Through an international collaboration, a new Waverider buoy was recently deployed in Palau to enhance disaster and climate resilience. The Republic of Palau experiences frequent natural hazards, and the impact of climate change and sea level rise has also become one of the priority issues to address with a sense of urgency. The data collected from the new buoy include wave height, period and direction; surface current direction and speed; sea surface temperature and air temperature.

This effort was led by the Palau National Weather Service Office through the United Nations Development Programme’s Enhancing Disaster and Climate Resilience project, with PacIOOS serving as the technical partner. Additional partnerships with the Coastal Data Information Program and the Coral Reef Research Foundation on Malakal were integral to the successful deployment and data management.

PacIOOS currently also provides a six-day high sea level forecast for Malakal, Palau. This wave buoy, the only Waverider in Palau, is located on the East side of the island of Babeldaob, about 1.4 miles offshore of Ngaraard State. [Photo: A field excursion aboard CRRF’s research vessel Kemedukl included many partners from the buoy deployment]

Are you interested in learning more about what the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is doing to support the development of solutions to pressing societal challenges? All are welcome to join the virtual NSF Expo: Accelerating Solutions for Societal Impact (free registration via the link). PacIOOS and partners will host a virtual booth with presentations and live discussions during the Expo about a project recently funded by the NSF Convergence Accelerator program. The Backyard Buoys project empowers Indigenous and other coastal communities to collect, steward, and use wave data that complements their existing knowledge to support their blue economy: maritime activities, food security, and coastal hazard protection. Innovations in the works include a modular, sustainable process for community-led stewardship of affordable ocean buoys and co-designed web-based applications that render data easy to access and to understand, and that bridge to Indigenous Knowledge.

Expo attendees will also have the opportunity to network with other researchers, innovators, and business and technical practitioners from academia, industry, government, nonprofit, and other communities of practice.

After being redeployed in January of this year, the PacIOOS wave buoy offshore of Ritidian Point on the north shore of Guam has been serviced and the batteries were replaced, maintenance that is required approximately every two years. Moored 3.5 miles off shore in water 515 meters deep, this buoy measures wave height, direction and period as well as sea surface temperature. The Ritidian Point wave buoy is owned and managed by PacIOOS. The NOAA Coastal Storms Program provided the initial funding to purchase this buoy. Data are managed by the Coastal Data Information Program in partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, are transmitted every half hour, and are available on the PacIOOS website and PacIOOS Voyager. The buoy is part of PacIOOS' network of 15 real-time wave buoys across the U.S. Pacific Islands region. 

The Hawaiʻi and Pacific Islands King Tides Project needs your help to document this summer’s high water level events, also known as King Tides (July 12 & 13 and August 10 & 11). With your photos, PacIOOS and the University of Hawaiʻi Sea Grant College Program will better understand tomorrow’s impacts from sea-level rise and other coastal hazards. King Tides provide a window into our future because today’s high tides are tomorrow’s average sea levels. You – our community scientists – can add to our free, publicly accessible and crowd sourced dataset by photographing King Tides at places important to you throughout Hawai‘i and Oceania. Photos, observations, date, time, and location can be submitted through our Hawaiʻi and Pacific Islands King Tides Project web platform, which you can access through your smartphone or desktop computer. Your images and data are a significant contribution to community efforts to understand and adapt to rising seas.

This publicly accessible online database informs research, policy, and decision making across the state and Pacific Islands region. You can see these critical contributions to our collective place-based knowledge in our public dataset and on our web map. 

Last month, Val Schmidt, lead robotics engineer at the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping at the University of New Hampshire, and Center director Larry Mayer were aboard the E/V Nautilus between Maui and Lanai on a cruise funded by NOAA’s Office of Ocean Exploration. Their work was focused on developing approaches for collaborative behaviors among multiple autonomous vehicles using the Center’s DriX-8 autonomous surface vessel working in collaboration with two Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV). Each day, they deployed the equipment and instruments from the ship. Val shared a message with PacIOOS to highlight how the data services PacIOOS provides are benefiting their field expedition.

“One of our greatest lessons learned is that the safety of our operations (particularly deployments and recoveries) depends greatly on fair weather, and further, that our usual sources of weather prediction are totally inadequate to the task here,” wrote Schmidt. “But the wind predictions provided by PacIOOS have been remarkably accurate, and it has been so enabling that I wanted to express my gratitude to you and your team.”

Schmidt and his team used the PacIOOS predictions to plan deployments in localized lulls in the wind that last only a few hours in the oscillating lee produced by the islands.

“We have conducted mapping and collaborative missions with underwater vehicles through rougher conditions, and used the PacIOOS prediction to identify areas with fair conditions to which we can transit for recovery,” he said.

“Val’s message is a testament to the hard work of Dr. Chen's atmospheric modeling group and the entire PacIOOS team,” said PacIOOS director, Melissa Iwamoto. “The positive impact of providing accurate and reliable oceanographic and weather data motivates us to continue our efforts.” [Image: Exploration Vessel Nautilus. Courtesy: Ocean Exploration Trust.]

Hafa Adai to two new PacIOOS Guam Liaisons! Julie Hartup is the founder and executive director of Micronesian Conservation Coalition (MCC) and Belinda Baird is the administrative assistant with MCC.

Though her love of the ocean was with her from childhood, Julie’s career as a marine biologist started as a scuba diving instructor, which then led her into the field as a research diver. Most of her research was at the Hopkins Marine Station in Monterey, California. She moved to Guam 15 years ago, making it her family’s home. Julie received a master’s degree from the University of Guam studying fish spawning aggregations and manta rays. While recent work to satellite tag Guam manta rays is providing information about their horizontal and vertical depth movement, Julie’s research also includes the manta rays in CNMI, Pohnpei, Yap, and Chuuk. Working in these regions, Julie sees the critical need for accurate and reliable oceanographic information. “We can always improve and expand our knowledge and capacity in environmental and oceanographic data,” said Julie. “I am honored to be a liaison and look forward to working with PacIOOS.”

Belinda is from Nova Scotia on the east coast of Canada, a province known as Canada’s Ocean Playground! For years, Belinda had volunteered with organizations that she was truly interested in and with her love of the ocean, it always included something marine related. She connected with Julie and MCC in 2016 and is now working full time with MCC. The MCC team works with young adults in the community to mentor them toward becoming homegrown marine biologists. “It has been wonderful watching this organization grow and Julie’s vision for MCC come to fruition,” said Belinda. “I am looking forward to working with and for PacIOOS and helping where we can for the organization to expand on Guam.”

[Image: Belinda Baird (left), Julie Hartup (right)]

We fondly bid a hui hou (good-bye, until we meet again) to Max Sudnovsky, our PacIOOS liaison in the Marshall Islands, as he journeys across the equator for a new role and adventure with NOAA’s National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa. Max has been a wonderful collaborator and connector in the islands since he joined the PacIOOS team in 2018. His impressive technical ability paired with his effective people skills enabled PacIOOS to forge new, and deepen existing, relationships with partners and users in the Marshall Islands. Max also maintained the nearshore water quality sensor at Uliga Dock on Majuro, often using it as a capacity building and educational tool with his students from the College of the Marshall Islands. Most recently, Max helped us meet a local partner’s request by facilitating the training and hand-off of the sensor to the RMI Environmental Protection Authority, with a former intern of his overseeing the ongoing maintenance of the sensor. While we will miss Max, we of course wish him well. Plus, American Samoa is still in our region, and we are excited to partner with him in his new capacity there with NOAA!  

All the best to you, Max. Thank you, Mahalo, Kommol tata, and now, Fa’afetai tele lava!