Wake Interviews Reef Watch Waikīkī
One of Wake's goals is to increase awareness of the threats our oceans face, it doesn't matter if you have a Ph.D of Ocean Sciences or if you have never seen the ocean in person. We can always learn more and work together to promote conservation.
We like to do that by talking to other organizations around the world to learn what they're up to and how we can work together to make our oceans healthy.
Check out below to see our interview with Reef Watch Waikiki!
Can you tell us about Reef Watch Waikīkī and why it was founded?
Reef Watch Waikiki is one component of the Waikiki Ecosystem Restoration Project coordinated by the University of Hawaii Sea Grant Program College Program. Through a variety of coastal monitoring, ocean education and stewardship activities, our work inspires and supports community volunteers who want to help protect, and improve the health of, the Waikiki’s reefs. This includes informal education and training activities targeting residents, tourists, and visitor industry staff, as well as environmental monitoring conducted by volunteers and students in cooperation with state and federal agencies. Given the ‘gateway’ characteristic of Waikiki, we hope that the knowledge gained by participants in Waikiki is carried with them and influences their behavior when they visit other coastal sites, creating a cumulative benefit for reefs statewide.
What are the issues with Coral Reefs?
Waikiki once had a thriving coral reef ecosystem that is now dominated by extensive rubble and sand fields and invasive algae. In a 1928 report, C. H. Edmundson documented 23 coral “species, varieties and forms…well represented on the reef.” By 1991, only ten of those species were observed with only three characterized as common. Equally dramatic is a two-thirds decline in the area’s fish biomass (total weight) and abundance between 1979 and 2002. Previous studies have concluded that the dominant factor shaping the coral community structure in Waikīkī is the movement of sand, much of which has accumulated from beach replenishment projects. These projects are driven by the fact that less than 70% of the two-mile strand of Waikiki Beach typically provides any dry, sandy beach, and beach loss continues. Worldwide, corals are threatened by some of the same problems that we see in Waikiki--invasive species, coastal development, and direct recreational impacts like trampling--as well as overfishing, land-based pollution, sedimentation, and ocean acidification.
How does the health of our reefs directly affect human beings?
Coral reefs are the rainforests of the ocean and are among the most biologically diverse and economically valuable ecosystems on Earth. There are countless ways that we rely on healthy reefs, here are a few: provide a variety of protein-rich foods; contribute new sand to some beaches; create a natural buffer for coastal communities threatened by storm surges; provide building materials; serve as spawning and nursery grounds for important commercial fisheries species; attract visitors to tourism-reliant destinations; create many of our favorite surf breaks; provide jobs in fisheries and marine recreation; and as a source of chemicals used to create cancer-treating medicines.
If you could communicate one message to the public, what would it be?
Regardless of where we live in the world, we all depend on the ocean and we each have an impact on its health.
What sort of programs or events do you offer to educate your community on reef issues?
Our programs fall into two main areas: environmental monitoring and ocean education. Our volunteer monitoring program began in February 2009 with the "Beach Watch", to assess the types of human activities and environmental threats present along the coastline. Essentially, Beach Watchers count and record what people are doing on the beach and in the water. We then launched our "Fish Watch" in February 2010. The Fish Watch trains community volunteers--and the occasional tourist--in the REEF method and encourages participants to conduct fish surveys in the Waikiki Marine Life Conservation District, a small, no-take marine protected area. Because we are affiliated with the University of Hawaii, SCUBA gets tricky with all sorts of scientific diving requirements, so we've pretty much stuck with snorkel surveys. Most recently, we developed a monitoring protocol to survey the benthic (seafloor) habitat which we refer to as our “Coral and Limu Watch” (limu is a Hawaiian word for algae). Recently, we started a blog to share marine life sightings and post information about our monitoring efforts. It's been a great way to keep the community informed of our activities and experiment with online resources like quizzes and (coming-soon) self-paced training modules. As for ocean education, we host a weekly ocean information desk at the Moana Surfrider hotel and a monthly ocean booth at Waikiki ArtFest, collaborate with tourism businesses to create and distribute reef and ocean etiquette information, are a lead partner in Oahu’s Ocean Awareness Training, and participate in dozens of community festivals and other events annually.
What has your research told you since the organization formed?
We are in the midst of analyzing and compiling the results of our initial REEF and benthic surveys which will serve as baseline documenting the diversity and abundance of different marine species present in the Waikiki Marine Life Conservation District. Once completed, the data will be posted to our project blog and used to track changes to Waikiki’s reefs over time.
Can you tell us about the research you are working on now?
We are really excited to launch a partnership with the Waikiki Aquarium with support from the Coastal Counties Restoration Initiative funded by the National Association of Counties Research Foundation in partnership with NOAA’s Community-Based Restoration Program. This pilot project will initiate reef restoration in Waikiki through translocation of native corals grown at the Waikiki Aquarium. Our volunteers will be trained to monitor the transplanted corals, and will also encourage greater civic engagement in coastal stewardship efforts through a beachside ocean information desk.
What is the most rewarding and challenging part of your job at Reef Watch?
Some of the most rewarding experiences include seeing people's excitement and enthusiasm when they participate in their first snorkel survey, and getting to work with so many dedicated volunteers who share their time and talents so selflessly on behalf of reef conservation. The biggest challenge relates to the challenge of successfully balancing the time it takes to write and manage the grants that fund our work (and other administrative duties), with actually getting things done in the field.
What is the best thing we can do to save our reefs?
It’s hard to pick just one thing because there are so many ways to help! Here are my top three:
1. If you are lucky enough to visit a reef, be a good reef visitor. Just about everything in the ocean that looks like rock is actually part of a living reef; avoid kicking, walking, standing or sitting on it. Swim carefully over the reef, do your best to stand only on sand
2. Regardless of where you live, support sustainable seafood. Healthy reefs depend upon healthy fisheries. Learn where your favorite seafood comes from and how it is harvested. Use that information to make sustainable seafood choices.
3. Learn everything you can and share what you know with others. This could mean actively volunteering with a marine conservation organization like Wake Project or posting helpful tips on Facebook or other social networks.
Where can we find out more?
To learn more about Reef Watch Waikiki, you can find us on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/reefwatch) or Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/reefwatch), or check out our blog: http://reefwatch.wordpress.com.
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