Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument

June 6, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Timeline Tuesday … 2000s

Today’s ‘Timeline Tuesday’ takes us through the 2000s – US Supreme Court opens OHA elections to all registered voters, Andy Irons wins most prestigious surfing titles in a single year: the World Championship, Triple Crown and Pipeline Masters and Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument established. We look at what was happening in Hawai‘i during this time period and what else was happening around the rest of the world.

A Comparative Timeline illustrates the events with images and short phrases. This helps us to get a better context on what was happening in Hawai‘i versus the rest of the world. I prepared these a few years ago for a planning project. (Ultimately, they never got used for the project, but I thought they might be on interest to others.)

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December 6, 2015 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

‘It’s Different’

These weren’t the words expected by the questioner in my response to what I thought about my first trip into the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (now the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.)

I think she was expecting words like: spectacular, pristine, resource rich, special, abundant, etc.

Yes, it’s all those descriptors, too; and for me, therefore, “different.”

I wasn’t trying to be cute, but, rather, acknowledge the responsibility we faced in protecting this place. (I have been to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands several times, each time reinforced the feeling.)

My first trip – a 3 ½ plane ride there, 3 ½ hours on the ground and 3 ½ hours back – was to Tern Island at French Frigate Shoals (it looks like an aircraft carrier in the reef.)

French Frigate Shoals is the largest atoll in the chain, taking the form of an 18-mile long crescent. It is estimated to be 12.3 million years old.

Tern Island (approximately 30-acres) in the atoll is the site of a Fish & Wildlife Service field station, which occupies a former U.S. Coast Guard Long-Range Aids to Navigation (LORAN) station that closed in 1979.

A relatively deep (80 to 100 feet) coral reef at this atoll has been recently discovered to function as a spawning site for Ulua (the giant trevally); a rare discovery of spawning sites for top predators.

The lagoon is also unusual in that it contains two exposed volcanic pinnacles representing the last vestiges of the high island from which the atoll was derived, as well as nine low, sandy islets.

The sand islets are small, shift position, and disappear and reappear. These islets provide important habitat for the world’s largest breeding colony of the endangered Hawaiian monk seal.

On a tour around Tern Island we saw monk seals and turtles resting on the sandy shore, as well markings in the sand of a turtle who laid her eggs the night before.

And lots of birds … mostly terns —> Tern Island.

On that trip, we were unexpectedly greeted by Jean-Michel Cousteau; he was on the island during his filming of “Voyage to Kure.”

Here’s a link to the Google ‘Street View’ on Tern Island.

https://goo.gl/fE0dni

I also visited Midway. Look at a map of the Pacific and you understand the reasoning for the “Midway” reference (actually, it’s a little closer to Asia than it is to the North American continent.)

Kuaiheilani, suggested as a mythical place, is the traditional name for what we refer to as Midway Atoll. Described in the legend of Aukelenuiaiku, the origin of this name can be traced to an ancient homeland of the Hawaiian people, located somewhere in central Polynesia. (Kikiloi)

According to historical sources, this island was used by Native Hawaiians even in the late-1800s as a sailing point for seasonal trips to this area of the archipelago.

The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, and in particular Midway Atoll, became a potential commodity in the mid-19th century. The United States took formal possession of Midway Atoll in August of 1867 by Captain William Reynolds of the USS Lackawanna.

Midway’s importance grew for commercial and military planners. The first transpacific cable and station were in operation by 1903. In the 1930s, Midway became a stopover for the Pan American Airways’ flying “clippers” (seaplanes) crossing the ocean on their five-day transpacific passage.

The United States was inspired to invest in the improvement of Midway in the mid-1930s with the rise of imperial Japan. In 1938 the Army Corps of Engineers dredged the lagoon during this period and, in 1938, Midway was declared second to Pearl Harbor in terms of naval base development in the Pacific.

The construction of the naval air facility at Midway began in 1940. At that time, French Frigate Shoals was also a US naval air facility. Midway also became an important submarine advance base.

Here’s a link to the Google ‘Street View’ on Midway Atoll.

https://goo.gl/NaAi28

Here’s a short video of some of the albatross on Midway.

https://youtu.be/cG7JOpL2tEA

Here’s a link to the Google ‘Street View’ on Laysan Island.

https://goo.gl/63WGFK

Here’s a link to the Google ‘Street View’ on Lisianski Island.

https://goo.gl/e8kYHW

Here’s a link to the Google ‘Street View’ on Pearl and Hermes Atoll.

https://goo.gl/9kuFWZ

While I was Chair at DLNR, we created the Refuge rules whose intent is “To establish a marine refuge in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands for the long-term conservation and protection of the unique coral reef ecosystems and the related marine resources and species, to ensure their conservation and natural character for present and future generations.“ Fishing is prohibited.

This started a process where several others followed with similar protective measures. The BLNR unanimously adopted the State’s Refuge rules, President Bush declared it a Marine National Monument and UNESCO designated it a World Heritage Site.

Some ask why we imposed such stringent limitations on use in this area. For me, it ended up to be pretty simple; it is the responsibility we share to future generations, to allow them to see what it looks like at a place in the world where you don’t take something.

Check out more on the Monument (look at the Images and Videos, you’ll see this place really is different:) http://www.papahanaumokuakea.gov

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Ulua-NOAA

Clouds of reef fish and corals, French frigate shoals, NWHI

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sharks-NOAA

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Jean-Michel Cousteau – PTY

Heading out to French Frigate Shoals

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Papahanaumokuakea_World_Heritage_Site

October 25, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Churchill

“Among the many tales of shipwreck on the Pacific few are more thrilling than that of the rescue of the captain and crew of the schooner Churchill on French Frigate shoals”. (Star-bulletin, October 31, 1917)

Whoa … let’s look back.

In 1850, Captain Asa Meade Simpson, a Maine shipbuilder, came west, drawn by the California Gold Rush. In 1855, he arrived at the “north bend” of the Coos Bay estuary, Oregon. Recognizing the value of the region’s coal and timber, he set up a sawmill; the businesses expanded and turned out a variety of wood products, from fruit boxes to fancy doors.

He also established a shipyard (the first in Oregon) and hired master craftsmen to build ships that would carry lumber products worldwide. Simpson’s son, Louis Jerome (LJ) Simpson, arrived in North Bend in 1899. He purchased the adjacent undeveloped town site of Yarrow, which he merged with his father’s land in 1903 to create the City of North Bend.

From 1859 to 1903, at this location he would have 56 ‘world class’ tall ships built for the growing lumber empire. (Tall Ships SFO) Large wooden schooners were the economic mainstay of American shipping between the Civil War period and World War I. They were the sailing workhorses of the Pacific. (NOAA)

One of them was the Churchill.

Launched on March 4, 1900, the 178-foot, 600-ton four-masted schooner Churchill was built by the Simpson Lumber Co for their own account. Later, the Churchill was owned by Charles Nelson & Co of San Francisco.

Then, the fateful voyage.

“The Churchill left Port Angeles on May 27 with a cargo of lumber for Sydney. After discharging at Sydney the vessel proceeded to Tongata, where a cargo of about 800 tons of copra was placed aboard. Her destination from there was Seattle.”

(Copra is the dried meat of the coconut. Coconut oil is extracted from it and has made copra an important agricultural commodity. Also coconut cake is extracted mainly used as feed for livestock.)

On board the Churchill were Captain Charles Granzow, his two sons Carl (age 7) and Loftus (age 14,) and nine other crew members (Chief Officer: Henry Anderson, Second Officer: Fred Wilson, Carpenter John Wessick, Seamen: A. Anderson, William Miller, Daniel Pinzoin, Pedro Romos, Sterling Jones and Hugo Munch.)

“Capt. Granzow has been master of the schooner Churchill for the past three or four years. She has called at Honolulu on infrequent voyages, but been chiefly in the lumber trade between the Northwest and Australia.”

“The Churchill was 27 days out from Nukualofa, Tongata, when she drifted upon a reef of the French Frigate shoals. This was after winds had carried her westward from her course and following a calm of several days. ‘Currents after that was the only reason for the wreck,’ declared Mate Anderson”.

Fortunately for them, some folks from the Islands were nearby fishing from the Makaiwa.

“The power sampan Makaiwa left Honolulu on Monday, October 22. In the party were Harold W Rice; Lieutenant KE Ferris, USN, formerly captain of the Kestrel; Arthur Rice, HL Tucker and the captain and crew of the sampan, as follows: William Feuerpeil, crew captain; Johnny Vasconcellos, chief engineer; Manuel Deponte, second engineer; Levi Faunfata, a Samoan seaman.”

“Arthur Rice, who had intended only to fish as far as Kauai and leave the party there, carried out his plan, so he was not with the sampan when it turned westward from the Hawaiian group. The party had fished on the way to Kauai and also after starting for Bird Island.”

Rice and the rest of the party “were bound for the Western Islands on a fishing trip when they sighted the Churchill … slowly pounding to pieces.”

“Captain Granzow told the Honolulans that the night before, that is the night of October 25, the schooner had struck the big reef about 9 o’clock. The vessel seemed to come off after striking, but then went on again and pounded heavily all night.”

“The Churchill was sighted in acute distress on the morning of Friday, October 26, by the fishermen and the sampan immediately went to her rescue. … Had it not been for the timely arrival of the sampan at French Frigate shoals, Captain Granzow and his men believe they would surely have perished by fire, water or sharks.” (Star Bulletin, October 30, 1917)

“That he was true to all the traditions of the sea is the tale told of Capt Charles Granzow, master of the wrecked schooner Churchill, by the members of his crew.”

“Unable or unwilling to relate their own experiences these sailors of the destroyed schooner tell how Capt. Granzow elected to remain aboard the doomed vessel while the only remaining hope of surviving the wreck was made by five others in a small lifeboat.”

“But while Capt. Granzow with other volunteers remained aboard the vessel as the water rose about her hulk he ordered his two sons into the lifeboat which he placed in command of his first mate, Henry Anderson, while they attempted a landing on the only promontory not washed by the ocean’s waves.” (All were saved)

In October of 2005, the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center’s Coral Reef Ecosystem Division reported a potential shipwreck site to NOAA’s Maritime Heritage Program after spotting anchors and scattered rigging at French Frigate Shoals.

In 2007, a team of NOAA maritime archaeologists were able to begin to investigate the site. The 2007 survey uncovered clues that may help solve the mystery of the unidentified shipwreck. Diagnostic artifacts at the site, anchors, rigging, pumps and deck equipment, all correspond to the Churchill’s size and construction.

In August of 2008, a team of NOAA maritime archaeologists returned to the site to complete documentation and interpretation of the shipwreck site. (Lots of information here is from NOAA, Oregon Historical Society and Star Bulletin, October 30 and 31, 1917)

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Churchill-NOAA

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North_Bend_Mill

Simpson-Loco-North-Bend

Tug_Tows_Churchill_Loaded_with_Lumber for Australia-NorthBend

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May 27, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Koʻanakoʻa

The name Koʻanakoʻa literally means the settling of coral, referring to Maro’s expansive coral reefs. Another name, Nalukakala, describes surf that arrives in combers, such as the surf that froths over shallow reefs. (PMNM)

In 1820, the ships Maro and Rambler of Nantucket, commanded respectively by Captains Joseph Allen and Benjamin Worth, in company with the Syren of London, rendezvoused at the Sandwich islands.

At this same time, Honolulu was described as a scattered, irregular village of thatched huts, of 3,000 or 4,000-inhabitants. (Maly)

Here they met Captain Winship of the ship O’Cane, a veteran northwest coast merchantman, who informed them that while crossing on his many voyages from the Sandwich Islands to Canton, China, he observed a great number of sperm whales off the coast of Japan. (Allen on the Maro is credited with discovering the “Japan Grounds.”)

One of the principal benefits to the economy of the Islands was the rendezvousing of the Pacific whaling fleets from the US and other countries at the various ports of the islands for many years, and the transshipment of oil and bone from these ports.

By 1820, the calls of whalers at Honolulu were quite frequent. Americans were quick to see the superiority of the islands for recruiting and refitting over other stations in the Pacific, and very soon all the American vessels in the Pacific, and quite a few from other countries, were touching at the islands regularly. (US Commission of Fish and Fisheries, 1901)

It was that year, after his discovery of Gardner Pinnacles, that Captain Joseph Allen on the Maro, sighted and named the reef after his whaling ship, Maro.

Maro Reef has less than one acre of periodically emergent land; at very low tide, only a small coral rubble outcrop of a former island is believed to break above the surface. As a result, Maro supports no terrestrial biota.

In contrast, the shallow water reef system is extensive, covering nearly a half-million acres and is the largest coral reef in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument (Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.)

It is also one of the chain’s most ecologically rich shallow water marine ecosystems, with 64-percent coral cover over the entire area, among the highest percentage observed in the Monument.

Unlike the classic ring-shaped atoll, Maro is a complex maze of linear reefs that radiate out from the center like the spokes of a wheel.

The documented marine biota at Maro Reef includes 37-species of corals and 142-species of reef fish. Fish species endemic to the Hawaiian Archipelago make up half of all fish recorded here.

Maro’s reefs are intricate and reticulated (like a net or network,) forming a complex network of reef crests, patch reefs and lagoons. Deepwater channels with irregular bottoms cut between these shallow reef structures.

Because the outermost reefs absorb the majority of the energy from the open ocean swells, the innermost reefs and aggregated patch reefs are sheltered and have the characteristics of a true lagoon. Given the structural complexity of this platform, its shallow reefs are poorly charted and largely unexplored. (PMNM)

While Maro Reef has very healthy reefs, it may be ‘on the verge of drowning’ because the reefs are narrow, unconnected, and unprotected from storm waves. Others feel that the health of the corals suggest that Maro Reef is a complicated reef system on a large seamount, living in balance with the elements. (FWS)

As Chair of the Board of the Land and Natural Resources I made the recommendation to the rest of the BLNR (and we then voted unanimously) to impose the most stringent measures to assure protection of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

In helping people understand why, I have referred to my recommendation to impose stringent protective measures and prohibit extraction as the responsibility we share to provide future generations a chance to see what it looks like in a place in the world where you don’t take something.

That action created Refuge rules “To establish a marine refuge in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands for the long-term conservation and protection of the unique coral reef ecosystems and the related marine resources and species, to ensure their conservation and natural character for present and future generations.“ Fishing and other extraction is prohibited.

The BLNR’s action started a process where several others followed with similar stringent protective measures.

Koʻanakoʻa (Maro Reef) is now part of Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, a State and Federal (State of Hawaiʻi, Department of the Interior’s US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) co-managed marine conservation area.

The monument encompasses nearly 140,000-square miles of the Pacific Ocean – an area larger than all the country’s national parks combined.

On July 30, 2010, Papahanaumokuakea was inscribed as a mixed (natural and cultural) World Heritage Site by the delegates to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO.) It is the first mixed UNESCO World Heritage Site in the US and the second World Heritage Site in Hawaiʻi (Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park was inscribed in 1987.)

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Omilu (bluefin trevally) in the shallows at Maro Reef-Watt

Large school of mano (Galapagos sharks) at Maro Reef-Watt

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Aerial image of Maro Reef-Collins

Satellite image of Maro Reef

NASA astronaut image of Maro Reef

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Image of Maro Reef habitat cover

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Image courtesy of Northwestern Hawaiian Islands 2002

March 2, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hot Spot

Kupuna means elder, grandparent or ancestor. The islands to the northwest of the main Hawaiian Islands have been referred to as the Kupuna Islands. The Hawaiian chain is made up of volcanic islands.

Kilauea Volcano has been erupting since 1983. Mauna Loa is also an active volcano. Off the coast, to the southeast, Loʻihi is forming. (It is currently about 3,000-feet below sea level and is estimated to emerge above sea level in the next 10,000 to 100,000 years.)

Some of the other recent eruptions include Hualālai that last erupted in 1801; Haleakala that last erupted in about 1790 and Mauna Kea that last erupted about 4,000 years ago. (SOEST) (The first three volcanoes are considered ‘active’ and the latter three ‘dormant.’)

Hawaiʻi sits over a ‘hot spot,’ the Hawaiian hot spot.

It’s one hot spot, but lots of volcanoes have formed over it. The Islands are above a moving sea floor of the North Pacific Ocean (the Pacific Ocean is mostly floored by a single tectonic plate known as the “Pacific Plate.”)

The Pacific Plate is moving over the layer in the Earth known as the Asthenosphere. This movement takes it to the northwest. As the plate moves over a fixed spot deeper in the Earth where magma (molten lava) forms, a new volcano can punch through this plate and create an island.

As the plate moves away, the volcano stops erupting and a new one is formed in its place. With time, the volcanoes keep drifting westward and getting older relative to the one active volcano that is over the hot spot.

As they age, the crust that they sit on cools and subsides. This, combined with erosion of the islands, once active volcanism stops, leads to a shrinking of the islands with age and their eventual submergence below the ocean surface.

Each island is made up of at least one primary volcano, although many islands are composites of more than one. The Big Island, for instance, is constructed of 5 major volcanoes: Kilauea, Mauna Loa, Mauna Kea, Hualālai and Kohala (the island is still growing, but is basically about 400,000-years old.)

Maui is made up of two volcanoes, Haleʻākala and West Maui (about 1.32-million years ago.) Kahoʻolawe and Lānaʻi were each formed by a single volcano of their respective names.

Molokai was formed by East and West Molokai volcanoes (about 1.8-million years ago.) Oʻahu is also formed by two, Koʻolau and Waianae (about 3-million years ago.) Kauai and Niʻihau were formed by volcanoes of their respective Island names (about 5.1-million years ago.)

They are all part of the Hawaiian-Emperor Volcanic Chain. About 40-million years ago, the Pacific Plate changed direction from north to northwest – so the Emperor Seamounts run more north-south, the Hawaiian Ridge north-westerly.

Midway Island is 27.7-million years old; Meiji Seamount the northern part of the Emperor Seamount (near the end of the Aleutian chain) is about 80-million years old.

All of these are still youngsters, when you look at the perspective, say, of the dinosaurs. The Islands weren’t even a glimmer in anyone’s eyes when dinosaurs walked the Earth; sixty-five million years ago the last of the non-avian dinosaurs went extinct, after living on Earth for about 165-million years. (USGS)

If all of Earth time from the very beginning of the dinosaurs to today were compressed into 365 days (1 calendar year), the dinosaurs appeared January 1 and became extinct the third week of September.

Using this same time scale, the Earth would have formed approximately 18.5-years earlier. By comparison, people have been on earth only since December 31 (New Year’s eve.) (USGS)

When I was at DLNR, President George W Bush created the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument on June 15, 2006. Seeking a more appropriate Hawaiian name for the monument, suggestions for a name change were submitted.

We selected the name Papahanaumokuakea; it was submitted by Pua Kanahele. Pua and the First Lady, Laura Bush, attended the ceremony announcing the new name (March 2, 2007.)

The Kumulipo, the creation chant, tells of the history of how all life forms came and evolved from Papahanaumokuakea, beginning with the coral polyp – the building block for all life.

Papahanaumoku is a mother figure personified by the earth and Wakea is a father figure personified in the expansive sky; the two are honored and highly recognized ancestors of Native Hawaiian people.

Their union resulted in the creation, or birthing, of the entire Hawaiian archipelago. The naming of the monument is to honor and preserve these names, to strengthen Hawaii’s cultural foundation and to ground Hawaiians to an important part of their history.

Thus, the genealogy of Papahanaumokuakea tells the story of Native Hawaiians’ ancestral connection with the gods who created those coral polyps, the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands or Kūpuna Islands, and everything else in the archipelago. (Lots of information here from the UH-Manoa SOEST, USGS and Papahanaumokuakea.)

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