Gabrielle (Gabi) Kics, now a student at the University of Hawaiʻi at ����ԴDz�, participated in a summer work exchange program on a permaculture farm in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador following her high school graduation. This experience sparked her interest in sustainable land management practices and has taken her around the world to explore native forests and the interconnectedness of nature and humans.

“I am interested in native ecosystem restoration as a means to address climate resilience and watershed stability, and as a means for individuals and communities to continue having relationships with native plants and spaces,” she shared.

Kics was drawn to the (GES) program in the University of Hawaiʻi at ����ԴDz� (SOEST) as an opportunity to learn about a broad spectrum of environmental issues and conduct research. Now, Kics is wrapping up her degree and her latest research experiences, which included projects in Mākaha Valley on Oʻahu and South Sulawesi, Indonesia.

Mākaha Valley to Indonesia

Kics’s senior research project centers around native forest restoration in Mākaha Valley with ������Ƶ ����ԴDz� professor Tamara Ticktin and ������Ƶ ����ԴDz� professor Travis Idol. Her project explores how planting a native sedge at different densities and weeded at different intervals impacts native and invasive plant recruitment.

“As a result of western contact, native Hawaiian forests have been degraded, which includes habitat loss, species extinction, invasion of foreign species, changes in watershed, and alteration of soil stability,” Kics explained. “The project I’m working on supports restoration of native forests in order to increase ecosystem stability, protect endangered species, and maintain the connection between people and native plants and animals.”

“Conventional forest restoration starts with planting one or two native overstory trees to create an overstory canopy and favorable environment for planting other native species in the understory,” Idol shared. “Gabi’s project is using a native ground cover to hopefully suppress invasive species and thus create a more favorable environment for natural regeneration of native species. This would help rebuild ecosystem resilience, along with biodiversity.”

Kics also received a grant from the ������Ƶ ����ԴDz� Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program to support her participation in research projects in South Sulawesi, Indonesia for the past two years in partnership with a university in Makassar.

“Through this research, I learned that government-imposed land management policies harm local livelihoods and connections to forests,” Kics shared. “We further learned how villagers resist these pressures through upholding their cultural practices and identity. This experience has really emphasized the importance of co-creating management practices with communities in order to address ecosystem and community resilience.”

When Azi Moses-Khoii was a fifth-grader at Hawaiʻi Technology Academy, his teacher Ms. Gillespie, challenged students to develop a passion project as the culmination of their elementary education.

Moses-Khoii, age 13, chose to hold a Trash-a-Thon to raise money for the University of Hawaiʻi at ����ԴDz�’s (CRL), by gathering sponsorships for each pound of trash he picked up from nearby beaches.

Every spring since 2024, Moses-Khoii dedicates two to three weeks to comb the beaches, gathering pledges from family, friends and community members based on every pound of trash he picks up.

Moses-Khoii’s April cleanups have pulled a total of 310 pounds of marine debris off local shores (85 lbs the first year, 130 lbs the second, and 95 lbs this past spring). Pledges have added up to $3,942 across his three annual drives. The money donated to CRL helps fund the advancement of new technologies to uncover and understand the mechanisms and drivers of coral bleaching.

“I want to donate because I love Hawaiian octopuses, and I want to help them by protecting the reef,” Moses-Khoii said in a note included with his gift to the CRL.

To share their appreciation, the CRL team invited Moses-Khoii and his family to participate in hands-on activities in the lab at the Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology, and a snorkel in ����Ա�ʻ�dz�� Bay. For Moses-Khoii, experiencing the patch reefs up close was a highlight. Moses-Khoii also fragmented corals and fixed them to a module molded in his name, to honor his continued support for coral research.

Protecting the reefs for future generations

Madeleine Sherman, CRL’s project manager, said, “Azi is an inspiring young man who gives me hope for the future generation. I was absolutely blown away by his efforts to raise money and to help protect coral reefs.”

When asked what he’d tell other kids his age who want to help out, Moses-Khoii’s response is simple: “Go out in nature and do something.”

A new framework designed to guide one of the hardest decisions in conservation—whether to move a species outside its historical range to save it from extinction—has been , capping a multi-year, Pacific-wide effort in which the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa played a central supporting role.

The framework helps managers to decide whether a “conservation introduction” that moves a plant or animal outside its historic range is the right call, and how to do it responsibly.

Professor Melissa Price with College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience (CTAHR)’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management (NREM) and a co-author of the paper, served as a co-principal investigator alongside lead investigator Mark W. Schwartz of the University of California, Davis and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Pacific Region. Price, ������Ƶ Mānoa graduate students and others helped facilitate community engagement, gathering input from more than 250 people across the Pacific region.

Years of conservation, community discussions

“This framework is the product of years of conversations with the people who actually do this work: biologists, cultural practitioners, Tribal and Indigenous community members, land managers, and agency staff across an enormous and diverse region,” said Price. “������Ƶ Mānoa’s role was to help make sure that engagement was real, not a formality, and that the framework reflected the full range of perspectives and places it’s meant to serve.”

That place-based, relationship-first approach sets the framework apart from earlier tools. It is built around considering cultural and community values alongside ecological risk.

“For Hawaiian forest birds, we don’t have the luxury of waiting until we have perfect information to make difficult decisions,” said Hanna Mounce, coordinator of the Maui Forest Bird Recovery Project. “We are often making high-stakes decisions under a lot of uncertainty, and this framework gives us a way to work through those decisions thoughtfully and transparently, while making sure the right people are part of the conversation.”

Learn more

Community members interested in learning more are invited to a panel discussion on conservation introductions and forest bird translocations in the Hawaiian Islands at the NREM Departmental Research Seminar on Wednesday, October 28, from 3 to 4 p.m., hosted by CTAHR in the St. John Plant Science Laboratory, Room 011, 3190 Maile Way, Honolulu, HI 96822.

The panel will feature Hanna Mounce (Maui Nui Forest Bird Recovery Project), Megan Laut (USFWS), and Lucas Fortini (U.S. Geological Survey).

The first study to measure wild ungulate (axis deer, mouflon sheep, goats, pigs, etc.) grazing on Hawaiʻi rangelands finds forage losses at two-thirds of sites surveyed, with axis deer the clearest driver of decline across ranches on Hawaiʻi Island and Maui.

Led by researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi at ��ā�ԴDz�’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience (CTAHR), the research provides the first evidence that grazing by wild ungulates, particularly invasive axis deer, is reducing the forage at Hawaiʻi’s working cattle ranches. Published in Rangeland Ecology & Management, .

“This is the first study to actually measure how much forage wild ungulates are removing from working ranchlands in Hawaiʻi, and the losses are significant,” said Professor Melissa Price, corresponding author and researcher at CTAHR’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management (NREM).

Measuring forage loss

Non-native ungulates were largely introduced between the 1700s and 1960s. On Maui, axis deer were detected at 95% of surveyed sites, with roughly 47,000 deer ranging across a third of the island at elevations up to 2,150 meters.

“Axis deer came out as the biggest driver of declining rangeland condition, which matches what ranchers have been telling us for years,” said CTAHR Extension agent Mark Thorne, a study co-author and rangeland specialist.

The team compared vegetation growth with and without ungulates using motion-triggered trail cameras alongside fenced exclusion plots. Sites dominated by axis deer produced about 24% less forage on average than ungulate-free sites. Feral goats showed similar impacts. However, wild pigs and mouflon sheep frequented higher-elevation areas with generally faster forage production, illustrating how species-specific habits complicate land management.

Slow recovery

Several Maui sites sat within areas burned by the August 2023 wildfires. Researchers warned that overgrazed rangelands recover more slowly after fire and stay vulnerable to fire-prone weeds such as fireweed, found at nearly 70% of sites.

“We’ve had to shrink our herds some years because there just isn’t enough grass left once the deer get to it,” said Greg Friel, a Maui island cattle rancher and co-author on the study. “It’s good to finally see numbers behind something ranching families here have been living with for a long time.”

The study was funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program and led by Lauren Katayama, who recently earned a master’s degree from NREM.

A University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo graduate student studying a surprising connection between ʻōpelu (mackerel scad) and koholā (humpback whales) earned top honors at the 2026 Hawaiʻi Conservation Conference. Her research could help scientists better understand how recovering humpback whale populations contribute nutrients to Hawaiʻi‘s marine food webs and fisheries.

Breeann Andrade received the Graduate Student Presentation Award for Best Outstanding Oral Presentation for research examining whether ʻōpelu change their feeding habits during humpback whale season, including whether they consume skin naturally shed by the whales.

Andrade, who earned a bachelor’s degree in marine science from ������Ƶ Hilo, is now a graduate student in the university’s graduate program. During whale and non-whale seasons, she is studying ʻōpelu collected from Hilo, Kona and Maui Nui, the region encompassing Maui, Molokaʻi, ����Բ�ʻ�� and Kahoʻolawe. In the lab, she analyzes what the fish eat and looks for chemical clues that can help reveal where their nutrients come from.

“I feel honored that this project allows me to uplift ʻike kūpuna/kuʻuna (ancestral knowledge/tradition) and the ancestors that were researchers long before me on a larger scale,” Andrade said. “I want the information to make its way back to the people who can use it, and not just stay in academia, because I do believe that caring and taking care of Hawaiʻi is a kākou (we) thing.”

More ������Ƶ standouts

Andrade was not the only ������Ƶ student recognized at the conference. students Charlotte Bender, James Lee, Keala Kaaloa and Xander Nakamura earned the Outstanding Undergraduate Student Poster Presentation Award for a decade of student-led research monitoring Manu o Kū nesting on their campus. Their work has helped document nesting changes, guide tree trimming around active nests and contribute information to conservation databases.

To learn more about Andrade’s research and how she studies ʻōpelu in the field and lab, go to .

—By Susan Enright

A new study by University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa researchers shows that nearly 23% of short-finned pilot whales that stranded over 13 years in the main Hawaiian Islands ingested several pounds of plastic ropes, netting, fishing gear and plastic bags that were discarded in the ocean.

Published in Marine Pollution Bulletin, was led by the ������Ƶ Health and Stranding Lab within the . Researchers examined the stomachs and digestive tracts of 13 stranded short-finned pilot whales; necropsies of three adult males revealed large masses of tangled plastic debris inside their stomachs.

Staggering amount of plastic

The recovered debris was estimated at 4 to 12 pounds per whale, yielding a staggering 6,283 to 35,543 distinct plastic pieces larger than 5 millimeters—about the width of a standard pencil eraser—per individual.

“The presence of human-made materials in the stomachs of these ocean sentinels serves as a stark reminder of the impact of global plastic pollution,” said Kristi West, director of the ������Ƶ Health and Stranding Lab and corresponding author on the study. “It is a clear message of the importance of keeping these materials out of our ocean.”

The debris was primarily abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear, such as monofilament lines, ropes and netting. Sheet plastics, including garbage or carrier bags, were the next most common items. Plastic longer than 200 millimeters—or about 8 inches, about the length of an iPad—contributed more than 70% of the overall debris weight across all three whales.

A vulnerable species

Pilot whales in Hawaiʻi were found to be highly vulnerable to ingesting marine debris. A squid diet and the proximity of the Hawaiian Islands to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, located northeast of the archipelago, may increase the risk of marine debris ingestion in these animals.

Although the whales demonstrated normal body conditions, and the debris was not identified as the direct cause of death, researchers warned that plastics cause nutritional stress and have toxic chemicals that accumulate in whale and dolphin tissues.

Data collection spanned seven years, supported by 25 lab members and funding from the Commander, United States Pacific Fleet, Environmental Readiness Division, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries Prescott Grant program.

Kamaka Frasco’s lab is a row of tanks at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo Coral Nursery, where she spends part of her week tending coral for restoration. She spends the other part in a classroom at Ka ʻUmeke ����ʻ���, a preK–12 Hawaiian language immersion school, teaching students how that restoration works—entirely in ʻō������� Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language). Some of the corals she cares for don’t yet have documented . Helping identify them is part of the job.

“I want to show them that ʻō������� Hawaiʻi exists everywhere,” said Frasco, a ������Ƶ Hilo English graduate and a member of the ʻō������� Hawaiʻi cohort of the university’s (PIPES).

A single marine science course sparked her love for ocean conservation. Her PIPES internship gave her somewhere to put it and a way to merge it with storytelling. Financial support from PIPES and ������Ƶ �ᾱ����’s allowed her to work at the nursery while collaborating with , ������Ƶ �ᾱ����’s Hawaiian language center, on a children’s book about coral restoration, written in Hawaiian.

From intern to mentor

This summer, Frasco stepped into a peer mentor role, guiding new interns through research and huakaʻi (excursions). Her focus: getting them to “speak their manaʻo (ideas)” and recognize their own capacity to shape resource management.

“I’m super grateful,” Frasco said. “I never thought I’d end up where I am today, but PIPES made all the difference.”

For two Kapiʻolani Community College students, studying Hawaiʻi’s kōlea (Pacific golden plovers) took them from campus to the birds’ Arctic breeding grounds in Alaska.

In late June, Kealaokalani Kaaloa and Thor Donola traveled to Nome, Alaska, as Hawaiʻi Audubon Society Kōlea Quest scholarship recipients.

“One thing that was really put into perspective for me is just how little we truly know about bird species,” said Kaaloa, a biology major. “Just the concept of the kōlea migrating to Alaska was too vast to really grasp how incredible the journey really is, until you put yourself on a plane and actually go to Alaska.”

Over five days, the group observed at least 15 kōlea, documented 70 Arctic bird species and explored the Bering Strait region. The Kapiʻolani CC students also shared their Hawaiʻi-based research with fellow participants.

Recommended by Kapiʻolani CC professor of biology and ecology Wendy Kuntz, who organized and led the trip, Kaaloa and Donola became the college’s eighth and ninth participants in the Kōlea Quest program since 2023.

“Observing kōlea on their summer breeding grounds and experiencing the tundra helps students to connect the questions we explore together at Kapiʻolani CC to the broader story of migration and conservation, and to the biological and cultural ties between Hawaiʻi and Alaska,” Kuntz said.

Sharing culture

At a Katirvik Cultural Center gathering, Kaaloa offered traditional chants, including Kū Ka ʻ������, “Transformed Waterworn Stones,” composed by Kapiʻolani CC Vice Chancellor ����ɲ�ʻ�� Napoleon, to elders of the King Island community.

“Through sharing our culture together, I’ve come to realize that the most important thing one must do to keep their culture and their history alive is to have pride in it,” said Kaaloa. “When songs and art are continued through the youth, the culture will continue to live.”

The students will conduct future kōlea counts in Hawaiʻi, support community outreach events and visit classrooms to share their experience. Their participation was made possible through Hawaiʻi Audubon Society scholarships, with airfare funded by the Kapiʻolani CC Lunalilo Scholars Program (which offers scholarships, mentoring and a strong support network).

—By Lisa Yamamoto

In celebration of World Oceans Day, the Alaska SeaLife Center featured a captivating exhibit that bridges the worlds of microscopic marine science and fine art. The “Plankton Mandala Art Exhibit” is the culmination of a multi-year collaboration between a team of ocean ecologists from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and an Alaska-based artist and educator. The intricate artwork captures the beauty of the smallest ocean animals, all created during an artist-in-residence program at Seward Middle School and community workshops at Alaska SeaLife Center. The exhibit opened in April and is still available to the public.

“It is easy to overlook the details of an organism—until you try to draw it,” said Petra Lenz, project lead and research professor at the (PBRC) in the ������Ƶ Mānoa (SOEST). “Combining art and science allows us to introduce concepts and characteristics that are easily missed. Sensory hairs, eyes, and symmetry take on a new meaning when they become part of a drawing.”

Sharing discoveries with communities

The National Science Foundation-funded science driving this initiative focuses on the annual “spring restart” of the zooplankton community in the Gulf of Alaska, a time when tiny crustaceans awake from a wintertime lull and flourish as days become longer. The PBRC research team is assessing the understudied winter and early spring cycles to determine how species of zooplankton grow, stay healthy and are distributed throughout the water depths. Zooplankton, particularly tiny crustaceans known as copepods, serve as the crucial link connecting microscopic algae to economically vital fisheries, seabirds and marine mammals.

Lenz worked with Alaska artist Kim McNett to develop an innovative educational experience that translates complex biological concepts into hands-on art. While McNett developed the art component, how to engage students and adults in plankton theme artwork, select art materials, sample drawings and reference materials; Lenz and her graduate student Lauren Block worked on the scientific concepts and hands-on science activities.

Latest research

Block also spearheaded much of the fieldwork and foundational research for the project. Highlighting the scientific success of the project, her findings were published in . Block’s research integrated traditional sampling methods with modern molecular approaches to characterize the diversity, development, feeding and physiology of zooplankton in a deep Alaskan Fjord, Resurrection Bay.

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Marine mammal research has attained new heights as scientists at the University of Hawaiʻi at ����ԴDz� are deploying noninvasive suction-cup tags onto humpback whales using drones. Traditionally, researchers from the (MMRP) in the approached animals closely via boats, deploying tags using a seven-meter carbon fiber pole. Now, technological advances are allowing the team to tag whales from the sky, dramatically shifting how marine data is collected.

During their February 2026 field season off the coast of Maui, the MMRP team successfully utilized drones to deploy Customized Animal Tracking Solution (CATS) accelerometer tags. This innovative method provides a safer, less invasive tag deployment system for both the marine mammals and the human researchers. The team can deploy tags from several hundred meters away from their research vessel—greatly minimizing human intrusion.

“We do not need to get close to the whales to tag them, so we don’t disturb them,” said Lars Bejder, MMRP researcher. “Additionally, we are able to tag whales that we previously were not able to approach and get close to. This opens up many new opportunities for low-impact research on whales and dolphins to inform on their conservation and management.”

A prime example of this success occurred when the team successfully drone-tagged a skittish, singing male humpback whale during its final surfacing bout—a feat that would have been impossible using traditional pole-tagging methods.

Critical data collection

In total, the expedition deployed 22 tags on lactating females, a calf and adult males.

The high-resolution data collected—including fine-scale movements and energy expenditures—is critical for wildlife management. It allows researchers to quantify the biological consequences of disturbances, such as changing climatic events, vessel traffic or military activities, ultimately helping forecast population trajectories and establish vital evidence-based mitigation strategies to protect these marine species.

The fieldwork was supported by the Office of Naval Research, the U.S. Navy’s Living Marine Resources program, Dolphin Quest and philanthropic donations.

Read more at.

Equipped with cutting-edge marine robotics, hyperspectral imagers and aerial drones, five University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (MOP) alumni reunited aboard the R/V Searcher in June for a 22-day expedition into Papahānaumokuākea. Their mission was to deploy advanced autonomous systems to combat an invasive macroalgae called Chondria tumulosa.

The expedition highlights the impact of ������Ƶ’s 50-year-old undergraduate program, proving how MOP produces scientists, engineers and leaders who work fluently across disciplines, agencies and oceans.

“We have a unique opportunity to work with brilliant marine roboticists to develop tools to help combat one of Hawaiʻi’s most mysterious and potentially devastating marine macroalgae species, Chondria tumulosa,” said Chief Scientist Keolohilani H. Lopes Jr., a MOP alumnus and ������Ƶ Mānoa PhD candidate.

High-tech tools, interagency collaboration

The voyage brought together diverse expertise to monitor and protect fragile ecosystems. Three advanced marine robotic packages—equipped with computer vision cameras, a hyperspectral imager and an environmental DNA (eDNA) profiler—were provided by Matthew Dunbabin’s lab at Queensland University of Technology. Meanwhile, PhD student Anna Baker Mikkelsen of the Climate Resilience Collaborative (CRC) led aerial mapping of Sand Island at Kuaihelani (Midway) using a drone.

Shellie Habel, a coastal geologist with the CRC and , served as primary drone pilot for aerial mapping. At Manawai (Pearl and Hermes Atoll), the team conducted aerial operations over shallow reef flats to supplement in-water surveys of macroalgae. The team also evaluated shoreline changes at Tern Island and East Island of Lalo (French Frigate Shoals) to support research led by Sara Kahanamoku and Haunani Kane at ������Ƶ ��ā�ԴDz�’s (SOEST).

Decades of trust, leadership

Crucial permit compliance, field safety, and historical context were overseen by MOP alumnus Jason Leonard, Marine Operations Coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Office of National Marine Sanctuaries Papahānaumokuākea National Marine Sanctuary. Leonard, who has visited the sanctuary for more than 25 years, credited MOP and its Quantitative Underwater Ecological Surveying Techniques field program with preparing exceptional marine field personnel.

������Ƶ Mānoa MOP Coordinator Jeff Kuwabara also served as expedition photographer.

“What made this expedition possible wasn’t just funding or equipment,” Kuwabara said. “It was a network of trust built over decades, by people who trained together, dove together, and learned to work across disciplines before they ever had professional titles. That network is MOP‘s quiet legacy: not a single discovery or expedition, but a generation of professionals who know how to collaborate because they were taught to from the start.”

A decade of undergraduate research and stewardship at Kapiʻolani Community College has earned top honors at the Hawaiʻi Conservation Alliance Conference. Students Charlotte Bender, James Lee, Keala Kaaloa and Xander Nakamura received the Outstanding Undergraduate Student Poster Presentation Award for their research: .

The project highlights 10 years of student-led monitoring of the campus’s nesting population of Manu o Kū (blue-billed tern).

“It’s an amazing privilege to study a native bird on our home campus,” said Bender. “While the technical and data-driven aspects are important, it’s also an opportunity to serve as ambassadors for a native species. When we’re out surveying, we’re visible to the public and have a chance to answer questions, share information, and raise awareness of the Manu o Kū. It’s easy to fall in love with these birds.”

Since 2016, 34 students have participated in the project, producing 25 research posters. Their work documents nesting changes, helps guide campus tree-trimming to protect active sites, and contributes critical data to local conservation databases, broadening students’ professional pathways.

Protecting Manu o Kū

“The return and growth of the Manu o Kū population on our campus is a powerful reflection of what is possible when dedicated faculty inspire curiosity, students embrace discovery, and our entire campus fulfills its kuleana (responsibility) to care for the ʻāina (land),” said Chancellor Misaki Takabayashi. “This recognition celebrates not only our students’ outstanding research, but also a decade of stewardship that has helped to protect Hawaiʻi‘s native species.”

Biology Professor Wendy Kuntz has mentored dozens of students since the project’s inception.

“Watching this project grow over the past decade has been one of the most rewarding parts of my work at Kapiʻolani CC,” Kuntz said. “I am incredibly proud of the four students who presented this research and of the many students who have built on one another’s work, creating a valuable long-term record of Manu-o-Kū nesting on our campus while developing the skills and sense of kuleana needed for conservation work in Hawaiʻi.”

—By Lisa Yamamoto

The first cohort of the at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa includes 14 students, seven of whom are supported through from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Hawaiʻi (DAR) and a Hawaiʻi-based philanthropic organization. Students and their ������Ƶ advisors will work collaboratively with the sponsoring agencies and Hawaiʻi communities on their graduate research projects.

“It is really encouraging to see the significant support for this new program from the community and the state and federal agencies we partner with,” said Jeff Drazen, sustainable fisheries program graduate chair and oceanography professor in the ������Ƶ Mānoa (SOEST). “Welcoming the first cohort of students is an exciting milestone, and having this level of community collaboration will really advance our goal of ensuring sustainable fisheries for people throughout the Pacific.”

The incoming students receiving fellowships are Kai Holdaway, Alexander Jemal, Ashley Meara, Kahakuhailoa Poepoe, Mackenzie Thielmann, Andrea Vega and Jake Zikan. Of the seven students, six will pursue master’s degrees, and one will pursue a doctoral degree; two are from Hawaiʻi, and five are from the U.S. continent.

Students address fisheries near and far

Supported by one of two DAR Fellowships, Thielmann’s research will focus on finding “nursery” areas where young fish grow along Oʻahu’s coastlines to help protect future fish populations. By analyzing a large state dataset, Thielmann will identify where juvenile fish are most common and see if these “hotspots” match up with where legal-sized adult fish live. This project will use advanced science to ensure that culturally important reef fish remain abundant for local families and fishers. Further, this will help DAR create better fishing rules and habitat protections.

One of the four fellowships supported by the in Honolulu, awarded to Holdaway, will support building a computer model that predicts where the Hawaiʻi longline fishing fleet might shift to as ocean conditions and fishing laws change. By analyzing vessel data and interviewing fishers, Holdaway wants to understand how factors like earnings, weather, and mapping tools influence a captain’s decisions. Ultimately, this work seeks to balance catching target fish with avoiding protected species to ensure a healthier marine ecosystem.

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–By Marcie Grabowski

The University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo and Hawaiʻi Community College co-hosted , a dynamic, multi-day Earth Day celebration. Guided by the theme “Huli ka lima i lalo, ola” (hands that are turned down to do work, bring life), the event featured demonstrations, conservation efforts and speaker presentations designed to encourage the community to mālama ʻāina (care for our land).

A centerpiece of the celebration took place on Lā Honua (Earth Day) at ������Ƶ Hilo featuring an Earth Day Fair for K–12 students and a Conservation Career Fair for college students.

Amy Fullerton, a second-grade teacher from �����Dz� Elementary School, emphasized the necessity of the event. “We need to teach the students about how important our earth is because it’s their future.”

Students were thrilled to engage in interactive activities outside the traditional classroom setting. From building their own water systems to learning about how camouflage helps animals in the wild to creating artwork using traditional Hawaiian materials and methods.

For ������Ƶ Hilo faculty, engaging with the keiki provided a joyful change of pace. Professor Kerri Inglis spent the morning teaching children how to make ti leaf lei. Representing Hui Mālama Makanalua, an organization dedicated to honoring and remembering the residents of Kalaupapa on Molokaʻi, Inglis reflected on the university’s long-standing tradition to mark Lā Honua.

“We’ve all come to really appreciate our connections, and so taking the time once a year to celebrate Earth Day is important,” said Inglis, who chairs the Social Sciences Division in the . “It’s an opportunity to express gratitude for where we are and recognize that we’re responsible not just to this island, but our Earth is an island that we need to take care of as well.”

For more, go to .

Kauaʻi Community College is combining high-tech innovation with cultural preservation, offering five students paid internships while supporting local nonprofit efforts to protect Indigenous data across the island.

These interdisciplinary projects allow students to gain specialized skills, earn academic credit and explore new career pathways through hands-on experience. They are part of the University of Hawaiʻi‘s Office of Indigenous Knowledge and Innovation, which has established several Indigenous Data Hubs (IDH).

In one vital project, students are partnering with the nonprofit I Ola Wailuanui to aid in the restoration of Malaehaʻakoa heiau. Using drone technology, interns created 3D models of the historical site, which are now being used to inform and guide restoration efforts.

“Building pilina (connection) with Malaehaʻakoa and listening to what its needs are for restoration and integration into modern-day functioning has been integral,” said Kauaʻi CC IDH Coordinator Kamalani Chock. “When we interact with the space, we treat the heiau as an ancestor that can help the community cultivate mana (power). What the process of mana cultivation means in the 21st century is what we’re meditating on.”

Digitizing artifacts

A second project involves students digitizing fragile artifacts at Kauaʻi CC’s Kikuchi Center. They are photographing from 360 degrees and transforming those images into a 3D model with an associated texture map, making them accessible for study and public engagement on the .

“I think it’s important to expand the scope of potential career pathways on the island,” Creative Media Program Coordinator Joseph Tremonti said.

“Projects like this allow students to develop skills that can be applied to cultural heritage work, archives, and museum studies—fields where access to fragile materials is often limited. This opens up exciting opportunities for our students.”

Chock, who also teaches agriculture and natural science courses through Nā Pua Noʻeau (a pre-K–college enrichment program), emphasized the importance of connecting education directly to community needs.

“I think the future of education must be holistic,” Chock said. “It can’t be siloed into singular disciplines. Instead, it should recognize how these fields intersect and work together in our communities—especially in ways that support community health and well-being.”

An invasive algae already well-established in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands is raising concern among researchers as it threatens to spread into the main Hawaiian Islands. Scientists from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) have identified a potential ally in slowing its advance: sea turtles.

Hawaiian green sea turtles (honu) have been documented for the first time actively grazing on Chondria tumulosa, an aggressive invasive red alga that has spread rapidly across reefs among three of the northernmost atolls in Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (PMNM).

The findings, recently published in the journal by researchers, suggest that honu may play a meaningful role in controlling this ecologically damaging species—while also potentially spreading it.

“After these exciting finds, our multi-partner effort to prevent this seaweed from taking hold in the Main Hawaiian Islands must include a plan to increase numbers of threatened, native green sea turtles, as well as ramping up efforts to identify all routes that could allow Chondria to spread to Oʻahu,” said Celia Smith, ������Ƶ Mānoa‘s professor and senior author of the study.

Dangers of C. tumulosa

First detected at Manawai (Pearl and Hermes Atoll) in 2016, C. tumulosa has since expanded to more than 101 square kilometers of reef habitat (nearly the size of Kahoʻolawe), including Kuaihelani (Midway Atoll) in 2021 and Hōlanikū (Kure Atoll) in 2022. The alga forms dense mats more than 6 centimeters thick that can smother live coral and displace native reef species, making it one of the most pressing threats to the monument’s reef ecosystems.

Turtles take a bite

Using a stationary GoPro camera deployed on a reef at Midway Atoll in June and July 2025, the research team captured approximately 50 minutes of footage showing three honu grazing on C. tumulosa mats. One female took up to 18 bites in a 95-second burst, leaving disruptions 5–15 cm in diameter across the algal canopy—substantially larger than what urchins or fish could achieve. A complementary necropsy of a stranded adult female confirmed C. tumulosa fragments throughout her digestive tract, accounting for roughly 25% of the material in her esophagus and crop.

“These turtles are consuming a meaningful amount of this alga in a single foraging session,” said Tammy Summers, USFWS staff biologist and co-author of the study. “It’s exciting because it points to honu as a native megaherbivore with the potential to suppress C. tumulosa biomass—but it also raises important questions about whether fragments excreted during their migrations between atolls could accelerate the alga’s spread.”

The findings carry immediate management implications. Because 96% of Hawaiian green sea turtles nesting occurs at Lalo (French Frigate Shoals) before individuals disperse to foraging grounds across the archipelago, the authors recommend eDNA monitoring at Lalo to track potential spread of C. tumulosa beyond its known range.

The study was a collaboration between ������Ƶ Mānoa‘s School of Life Sciences and USFWS Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, and was funded by USFWS Invasive Species Strike Team funds through a cooperative agreement with ������Ƶ Mānoa. Smith leads the Limu Lab at ������Ƶ Mānoa, where research on C. tumulosa physiology, distribution and ecology has been ongoing for several years. Other authors on the paper are Caroline Pott from USFWS and Angela Richards Donà from the School of Life Sciences.

This work was accomplished under permit numbers PMNM-2025-001, USFWS 274 Recovery Permit TE72088A-3, Recovery Sub-permit TE163899-2, NOAA Permit 21260, and 275 State of Hawaiʻi, Department of Land and Natural Resources Special Activity Permit 2026-01.

The School of Life Sciences is housed in ������Ƶ Mānoa‘s .

Related ������Ƶ News stories on ������Ƶ Mānoa research on C. tumulosa:

• Nuisance alga detected beyond Papahānaumokuākea for the 1st time, December 16, 2024
• Early detection system for nuisance alga infesting Papahānaumokuākea reefs, September 25, 2022
• Algae species discovered infesting NW waters has been identified, July 7, 2020

The University of Hawaiʻi has been designated as a new Pacific Reef Research Coordination Institute (Pacific RRCI) by the (NOAA) to support coral reef conservation in the Pacific through research, collaboration and public education.

The Pacific RRCI will be housed in ������Ƶ’s , under the aegis of the , and will perform the following critical functions: conduct federally directed research to fill national and regional gaps; collaborate with relevant states and territories, Indigenous groups, coral reef managers, non-governmental organizations, and other coral reef research centers; assist in the implementation of the NOAA’s National Coral Reef Resilience Strategy and coral reef action plans; build non-federal capacity for management and restoration practices; and conduct public education and awareness programs.

“This new institute combines ������Ƶ’s strengths in cutting-edge, ocean-related research and our collaborative, place-based approach to working with resource managers throughout Hawaiʻi and the Pacific to protect our vital coral reefs,” said Chad B. Walton, ������Ƶ interim vice president for research and innovation. “At the same time, it provides us with further opportunities to develop our region’s next generation of researchers and managers in the field of conservation futures.”

To restore and preserve coral reef ecosystems in the U.S. from natural and human-related effects, the Coral Reef Conservation Act of 2000 was reauthorized and modernized by the Restoring Resilient Reefs Act of 2021, which was included in the James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act that became law in 2022. The reauthorized law required the designation of two RRCIs, one each in the Atlantic and Pacific basins, was required. The RRCIs were chosen from 32 preselected coral reef research centers and were designated based on the results of technical merit and panel reviews. The Restoring Resilient Reefs Act of 2021 was introduced and sponsored by Hawaiʻi Senators Brian Schatz and Mazie K. Hirono, and Congressman Ed Case.

The ������Ƶ-led institute will be guided by experienced reef researchers from ������Ƶ Mānoa’s Kewalo Marine Laboratory and the Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology, ������Ƶ �ᾱ����’s Marine Sciences program, and the University of Guam’s Marine Laboratory. It will support research, monitoring, capacity building and outreach for coral reef management throughout the U.S states and territories of American Samoa, Guam, Hawaiʻi, and the Northern Marianas Islands and with the Freely Associated States of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of Palau and the Republic of the Marshall Islands.

“Many people worked many years to make this vision for collaborative reef research across the Pacific a reality,” said Suzanne Case, director of the Office of Land and Ocean Conservation Futures. “We’re excited to jump in with scientists and communities and agencies across the region to take it forward.”

The one-year anniversary of the official designation of Papahānaumokuākea as a National Marine Sanctuary was celebrated on March 3, a historic milestone in the ongoing protection of one of the most sacred and ecologically significant places on Earth. In recognition of this anniversary, the (PMDP), (SAC) and the (Hawaiʻi Sea Grant) are starting the new, community-centered initiative, Papahānaumokuākea: Bringing the Place to the People.

Papahānaumokuākea is a place of profound cultural, ecological and ancestral significance. Yet for many, it remains distant and abstract. The project seeks to bridge that distance by fostering meaningful, community-led engagement that deepens public awareness, stewardship, trust and cultural connection to the Papahānaumokuākea National Marine Sanctuary. Beginning in summer and fall 2026, PMDP, SAC and Hawaiʻi Sea Grant will host community talk story sessions on Hawaiʻi Island (Hilo and Kona), Maui, Lānaʻi, Molokaʻi, Oʻahu and Kauaʻi.

This initiative centers Native Hawaiian voices, values and leadership, elevating cultural resource conservation and protection as foundational to the sanctuary’s past, present and future. Their vision is a living, island-to-island exchange where communities do not simply learn about Papahānaumokuākea, but actively shape how its story, stewardship and future are carried forward.

Rooted in listening

These gatherings are not presentations delivered to communities, they are conversations rooted in listening. This initiative allows SAC, whose kuleana is to represent the communities, to learn directly from each island community and amplify their voices. The sessions will explore how Western science and Indigenous knowledge systems can be meaningfully integrated, community perspectives on stewardship and management, cultural resource protection priorities, opportunities for youth engagement and leadership, and how communities wish to remain connected to Papahānaumokuākea.

Community organizations, cultural practitioners, educators and schools, conservation groups, youth leaders, kupuna and ʻike holders, and interested individuals are invited to express their interest in hosting, partnering or participating in a talk story session on their island. The initiative is an invitation to listen, learn and steward together.

The initiative was funded by the . Find more information on .

The , a beacon of marine education and conservation for over a century, is marking its 122nd anniversary in March. Under the new leadership of Interim Director Judy Lemus, the institution is embarking on a period of revitalization, with innovative exhibits, strategic collaborations, and a continued commitment to the unique aquatic ecosystems of Hawaiʻi and the tropical Pacific.

The aquarium will host a 122nd birthday celebration on March 19, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The day kicks off with a community coastal cleanup followed by a suite of family-friendly activities.

A new chapter

Lemus brings a wealth of experience in marine facility management, research, and education. Lemus served for four years as the interim director of the (HIMB) within the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (SOEST) and is currently the interim associate dean for academic affairs in SOEST. Her primary focus at the aquarium is on operational improvements and enhancing the institutionʻs role in education, marine conservation, collaborative research, and community engagement.

“Managing the Waikīkī Aquarium is about more than just animal husbandry; it’s also about our engagement with the public and contribution to conservation of Pacific species, and our role as a public outlet for ������Ƶ research,” said Lemus. “As we celebrate 122 years, we are not just honoring our history, but building the systems, facilities, and stories that will carry us through the next century.”

One major accomplishment under her leadership has been the successful return of Hōʻailona, the beloved Hawaiian monk seal, to his refurbished enclosure.

New and upcoming exhibits:

• The Aquaculture Tank: In partnership with Biota, a local aquaculture company, this exhibit will feature fish and coral raised entirely in aquaculture facilities at the Oceanic Institute and Waikīkī Aquarium. This “no-collection” model highlights sustainable trade and will also showcase 3-D structures from HIMB researcher Josh Madin’s Lab that facilitate coral growth.
• The Edge of Reef Redesign: Formerly an iconic outdoor exhibit, the Edge of Reef was dismantled to make way for a critical infrastructure project. A redesign is planned for this exhibit with support from ������Ƶ, the ������Ƶ Foundation, and the Friends of the Waikīkī Aquarium.
• New Tank for Mullet and More: The large tank that previously featured mullet, a species revered in Hawaiʻi as a staple food and in loko ʻia (Hawaiian fishpond) aquaculture, is being dismantled to make way for a modern habitat. The new enclosure may house mullet and possibly other compatible species such as rays or sea turtles.
• The aquarium is planning new collaborations with a variety of ������Ƶ faculty and labs to help bring their work to broader audiences.
• AZA Accreditation: The aquarium is starting a Pathway Toward Membership program with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, the gold standard in accreditation for zoos and aquariums, with the goal of achieving AZA accreditation for Waikīkī Aquarium in about 5 years.

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