Lab instruction at the University of Â鶹´«Ã½ at Hilo is not limited to rooms filled with beakers and microscopes. A genetics class, guided by their biology professor, geneticist Natalie Graham, took a field trip this February to Kaumaui, a loko iʻa (traditional fishpond) in Keaukaha at the southern side of Hilo Bay. The class worked with community stewards of the fishpond to collect water samples for DNA testing back at UH ±á¾±±ô´Ç¡¯²õ . They also restored sections of the fishpond¡¯s rock walls.
The water samples they collected hold tiny traces of genetic material shed by fish and limu. Back on campus, students will analyze that material to better understand what species are present in the pond and how abundant they are.
“Bringing Western science and Hawaiian culture together creates a powerful synergy that honors generations of kilo (careful observation) and the ancestral natural history preserved in ʻike k¨±puna (ancestral knowledge),” said Graham who founded ʻElala Biodiversity Laboratory.
Kaumaui is cared for by Hui ±á´Çʻ´Ç±ô±ð¾±³¾²¹±ô³Ü¨, a nonprofit dedicated to restoring Hawaiian fishponds and teaching the community about their value. The brackish waters there nurture juvenile fish, endemic limu or seaweed, seabirds and native plants.
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