Visiting the Hi'ialakai

by Cristi Richards

On February 15, the NOAA Ship Hi’ialakai opened its doors and gangway to the American Samoa community in Pago Pago for an open house. Members of the public were invited to tour the ship and hear about all aspects of its operations from the Bridge to the Fantail. Participants were treated to a Bridge familiarization with an explanation of the electronics and maneuvering procedures, an overview of the deck machinery and how the small boats are launched for daily operations and hands-on demonstrations of the scientific aspects of the cruise including algal identification, the morphology of coral disease, fish survey techniques, towboard operations, and ARMS and invertebrate observations via a microscope. Crew and Scientists participating included ENS David Vejar, SS Gautano Maurizio, Chief Scientist Benjamin Richards, Oceanographer Oliver Vetter, Benthic Team members Molly Timmers, Cristi Richards, and Bernardo Vargas-Angel, Towboarders Kevin Lino, Jason Helyer, and Fish Team member Paula Ayotte.

Despite the rain and President’s Day, we had a modest turn out and were excited to see members of the public interested in what we spend so much time working on. It was especially wonderful to see the curiosity on children’s faces when learning about what they probably see every weekend on the beach. One set of children were particularly surprised when shown a slightly green, calcified, crunchy and segmented example from the local beach which is actually the green alga Halimeda. This alga is one of the primary sand producers in the area and a common sight on local beaches however many people might not identify it as a plant. The Towboard demonstration was also a highlight as the team had recent video footage from Howland and Baker Islands playing. The Towboard methods allow a large area to be covered and the footage gives the viewer the sense of flying over the reef. We are always excited to show off the ship and the work that we do. We are looking forward to the next import when we can again invite members of the public aboard what we’ll be calling home for the next 2 months.

Finding the lee

by Benjamin Richards

Hurricane Rene tracks across Samoa

Our transit south from Baker Island to American Samoa has gone well and has been largely uneventful.  That is, at least, until we began to feel the effects of hurricane Rene, which has been wandering around in the south Pacific.  The storm first tracked east to the north of Samoa and then turned back to the west, this time to the south of Samoa.  As Pago Pago, our intended destination is on the south side of the island of Tutuila, this southerly storm track did not bode well.  Waiting to see how conditions would change, we slowed our southward course and eventually decided to delay our arrival in Pago Pago, to ride out the storm in the lee of the island of 'Upolu.

During our transit this morning we experienced stiff winds in the neighborhood of 40 knots and driving rain, but the good ship Hi'ialakai rode the seas well and handled beautifully.  We are currently in the lee of 'Upolu, where the wind and seas are calm and a gentle swell rolls in from the east.  We will bide our time here until the storm clears and plan to arrive in Pago Pago on the morning of 2/14, Valentine's Day.

Coral Species Diversity and Conservation Challenge in the U.S. Pacific Ocean

by Jim Maragos, Ph.D., Coral Reef Biologist, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Honolulu & Member, Coral Specialist Group, Species Survival Commission, IUCN
photographs by Russell Moffitt

The Pacific Ocean supports the largest and among the oldest habitat for coral reefs, and the United States now manages the largest array of protected coral reefs in the world. Especially during the past century, coral reefs have been increasingly threatened by the activities of mankind, but now population growth, unmanaged fishing, and climate change will pose as more severe threats to coral reefs during the next century. Stony corals and coralline algae are the main life forms responsible for the biogenic growth and maintenance of reefs worldwide, yet we are only now focusing attention of the status of threats to these principal reef builders. Most reef corals consist of thin living animal tissues over a stony skeleton, and most are colonial and dependent upon single celled plants (called zooxanthellae) that live in their tissues for growth and nutrition. As such, these factors complicate efforts to define coral species and determining which are under threat and warrant special protection.

Scientific description of corals began with Linnaeus in 1758, and for most of the following century, definition of coral species relied on dead skeletons, written descriptions, and sketches. Although this approach has been successful for higher non-colonial animals such as birds, mammals and reptiles, corals altogether lack the prominent diagnostic features of these species such as eyes, noses, beaks, limbs, heads, tails, ears, faces, consistent coloration, etc. Moreover, the English language has mostly evolved in regions lacking corals, requiring Latin derived words as the basis for describing them, further confounding the understanding of the terms by which corals are separated into different species. Since 1850, photographs accompanied the published description of coral species, but virtually all of these were of the dead, cleaned skeleton of corals, with description of living tissues still relying on artistic sketches and written descriptions. As a consequence there were many more coral species described than what actually occurred in nature due to the lack of sufficient information to distinguish them.

Over the past several decades, scuba diving and guide books with colored photographs of living corals have helped many scientists learn coral species underwater where they live. Nevertheless, the colonial nature of living coral allows many to change their growth form to better adapt to differing habitats, and there are still concerns over which coral descriptions are the real species and which are “junior synonyms” of them. Over the past half century coral taxonomists have grappled over alternative means to describe individual species including numerical taxonomy of morphological features and immunoassay techniques to distinguish closely related species. However, these have met with limited success. More recently, molecular approaches that compare the DNA of different corals are showing great promise in determining which morphologically similar species have differing genomes and which corals with differing growth forms have the same genomes. As more “markers” are discovered on genes, there should be greater success in defining coral species. However, there will still need to be a strong relationship between consistent morphological-anatomical characteristics and molecular characteristics to resolve the coral species dilemma, and determine which are in greater need of protection.

Out of touch ... in the dead zone

I have to apologize to all for our lapse in posts over the past few days.  Our communication off the ship is handle via a connection to a satellite and we have been transiting through a "dead zone" near the equator for the past day or so.  We have now crossed back into signal range and should be able to resume our normal posting schedule.  Thanks to all for your patience and understanding.

Our transit from Baker Island to Pago Pago is going well and we are all looking forward to our continued operations in American Samoa.

El Niño and Coral Bleaching

by Noah Pomeroy and Bernardo Vargas-Angel
photographs by Noah Pomeroy and Kara Osada-D'Avella

“I was sweating in my wetsuit!” “It was like diving in bathwater”… Such proclamations were common as everyone rinsed down gear after our first day of diving at Howland. Earlier that day, my fellow divers of the oceanography team, Oliver, Russell and Danny, popped up from their first dive and told me I’d be roasting in my 5mm wetsuit if I wore it on the next dive. Heeding their advice, I rolled backwards off our boat, “Steeltoe,” into the warmest water I’ve ever dived in. Learning to dive in frigid California waters while wrestling with half-inch-thick neoprene covering my body really made me appreciate being able to dive for an hour in swim trunks without so much as a chill. My SCUBA console gauge reported the water temperature at an exceptionally warm 86F (30C).

A subsurface temperature recorder
attached to the reef

Sure, we all knew it was hot, but we leave it up to our precisely calibrated instruments to tell us the detailed story of Howland’s water temperature since we last visited two years ago. During our dives that day, we recovered four subsurface temperature recorders (STRs) that we had attached to the Howland’s reefs two years ago. The deepest was installed at a depth of 126 ft, the shallowest was positioned at 23 ft. We installed four new STRs in place of those that we recovered at Howland so we may continue to monitor the in situ water temperature at this small isolated Pacific island. Recording temperature every 30 minutes, the high resolution data from the STRs clearly show its waters have been warmer that usual for the last 4 months. These elevated temperatures are likely due to the effects of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), a climate pattern that occurs on average every 2-7 years throughout the tropical Pacific. During ENSO, commonly referred to as “El Niño,” warm water from the western Pacific spreads eastward in the equatorial current. The name El Niño comes from Spanish "the boy" and refers to Christ as the warming period off the coast of South America typically begins in December, around Christmas time.

Such warming episodes have occurred for at least the past 300 years but strong events can have serious implications for the health of coral reefs. Although we all enjoyed the comfort of diving in Howland’s exceptionally toasty water, Howland’s coral may have a different take on the elevated water temperature.

Coral bleaching at Howland Island

During our first dives at Howland, we observed high levels of coral bleaching. Coral bleaching refers to the reduction in the intensity or complete absence of coloration within living coral. This reduction in color is due to loss of pigmentation, and/or the expulsion of the endosymbiotic single celled algae (zooxanthellae) that normally live within the coral tissue. This loss results in the white skeleton showing through the remaining translucent tissue. Bleached corals can appear pale, pinkish, bluish, or white as new fallen snow. Patterns of bleaching can vary, with only the upper surface or lower surface of the colony being affected. Bleaching can also vary along gradients as well as among different species, with some being more susceptible than others. Extensive bleaching has been attributed to exposure to increased water temperatures. However, bleaching is a generalized stress response and therefore high levels of ultraviolet radiation, salinity, turbidity, and sedimentation may also induce bleaching. Prolonged anomalously high water temperatures not only can result in widespread coral bleaching but can eventually cause the death of the coral.

During our surveys around Howland, we have observed bleaching affecting many coral species, with massive species appearing to be more resistant than branching and table corals. We have collected environmental and biological data pertaining to this event which is being compiled and analyzed to generate a peer reviewed publication.

Reef Biodiversity, an introduction:

by Russell Moffitt and Molly Timmers

Coral reefs have been dubbed the rainforests of the sea due to their extraordinary biodiversity. They are among the most diverse and biologically complex marine ecosystems in the world even though they represent only 0.2% of the area in the ocean. Yet, the magnitude of their biodiversity is uncertain.  Estimates of the number of coral reef species range into the millions, though mankind has only identified and described a small handful. Moreover, many coral reefs are threatened by anthropogenic and environmental stressors including climate change, ocean acidification, resource exploitation, marine debris, sedimentation, invasive species, and other factors. Because even the broad dynamics of coral reef decline and recovery are poorly understood, it is difficult to predict the long-term impacts of human activities on them. Without robust knowledge of coral reef biodiversity, detecting changes in reef assemblages and investigating causes of such change will be impossible. Developing universal sampling methods and protocols is therefore imperative to establish this necessary baseline against which we can make spatial and temporal comparisons in the future.

Due to the presence of long-standing taxonomic expertise and the relative ease in sampling them, fish, corals and some macroinvertebrates have been well documented. However, this is not the case with the lesser known and cryptic marine invertebrates which compose the majority of the species that inhabit coral reefs. The difficulty in extracting these small organisms from the reef matrix has hampered broad-scale diversity investigations. Thus, methods that can successfully sample the lesser known coral reef fauna need to be developed.

An ARMS unit attached to the reef
awaiting occupants

Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS) were developed by CRED in conjunction with the Census of Coral Reefs Project (CReefs) of the Census of Marine Life (CoML) to serve as a method to detect the cryptic fauna on reef systems. By mimicking the structural complexity of benthic habitats, they are designed to be colonized by an array of mobile and sessile invertebrates as well as crustose and turf algae. The ARMS contain 9 layers: a green mesh layer providing “habitat” for organisms such as polychaetes, sipunculids, and acorn worms (hemichordata); four open layers for sessile organisms such as sponges, bryozoans, bivalves, and tunicates; and four semi-closed layers that attract cryptic motile fauna such as galatheid and xanthid crabs, alpheid shrimp, and nudibranchs.  Additionally, as sessile organisms colonize the structure, they create additional complexity and potential habitat for other organisms.

Divers intall an ARMS unit

Two divers install the ARMS on the seafloor by pounding stakes into the reef and then securing the ARMS unit to the stakes. Two 7 lb weights are also attached to each ARMS to help keep the unit in position during heavy currents or wave surge. Once installed, each ARMS unit remains on the sea floor for two years.  ARMS were deployed at Howland and Baker Islands during ASRAMP 2006 and will be removed from the reef during this cruise. The species that have colonized the ARMS over the past couple years will be systematically assessed using both taxonomic and molecular genetic analyses in order to compare indices of cryptic biodiversity across diverse biogeographic and habitat gradients thereby facilitating the monitoring of changes in these assemblages over time.

To date, ARMS have been deployed widely in tropical seas across the globe. Current sites include Moorea, Australia, Reunion, Brazil, Hawaii, American Samoa, the Marianas Islands, Panama, Belize, Papua New Guinea, and the U.S. Central Pacific Islands. They will soon be deployed in the Cayman Islands, Puerto Rico, Indonesia, and the Seychelles. Data from the ARMS will be used to determine the degree to which the communities recruiting to these artificial structures are representative of the reef communities in which they are deployed.  While NOAA conducts a broad suite of reef monitoring and observing techniques, the ARMS will provide insights into the components of the coral reef community that SCUBA divers cannot directly quantify.

A Little About Howland

by Russell Reardon
photographs courtesy of the National Archives and US Fish & Wildlife Service

Three days of transit down ... one day to go. Our next stop is Howland Island, a low, flat, sandy bit of an island with a narrow fringing reef, positioned some 50 miles north of the equator and 1,600 miles southwest of Honolulu. Uninhabited and vegetated only by grasses, vines, and shrubs, the island provides important nesting and roosting habitat for hundreds of thousands of seabirds and shorebirds.

Howland sound familiar? Did you see the movie “Earhart” with Hilary Swank? (We just watched it here on the ship the other night.) Howland Island is most recognized as being the scheduled refueling stop-over that Amelia Earhart never reached on her ill-fated bid to fly around the world in 1937. But, there is more to it than that. Evidence suggests that Polynesians visited the island long before its discovery by Europeans. Although there is no freshwater source, these ancient mariners may have used the island as a resting or gathering place during their voyages across the Pacific. At least three whaling vessels visited or sighted the uninhabited island in the early 19th century before it was officially named Howland Island in 1842.

The American Guano Company claimed Howland in 1857 and guano mining began in 1861. Guano was mined by companies from both the US and Great Britain, and both countries claimed it as sovereign territory. All told, an estimated 85,000 to 100,000 tons of guano were removed between 1861 and 1890! Evidence of the mining remains today as large excavated basins and mounds of low-grade guano. When the guano deposits were exhausted, Howland was abandoned.

In 1935 in an effort to reinforce the US claim to the island, a rotating group of four alumni and students from the Kamehameha School for Boys in Honolulu was sent to colonize the island, establishing a permanent settlement known at Itascatown (named after the USCG Cutter Itasca which dropped them off and regularly worked the area).

In 1937, an airfield was built in anticipation that the island might eventually be used as a stop-over for a commercial trans-Pacific air route. Most notably, Howland Island was the scheduled refueling stop for Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan on their flight between New Guinea and Hawaii. Though Earhart’s radio transmissions could be heard from Howland, Earhart and Noonan were lost en route. What exactly happened to them remains a mystery to this day.

In 1941, Howland entered World War II with a Japanese air attack on December 8, 1941, that killed two of the colonists and damaged the airfield. Two days later a Japanese submarine shelled what was left of Itascatown’s few buildings and a single bomber returned twice during the following weeks to drop more bombs on the rubble. The only two survivors of the attacks were finally evacuated at the end of January 1942. In 1943, Howland was reoccupied by the US Marines and became known as Howland Naval Air Station until May 1944. All attempts at habitation were abandoned after 1944, which was probably just fine with the multitude of sea birds that come to Howland. Howland Island was established as a National Wildlife Refuge in 1974. Visitation to the refuge is by special use permit only. As with Johnston Atoll (our previous stop) and Baker Island (our next stop), Howland Island and it’s environs are part of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Marine Monument, established in 2009 by President George W. Bush.

Like at Johnston, our US Fish and Wildlife Service partners will be camping on Howland Island during our 3 days there, surveying the land while we survey the surrounding waters.