GPAC Presentation

11/11/2019

11/11/2019 PDF of Presentation

On Monday night, Dr. Craig Downs came to HPA to present information about over tourism, sunscreen pollution and ways of handling both.  Presenting to a crowd of approximately 100 people, he showed slides of areas in Indonesia, the Caribbean and Hawaii where the effect of over crowded tourist areas and the use of sunscreen have "killed" the coral reef.  Stressing that the coral reef is a valuable economic entity, he further outlined how many for profit businesses (tour companies, hotels, etc.) are realizing that they will not have a business if the coral reefs disappear.
The remedy for the chemical pollution via sunscreens is to use"reef safe" sun screens or, better yet, wear UV protective clothing in place of any type of sunscreen.  The only way that was shown to remediate the over tourism (too many people at one place) problem is to close the area.  This type of solution simply sends the people to some other place where it is overrun.  The only answer to too many people is fewer people... population limitations - but no one seems to want to talk about that.

The talk was very well received and there were many questions at the conclusion of the presentation.

Below are a couple of pictures from the night's presentation.

Dr. Downs poses with Laura Jim's Capstone Students.

Talking about the effect of oxybenzone and other chemical pollutants of coral development and growth.

The presentation by Dr. Downs was attended by approximately 100 people.

Gerry Clark Art Center.

Training and Water Sampling

11/4/2019 AND 11/7/2019

We were fortunate to have Dr. Craig Downs visit our campus and meet with some of our students and faculty to discuss coral bleaching and the effects of various stressors (nutrients, sun screen, etc.) on coral health.  He also helped two of our capstone students with their research projects.
Dr. Downs came back to HPA on the 7th to do a training class for various Big Island divers and citizen scientists.  The class trained the group on how to conduct coral laceration regeneration assay as a means of measuring coral health.  HPA and Kohala Center hosted the class at the HPA Dowsett Pool.
After the class, we meet up with Craig and Bill White down at Wailea Bay to take samples of sand around the outdoor shower at the county park and water samples out in the bay.  The samples are to be analyzed for various sun screen chemicals and nutrient concentrations.  Dr. Downs guided Jenna Perry and Kahele Walsh in how to properly take samples using sterile, appropriate forensic techniques.  The girls proceeded to take two sand samples and three sets of water samples which Dr. Downs will analyze.

Below are some images of the class and the water sampling.

CORAL LACERATION REGENERATION ASSAY CLASS

Dr. Downs explains the technique of determining coral health using coral laceration assay technique.

The tools for coral laceration assay.

Coral laceration assay practice session in the HPA Dowsett Pool.

Water Sampling at Waialea Bay

The county shower area is heavily used by park guests. The guests wash off the sand, salt water and sunscreen after a day at the beach.  The wash water goes down hill into the sand and, eventually the bay.  

Contaminated water runs down toward the Bay from the showers.

HPA students Jenna Perry and Kahele walsh take a sand sample from the area of the shower runoff

Sealing the sample bag full of contaminated sand.

Adding a teflon seal to the teflon sand bag.

The teflon bag of sand is sealed and then resealed inside of a tamper proof plastic forensic bag.

Making the final seal on the forensic evidence bag.

Kahele, Jenna and Ms Jim display the samples.

Dr. Downs and Bill White work with Kahele and Jenna to take a water sample.

Out taking a water sample in the middle of Waialea Bay.

Sampling water at the north end of Waialea Bay.

Temperature Loggers Retrived

10/18/2019

Laura Jim, Marc Rice, Jenna Perry and Kahele Walsh traveled to Waialea Bay at 0730 on Friday (10/18/19) to retrieve the temperature loggers deployed on Sept. 11 by Rice and Jim.  We were able to find all three temperature loggers and replaced them with 4 U24 Salinity / Temperature loggers.  The U24 loggers were placed at stations 1, 2, 3, and 4.
The weather was fair with no wind and a small swell (2') on occasion.
We were able to do the retrieval and deployment by 1030 hours.