School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology
Univ. of Hawaii at Manoa

SOEST in the News

Mercury crater named for Native Hawaiian “Renaissance man”

Image of oil painting 'View of Hilo Bay' by Joseph Nawahi, 1888. Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) assistant researcher Jeffrey Gillis-Davis, a team member on NASA’s MESSENGER mission to Mercury, has named a crater located in Calloris Basin “Nawahi Crater” after Puna-born teacher, legislator, royal advisor, publisher, and painter Joseph Kaho‘oluhi Nawahiokalani‘opu‘u (1842-96), also known as Joseph Nawahi. The self-taught artist was the first native Hawaiian to become an accomplished painter in the Western style. Geologic features on Mercury have names for people who contributed to the arts or humanities, Gillis-Davis said.

Read more about it in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Image courtesy of Kamehameha Schools via Wikipedia; click on it to see the full version.

Multitudes of nutrient-rich groundwater outputs mapped along Hawaiian coasts

Graphic of groundwater dischargeIn a recent paper in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, Geology & Geophysics (G&G) grad student Adam Johnson, G&G professor Craig Glenn, Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) professor Paul Lucey, and colleagues describe huge volumes of cold, nutrient-rich submarine groundwater “plumes” exiting coastal West Hawaii, and the advanced thermal infrared techniques they used to study them. These plumes float on top of normal seawater.

Read more about it in West Hawaii Today, Raising Islands, and the AGU Journal Highlights. Image courtesy of Craig Glenn; click on it to see the full version.

Orca and spinner dolphin surprising feeding strategies reported

Image of orca courtesy of Getty Images.Using high-tech acoustics, Whitlow W. L. Au, Chief Scientist in the Marine Mammal Research Program (MMRP) at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) studies and reports on the discriminating habits of orca (also known as killer whales, Orcinus orca) in Alaska, which scan in search of favorite fish, and the intricate and coordinated hunting “dance” of Hawaiian spinner dolphins (Stenella longirostris) off Leeward O‘ahu, which take turns feeding on schools of fish that they have herded together.

Read more about orca at MSNBC.com and spinner dolphins in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Image courtesy Getty Images.

JIMAR fishery scientists warn of declining fish stocks

Photo of spectacled parrotfish.Robert Schroeder and Benjamin Richards of the Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research (JIMAR) are two of six co-authors of a study that found that fishing is driving enormous changes in Hawai‘i’s nearshore fisheries populations. One of the most disturbing findings is the uhu, or parrotfish, biomass around heavily-fished O‘ahu sites was only about three percent of that in remote parts of the state. Parrotfish are herbivores that control algae and maintain the health of reefs.

Read more about it at Honolulu Star-Bulletin and KHNL News 8. Image courtesy of US Dept of Interior; click on it to see the full image.

SOEST rotating images. Three Top-Ten Rankings for SOEST Programs

Three SOEST programs: Oceanography, Physical Sciences (2nd), Marine Science (4th), and Geophysics (7th) continue in good company in the Academic Analytics FSP Index for Top Performing Individual Programs 2006-2007.

Read More about it in the UH Press Release.

For more news, visit our News and Awards & Honors pages, and read the weekly SOEST Bulletin.

SOEST Quicklinks

Environmental Conditions

SOEST Emergency Information

Marine Operations

SOEST on Facebook

 

[ Top of this page ]

 white spacer

Technical, Web, and Other Support

Employment

The Dean’s Overview of the School