CEP Boat and Tour Update 06-25-10

Aloha,

Thanks to all for pitching in this week. It was great to see some new volunteers out shadowing and others leading tours!

Take a look at the calendar and see where you can fit in, or let us know if you would like to come out and practice.

Don't miss the new posts below, "Ethnomathmatics" (seriously, did you even know it existed before? what a cool concept) and "How big is it" (lucky it did not happen here, still...).

By the way, the image on this post came from one of the new posts (actually from a link within, see if you can find it. It is not one of our local swimming crabs).

Have a great weekend!

Mark

Ethnomathmatics

Dr. Linda Furuto is one of our favorites here on the island. She brings out her students from the University of West Oahu and does amazing things. Take a listen to this HPR interview!

See: http://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/hpr/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4808&Itemid=166

How big is that spill?

How big is the oil spill in the Gulf? Well take a look at the image, depending on how it was oriented, it could cover all of Oahu, Lanai, Molokai, Maui and more. And that is just what is at the surface!

For an interesting site to stop by or use for research on animal questions is the "Encyclopedia of Life"

Check out their oil spill page at: http://www.eol.org/content/page/oil_spill_2010

Mark

CEP Tour and Boat Schedule Update 6-18-10

Aloha,

Thanks to all who helped out this week!

Please take a look at the upcoming tours.

We have some big groups coming up and this is a great time for new folks to shadow.

Don't miss the new blog entries below - "A story of an alga and it's environment - Getting physical" and "Genie out of the bottle - a bad fish story".

Have a great weekend.

Mark

A story of an alga and it's environment - Getting Physical

HIMB graduate researcher Sherril Leon Soon (whom many of you have met when she drives boat after hours) reports on her research on the invasive gorilla ogo in the latest Sea Grant publication.

Thinking like a scientist:
Whereas we all might just look at a clump of invasive gorilla ogo and say," check out how it grows over everything" and stop right there, Sherril not only considers how the seaweed changes its environment, but also the reverse - how the new environment may cause changes in the ogo as well. Clumps of the seaweed not only smother the bottom, but change current patterns and nutrient flows, which may in turn affect the seaweed.

Sometimes I think science is like art - good science, like good art, should make your brain stretch and maybe even hurt a bit.

See: http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/seagrant/communication/kapilikai/Spring2010/Sherril.pdf

Aloha,

Mark

Genie out of the bottle - a bad fish story

Check out HIMB graduate researcher's Michelle Gaither's cool report on her work on the introduced snapper Taape and it's lovely intestinal parasite in a recent Sea Grant Publication. See: http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/seagrant/communication/kapilikai/Spring2010/Michelle.pdf

CEP Tour and Boat Schedule Update 06-11-10

Welcome to the update!

Bit of a short week, but thanks to all who assisted!

As usual, take a look at the posts below - one for New Volunteers (although I implicated the veterans as well) and one on World Ocean Day.

Check the schedule and sign up!

Aloha,

Mark

New Volunteers

Aloha,

For those whom have just gone through Volunteer Training - WELCOME!

To sign up for tours, simply email us and let us know when you would like to come out and shadow a tour, or just walk around the island to practice.

You may want to do so in pairs, or see if one of us is available to help. We can even ask our current volunteers if they are available, just let us know the days and times you would like to come out.

So, look at the calendar, see if there are any tours you can shadow - email us at himbcep@hawaii.edu

Or email us the days you would like to come by to practice. Or study - we have books, including the fish and invert ID books and the Moku o Lo'e History book.

Any questions - just let us know.

Mark

World Ocean Day

As many of you may have noted, June 8th is World Ocean Day. This is a time for us to pause and consider.

Think of all of the ways you interact with the ocean. Add up your points to check your "Sea Level"

Swim in the ocean - 1 point
Eat fish or seafood of any kind - 1 point
Like looking at fish and corals - 1 point
Scuba dive - 1 point
Snorkel - 1 point
Surf - 1 point
Paddle - 1 point
Boat - 1 point
Other ocean sports (kite sail, etc.) 1 point each
Walk the beach - 1 point
Breath - 1 point (half of the planet's oxygen comes through ocean plants)
Drive a car - 1 point (cars are shipped to us via the ocean and add to global CO2, raising ocean temperatures and acidity)
Eat any food not raised on Oahu - 1 point
Have a rusting refrigerator (ocean salt spray reaches all parts of the island) - 1 point
Worry that a hurricane might tear your house apart some day - 1 point
Love our moderate weather with the trade winds - 1 point
Enjoy ocean sunsets or sunrises (1 point each)
Would not live anywhere else - 1 point
Any thing else that you can think of? Add points!

Check your score:
0-5: Low tide
5 - 10: Gentle surf on the beach
10 and up: Riding the big waves

I am betting that most of you scored pretty high. The ocean touches us in so many ways.

Hawaii is the most remote archipelago in the world. Take a look at the image at the top of the page. We are literally adrift in the middle of the ocean. We are not landlocked, we are ocean locked.

It is our home. Happy Ocean Day, Week, Month, Year - it's always Ocean Day in Hawai'i. Lets take care of it.

CEP Tour and Boat Schedule Update 06-04-10

Welcome to the Friday update.

Thanks to all for helping out with tours this week, to Hazel for giving us some new ideas, to Joe for lab set up, and to those that have been attending training! The sessions are a lot of fun.

Next week is a bit slow for tours, Sal and I will be reviewing our fee schedule and budget - but new volunteer prospectives can come out and practice!

Please take a look at the schedule and tours further down the line and sign up as available. New tours will continue to add in.

Don't miss the new posts below: Fish Superlatives and Tiny Hands and Shattered Arms. And don't forget to check Barbara's Midway blog too.

Aloha!

Mark

Fish Superlatives!

In prepping for the volunteer training, I asked myself - What is a fish?

They are a remarkably diverse group. I liked the definition I found in a text by our own Dr. Brian Bowen. "A fish is an aquatic vertebrate with gills and with limbs in the shape of fins."(1)

This covers a wide range of organisms including sharks, rays, sturgeons, lungfish, and all of the bony fishes (from goldfish to butterflyfishes).

Some superlative fish facts from the book:

Fish lifespans range from 10 weeks (2.5 months) for pygmy gobies, to over 150 years (sturgeon and some rockfishes).

Lungfishes can live in a state of dry "suspended animation" for up to 4 years.

Antarctic fishes live in water that is colder than the freezing point of their blood (they have a natural "antifreeze" in their system).

Picky about your food? Some fish have specialized in eating: the parasites off others, eating other fish's scales, young, fins, feces, or even eyes.

They may inflate themselves, wiggle lures, play dead or create light, warm their blood, and create their own sunscreens - all adaptations that help different fish survive and reproduce.

All of this in a group of animals that range in size from less than 1/3 of an inch (Paedocypris progenetica - a tiny carp relative) to over 52 feet long (whale sharks - because, of course, sharks are fish too).

Aloha,

Mark


1. From, "The Diversity of Fishes, Biology, Evolution, and Ecology." 2009. Helfman,Collette, Facey, Bowen (that would be our Dr. Brian Bowen).

Tiny Hands and Shattered Arms

Touch Table Ethics

Years ago I was at a touch pool at a major aquarium. I watched as a docent handed a child a live seastar. The child inserted his finger to the second knuckle into the seastar's mouth opening and began rotating it. He said excitedly, "Is this alive!" The docent assured him that it was. The child was impressed and eventually put the animal back.

Later I asked the docent if they had much mortality in the touch pool. He said yes, but that it was worth it for the educational value...

So we come to a basic issue - the impacts of touch pools. Educators killing that which we are telling folks to conserve is an issue.

Unfortunately, little is really known about touch pool impacts. Most Aquarium's really do not want to know. Touch pools are often the most popular of exhibits - so although many of us led the charge back in the early 90's to reduce impacts. They are still there.

For one study, see: Tiny Hands and Shattered Arms, about a study on seastar arm regeneration.

This is why we have our touch guidelines at our Observation/touch pool.

Aloha,

Mark