Hawaii researchers seek to expand ocean data access to Indigenous communities

Expanding access to critical ocean data and information to Indigenous coastal communities across the Pacific region is the focus of a new project led by researchers at the Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System in Hawaii.

Based in the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the group recently received a $130,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. Researchers plan to work with Indigenous community partners, including in American Samoa, the Marshall Islands, two tribes in Washington state and 11 whaling villages in Alaska.

Melissa Iwamoto, director of the Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System, said accurate, real-time data on ocean conditions is vital for many fishermen, boat owners and others in these remote coastal communities. But access to wave buoys, which can be used to determine conditions such as wave height and swell direction, and help gauge whether it’s safe to go out, is limited and can be expensive. Many of their partners don’t have any wave buoys, and those that do would like to expand use of them, she said.

Larger wave buoys can cost about $80,000 and weigh about 500 pounds, according to Iwamoto. The Hawaii team is proposing to use newer, smaller wave buoys costing less than $5,000 and weighing about 12 pounds. These devices can also give users real-time information on water pressure and temperature, which Iwamoto said is not always available with larger buoys.

The goal, she said, is to work with their community partners to determine whether they could benefit from the technology. There is also an opportunity, Iwamoto said, to train them to maintain and use the devices on their own.

“It really goes back to our belief that ocean data and information can help save lives and protect livelihoods and resources,” she said. “There’s such a potential for a broader reach.”

Scott Burch, superintendent of the National Park of American Samoa, one of the project’s partners, said there is only one wave buoy in the region. Burch and Pua Tuaua, the park’s cultural liaison, said many local fishermen and boat owners don’t use data from the wave buoy or are unaware of it.

Tuaua said many of them rely instead on cultural traditions passed down from generations, such as observing the color of the sky, the migration of certain birds and wave heights, as well as calling the local weather station for information.

“With the older fishermen, they’ve seen a huge change in the climate and the ocean currents. It’s challenging them in these days to look for what they used to look for,” Tuaua said. “This (wave buoy) is one thing they can look for to really get themselves better prepared. Once they heard what this buoy data could do, they were very much interested in this project. That word, safety, really connected with them.”

Burch said it might take a while to educate local fishermen and others about the wave buoys, but he hopes they will learn to trust and use them over time. He added that a ferry that runs to the Manua Islands has been damaged several times due to high surf, and he hopes that if they have more access to ocean data, they could prevent such incidents from happening.

The ability to be able to look up ocean conditions on a phone or website could be invaluable to many people and could even save lives, he said.

He also pointed out that another goal of the project is for the researchers and partners to learn from one another about the benefits of both traditional knowledge and modern science.

“I don’t see a brick wall between those two things,” Burch said. “I just see it as knowledge bases that can be blended and support each other.”

Iwamoto said the first phase of the project, which began in December, focuses on gathering research and information from community partners to identify needs and how to address them together.

The National Science Foundation’s grant award totals about $750,000, which is shared among all of the community partners and includes the $130,000 that Iwamoto’s team in Hawaii received. A second phase, which requires the team to create and pitch their proposal to the foundation, would target implementation, she said.

Working collaboratively with their partners to develop stewardship plans and solutions will be key, according to Iwamoto. She added that they hope to also partner with coastal communities in Hawaii that are in need of wave buoy technology, such as along the Kona coast.

“We (at the Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System) are focused on data from ocean instrumentation and computer modeling. But there are other types of valuable information, such as Indigenous knowledge,” she said. “This project will help us to hopefully build a bridge between the two, and in the process, we’ll hopefully be enhancing safety and resilience.”

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Jayna Omaye covers ethnic and cultural affairs and is a corps member of Report for America, a national serv­ice organization that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under­covered issues and communities.