Head above water "snorkeling"

20151011

With a lot on my "plate" and mind lately, I was fortunate to have a chance to slow down and smell the fresh sea breezes and spend some time exploring the expansive Ahua Reef near "Dog Beach" at Hickham AFB.

Since my 9th graders are close to a week away from finishing our Physical Oceanography unit on mapping, here is a more accurate location (also known as an absolute location rather than a relative location).

Spherical Coordinates: 21.315231, -157.958262

In Decimal Degrees: 21.31531°N, 157.958262°W

In Degrees, Minutes, Seconds: 21°18'55" N, 157°57'30" W

*Here is a nifty site that converts from decimal degrees to degrees, minutes, seconds if you don't have a teacher like me that makes my students do the actual calculations themselves to understand how each degree is broken down into minutes and seconds ;)

http://www.rapidtables.com/convert/number/degrees-to-degrees-minutes-seconds.htm

This excursion was actually requested by a friend of mine whose boyfriend has recently become obsessed with collecting shells.  It also required my boyfriend to tag along so that we could get on base, so the four of us headed out around 10:00 a.m.

The water is very shallow and somewhat murky making visibility poor.  Even half a mile out from the shore, I could stand on the sandy/silty bottom and the water was only up to my chest.  First exciting sighting was black brittle stars, Class Ophiuroidea.

There were also many black collector urchins that I think are called hawa'e maoli.  Here is one of my favorite articles about them from 2009 in the Star Advertiser.  Susan Scott's column always has interesting ocean-related information. http://www.staradvertiser.com/columnists/20110214_Sea_urchins_the_perfect_janitors_to_keep_Kaneohe_coral_clean.html?id=116145179

Panoramic view from the water...  Diamond head is to the far right of the photo, a very faint outline, Nanakuli mountains on the far left.

There wasn't much besides low, dead coral beds in the middle, with the occasional footlong sea cucumber, so I headed west towards the higher reef where fishermen were standing knee deep in the water. http://www.waikikiaquarium.org/experience/animal-guide/invertebrates/echinoderms/sea-cucumbers/

Here in the more lively reef, there were beautiful but bleached coral heads which means they had recently either lost their zooxanthellae or expelled them for some reason, possibly in response to higher ocean temperatures and increased photosynthesis (see some informative readings below).

http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/kits/corals/coral02_zooxanthellae.html

http://ocean.si.edu/slideshow/zooxanthellae-and-coral-bleaching

Lots more pink and pale green rock boring sea urchins and marine sponges were embedded in nooks and crannies in the reef.  http://www.waikikiaquarium.org/experience/animal-guide/invertebrates/echinoderms/rock-boring-urchin/

Having some time to myself (I was not snorkeling due to having scratched by eye the day before) I was able to practice my "kilo" while at the same time testing my memory of marine invertebrates. Teaching Marine Science has greatly increased my interest in the live versions of the organisms whose former homes and skeletons (shells and exoskeletons) I have collected on shorelines since I was little.  Matching the whole organisms to their spines, shells, and fragments is a kind of inquiry process that I really enjoy, it's like detective work.  Recalling common names, scientific names, classifications, and learning Hawaiian names is also fascinating to me.  I took pictures of everything I could recognize as well as what I could not to take back with me to help tell my stories.

Next I spotted something very unmistakably pink near a part of the reef that was exposed.  "Never turn your back to the ocean" is very wise advice, so it was difficult to get close enough without turning my back or facing the oncoming waves in the knee deep water.

The pink splotches turned out to be coral!  Cauliflower coral, also known as ko'a and Pocillopora meandrina http://www.waikikiaquarium.org/experience/animal-guide/invertebrates/coral/cauliflower-coral/

While taking the long trek back to shore, I wished that my students could come out to see this, or at least something similar.  56 students at one time would be impossible.  28 with several additional chaperones would be manageable if we were allowed to go this deep in the water.  Place-based learning is definitely more difficult to accomplish when safety is a concern.  The OPIHI project would definitely help facilitate a shoreline field study in the Spring, so I guess that's my next application!