Thriving isles

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration researchers returned Friday from a 24-day trip to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands with good news: Marine life in the largest protected area in the country appears to be healthy, thriving and safe from Japa­nese tsunami debris.

"The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands is one of the last pristine coral reef systems left in the world, and we are tasked with monitoring changes in health and those sort of things," Scott Godwin, the expedition’s chief scientist, said shortly after NOAA’s Hii­ala­kai ship arrived back at its docking location on Ford Island. "We’re basically doing a time series with these sort of trips where the data (regarding reef fish, invertebrate, coral and algae populations) is compiled over spans of five to 10 years, and then we do analysis at that point."

Ten public and charter schools throughout the state also had a chance to take a peek into the world of marine science.

Carlie Wiener, program manager for the Centers for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence’s Island Earth program, said she conducted ship-to-classroom "ask a scientist" sessions via email with the students and will make classroom follow-up visits with researchers for a more hands-on experience.

"We hope that they understand what a special place the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument is and that they should feel honored to have this in their state," Wiener said.

Wiener was assisted by community college student Megan Onuma, who is studying to go to graduate school for marine biology.

Onuma grew up on Lanai and said her childhood experiences of going to the beach and spending hours free-diving helped spark her interest in ocean science.

"A lot of the experience I have is self-taught and very firsthand, and now it’s really cool to be able to go out with so many scientists and learn what I’ve been looking at and see the monitoring that they do," she said. "It was a life-changing experience for me, and it was so impressive to be able to come out and see the natural ecosystem … and how hard people are working to try to monitor and care for (it)."

Scientists found no widespread coral or fish disease outbreaks and no evidence of coral bleaching after conducting 472 dives and 138 reef surveys around four different islands in the monument, Godwin said.

"You see a lot of sharks, which people think are bad, but a lot of healthy upper-level predators … is an indication of health that means there’s a lot there to support these larger species," he said.

Godwin said the monument remains relatively protected from human impact because it is so remote, and access to it is extremely limited and regulated.

Nyssa Silbiger, a doctoral student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, said it is difficult to obtain the permits necessary to conduct research in the monument.

"I feel really lucky to have had the opportunity to go up and to research on this cruise," Silbiger said Friday after concluding her third trip to the islands as part of her graduate research on the bioerosion rates of coral reefs — which she described as the natural removal of coral’s calcium carbonate skeleton when it dies.

Silbiger and four other graduate students were joined on the expedition by five undergraduate students and 10 scientists from NOAA’s National Marine Sanctuary Program, the National Marine Fisheries Service Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center’s Coral Reef Ecosystem Division and the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego.

"You get to go to environments that are so close to home but so different," UH doctoral student John Burns said. "It’s pretty amazing to get to go and just see these different reef structures that you hear about. … To see it firsthand and get to do research there is pretty awesome."

Onuma said she spent the trip reflecting on her middle- and high-school learning experiences on Lanai.

"I feel really, really connected to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, especially having grown up here," she said. "You hear the names — Nihoa, Mokumanamana, French Frigate Shoals — but you never think that you’ll get the chance to go out there, and so I’m incredibly grateful that I had this opportunity."