Monitor groups help coral reef conservation

By Zenaida Serrano Espanol
Advertiser Staff Writer

Drew Wheeler is the owner of an underwater videography business. Several weekends this year, on his own time, he'll join dozens of volunteer divers who are giving scientists and environmental policymakers a new harvest of data on the health of Hawai'i's reefs.

Chela Zabin, foreground, straps an air tank as scientists in the Reef Check program gear up aboard the Kahala Kai catamaran at Kewalo Basin. Scuba-diving scientists and volunteers survey reefs to help protect them. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

What the data gatherers are finding out is that while Hawai'i's reefs may not be the relatively unspoiled ecosystems of generations past, they are still largely in good health.

Programs such as the scientist-based Hawai'i Coral Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program and the volunteer-based Reef Check help inform the public about the condition of Hawai'i reefs and can be an important tool for environmental policymakers, experts say.

"It's given the (state) a much better understanding of the condition of the reefs around Hawai'i and it's provided some answers as to things we ought to be paying attention to as far as management's concerned," said Michael Hamnett, director of the Hawai'i Coral Reef Initiative Research Program.

For example, monitoring and research programs have increased public awareness on the growing threat of alien algae infesting reefs in Waikiki and Kane'ohe Bay.

As a result, about 10 state and federal agencies, as well as community volunteers, have joined forces to try to contain the algae, which can smother and eventually kill reefs.

The site had last been inspected in 1992, said Steven Dollar, who took part in the surveys. Dollar, a coral reef specialist at the University of Hawai'i School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, said that compared to data collected in 1992, the new data showed a "30 percent reduction of live coral in the bay."

Another threat to reefs is overfishing, which is a problem for all the main Hawaiian islands, experts say. With no fish to eat the algae growing on reefs, the algae would become overgrown and eventually kill the reefs.

"Reef monitoring has really only been conducted on a broad scale in the last 10 to 15 years, at the most," said Cindy Hunter, interim director of the Waikiki Aquarium. "So what we're seeing right now, in general, shows what we call a sliding base line, where our best reefs today are probably a far cry from what our best reefs were in the main Islands ... probably 50 years ago."

The health of coral reefs should be cause for concern, experts say. The Hawai'i Coral Reef Initiative Research Program reports Hawai'i has more than 410,000 acres of coral reefs, which are critical to the state's tourism and marine-related industries.

Reefs also act as a natural barrier against wave erosion and coastal hazards, and their biodiversity makes them of great interest to scientists searching for cures for diseases, the program says.

But despite certain problem areas, experts say Hawai'i reefs are not in crisis and are generally healthy.

"I think Hawai'i's reefs are pretty good," said Charissa Minato, a Hawai'i Coral Reef Initiative Research Program assistant. "I think because we're so isolated and we have good circulation with our water movement, and because we don't have any heavy industry in Hawai'i, I think it's pretty good."

Dave Gulko, a coral reef biologist with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources' Aquatic Resources Division, said a healthy reef is one that is intact and contains all of its natural components, which includes a wide variety of animals, plants and other marine organisms.

While human activity may be the greatest threat to Hawai'i's reefs, there are many things people can do to protect the reefs, experts say, such as volunteering for environmental programs such as Reef Check.

"It's the main community-based monitoring program that's used to measure the health of coral reefs on a global scale," said Matt Zimmerman, the program's Hawai'i coordinator. In Hawai'i, Reef Check has teams on the Big Island, Kaua'i, Maui and O'ahu.

Reef Check, a nonprofit international environmental organization founded in 1997, consists primarily of trained volunteers, including college students, fishermen and scuba divers. The teams of volunteers and scientists visit reef sites and collect specific data about each location, a process that takes about four hours.

"The idea is to get out there and actually see what's in the water," Zimmerman said.

Teams submit the collected data — which include a description of each reef site and a count of fish and shellfish along a measured section of shallow reef — to the organization, based at the University of California-Los Angeles, where the results are used to produce an annual report on the state of the world's reefs. The organization also shares its data with local agencies.

"Reef Check itself isn't going to do anything to (directly) help the condition of the coral reefs. It's the decisions that people will make based on good knowledge about what's there and what's happening," Zimmerman said.

Reach Zenaida Serrano Espanol at zespanol@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-8174.