled by Caroline Neary
(The following material is excerpted from the Citizen Science Training Manual, which was compiled from the following sources: USGS; Taking Care of Hawai‘i’s Waters: J. Komoto & Malama Kai Foundation; and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry: EPA)
Photo: NELHA Chemist Michael Navatta, explains the importance of measuring nutrients in water quality monitoring.
On the west side of Hawai‘i Island, rainfall generally does not flow into streams or rivers on its way to the sea. Instead it percolates through the porous rock and accumulates under the island. This fresh water floats on top of heavier seawater. As rains continue to fall, the weight of the fresh rainwater forces it to flow into the ocean from freshwater springs faster than it can mix with the seawater. This occurs mostly below the surface along the coast and is particularly true in and around Kahalu‘u Bay. These freshwater inputs are often high in nutrients (nitrate, ammonia, and phosphate) most likely because of heavy fertilizer use, but also possibly from human waste. Nutrient inputs fluctuate dramatically depending on the amount of groundwater flowing into the bay and the source of the groundwater. In times of heavy rains we may see dramatic changes in the amount of nutrients in the water.
With its recently obtained YSI 556 system and Hach 2100P turbidimeter, the Citizen Science Project is making great strides towards understanding ecosystem health at Kahalu‘u Bay. The YSI 556 is a multi-probe system that measures temperature, salinity, pH, and dissolved oxygen. The Hach turbidimeter measures water clarity. These instruments allow volunteers to accurately measure physical and chemical parameters of water samples almost instantaneously. Quarterly, samples will also be taken to NELHA and tested for Ammonia (NH3), Nitrate (NO3-), Orthophosphate (PO4), and Silica (SiO2).
Use of the new instrumentation kicked off during a two-hour training and sampling session on April 23, 2009. During this session more than 15 citizen science volunteers were taught about how salinity, temperature, dissolved oxygen, and pH are related to nutrient inputs. NELHA chemist Michael Navatta explained how measuring for these nutrients can give us a better idea about how human activities are affecting Kahalu‘u Bay. Under Michael’s direction, volunteers learned to calibrate, operate, and read the YSI probe. Proper sampling techniques were demonstrated, and samples were then collected and tested using both the YSI probe and Hach 2100P turbidimeter. Volunteers received manuals explaining the physical and chemical water quality parameters being tested, data entry sheets, and instrument operation instructions.
Photo: Citizen Scientist Tiffany Walker (center) discussing sampling technique at training session.
Using the YSI probe, volunteers were able to identify areas of high and low salinity. Twelve sample sites of varying salinities were chosen. Volunteers collected samples in these twelve sites to be taken to NELHA for nutrient testing. The initial twelve samples will give us a baseline of nutrient inputs along the coast. Nutrient testing will take place quarterly at NELHA.
Weekly monitoring is necessary to understand the data volunteers are collecting. Because areas of low salinity are indicative of high fresh water inputs, six sites that showed lower salinity were chosen for weekly monitoring. On Tuesdays and Saturdays, seven trained volunteers are measuring the six sites using the YSI and Hach. They test temperature, salinity, pH, dissolved oxygen, and turbidity. By monitoring twice weekly, volunteers can track changes to fresh water inputs and identify areas where there may be higher nutrient inputs.
Some of the nutrients that TKC volunteers are monitoring at Kahalu‘u Bay include nitrogen, ammonia, nitrates, and orthophosphates. Here’s a brief explanation of how these chemicals can affect water quality in the bay.
Nitrogen
Nitrogen is an essential component of life that is recycled continually by plants and animals and is found in the cells of all living things. It makes up about 80 percent of the air we breathe. Plants require nitrogen and phosphorus for growth, but excessive amounts can drain into surface water and stimulate algal blooms that then reduce the dissolved oxygen content in coastal waters. Nitrogen and phosphorus are the most heavily applied nutrients in farming operations, and their potential impact on water quality makes good management of fertilizer crucial.
Forms of nitrogen include ammonia (when combined with hydrogen) and nitrites and nitrates (when combined with oxygen). Microbial action in soil or water decomposes wastes containing organic nitrogen first into ammonia, which is then oxidized to nitrite, and finally to nitrate.
Ammonia
In nature, ammonia is continually released into water through fish gills, urine, and solid wastes. Uneaten food and other decaying organic matter also add ammonia to water. Ammonia may speed up the process of eutrophication in waterways. Ammonia is toxic to fish and aquatic organisms, even in very low concentrations. When levels reach 0.06 mg/L, fish can suffer gill damage. Ammonia levels greater than approximately 0.1 mg/L usually indicate polluted waters.
The danger ammonia poses for fish depends on the water’s temperature and pH, along with the dissolved oxygen and carbon dioxide levels. The higher the pH and the warmer the water temperature, the more toxic the ammonia. Also, ammonia is much more toxic to fish and aquatic life when water contains very little dissolved oxygen and carbon dioxide.
Nitrate
Nitrate is the resultant final product produced by the breakdown of ammonia and nitrite. Because nitrite is easily oxidized to nitrate, nitrate is the compound predominantly found in groundwater and surface waters. Natural levels of nitrite and nitrate levels are low, less than 1mg/L; however, in the effluent of wastewater, levels can be as high as 30mg/L.
Nitrate is a major ingredient of farm fertilizer and is necessary for crop production. When it rains, varying nitrate amounts wash from farmland into nearby waterways. Nitrates also get into waterways from lawn fertilizer runoff, leaking septic tanks and cesspools, manure from farm livestock, animal wastes (including fish and birds), and discharges from car exhausts.
Nitrates stimulate the growth of plankton and water weeds that provide food for fish. This may increase the fish population. However, if algae grow too wildly, oxygen levels will decrease. Excessive nitrates can cause hypoxia and become very toxic to aquatic animals at high concentrations (10mg/L or higher).
Orthophosphate
Pure, "elemental" phosphorus (P) is rare. In nature, phosphorus usually exists as part of a phosphate molecule (PO4). In the field of water quality chemistry, phosphorus is described using several terms. The term "orthophosphate" is a chemistry-based term that refers to the phosphate molecule all by itself.
Phosphorus in aquatic systems occurs as organic phosphate and inorganic phosphate. Organic phosphate consists of a phosphate molecule associated with a carbon-based molecule, as in plant or animal tissue. Phosphate that is not associated with organic material is inorganic. Inorganic phosphorus is the form required by plants. Animals can use either organic or inorganic phosphate. Both organic and inorganic phosphorus can either be dissolved in the water or suspended (attached to particles in the water column).
Phosphorus cycles through the environment, changing form as it does so. Aquatic plants take in dissolved inorganic phosphorus and convert it to organic phosphorus as it becomes part of their tissues. Animals get the organic phosphorus they need by eating either aquatic plants, other animals, or decomposing plant and animal material.
As plants and animals excrete wastes or die, the organic phosphorus they contain sinks to the bottom, where bacterial decomposition converts it back to inorganic phosphorus, both dissolved and attached to particles. This inorganic phosphorus gets mixed back into the water column when the sea bottom is stirred up by animals, human activity, chemical interactions, or water currents. Then it is taken up by plants and the cycle begins again.
Monitoring for phosphorus is difficult because it involves measuring very low concentrations down to .01mg/L or lower. But even in low concentrations phosphorus can have dramatic impacts on aquatic ecosystems.
Photo: Citizen Scientists watch as Michael Navatta demonstrates the use of the YSI probe in the water.
At this phase, Citizen Science is an effort to educate the community about water quality parameters and their implications. The data collected by Citizen Scientists will be made available to community members and to decision makers. In the future we hope the project will also help to identify pollutant sources at the bay.
Photo: ReefTeach volunteer Alice Walker and Albert Shiotsuka of Kona Transportation Company are ready to enjoy the ‘ono pūpū. Shiotsuka delivered a golf cart which was recently donated by Kuki‘o Resort to use to transport ReefTeach displays down to the beach at Kahalu`u Bay. Photo by Randy Magnus.
At our recent Mahalo Party, Kohala Center board member Marni Herkes had high praise for the Center’s hardworking volunteers. "It is not an understatement to say that we could not do it without them. The Kohala Center volunteers help educate and empower our residents and visitors to conserve Hawai‘i Island's precious resources. They are much appreciated," she said.
“A fantastic evening! It was filled with much warmth, love and beauty and it touched my heart,” said Kahalu‘u Bay Project volunteer Judy Quimby, one of the partygoers who enjoyed ‘ono (delicious) local food and Hawaiian music and hula, while relaxing with friends on the bayside lawn lit with hanging lanterns.
"The scent of plumeria drifted throughout the gorgeous evening, embracing all the lovely, gracious, honored guests who give unconditionally from their hearts to help take care of Kahalu`u Bay and our beloved Hawai‘i island,” said Cindi Punihaole, Outreach and Volunteer Coordinator with The Kohala Center. “Pulama ‘oe. We cherish you!"
Photo: Greg Chun of Bishop Holdings Company and Sara Peck of UH Sea Grant each wear a lei and a big smile. Photo by Randy Magnus.
Matt Hamabata, Executive Director of The Kohala Center, added a special mahalo to everyone who helped to make the evening extraordinary.
"We are indebted to the co-sponsors, who helped us thank members of The Kohala Center's Circle of Friends and volunteers. They are wonderful people who really believe that we can work together to improve island life by achieving excellence in research and education about and for our natural environment,” he said.
“Mahalo nui to the Pace family for opening their beautiful home to us, to Uncle Sam Kama and the Kapakahi Brothers for the great party music, to Val Uchida and Kikuso catering for the truly ‘ono food, to Mrs. Cho of Cho's lei stand for help with the lei, and to Kona Wine Mart and Kona Brewery for the libation. It was such a fun evening. Wow!"
Rebecca Villegas, Kona Brewing Company’s brand promotions manager, said, “It is an honor for the Kona Brewing Company to support all that The Kohala Center is doing for our community.”
Join TKC’s Circle of Friends today!
