{"id":168950,"date":"2022-11-14T11:04:52","date_gmt":"2022-11-14T21:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=168950"},"modified":"2022-11-14T11:05:23","modified_gmt":"2022-11-14T21:05:23","slug":"opihi-rebuild-oahu-population","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2022\/11\/14\/opihi-rebuild-oahu-population\/","title":{"rendered":"\u02bbOpihi spawning research to rebuild O\u02bbahu population"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Valdez and Marabella testing water quality in the lab.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

O\u02bbahu<\/span> has the lowest population of \u02bbopihi,<\/span> endemic intertidal limpets, across the Hawaiian Islands. To help rebuild the population of this Hawaiian delicacy, two graduate students at the University of Hawai\u02bbi<\/span> at M\u0101noa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources<\/a> (CTAHR<\/abbr>) are attempting to spawn and rear \u02bbopihi<\/span> to adulthood in their lab on campus.<\/p>\n

Angelica Valdez<\/strong> and Mitch Marabella<\/strong> are trying to complete the \u02bbopihi<\/span> life cycle. To do that, they would need to spawn and fertilize an \u02bbopihi<\/span> in the lab, grow that \u02bbopihi<\/span> so that it can reproduce, and transplant the offspring back into the wild.<\/p>\n

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\u02bbOpihi<\/span> in the lab.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe dream goal is to get all the way through the life cycle,\u201d said Valdez. \u201cWe\u2019ve come pretty close. The 30-day \u02bbopihi<\/span> animal was the first where we\u2019ve had records of shell growth. That is the longest we\u2019ve had, it was really incredible that we got it that far.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spawn trials<\/h2>\n

To re-establish the population, Valdez and Marabella are conducting spawn trials in the lab, a process that can take up to 36 hours overnight. They start by introducing a peptide hormone to the \u02bbopihi<\/span> and place them into a spawning container. During that time they will record measurements and continue to check on the \u02bbopihi<\/span> every hour.<\/p>\n

Peak spawning times are between midnight and 3 a.m. Once the \u02bbopihi<\/span> spawn, the students begin checking on the animals and the quality of the water and containers. One person counts the eggs while the other is fertilizing. After spawning, there is an 8\u201312 hour lull until researchers do a larval transfer before the grow out phase.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we do get a spawn, we have to really rush because \u02bbopihi<\/span> don\u2019t have a protective shell around the egg so it is susceptible to polyspermy (when multiple sperm enter an egg),\u201d said Marabella. \u201cSo we have to make sure it is properly fertilized, making our work much more active at night.\u201d<\/p>\n

So far, Valdez and Marabella have conducted 20 spawn trials. They have also partnered with the Waik\u012bk\u012b Aquarium<\/a>, which provides their lab with barrels of salt water for the \u02bbopihi.<\/span> During a spawning trial, students go through up to 50 gallons of water.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_masonry_media_grid element_width=”3″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1668457037632-189ff18e-8b5d-0″ include=”168989,168988,168987,168986,168985,168984,168982,168981″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]\n

Sustainable harvesting<\/h2>\n

Students are trying to get \u02bbopihi<\/span> to a viable stage where the reproduced \u02bbopihi<\/span> can be outplanted into the intertidal area of the seashore to build up the population again, so that people can harvest responsibly and sustainably.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a long process and that\u2019s why it is harder to look toward farming at this point,\u201d said Marabella. \u201cWe\u2019re more focused on conservation right now because farming would not be possible if this population is decimated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former CTAHR<\/abbr> students began trying to re-establish the \u02bbopihi<\/span> population on O\u02bbahu<\/span> in 2007. Since then, the project has been handed down to the next cohort of students. Valdez began working on the project in 2018 and Marabella joined the project in 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe never want to stop people from harvesting. It is a tradition with family and it is cultural to Hawai\u02bbi,<\/span>\u201d said Valdez. \u201cOur goal is to build back up the \u02bbopihi<\/span> population so that it is sustainable for everyone to harvest.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Valdez collecting \u02bbopihi<\/span>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To help build up the population loss, two graduate students in CTAHR<\/abbr> are attempting to spawn and rear ʻopihi<\/span> to adulthood in their lab on campus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[212,665,1466,1363,1314,73,9,302],"class_list":["post-168950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-college-of-tropical-agriculture-and-human-resilience","tag-conservation","tag-manoa-enhancing-student-success","tag-manoa-research","tag-manoa-sustainability","tag-sustainability","tag-uh-manoa","tag-waikiki-aquarium","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168950"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":169000,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168950\/revisions\/169000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}