VIDEO NEWS RELEASE: Public can help monitor coral health with new tool

Hawaiian Koʻa Card

Researchers using the Hawaiian Koʻa Card

Link to video and sound (details below): https://bit.ly/2Sdy9xQ

WHAT: Researchers developed a new tool called the Hawaiian Koʻa (coral) Card to help monitor coral health and coral bleaching in Hawaiʻi. The card is free to the public and available for pick-up at the Division of Aquatic Resources Offices on Oʻahu, Maui, Kauaʻi, Hawaiʻi Island and other select sites. 

WHO:  Kuʻulei Rodgers, a researcher at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB), Keisha Bahr, an assistant professor at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Sarah Severino, a research assistant at HIMB, and Anita Tsang, a graduate assistant at HIMB’s Coral Reef Ecology Lab.

WHERE: University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

HOW: The Hawaiian Koʻa Card is a waterproof color wheel, divided into four sections that represent the main color groups of corals found in Hawaiʻi. Each section of the card has colors that have dark to light shades, which represent the stages of coral bleaching. Each color on the Hawaiian Koʻa Card is represented by a number. When assessing a coral colony participants can report their coral health observations online through the Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System and view coral health conditions across the State of Hawaiʻi. 

WHY: Researchers set out to develop an inexpensive, rapid and non-invasive coral health tool that could be used by the public to assess and report on coral health and bleaching severity. This tool trains ocean users to detect the differences while giving a sense of kuleana (responsibility) and mālama (stewardship) for Hawaiʻi’s reefs.

OTHER FACTS:

• With the increasing occurrence of coral bleaching events, there was a pressing need to standardize observations across resource managers, community members and scientists when capturing the changes occurring on reefs. 

• Coral bleaching is a process wherein corals lose their symbiotic algae, zooxanthellae, which provide a significant food source and color to their coral host.

• An easy and effective field method of determining the severity of bleaching is comparing different shades of color over time, between sites, and coral colonies.

• Bahr, Rodgers and their team have conducted several outreach and training events to reach resource managers, educators, students, community groups and individuals. 

VIDEO BROLL: (1 minute, 39 seconds)

• 0:00-1:01 -Video of researchers using Hawaiian Koʻa Card

• 1:01-1:39 - Video of coral 

SOUNDBITES:

Anita Tsang, HIMB Coral Reef Ecology Lab, Graduate Assistant (11 seconds)
“We hope that it promotes more community engagement and fosters a sense of stewardship within your own community and local reefs. And again, this is a tool that can easily be used by anyone.”

Tsang (15 seconds)
“It will allow us to identify where coral bleaching is happening and also identify areas of resilience, so where we can focus our efforts on. And that way managers can actually take action and directly address these issues.”

Tsang (10 seconds)
“To use this tool you basically go up to the coral in the water, hold the card up, and you want to try to find the color that best represents the whole coral colony.”