Grant Enables Deeper Coral Reef Research
By MidWeek Staff
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Del.icio.usHawaii Institute of Marine Biology, School of Ocean & Earth Science and Technology at UH Manoa is now able to study previously inaccessible coral reef sites in the Pacific using advanced rebreather technology purchased with a $100,000 grant from the Seaver Institute.
HIMB research professor Brian Bowen and Bishop Museum associate zoologist Richard Pyle both Windward residents will conduct a three-year study to examine deep coral reefs at three sites in the Pacific Ocean. Research will begin in the Cooke Islands early next year. Later, they hope to examine coral in the Marshall Islands and Papua New Guinea.
The limits of scuba technology have made it difficult to study deeper reefs until now. “To date, reefs have been found up to a depth of at least 165 meters in the Pacific, but only the upper 30 meters have been studied,” said Jo Ann Leong, director of HIMB, which operates on Coconut Island in Kaneohe Bay.
With the advanced rebreather technology, however, Bowen and Pyle will be able to explore the relationship between deep coral reefs and coastal communities.
“There are two urgent concerns about how deep the coral reefs serve coastal communities around the world,” explained Bowen. “First, they may be refuges that can replenish depleted fisheries and other resources in shallow reefs. Second, because these reefs operate with about 1 percent of surface light, coastal pollution that blocks sunlight may be lethal before we even know it exists.”
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