PacIOOS Governing Council members and PacIOOS staff came together virtually in December for the annual council meeting. The focus of the 2-day video conference was to share program updates and future plans; and discuss the five-year strategic framework and ten-year outlook. Additionally, the council identified gaps in representation among MOA partnerships and discussed Indigenous Knowledge in ocean observing and increasing diversity, equity and inclusion in PacIOOS and the broader ocean observing community.

We bid a fond farewell to Brian Taylor, who has been the PacIOOS Governing Council Chairperson since 2016, and an integral player in our development. We wish him well during retirement, and we also are pleased to welcome our new Chairperson, Chris Sabine, UH Manoa interim Vice Provost for Research and Scholarship. The PacIOOS Governing Council consists of members from various sectors across the region, including the U.S. Freely Associated States, the U.S. territories, and Hawaiʻi.

The PacIOOS Water Quality Sensor Partnership Program (WQSPP) was featured in Oceanography Magazine. This special issue of the magazine highlights the WQSPP’s collaborations with various organizations and individuals who need water quality data to inform their work. The program supports scientists, natural resource managers, and citizens to collect data for research, conservation, planning, and resource management projects. To date, partnership deployments extend throughout the PacIOOS region, including the Hawaiian Islands (Maui, O‘ahu, and Kaua‘i); Palmyra Atoll; Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia; and Palau. Thus far, sensors at individual sites have provided insights into runoff patterns caused by heavy rainfall and progress in pollution cleanup, and they have clarified the impact from periods of in-water construction on local water quality. [Image: ​​A diver maintains the water quality sensor at Kewalo Basin, O‘ahu, which provided valuable data to the nonprofit organization Friends of Kewalos. Credit: PacIOOS]

The Moored Autonomous Partial Pressure of Carbon Dioxide buoy in the Fagatele Bay unit of National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa (NMSAS) was successfully redeployed recently after a year of inoperation due to the global pandemic. The buoy is part of a national array of moored carbon dioxide buoys across the Pacific, Atlantic, and Caribbean. The buoy also measures water temperature, salinity, turbidity, chlorophyll, dissolved oxygen, pH, and air pressure that help NMSAS monitor conditions. The global pandemic and resultant travel restrictions in American Samoa prevented planned refurbishment of the buoy by PacIOOS in 2020, and the instruments stopped transmitting in October 2020. NMSAS Research Coordinator, Val Brown, worked with remote teams to find a solution and with their support completed the instrument installation and testing, built the new mooring for the system, and worked with local contractors, Atlantic Pacific Marine, Inc., to safely re-install the buoy in Fagatele Bay. 

The buoy is funded by NOAA's Ocean Acidification Program and supported by NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, Coral Reef Conservation Program. Local partners include the National Park Service of American Samoa, American Samoa Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources, and the Coral Reef Advisory Group of American Samoa. Data can be accessed at the PacIOOS and PMEL websites. [Image: Fagatele Bay buoy. Photo credit: Val Brown.]

Two PacIOOS wave buoys surrounding O‘ahu, Hawai‘i are back online. After an internal current meter sensor failed on the Pearl Harbor wave buoy, the PacIOOS team swapped out the buoy. The buoy also got a new addition. An air temperature sensor is now on the buoy, which also measures wave height, direction and period; water temperature; current data and solar energy. This is the first PacIOOS buoy with air temperature capabilities. Additionally, the Waimea Bay wave buoy, which sits about four miles off the north shore of O‘ahu, was redeployed after its mooring parted and the buoy started drifting. The buoy was recovered and brought back to the lab for maintenance including thorough cleaning, paint, fresh batteries, sensor testing, and communications and data quality confirmation. The Waimea Bay buoy was deployed just in time for a large west-northwest swell that recorded greater than 16 foot significant wave heights. [Image: Waimea Bay buoy. Credit: PacIOOS/Andreia Queima]

PacIOOS participated in the annual Pacific Symposium for Science and Sustainability, or PS3, on January 15-16. This event, run in part by the Hawai‘i Academy of Science, brings students from around the Pacific to share their research projects. PacIOOS data management co-investigator, Jim Potemra, served as a judge for the virtual presentations, as he has done for multiple years. Additionally, Sonja Giardina, an undergraduate student in the University of Hawai‘i Global Environmental Science program who works in the PacIOOS Ocean Modeling group, gave the guest presentation to kick things off.  

U.S. IOOS Program Office, which is a part of NOAA’s National Ocean Service, recently published the Ocean Enterprise Study to raise visibility and awareness of the blue economy. The study encompassed private sector businesses that are providers of ocean observing and measurement tools and infrastructure; and intermediaries who tailor ocean data or information for a specific end-use. Understanding the Ocean Enterprise business cluster is a key to forming the strong public-private partnerships that the IOOS mission is built upon. The results of this study will help to inform and guide the work of NOAA, IOOS and the Department of Commerce in delivering initiatives that foster innovation and business success for U.S. companies engaged in the New Blue Economy. Further, the insights gained from this study can help us identify new partnership opportunities and gaps in our network. For more information, read the highlights or the full report.

PacIOOS is excited to welcome Tom Tinhan, inaugural data manager for the Pacific Islands Region Acoustic Telemetry (PIRAT) Node, to the team. Tom will establish and maintain a cloud-based database of animal tracking data generated by users of acoustic telemetry in the Pacific Region. “In addition to the technological advances being made in electronic tagging, I believe the recent emergence of large-scale, collaborative databases, such as PIRAT, marks an important step towards addressing questions posed by highly migratory species, or those with otherwise enigmatic behaviors,” Tom said. 

Tom grew up between New York and Oʻahu and completed his bachelor’s degree in Marine Biology at UH Mānoa. His training, including a doctoral degree from Texas A&M University at Galveston, is in the trophic ecology and movements of marine fishes, especially through the use of natural tracers and electronic tags. In his free time, you might find Tom making sawdust in his workshop, freediving and boating with his partner, or (hopelessly) trying to tire out their two blue heelers on one of Oahu’s beaches or trails.