Coral Conservation in Hawaii

After the M. capitata, spawn we processed many egg sperm bundles by “snap freezing” them in liquid nitrogen for later experimental use. A specific number of bundles were also placed in tubes with bundles that were genetically distinct with the purpose of fertilization and settlement of the resulting larvae. So, what does all that mumbo jumbo mean in english? It has to do with the life cycle of corals. After an egg is fertilized, it becomes capable of swimming (Using tiny hairs called cilia). While they are in this stage, they actively search for a place they can call their permanent home using chemical, sound, and light cues. Once they find a place to their liking, the little larvae settle down and metamorphose, developing a mouth and tentacles. From there, they calcify, increase the number of polyps and start their own colony. You can see this happening in the last four pictures in this series. The specks in the bowl are the swimming larvae, while the next photos are larvae that have metamorphosed. The last photo is of the same polyps after they have developed a mouth and tentacles (They look like tiny flowers at this stage).

** Top photo taken by L. Grassman, Reef Recovery

Hi all! Sorry for my lack of posts. The internet here on the island has been sketchy at best. I wanted to post about the spawning event that occurred last weekend, here on Coconut Island. Montipora capitata spawned during the new moon on Saturday, Sunday and Monday (June 8, 9, and 10). Our team collected at two different areas, the docks in the cove, and the marine mammal dock in order to collect increase genetic diversity in subsequent experiments. These hermaphroditic corals spawned right on time at 9:00 p.m. each night in what is known as a “broadcast spawning event.” Each polyp of this species releases both eggs and sperm in a bundle, known as an egg sperm bundle. The eggs are located on the outside of the bundle, while the sperm is at the center. The eggs are positively buoyant, causing the entire bundle to float to the surface of the water. After a period of time of up to 40 minutes, the bundles begin to disintegrate, releasing the sperm from the core, which allows fertilization (Hopefully of eggs and sperm from other colonies) to occur. 

Using scoops specially made to avoid damaging the delicate bundles, our team collected hundreds of these egg sperm bundles. In this post you will see photos of the process of collecting. The interesting thing is that you will see a visible change in the shape, size, and color of the bundles as they disintegrate in the 50mL tubes. In the last photo you can clearly see the floating eggs and sinking sperm in the tubes.

Thanks for being patient with me and my internet connection!

Last weekend, I got to visit Waikiki and the aquarium in Waikiki! Sorry for the delay in posting these most awesome photos, the Wi-Fi on the island was out all last week, and now that it is back I have some catching up to do! These are photos of some of my favorite animals and exhibits I saw at the aquarium. Enjoy!

Photos of the collection of P. meandrina, and the subsequent investigation of the cause of multi-focal acute tissue loss in these fragments.

On Sunday, Monday, and today, we were supposed to be crazy busy because our corals of the species P. meandrina were supposed to spawn. HOWEVER, this didn’t happen. Let me start at the beginning of the whole process… 

On Wednesday, 5/22, our team went out into the bay to collect fragments of P. meandrina, commonly known as “cauliflower coral” to bring back for the purposes of collecting the eggs and sperm they would release during spawning. We collected 21 healthy fragments, and brought all back to our flow-through system on Coconut Island. We didn’t notice a problem until very early Sunday morning, just a couple of hours before this species was known to spawn. There was an incredible amount of tissue necrosis, in this case called “multi-focal acute tissue loss.” They were so stressed that the spawn never happened. So, we set out to determine the cause, and I got my chance to work with coral disease specialist, Dr. Greta Aeby and her intern. Sunday and Monday, we photographed all the lesions and tissue loss occurring on each fragment. We also set up qucik transmission experiments, where part of a fragment experiencing tissue loss was set up to be touching a piece of a fragment, which appeared to be healthy. The idea behind this was if a pathogen is the cause, the healthy fragment may develop lesions where the contact was made with a lesion of another fragment. As of today, the photographs show that the tissue loss has progressed throughout the fragments, but at a much slower rate than the original tissue loss. We also observed that there may be signs of lesions developing on two out of the five transmission crosses that were set up, however, this requires continued observation. 

The following post will be photos of this whole process. 

This morning, I had to go to town to pick up a couple of things. While I was walking through the mall, I saw a bunch of tables in the atrium, and the people seated were making leis. I found out that it was a local girl scout troop making leis to place on veterans graves on Memorial Day to honor their service and their lives. What a great thing to do in memorium of our veterans, right? So, I ended up joining in with this wonderful bunch of people and contributed a couple of my own leis to the girl scouts’ cause. Here are a couple of photos taken during my time with them! 

So, since I have spent the last week basically prepping for our first spawning event, I don’t have anything really interesting to post about YET. So, I decided to post some photos I have taken during the past couple of days for your viewing pleasure :)

One of the really cool things about Hawaii is the sheer abundance of wild fruit growing everywhere. There are mango trees all over the place. The top photo is a mango tree growing in someone’s backyard. The last photos are passion flower and the fruit that the plant produces- passion fruit! Yum! 

This is one of the sea turtles I saw at Reef 42. Behind it, to the right is a small rock formation called Chinaman’s Hat. 

On Sunday, I had the chance to go out with Dr. Hagedorn with her family to snorkel at one of the patch reefs we will be sampling during coral spawning- Reef 42. This was my first time being on A Hawaiian reef, so I was pretty excited. Though the species diversity was low, this reef had close to 100% coral cover. Another plus? TONS of green sea turtles hang out in this area, and we saw several during our snorkel on the reef. They like to park themselves in large holes and rest… I guess the holes on this reef serve as personal parking garages for sea turtles when they need a rest.