Kealia Pond National Wildlife Refuge

The Kealia Pond National Wildlife Refuge, located off of Mokulele highway in south Maui is home to many native birds on this island. The Kealia Pond is a precious place here on this island because without it, our native birds wouldn’t have a place to go and lay eggs somewhere safe. The Kealia Pond needs to be protected better and should be taken care of from everyone who lives here and tourists alike. There are a couple of invasive things that we need to get rid of, the main one being the California Bulrush that is taking over Kealia pond. This invasive plant is over growing all of the native plants in the area and it doesn’t help because the birds can’t nest in it due to the fact that it is not thick enough for the nest and it grows too high so that wild animals can eat the eggs. California Bulrush is not something good and we need to get rid of it as soon as possible.

There are two main birds that are in need of our help! There is the Hawaiian Stilt (Ae'o0 also known as the "One standing tall." There is also the Hawaiian coot ('Alae Ke'oKe'o) also known as the "White Forehead." These two brids are endemic to the hawaiian islands.

The signifigance of the Kealia Pond is that it provides a shelter and a feeding area for the native birds on our island. This place is important to help get rid of the California Bullrush because it is taking over the pond and is making it hard for endangered species to nest and lay eggs.

There are many things that we tried to do in order to get rid of the Bulrush. We Cut and sprayed, Sprayed and jsut cut. I think that out Study which was the Spray was the one that got rid of the Bulrush the most because all of our Bulrush was almost gone. This study was alot of fun and I hope that we can try to continue to get rid of this invasive specie.

REEF: OVERFISHING: THE EXPLOITATION OF MARINE RESOURCES

Reef is a group of people who encourage those who want to learn about the fish in the ocean and send out surveys. Reefs mission is to conserve marine ecosystems by educating marine enthusiasts.

Overfishing: the exploitation of marine resources

Overfishing has become a big problem in this big ocean. Overfishing is the fact of someone taking too much that is needed from the ocean. Ultimately overfishing may lead to resource depletion in cases of subsidized fishing, low biological growth rates and critical low biomass levels. Resource depletion is referring to exhaustion of raw materials within a region. Resource depletion is most commonly referred to fishing, farming, and mining. Catching so much fish for the system to support, leads to an overall degradation of the system. Overfishing is a non-sustainable use of the ocean. Fish stocks are one of the main reasons what the fish population is decreasing. The fish fleets are taking way too much from the ocean to handle. Over Fishing can and has become a big issue. Many people just take the ocean for granted and dont care. I think that there should be a ban of how much fish can be taken from the ocean from each fisherman.

For more information about REEF, please visit:
http://www.reef.org

Loko Kuapa Fish Pond

Fishponds have a very large signifigance to the islands, especially to the Hawaiian culture. The type of fishpond that I am focusing on is the loko kuapa. This type of fishpond is located on the shoreline. This fishpond was used to raise food for the people to eat and to also harvest fish and other marine resources. Men and women had different roles in the construction and maintaining a fishpond. The women were not allowed to build it because they were considered as "unclean" once they reached puberty. The men would build the wall while the women would clean the fish after being cought.

This is the Flag tail fish, also known as the Aholehole. This was considered as one of the "sea pigs" used as a substitute for pig for certain ceremonies, or for any ceremonies where pigs were not available.

This is the Great barracuda, also known as the Kaku. This type of fish was eaten broiled but would not be eaten raw.

This is Seaweed, also known as limu. This was the only thing that the women could touch and eat.

This fish is the threadfish, also known as the Moi. Hawaiians beleived that this fish ate lehua blossoms, which are a deep red, and derived color from the flowers.

This is the Jack Fish, also known as the Papio. In old Hawaiian days, the women were not allowed to eat this type of fish.

This is the food web of the Loko Kuapa. First of all, you have your limu which is your primary producer, getting its energy from the sun, then you have the 'Ama'ama and the O'pae as your primary consumers, Second to last you have your Aholehole as your Secondary consumer and last, you have the Kaku as your teritiary.

TIDE POOLS AND SPECIMENS!!!!!

This is our awesome eel that our group found in one of the rocks!!!
AWESOME!!!!!

The interital is made of up 5 different sections. The first zone is called the "Splash zone" this zone is the farthest away from the ocean and only gets the salt spray from the ocean. The second zone is called the "Upper intertidal zone" this zone is only watery at high tides. The thirs zone is the "Lower intertidal zone" this zone is exposed only at extreme low tide. The fourth zone is called the "Tide Pools" and this is where there are permanent collections of water. The last zone is the "Subtidal zone" and this zone is always covered with water. I learned many things about zones. I didnt even know what they were at first but I have learned of the many different species that may live in only certain parts of the intertidal and I learned why there are high tide and low tides. The tides play a large role in the intertidal. If there were tides that we out of control, there wouldnt be certain names for the intertidal zones because the splash zone would sometimes be hit with waves, but its not because the tides are under control. The intertidal is important because there are certain species that arent able to live in just water and there are certain species that can live on just sand and thats why its good that we have the intertidal because certain species can adapt to certain places.

Our group, along with the class went down to the fishponds at Waipulani Park and used the transect to measure a certain area from the lower intertidal to the subtidal zone. We ended up measuring 4 meters out. We then dropped the quadrant that made it easier to count because you were only focusing on a square, not the whole pond. From doing this study, we found out that there are more crabs located in the lower interitdal than In the Subtidal zone.

PLANKTON RULES THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!

Plankton is a very small organism that lives in the ocean. Plankton does not have the ability to swim against currents. Plankton is so very important because it rules the food web. Without plankton, nothing would be alive or surviving in the ocean. We went down to the Kihei Boat ramp and towed the nets in the water for 5 minutes, dumped the water into our sample bottles and then saved then until the next day so that we could look at them through the proscope. Also while we were down there we used the refractometer to find the silinity in the ocean and used a thermometer to find the temperature. By doing these samples and write ups, it showed that there are more of an abundance of copepods that anything in the ocean at our 2 spots we tested. It shows that there were more plankton in Kihei at the boat ramp than at Ho'okipa Beach.

Graphs

This is one of the three graphs that I did. This is the sample that Ms. V did at Ho'okipa because the sample that we did the day before did not have any plankton alive in the water. This graph is showing that when we placed the sample in a petri dish under the proscope that we only found 1 arrow worm, no copepods and no Acanthometra.

Picture of the group

This is a picture of our group at Kihei Boat Ramp recording down our data and working together. We were recording the temperature of the water, the salinity (salt), the turbidity (clearness) and the physical elements around us such as the weather, and the time and date that we were down at the boat ramp.