The Polynesian Voyaging Society has received sponsorship of travel costs worth $1 million, bolstering plans for a four-year worldwide voyage focusing on educational opportunities, conservation research, cultural exchange and peace.

Hawaiian Airlines was scheduled today to announce its role as principal sponsor, and its donation of passenger ticketsfor crew members, along with baggage fees for their equipment.

The support comes less than a month and a half before Hokule‘a embarks on "Malama Hawaii," the first leg of the worldwide voyage, with more than 30 stops in Hawaii this year.

"We are deeply appreciative of Hawaiian’s extraordinary commitment to our mission to inspire young people throughout the world to care for and sustain our planet and to co­exist in peace," said Nainoa Thompson, voyaging society president.

Hawaiian Airlines President Mark Dunkerley said his company is honored to be associated with the voyaging society, a group that carries on a legacy of connecting islands throughout the Pacific through traditional seamanship.

"It is our privilege as modern-day navigators and beneficiaries of that legacy to support this voyage and its message of sustainability and resource protection," Dunkerley said in a news release embargoed for today.

The portion of the worldwide voyage headed to foreign ports will now begin in April 2014, with its first stop in the Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia.

Thompson said a decision was made to focus on taking the voyaging programs to communities and schoolchildren in Hawaii first before introducing them elsewhere.

A key to the voyage is using the Internet to connect with classrooms around the world and in nations the crew will be visiting, even as it travels within Hawaii.

"The involvement of our youth has been one of the most powerful aspects of planning for this voyage," Thompson said.

Dunkerley said his airline considers this an investment in Hawaii’s future.

"The students who will be touched by this voyage, either by participating in it or by learning from the science-based curriculum it will produce, are the future workforce of Hawaiian Airlines," he said. "So it is fitting that Hawaii-based companies such as ours support this journey."

The voyaging society will be using Web-based technology to share its experiences in real time through contacts with a global audience, including schools and community groups of different countries and in Hawaii using various educational platforms such as the website epals.com.

Thompson said as crew members travel aboard double-hulled canoes Hokule‘a and Hikianalia to more than 20 countries, they will be discussing issues related to global peace and sustainability.

He said the group hopes to share its story of hope and renewal globally.

For University of Hawaii master’s degree candidate Haunani Kane, the voyage will be an opportunity to conduct and assist in various ocean research studies, using nets to collect samples of organisms — some that feed on plastic — and taking ocean readings for possible use in ocean acidification studies.

Kane said a scientist on the East Coast is studying the kinds of microorganisms that feed on plastic, and voyagers will be collecting the microorganisms and plastic.

She said one of the potential paths for scientific inquiry is how these organisms break down the plastic and whether there is a process that could be used to break down plastic naturally.

Voyaging society member Patricia Halagao said the voyage is an opportunity for teachers to integrate mathematics, science and social studies in the classroom and also impart positive social values such as "‘Malama Honua’ — sharing and caring for our world."

"It’s all about integration," said Halagao, a University of Hawaii associate professor. "It’s about giving a purpose and meaning to why you’re learning this and also the civic component of why we’re doing what we’re doing."

Halagao, who with colleague Tara O’Neill received a grant to develop a curriculum, said she believes this purpose-based method of teaching makes learning more meaningful for students and increases their retention and ability to apply what they’ve learned in other areas.

For instance, crew members regularly count the number of seconds it takes for whitewater from the front of the vessel to pass by its length, then use a mathematical formula to determine its speed.

The navigator plots the distance traveled each day to determine when Hokule‘a is likely to arrive at its destination.

When traveling east or west, the navigators — with a knowledge of astronomy and the location of the island in a star chart — use their fingers as measuring sticks to keep the North Star so many inches above the horizon and maintain a steady course.

"When you arrive at these different ports around the world, you can use geography, social studies," she said.

Halagao said the society members and supporters come from a multitude of ethnicities.

"I think one thing that appeals to me about PVS is the inclusiveness of not just Hawaiians but everybody and about bringing different communities together," she said.

In 1976, the crew of the Hokule‘a used Pacific wayfinding methods to sail more than 2,000 miles to Tahiti, proving Native Hawaiians were capable of open-ocean navigation centuries before European explorers sailed to the Americas.

Since then, DNA evidence has confirmed that the migration began 2,000 years ago in Asia and moved eastward, stalled, but then from 800 to 900 A.D. swept forward with the invention of the double-hulled sailing canoe.

Some academics expected the historic vessel Hokule‘a to be handed over to a museum, but the voyages have continued.

What’s more, voyaging societies centered on the double-hulled canoe have emerged in several island nations across the Pacific, with a new generation of voyagers more educated than the old.

"We can count on this next generation of voyagers to perpetuate the values and practices that will guide our planet toward good health," Thompson said.

The voyaging society has been to Pacific nations where islands have disappeared or been split in two because of global warming, witnessed the dislocation of native peoples because of weapons testing, and seen unhealthy diets kill young island people prematurely.

Hawaii itself has been called by some environmentalists the "endangered species capital of the world," with Hawaiian wildlife making up about half of the endangered species on the federal list.

Thompson said his group wants to build awareness about caring for the land and ocean and their relationship to each other as well as the impact of global warming.

While Hokule‘a remains a traditional voyaging canoe, its sister vessel, Hikianalia, will serve as a traveling learning center and science laboratory.

Powered by solar battery cells as well as wind, Hikianalia will have a desalinization unit, and its crew will be collecting ocean samples and conducting air and ocean temperature tests.

Thompson, 60, said that 37 years ago, the crew of Hokule‘a that sailed to Tahiti using no navigational instruments never imagined it would spark a renaissance in canoe voyaging and this worldwide voyage integrating the past with the future.

"It’s somewhat going back to advance the future we believe in," Thompson said.