#NOAA

Nonprofit groups across Hawaiʻi Island hosted five “Get the Drift and Bag It!” beach cleanup events last week, in collaboration with the Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup.

The council ensures public participation in reserve management and provides advice to the superintendent.

When National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration divers first detected the alga in 2016, it grew in lower abundances and was not yet widespread. By August 2019, the algae had grown into abundant mats of over 100,000 square feet each at Manawai (Pearl and Hermes Atoll), outcompeting the species typically living in these ecosystems.

NOAA is investing $17 million from the Inflation Reduction Act to protect the visitor and community center of the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary from the impacts of climate change, including upland flooding, powerful storms and sand inundation. The center is located along the shoreline of KIhei.

The grants will support projects that directly contribute to coral restoration progression in the U.S. Pacific Islands by providing the means for capacity building and/or restoration implementation.

The Hawaiian Islands Cetacean and Ecosystem Assessment Survey is the only comprehensive study of its kind in the islands and takes place from July through December 2023.

Using drone photography, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa researchers in the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology are now able to determine the age-structure of free-ranging dolphin groups.

For 120 miles along the West Hawaiʻi coastline, from ‘Upolu Point to South Point, fragments of coral large and small are broken every day by big winter swells, rising ocean temperatures, illegal anchor drops, and legal and illegal moorings.

In the latest Volcano Watch, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory scientists are looking for a new place to put a summit gas measuring station to replace the one destroyed by the 2022 Mauna Loa eruption.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of NOAA sending field researchers to Lalo to monitor honu (Hawaiian green sea turtles) that migrate there to mate and lay their eggs.

Hawaiian monk seals haul out of the ocean for three main reasons: resting, molting and pupping.

Fourteen rowing teams from around the world departed from the shores of central California on Monday to compete in the inaugural Pacific Challenge of the World’s Toughest Row, which ends in Hanalei Bay on Kaua‘i.

The endangered Hawaiian monk seal Malama, who was treated for malnutrition at Ke Kai Ola’s Marine Mammal Center on the Big Island and found dead on March 12 on O’ahu, was killed by blunt force trauma — and it was believed to be an intentional killing, according to NOAA Fisheries.

The national marine sanctuary nomination was submitted by the Pacific Remote Islands Coalition.

World Ocean Day is June 8. In Big Island Now Poll #14 we ask: What is your favorite creature that lives in the ocean around Hawaiʻi?

The last day to provide public testimony online about the National Marine Sanctuary designation is Friday.

Forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predict a 50% chance of above-normal tropical cyclone activity for the 2023 Central Pacific hurricane season that starts June 1.

The Hawaiian monk seal pup Pualani, who was born in mid-April on Kaimana Beach in Waikīkī, will be relocated after she is weaned from her mama Kaʻiwi.

An anonymous tipster provided the Hawai’i State Department of Land and Natural Resources with photographs taken last week that show a couple posing and their dog too close to a Hawaiian monk seal on a beach within the Ka‘ena Point State Park in Honolulu County. 

In our recent Big Island 30-second poll, we asked: What would you do if you see people swimming/snorkeling too close to whales or dolphins? We got 1,070 votes. What response came out on top?