Blog Archives: News Releases

Public Invited to Free Zoom Presentation on Solving Climate Change with the World’s Mightiest Seaweed

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Discover a Hawai’i Grown Solution to the Global Climate Challenge on Wednesday May 4 at 5:30 pm

KIHEI, HI –  Learn how the startup company Symbrosia is working to solve climate change by reducing livestock methane emissions with seaweed that’s grown sustainably in Hawaiʻi, at a free Zoom presentation offered on Wednesday, May 4 at 5:30 pm. The presenters will be Daisy Stock and Kylie Tuitavuki of Symbrosia.

This Zoom presentation is offered as part of Maui Nui Marine Resource Council’s Know Your Ocean Speaker Series, supported by the County of Maui Office of Climate Change, Resiliency and Sustainability. Admission is free, but preregistration is required. To sign up, visit https://bit.ly/SymbrosiaWebinar.

“Symbrosia has been developing a breakthrough seaweed supplement that, when sprinkled into animal feed, increases growth rates and reduces the methane emissions from cows by over 90%,” Tuitavuki reports.

The seaweed is Asparagopsis taxiformis, which Symbrosia views as the sustainable feed material of the future for the world’s millions of farmers and billions of farm animals.

“We are collecting, cultivating and partnering with ranchers and farmers throughout the Hawaiian Islands, to support local food systems and the local economy while also fighting against climate change,” notes Stock, who is the R&D Manager at Symbrosia. “Our team is currently scaling up sustainable production in Kailua Kona, HI at Symbrosia’s pilot facility.”

“The United Nations has declared 2020-2030 the ‘decade of ecosystem restoration’,” said Tuitavuki, a member of Symbrosia’s Business Development team. “While seaweed has long been touted for its impressive array of restorative ecosystem services, only recently has research started to uncover algae’s potential within the food, animal feed, and biofuel sectors.”

“Maui Nui Marine Resource Council is pleased to offer this talk as part of our Know Your Ocean Speaker Series,” comments Meredith Beeson, who coordinates the monthly speaker series. “We look forward to helping our community learn about a potential solution that can help address livestock methane pollution, which currently accounts for 6% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.”

“If enough cows, sheep, and goats start snacking on this methane-vanquishing seaweed, it will prevent gigatons of greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere and will bring the entire animal agriculture industry one big step closer to being carbon neutral,” reports the Symbrosia website. “This will make a huge difference in the fight against climate change.”

To learn more about Symbrosia, please visit https://symbrosia.co.

The Know Your Ocean Speaker Series is hosted by the nonprofit Maui Nui Marine Resource Council on the first Wednesday of each month and is funded in part by the County of Maui Office of Climate Change, Resiliency and Sustainability and by donations from individuals and businesses in the community. To learn more, visit www.mauireefs.org.

To reserve your free spot at this talk, please visit https://bit.ly/SymbrosiaWebinar

About Daisy Stock
Leading the R&D team at Symbrosia, Daisy investigates novel approaches to A. taxiformis strain selection and development. Prior to joining the team, she worked in a NASA laboratory investigating the origin of life through isotopic analysis of meteoric material. While earning her B.S. in Marine Science from UC Berkeley, Daisy completed her undergraduate thesis on light sensory mechanisms of sea urchin and contributed to marine conservation research in Panama, Mo’orea, Hawai’i, and California. Daisy is passionate about inclusive, community-oriented science and is excited for the future of marine based approaches to climate change mitigation.

About Kylie Tuitavuki
As a member of the Business Development team, Kylie facilitates outreach, community building, and story-telling for Symbrosia’s partners throughout the Hawaiian Islands. In addition to her work at Symbrosia, Kylie is a current graduate student at UH Mānoa investigating the long-term sustainability of indigenous cropping systems and their potential for revitalization that would support local food systems.  While earning a B.A. in Anthropology and Integrative Biology at UC Berkeley, Kylie completed her senior thesis on the impact of long-term agricultural management strategies on soil health and has worked on several community-based research projects in Vanuatu, Mo’orea, and Hawai’i. Kylie is passionate about equitable, inclusive, and community centered research and is thrilled to uplift local and underserved communities in the fight against climate change.

About Maui Nui Marine Resource Council

Maui Nui Marine Resource Council (MNMRC) is a Maui-based non-profit organization working for clean ocean water, healthy coral reefs and a restoration of abundant native fish for the islands of Maui County. MNMRC is recognized for its ability to work with the community to plan, fund, enact and manage culturally appropriate, science-based solutions to serious problems undermining nearshore ocean water quality and threatening local coral reefs. To learn more, visit www.mauireefs.org.

Hawaii Department of Health Awards $38,536 to the County of Maui for Coastal Water Quality Monitoring

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MA’ALAEA, MAUI, HI – The State Department of Health Clean Water Branch has awarded the County of Maui, Office of Climate Change, Resiliency, and Sustainability (CCRS) $38,536 in federal funding to support coastal water quality monitoring. CCRS will administer the funds as a grant to Maui Nui Marine Resource Council. The grant will support the work of Hui O Ka Wai Ola, a community-based ocean water quality monitoring program managed by Maui Nui Marine Resource Council,  in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, and West Maui Ridge to Reef Initiative.

The purpose of the coastal water quality monitoring is to support watershed management activities in seven watersheds in west and southwest Maui. In each of these areas, implementation projects are underway to address sources of land-based pollution, making continuous coastal water quality monitoring critical to guiding actions and understanding the impact of mitigation measures taken.

Hui O Ka Wai Ola (the “association of living waters”) is a community-based water quality monitoring program co-founded in 2018 and co-managed through a partnership of Maui Nui Marine Resource Council, The Nature Conservancy, and West Maui Ridge to Reef Initiative. “Our testing, which takes place every three weeks at 29 locations along Maui’s south and west coasts, keeps a close eye on changing water quality conditions that can harm our coral reefs,” says Amy Hodges, Programs and Operations Manager at Maui Nui Marine Resource Council. She explains that the Hui O Ka Wai Ola program regularly gathers data about sediment, nutrients in the water, temperature, pH and more along leeward Maui shorelines.

The program manages data collected at 40 leeward sites since its inception, which has been provided to the Department of Health Clean Water Branch to be included in reports to the EPA and State and County agencies. New data is currently being gathered at 29 shoreline locations in West and South Maui. Presentations to the community and downloadable data at www.huiokawaiola.com help community resource managers and the public understand where ocean water quality is impaired and to help identify pollution trends across sites.

Dozens of volunteers have worked with the program since its launch. The Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, Lahainaluna High School, Da Hawaiian Store and Pineapple Properties LLC have provided free space to the group for its indoor laboratories. The County of Maui has provided funding, along with local companies, foundations and groups including National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, Duke’s Maui, Makana Aloha Foundation, Napili Bay and Beach Foundation, MediaThe Foundation, EACH Foundation, North Beach West Maui Benefit Fund, Maui Ocean Center, Hawaii Tourism, LUSH, Hawaii Community Foundation’s CHANGE grant and individual donors.

It costs about $4,000 per year per site to support this program and provide the materials, lab testing, supplies, and management needed to provide quality-assured data to the Department of Health.

To learn more about this program and to donate to support it, visit www.huiokawaiola.com.

Can a non-scientist do science? Free Zoom presentation on April 6 to present global and local community science projects on Maui

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MA’ALAEA, MAUI — Increasingly, scientists are asking for the public’s help to understand a wide range of topics from earthquakes to water quality to where animals live and more. Learn more about community or “citizen” science and how you can contribute to aiding conservation work in particular, at a free Zoom presentation on Wednesday, April 6 at 5:30 pm. This free event is hosted by Maui Nui Marine Resource Council as part of its Know Your Ocean Speaker Series with support from the County of Maui Office of Sustainability and Climate Resilience.

Reservations are required. To reserve your spot at this free Zoom presentation, please visit https://bit.ly/MauiCitizenScienceWebinar 

Through presentations by guest speakers Dr. Mark Deakos, Cheryl King, John Starmer and Jennifer Vander Veur, you’ll be introduced to some global citizen science projects that are relevant to Maui and hear about some long running community science projects taking place in Maui County that are seeking volunteers.

“If you want to make a difference in understanding the effects of climate change, protect native habitats and the species they rely on, or simply become more aware of the world around you, citizen science is a great way to get involved and make a difference,” notes John Starmer, Chief Scientist at Maui Nui Marine Resource Council and Volunteer Coordinator at City Nature Challenge (CNC) on Maui.

Maui Nui Marine Resource Council is a Maui-based nonprofit that relies upon citizen volunteers for its Hui O Ka Wai Ola ocean water quality monitoring program at 29 locations along Maui’s shores.

Starmer is the Volunteer Coordinator with City Nature Challenge. Started in 2016 as a competition between San Francisco and Los Angeles, the City Nature Challenge (CNC) has grown into an international event, motivating people around the world to find and document wildlife in their cities. The challenge is organized by Community Science teams at the California Academy of Sciences and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and occurs during a four day period. From April 29 to May 2, participants take photos of wild plants and animals. From May 3 to May 8, participants identify what was found. During this friendly competition, the winner is the city that gathers the most observations of nature, finds the most species and engages the most people in the event.

“Because our urban areas are a bit smaller than most cities (like San Francisco or Hong Kong), our Maui team decided to aggregate the whole island (plus Molokini Crater) for the purpose of the challenge,” says Starmer.

Dr. Mark Deakos is the Founder, President and Chief Scientist of the Hawai‘i Association for Marine Education and Research (HAMER).  Mark will be focusing on his manta ray photo-identification catalog of over 600 individuals.

Cheryl King will be summarizing information about two of her citizen scientist-related projects: SHARKastics (marine debris research and cleanups) and Hawaiian Hawksbill Conservation (the statewide in-water photo-identification catalog for critically endangered Hawaiian hawksbill sea turtles from 1998-present).  She’s also a Seabird Biology Technician with the Maui Nui Seabird Recovery Project, so will be presenting potential volunteer opportunities with seabirds and colony restoration.

“There are so many wonderful, diverse ways to get involved in helping our precious natural resources and habitats of Maui Nui, so we hope to inspire a new batch of volunteers to join the critical work that’s being done all around Maui every day,” says King.

Jennifer Vander Veur is the Senior Program Manager of the Coral Reef Alliance of Maui Nui. “We are proud to support a dedicated team of local volunteers in Maui, Hawai’i, as they work to protect the valuable coral reefs in their community,” says Vander Veur. Her program works with volunteers who grow and plant native vegetation at key locations near coastal streams, which act as natural barriers and trap sediment runoff before it reaches the ocean and coral reefs.

“Getting the public involved in science projects allows scientists to take on projects that they could not do on their own with the limited funding and time that are available to typical research projects,” says Starmer.

“Maui Nui Marine Resource Council is hosting this talk to help Maui residents and visitors learn about the opportunities to participate in citizen science projects and help our community better understand and protect our natural resources,” says Meredith Beeson, who organizes the Know Your Ocean Speaker Series at Maui Nui Marine Resource Council. “Please join this event to learn how you can get involved and make a difference.”

Cheryl King

John Starmer

Jennifer Vander Veur


Dr. Mark Deakos

New FlushAware App to Be Topic of March 2 Know Your Ocean Speaker Series

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Meet the App’s Developer and Learn More About Where Wastewater Goes When You Flush Your Toilet on Maui

PAIA, MAUI, HI – The average person flushes their toilet five times per day. But when you flush, do you know where your wastewater goes and what impacts it has on the ocean where you surf or swim, the beaches where you play and the fish that you eat from our coastal waters? Maui Nui Marine Resource Council invites you to learn more about the path that wastewater follows once it leaves your toilet and how your wastewater is impacting our nearshore ocean water quality at a special Know Your Ocean Speaker Series presentation on Zoom on Wed. March 2 at 5:30 pm featuring Travis Liggett as the guest speaker. To reserve your spot, please visit https://bit.ly/FlushAwareWebinar

Liggett is the president of Reef Power LLC and the developer of the new FlushAware app with a demonstration website launch for Maui island users slated for March 2022.

“FlushAware is a new online education system that will inform users about the treatment level and destination of their Maui Island disposal method, while providing tools for activism and improving life downstream,” says Liggett.

During his presentation, Liggett will demonstrate how the new FlushAware app will work, and will discuss solutions to Maui’s wastewater challenges, which he says can be found in the living life support ʻĀina. “Native species such as stream limu, breadfruit and taro provide answers to our water waste woes. Instead of nearshore injection, municipal discharges in Maui can be polished with turf scrubbers to reduce nutrient pollution using local freshwater algae,” reports Liggett. “The wastewater can then be 100% reused as irrigation of native food agroforestry, pastureland, and vetiver slope stabilization plantings to reduce sediment transport potential from mauka lands.”

Travis Liggett graduated from University of California at Berkeley with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering with a focus on design in 1998, and from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering with a focus on life science in 2003.

In 2001 Mr. Liggett started work as a Research Assistant at  BioServe Space Technologies, a NASA Commercial Space Center locate

d at CU Boulder, and continued his tenure working for the Agency as a Flight Systems Engineer for the Space Station Biological Research Project starting in 2003, then as an Aerospace Research Engineer focusing on functional prototype development of new life science technologies from 2005 – 2010 at  NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, located in California’s Silicon Valley.

On Maui, Travis has managed algae growth operations at Maui Tropical Algae Farm, and served as Principal Engineer for Water Quality Consulting, Inc., where he performed core duties including work on the Maui Ocean Center’s 2018 NPDES permit application.

Travis founded the small business Reef Power LLC in 2018 with the objective of bringing to Maui a natural regenerative reuse wastewater nutrient polishing system called a turf scrubber growing native Hawaiian stream limu (freshwater macroalgae), coupled with native food agroforest irrigation for disposal, instead of nearshore injection wells.

“Wastewater has a significant impact on Maui’s coral reefs and nearshore ocean water quality, whether you live in Kula or Kihei,” says Mike Fogarty, Executive Director of Maui Nui Marine Resource Council. “The FlushAware App will contribute to our community’s growing awareness of the impacts of each and every flush – the first step in finding an answer to the question of how to manage our wastewater to protect our reefs and the ocean waters that surround our shores.”

The Know Your Ocean Speaker Series is hosted on the first Wednesday of each month and is funded in part by the County of Maui Office of Climate Change, Resiliency and Sustainability and by donations from individuals and businesses in the community. To learn more, visit www.mauireefs.org.

Photo at right: A turf scrubber reduces nutrient pollution using local freshwater algae.

Maui’s Community-Based Ocean Water Quality Monitoring Program Celebrates 100th Sampling Session

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Maui’s volunteer-based ocean water quality monitoring program Hui O Ka Wai Ola celebrated a special milestone on February 8, 2022: its 100th sampling session since the program began on Maui in 2016.

A beachside ceremony held this morning at Hanakaʻōʻō Beach Park in Kāʻanapali was organized by Maui Nui Marine Resource Council, West Maui Ridge to Reef Initiative and The Nature Conservancy, the three organizations that co-founded and co-manage this unique community program. It was attended by about 40 Maui residents, program volunteers and local VIPs including State Representative Tina Wildberger, Maui County Councilmember Tamara Paltin, and Maui County Managing Director Sandy Baz, who each delivered remarks and congratulations to the volunteers and staff.

A sampling session occurs over a week’s time and typically involves about a dozen volunteers, who wake up before sunrise and fan out in groups of three or four with cars packed with water quality monitoring equipment to gather and test ocean water samples along Maui’s leeward coast.

Sampling sessions take place every three weeks. Each sampling session in West Maui covers 16 sites stretching from Pāpalaua Pali to Honolua. Each South Maui sampling session covers 13 sites from Mā’alaea to ‘Āhihi Kīna’u.

Todayʻs celebration included awarding of gift certificates donated by Duke’s Maui to the volunteers in the program, plus a ceremonial gathering of ocean water samples by long-time volunteers Kit Harris and George Burnette. It was followed by a demonstration of how the water samples are tested for sediment, temperature, pH and other factors conducted by Harris, Burnette, Representative Wildberger and Councilmember Paltin with narration by Hui O Ka Wai Ola Senior Team Lead Tiarra Stark.

Representative Wildberger had a special connection to today’s event: she had volunteered with the Hui O Ka Wai Ola monitoring program  to collect and test ocean water samples in South Maui before being elected as the District 11 Representative for Kihei, Wailea and Makena.

For Councilmember Paltin, the 100th sampling event also held special significance. She, along with then-West Maui resident Dana Reed, helped provide the spark that led to the creation of the community-based ocean water quality monitoring program after the pair observed an unusual increase in brown water events at DT Fleming Beach in 2013-2014.

“Large brown plumes started appearing at DT Fleming, even without much rainfall, which led to beach closures,” noted Reed, who is a retired electrical engineer and now lives in Pennsylvania. “One day I saw another brown plume and said, ‘That’s it! I have to investigate!’.”

Reed had learned how to test ocean water for turbidity at a UH Maui course taught by Donna Brown. She grabbed the sampling bottles she had received at the course and started gathering samples. It was then that she met Paltin, who was a lifeguard at the time. Paltin shared that she too was concerned about the brown water plumes and had photographed them and sent them to Watson Okubo, the Director of the Department of Health Clean Water Branch. Their sampling data wasn’t accepted because they did not have a Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP) in place to ensure the integrity of the data.

Undaunted, Reed and Paltin started documenting the water quality at DT Fleming on a regular basis, gathering data from water samples and photos, including aerial photos that Reed’s husband Bill Rathfon obtained with his drone.

Reed said that Paltin would sound the alert – “the stream is running brown!” – and Reed would rush over to grab water quality samples. Paltin also kept sampling bottles at her lifeguard station so she could gather samples during her breaks.

Paltin was a member of the Marine Nui Marine Resource Council Clean Water Committee and together with Reed and Rathfon presented data and pictures from DT Fleming to the group.

Someone who had hiked upslope to understand where the sediment runoff was originating reported that a site that was being prepared for the development of Mahana Estates appeared to be the cause of the runoff.

The project manager from Mahana Estates was invited to meet with Marine Resource Council’s clean water committee and visit the site. She reported that the developer had put up sediment fences and barriers to control the runoff but was having trouble keeping them in place because they kept breaking.

The Department of Public Works said that the developer was following the County’s Best Management Practices (BMPs) and asked for baseline data to compare the current water quality issues at DT Fleming to past years when the problem wasn’t occurring.

That data didn’t exist. But Paltin, Reed, Rathfon and Maui Nui Marine Resource Council persisted in spotlighting the problem  – and ultimately a County engineer, Department of Health representative and the developer visited the site and saw the source of the sediment.

The result was a County-mandated shutdown of the project for more than a year and improvement of the County’s BMPs.

“From that experience, I saw the importance of water quality data – including the need for baseline data – at all of our Maui beaches,” said Reed, who attended the ceremony remotely from her home in Pennsylvania. “At that time, the Department of Health Clean Water Branch had only one person sampling water quality for all of Maui. They suggested that we create a citizen’s monitoring group.”

Maui Nui Marine Resource Council and The Nature Conservancy joined together to host Carl Berg, a research scientist who has worked on water quality issues on Kauai, to learn how to create a community-based water quality monitoring program here.

He told the groups that they needed to create a Quality Assured Project Plan (QAPP) that would meet EPA requirements and State Department of Health standards for projects that involve the collection and analysis of water samples.

This led to a meeting with the Department of Health, Environmental Protection Agency, NOAA, Maui Nui Marine Resource Council, The Nature Conservancy, West Maui Ridge to Reef Initiative and other community environmental groups to discuss creating a water quality monitoring program for Maui.

The result was the launch of Hui O Ka Wai Ola (the “association of living waters”) to be managed through a partnership of Maui Nui Marine Resource Council, The Nature Conservancy and West Maui Ridge to Reef Initiative.

Maui Nui Marine Resource Council agreed to serve as the fiscal sponsor of the program and oversee its finances and payroll.  A grant from National Fish & Wildlife Foundation obtained by The Nature Conservancy helped fund paid positions for Reed and Kim Falinski to create the program in West Maui and purchase water sampling equipment. A second grant from National Fish & Wildlife Foundation later obtained by Maui Nui Marine Resource Council made it possible to expand the program to South Maui.

The QAPP was created over a two-year period by Reed, Falinski and Scott Lerner of The Nature Conservancy. The Department of Health Clean Water Branch signed off on the QAPP and the first official samples of the new Hui O Ka Wai Ola program were collected in June of 2016.

Volunteers signed on to receive the needed training and commit to the early morning sampling sessions. “People didn’t join for fun. They joined because they cared,” said Reed. “I am amazed at how many good quality people we got, who stuck with it. People are so dedicated. I am so impressed.”

At each sampling site, one of the volunteers wades into knee deep water and fills several containers with sea water. The citizen-scientists use portable lab equipment to analyze the samples for pH, dissolved oxygen concentration, salinity and turbidity. The water quality samples are transferred to indoor labs for additional testing. Further testing for nutrients is performed on samples that are frozen and shipped to the labs at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Today, the Hui O Ka Wai Ola program manages data collected at 40 leeward sites, which has been provided to the Department of Health Clean Water Branch, to be included in reports to the EPA and State and County agencies. New data is currently being gathered at 29 shoreline locations in West and South Maui.

Dozens of volunteers have worked with the program since its inception, including Hawaii State Representative Tina Wildberger and Maui resident Kit Harris. The program has four part time staff: Senior Team Lead Tiara Stark and Team Leads Meredith Beeson, Mitch Brown and Nalei Sampson. Retired biophysicist Cathy Maxwell is the organization’s Technical Advisor and Bill Rathfon is the Data Manager. Hui O Ka Wai Ola is led by a steering committee of representatives of the three partner organizations, along with Dana Reed and Kim Falinski, who are the Quality Assurance advisors.

The Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, Lahainaluna High School, Da Hawaiian Store and Pineapple Properties LLC have provided free space to the group for its indoor laboratories. The County of Maui has provided funding, along with local companies, foundations and groups including National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, Duke’s Maui, Makana Aloha Foundation, Napili Bay and Beach Foundation, MediaThe Foundation, EACH Foundation, North Beach West Maui Benefit Fund,  Maui Ocean Center, Hawaii Tourism, LUSH, Hawaii Community Foundation’s CHANGE grant and individual donors.

Longtime volunteers George Burnette and Kit Harris carry water samples for testing from the ocean at Hanakaʻōʻō Beach Park in Kāʻanapali.

Photo by Ty Freiberg

Maui County Councilmember Tamara Paltin and volunteer Kit Harris test a water sample while Hawaii Representative (and a former Hui O Ka Wai Ola volunteer) Tina Wildberger looks on.

Photo by Ty Freiberg

Maui Nui Marine Resource Council Executive Director Mike Fogarty thanks the volunteers and announces a special gift for each one donated from Duke’s Maui.

Photo by Ty Freiberg

Emily Fielding, Maui Marine Program Manager at The Nature Conservancy, speaks about the partnership between The Nature Conservancy, Maui Nui Marine Resource Council and West Maui Ridge to Reef Initiative that co-founded and co-manages the Hui O Ka Wai Ola ocean water quality monitoring program.

Photo by Ty Freiberg

 

Free Zoom Presentation on Wed. Feb. 2 by Dr. Jennifer Lynch:
 “Did Maui’s expanded polystyrene ban improve the amounts or types of plastic on Maui beaches?”

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KIHEI, HI – On December 31, 2018, Maui County banned the use, sale or provision of polystyrene food service containers as a step to protect marine wildlife and bird populations. The County took this step after learning about the lightweight nature of polystyrene and its ability to break down into smaller fragments that persist for decades, contributing to the potential illness and death of marine animals and birds that mistake the small fragments for food and ingest them.

Did this ban improve the amounts or types of plastic on Maui beaches? Learn what recent research has found at a free Zoom presentation by Dr. Jennifer M. Lynch, the co-director of the Hawaii Pacific University Center for Marine Debris Research. Her talk will take place on Wednesday, February 2 at 5:30 pm as part of Maui Nui Marine Resource Councilʻs Know Your Ocean Speaker Series, sponsored by the County of Maui Office of Economic Development.

Admission is free, but advance reservation is required. To register, visit https://bit.ly/MauiPlasticWebinar.

Dr. Lynch is one of eight co-authors on a study titled, “Did Maui’s expanded polystyrene ban (County Ord. No. 4457) improve the amounts or types of plastic pollution on Maui beaches?“
The study abstract states that “in order to protect native wildlife and Hawaii’s unique coastal environments, reduce plastic waste, and promote the health and welfare of the residents of Hawaii, bans on single-use plastic items have been implemented by some local municipalities. However, the impacts and effectiveness of these policies has been rarely studied.”

The study used polymer identification methods to determine if ordinance number 4457 had an effect on the amount and composition of plastic marine debris on five Maui beaches.
The authors of the study are Kerrianne O’Malley, Hawaii Pacific University Center for Marine Debris Research; Sheena Weller, Hawaii Pacific University Center for Marine Debris Research; Cheryl King, Sharkastics; Jens Currie, Pacific Whale Foundation; Kayla Brignac, Hawaii Pacific University Center for Marine Debris Research; Melissa Jung, Hawaii Pacific University Center for Marine Debris Research; Regina Ostergaard-Klem, Hawaii Pacific University and Jennifer M. Lynch, National Institute of Standards and Technology and Hawaii Pacific University Center for Marine Debris Research.

“We are excited to host Dr. Lynch and to learn about her findings about how Mauiʻs polystyrene ban has impacted the debris on our local beaches,” commented Michael Fogarty, Executive Director of Maui Nui Marine Resource Council. “Her findings are valuable for our nonprofit, especially now as we launch a National Geographic-funded study of the streams and gulches that are transporting plastic waste to Mauiʻs beaches and shorelines.”

“Polystyrene foam is lightweight, floats, and is more likely to be blown from landfills, even when disposed of properly,” reports the website Foam Free Maui County. Recent studies conducted by University of Hawaii at Manoa show that methane and ethylene (major contributors to global warming) are emitted as polystyrene breaks down (Royer et al 2018). Carbon dioxide is also emitted (Ward et al 2019).

“Join our presentation to learn what is being found here on Maui,” notes Meredith Beeson, Project and Research Coordinator at Maui Nui Marine Resource Council and the coordinator of the Know Your Ocean Speaker Series. “Sign up today at https://bit.ly/MauiPlasticWebinar.”

Jill Wirt, Project and Research Coodinator at Maui Nui Marine Research Council will emcee the free event.

About Dr. Jennifer M. (Keller) Lynch

Dr. Jennifer Lynch has worked for the National Institute of Standards and Technology since 2003, and became the Co-Director of the Hawaii Pacific University (HPU) Center for Marine Debris Research (CMDR) in 2019. The CMDR was purposefully established in Hawaii, one of the most plastic polluted marine environments. Dr. Lynch’s research focuses on developing optimal methods to quantify and chemically characterize plastic marine debris to answer questions about pollution quantities, sources, fate, transport, effects, and reuse.  She has authored 61 peer-reviewed publications and four book chapters, and mentored over 45 graduate students.

About Maui Nui Marine Resource Council
Maui Nui Marine Resource Council (MNMRC) is a Maui-based non-profit organization working for clean ocean water, healthy coral reefs and a restoration of abundant native fish for the islands of Maui County. MNMRC is recognized for its ability to work with the community to plan, fund, enact and manage culturally appropriate, science-based solutions to serious problems undermining nearshore ocean water quality and threatening local coral reefs. To learn more, visit www.mauireefs.org.

Free Presentation to Discuss Redefining the Definition of a Public Aquarium – and What it Means to Our Local Community

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KIHEI— A free Zoom presentation on Wednesday, January 12 at 5:30 pm by Tapani Vuori, Maui Ocean Center’s General Manager and founder and president of the Maui Ocean Center Marine Institute (MOCMI) will discuss “Redefining the definition of a public aquarium and what it means to our local community.”

Vuoriʻs presentation is part of Maui Nui Marine Resource Council’s monthly “Know Your Ocean Speaker Series.” His talk will look at the history of Maui Ocean Center, its operational details and its journey of transformation over the past few years, driven by Maui Ocean Centerʻs vision and mission.

Reservations are required. To reserve, visit https://bit.ly/OceanCenterWebinar

Vuori will discuss Maui Ocean Centerʻs role in the community in Māʻalaea and its stated responsibility first and foremost to add value to the community every day.

“I will discuss topics such as aquarium and zoo industry in general, plastic marine debris, shark finning, climate change, tourism, and environmental threats to nearshore marine ecosystems,” says Vuori. “I’ll share with the audience what Maui Ocean Center is doing about all of these issues — and why our aquarium and others around the world need to take action on the problems impacting our planetʻs oceans.”

Vuori draws inspiration from world-renowned scientist and ocean protector Dr. Sylvia Earle, who said, “the oceans deserve our respect and care, but you have to know something before you can care about it.” Vuori notes that Earleʻs powerful message is the driving force behind the energy he brings to Maui Ocean Center each day, and his goal to educate people and get them to care about the creatures beneath the oceanʻs surface.

Vuori grew up in Finland, where he formed a powerful connection with nature and the ocean — a bond he has carried throughout his life. He got his diving license as a young child and as a boy experienced the wonder of diving in winter beneath an ice-covered surface. As a young adult, Vuori moved to the U.S. to attend college, starting at Brigham Young University in Utah and graduating from UCLA in 1987.

When Vuori accepted the position as Maui Ocean Center’s general manager, he had one request — to build an on-property nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization to support conservation efforts further. Through his efforts and vision, Vuori became the founder and president of the Maui Ocean Center Marine Institute (MOCMI), which serves to restore Hawaiʻiʻs coral reefs and rehabilitate injured Hawaiian green sea turtles.

Today, Vuori works from all angles to protect marine life and is deeply involved in Mauiʻs island community. In addition to his contribution at MOCMI, Vuori is an active board member of Māʻalaea Triangle Association, vice president of the Māʻalaea Village Community Association, and president of the advisory council for Maui County on Civil Rights. Vuori is also working to establish a regional wastewater treatment center for Māʻalaea Bay to replace the nutrient leaching injection wells that have caused widespread loss of coral reef and limu in the bay.

“My hope is that this talk will inspire our audience to become more active in their community, where ever it may be,” says Vuori.

Maui Nui Marine Resource Council’s monthly “Know Your Ocean Speaker Series” events are supported by the County of Maui Mayor’s Office of Economic Development.

To learn more about Maui Ocean Center, visit www.mauioceancenter.com.

To learn more about Maui Nui Marine Resource Council, visit www.mauireefs.org.

Reserve your spot for this presentation at https://bit.ly/OceanCenterWebinar.

MNMRC’s Robin Newbold & Mike Fogarty Featured in December 2021 issue of “Neighbors of Wailea & Makena”

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Maui Nui Marine Resource Council co-founder and chair Robin Newbold is featured in a cover story in  the December edition of the magazine Neighbors of Wailea & Makena, along with her partner Mike Fogarty.

The article describes how Robin’s lifelong love of the ocean began in early childhood and continued into her adult years, during which she began scuba diving off the coast of California and bought a live-aboard boat so she could explore the region’s coastal kelp forests.

Robin went on to teach Oceanography and Marine Biology at Saddleback College, while also using breaks in her teaching schedule to travel and explore marine ecosystems in the Pacific.

Concern about the declining health of Maui’s coral reefs led her to collaborate with teacher and community activist Uncle Edwin Lindsey to create a community-based group to work together on the problems impacting the reefs. The regular meetings of this council of community representatives, including marine biologists, cultural practitioners, fishermen, educators and managers, was the start of the Maui Nui Marine Resource Council, a nonprofit working today for healthy coral reefs, clean ocean water and abundant native fish for the islands of Maui Nui.

Maui Nui Marine Resource Council’s Board and staff are grateful for the efforts of Mike Fogarty, who volunteered to help the young organization secure its non-profit status. Mike now serves as the Executive Director of Maui Nui Marine Resource Council.

To read the article about Robin and Mike, please view the images below.

Learn more about Neighbors of Wailea & Makena at their Facebook page at https://b-m.facebook.com/neighborsofwaileaandmakenabvm/

 

Guided chocolate tasting at Maui Ku’ia Estate Chocolate to benefit Maui Nui Marine Resource Council 

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Exciting news! This event will be led by Gunars Valkirs PhD, founder and CEO of Maui Ku’ia Estate Chocolate

Numerous scientific studies have identified the benefits of consuming chocolate, including providing health-boosting antioxidants and micronutrients.

This Sunday, December 5, you can add one more benefit to enjoying quality chocolate: it will help the nonprofit Maui Nui Marine Resource Council raise needed funds for projects to protect Mauiʻs nearshore coral reefs and the ocean water quality at island beaches. Thatʻs because Maui Kuʻia Estate Chocolate in Lahaina is holding a signature guided chocolate tasting this Sunday with 100% of the ticket sales to be donated to Maui Nui Marine Resource Council.

This special 60-minute guided chocolate tasting will be led by Gunars Valkirs, PhD, the founder and CEO of Maui Ku’ia Estate Chocolate. It will begin at 12:30 pm and will take place on the Maui Kuʻia rooftop pavilion at 78 Ulupono St, Suite 1, in Lahaina. During the tasting, guests will be introduced to Maui Ku’ia’s unique chocolate and its varieties. Guests will sample at least nine varieties of chocolate, including some featuring unique Maui flavors. Participants will discover how cacao is locally grown in Lahaina and why the chocolate produced at the Maui Kuʻia Estate Chocolate factory is of such high quality.

100% of the ticket sales from this tour will benefit Maui Nui Marine Resource Council. Tickets are $35 per person and can be purchased at https://www.mauichocolatetour.com/weekend-tastings-chocolate-laulima/

Maui Kuʻia Estate Chocolate established their guided chocolate tasting events to benefit local Maui nonprofits, finding inspiration in the Hawaiian concept of kuleana. “In the Hawaiian language, kuleana can be defined as accepting responsibility with understanding and intent,” notes the Maui Kuʻia Estate Chocolate website. “It is a value or a way of thinking that gives one a sense of ownership and accountability or carrying out certain responsibilities, and it becomes one’s privilege to do so.”

Through the Maui Kuʻia Estate Chocolate Laulima Program, participating nonprofits can sign up to benefit from the guided chocolate tastings. They can also earn 40% of the retail sales of chocolate products sold through the program. To learn more, visit https://mauichocolate.com/pages/chocolate-laulima.

“Give yourself a holiday treat by participating in Sundayʻs guided chocolate tasting event and be proud of yourself for making a difference,” says Anne Rillero, Communication, Community Outreach and Development Manager at Maui Nui Marine Resource Council. “Maui Nui Marine Resource Council is very grateful to Maui Kuʻia Estate Chocolate for their generosity in supporting our important work to save Mauiʻs coral reefs.”

“Itʻs a true gift to Maui that Maui Kuʻia Estate Chocolate is so committed to supporting our community nonprofits — while also producing such exquisite, high quality chocolates.”

To learn more about Maui Nui Marine Resource Council, please visit www.mauireefs.org.

Public Invited to “Talk Story with Maui Nui Marine Resource Council” on Wednesday, December 1 at 5:30 pm

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KIHEI, HI — 10,000 oysters cleaning the water in Māʻalaea Harbor. Hundreds of ocean water quality samples gathered and analyzed. Three new solar-powered monitoring buoys providing data for scientists worldwide. A major new grant to help prevent coastal flooding in Kihei. Education programs to help visitors protect Mauiʻs reefs as they enjoy our island’s beaches. And much more. 

The public is invited to learn about the many projects underway at Maui Nui Marine Resource Council during a “Talk Story” evening with their staff on Wed. Dec. 1 from 5:30 to 6:30 pm on Zoom.

During the evening, attendees will learn about ways that this Maui-based nonprofit is working for healthy coral reefs, clean ocean water and a sustainable population of native fish for the islands of Maui County. Questions and suggestions will be welcomed, and door prizes will be awarded.

“We’re looking forward to sharing the latest news and developments at Maui Nui Marine Resource Council at this annual event,” said Mike Fogarty, Executive Director. “It’s been a very busy year for our staff, resulting in some exciting progress in our work to protect Maui’s reefs and nearshore waters.”

The evening will include details about an initiative to promote reef-friendly landscaping in South Maui, new technology that’s being used to identify ocean water quality issues along Maui’s coasts, and steps taken during 2021 to prevent ocean pollution caused by wildfires, feral axis deer, and marine debris transported into the ocean from Maui streams and gulches.

“We guarantee you’ll learn a lot about coral reef protection and why it is so important to the future of our island,” noted Amy Hodges, Programs and Operations Manager at Maui Nui Marine Resource Council. “And in turn, we want to hear from our community, to learn about your ideas and suggestions for protecting Maui’s coastal waters.”

Due to Covid-19, this annual event will once again be held by Zoom. Preregistration is required. To sign up, visit https://bit.ly/MNMRCUpdates.