She comes to Sea Grant from the UH College of Natural Sciences where she worked for seven years. Hawai'i is no stranger to pollution in all its terrestrial and marineforms. With our visitor counts rising and falling like the tides, it is evident that we must maintain our beautiful beaches and waterways to continue to assure the presence of our supporting economy. Events like oil and gas spills and run-off from terrestrial sources add nutrients through their pollution that create an imbalance in the waters that sustain nearshore marine environments. Imbalances like the growth of massive groups of algal blooms in Kane'ohe Bay compete with coral colonies that sustain various species of flora and fauna.
Algal blooms are the result of excess phytoplankton spawned by the nutrient loaded waters.
Up until now, monitoring of oceanic pollutants has been done from only a handful of coastal sites around the islands. The limited spatial and temporal coverage by these sites makes it difficult to pinpoint the source of the pollution to eradicate it. Sea Grant researchers Barry Lienert, John Porter and Shiv Sharma from the Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology have been developing technology to address this problem. This page is maintained by Sea Grant Communications, Priscilla Billig , Communications Director. Contact Diane Nakashima .