Members of the PacIOOS Governing Council Executive Committee came together virtually for their annual meeting this month. In a two-session video conference, PacIOOS leadership provided programmatic updates and an overview of the anticipated budget. Committee members discussed approaches to incorporate Indigenous knowledge and community-led conservation into ocean observing. This included a brief update on the Backyard Buoys project, especially in relation to American Samoa and National Park of American Samoa’s efforts toward integrating ocean knowledge from PacIOOS and Indigenous Knowledge to serve communities; and a group discussion on co-development, co-design, stewardship of ocean instrumentation. [Photo: Executive Committee members and PacIOOS staff met online]

PacIOOS is excited to welcome 500 Sails as a new Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) partner in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). 500 Sails is a 501(c)(3) and CNMI tax-exempt nonprofit organization dedicated to reviving, promoting, and preserving the maritime cultural traditions of the Mariana Islands through community engagement in canoe cultural values and activities. 500 Sails’ vision is a healthy, thriving native community that has successfully integrated traditional cultural values into modern life. 500 Sails has several swim and sail programs that include the Adult Learn-to-Swim program; the Sirena Project, that teaches swimming to women and teenage girls; the Gamsun Project, that prepares teens for lifeguard certification; and Dolphin Club Saipan that supports daily group swimming and produces open water swimming events. Canoe sailing programs include formal classroom and on-the-water training.

The Lānaʻi, Hawaiʻi wave buoy was redeployed earlier this month after being inspected and refurbished. The buoy, located approximately 2.5 miles off the southwest coast of Lānaʻi (southwest of Kaumalapau Harbor and northeast of Palaua Point) provides wave height, direction and period as well as sea surface temperature observations that are transmitted every half hour. Such information promotes safe transit entering and exiting Kaumalapau Harbor. The Lānaʻi Southwest wave buoy is owned and managed by PacIOOS. Data management is made possible through long-term partnerships with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Coastal Data Information Program (CDIP).

Research professor Kim Holland at the Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology, and his team recently placed a satellite tag on a 9.5 foot male tiger shark off the coast of Ko‘olina, O‘ahu. PacIOOS’ Hawai‘i Tiger Shark Tracking site is now providing the shark’s near real-time location. In recent years, researchers turned to tagged tiger sharks to help capture data critical to measuring changes in the ocean and weather, all while they continue to swim out their normal lives. ​​The tags work as very small, sophisticated computers measuring ocean depth, temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen and light levels. When a tagged tiger shark comes to the water’s surface, the tag’s antenna will transmit the data collected via satellite and land-based stations. The new oceanographic data will soon be available to scientists working on regional oceanographic and meteorological models. This will be the first time that such near real-time data will be ingested into this type of model, providing an opportunity to improve the model predictions. [Photo: Tiger shark with satellite tag. Credit: Mark Royer]

A project supported by the USGS Pacific Islands Climate Adaptation Science Center (PI-CASC) and the Pacific Islands Regional Ocean Data Sharing Initiative is providing information to support coral reef resilience efforts in Guam and American Samoa. The project’s objective was to identify areas of reefs with the most favorable environmental conditions for coral growth and survival in Guam and American Samoa--both now and through multiple climate scenarios. Understanding the spatial patterns in environmental conditions and coral reef resilience is central to climate-informed reef management. The GIS data layers generated through this project support reef managers in determining where to implement different types of management strategies. Inclusion of multiple climate scenarios assists reef managers in identifying how the spatial distribution of beneficial environmental conditions could change over time. [Photo: Vibrant coral in the waters of American Samoa. Credit: Wendy Cover, NMSAS NOAA]