AIS TEAM QUARTERLY UPDATE (2024 Q1)

Posted on Oct 10, 2024 in Main, slider

Aquatic Invasive Species Team Quarterly Update (2024 Q1)

January-March

Invasive Algae Management and Coral Restoration:

  • The AIS team outplanted 21,200 urchins to Kāneʻohe Bay as part of continued efforts to mitigate invasive algae. Read more about urchin outplanting as a part of the Cape Flattery Settlement Restoration project here.
  • Continued to assist the DAR urchin hatchery with urchin broodstock collections, spat counts, and harvesting.
  • The AIS team monitored 107 coral modules outplanted by the Hawaiʻi Coral Restoration Nursery and assisted with the initial outplanting of 31 modules at the Kakaʻako outplant site. Modules are monitored regularly over the 5 years following outplanting.
  • Conducted annual SNAP surveys to monitor invasive algae in Kāneʻohe Bay.

Intra-agency collaborations:

  • Assisted Kim Peyton and other members of the Oʻahu Monitoring team with cast net sampling and eDNA collection.
  • Attended a Coral ID workshop led by the DAR Hawaiʻi Coral Restoration Nursery.

Rapid Responses:

  • Conducted follow-up surveys for Manatee Mudflower (Micranthemum glomeratum) in the Nuʻuanu stream following initial surveys in 2023.
  • DAR continued to collaborate with the U.S. Navy and other federal agencies after a U.S. Navy aircraft overshot the runway at Marine Corps Base Hawaiʻi. Dive teams worked to complete assessments of reef damage following Navy plane and righted 180 corals as part of restoration efforts. Read more here.

 

Partner agency collaborations:

  • Assisted Nancy Treneman from the University of Oregon with shipworm studies across harbors on Oʻahu.
  • Worked with Mālama Maunalua
  •  to continue Tripneustes gratilla caging studies in Maunlua Bay. Learn more about the collaboration here.
  • The Bishop Museum, USFWS, NOAA, UH, and colleagues from DAR collaborated on the Unomia infestation within Pearl Harbor. For more information, please visit here. Please send any information on suspected non-native species like octocorals to [email protected].

Training and Conferences:

  • Attended the Aquatic Nuisance Species Task Force meeting held by US Fish and Wildlife.
  • Attended a Limu Workshop held by Hawaiʻi Pacific University.

Outreach:

  • Presented to ~40 students at Ewa Makai Middle School.
  • Visited pet shops across the island to provide Donʻt Let It Loose outreach materials.
  • Attended Pilina Kanaloa: Ocean Day at the Hawaiʻi State Capitol for over ~150 legislators and members of the public.