{"id":180293,"date":"2023-07-18T08:00:14","date_gmt":"2023-07-18T18:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=180293"},"modified":"2023-07-17T10:42:38","modified_gmt":"2023-07-17T20:42:38","slug":"fish-pono-save-our-reefs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2023\/07\/18\/fish-pono-save-our-reefs\/","title":{"rendered":"New campaign highlights herbivore fishes key to healthy coral reefs"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap-post\"><figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-block-embed-youtube is-type-video is-provider-youtube epyt-figure\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe  id=\"_ytid_70034\"  width=\"676\" height=\"380\"  data-origwidth=\"676\" data-origheight=\"380\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sXijZ6MoHxk?enablejsapi=1&origin=https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu&rel=0&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&disablekb=0&\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  no-lazyload\" title=\"Fish Pono - Save Our Reefs PSA\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n<p>A local <span aria-label=\"ohana\">&#699;ohana<\/span> of like-minded ocean lovers, scientists, water enthusiasts and fishers launched <a href=\"https:\/\/fishpono.org\/\"><em>Fish Pono&#8212;Save Our Reefs<\/em><\/a>, a public education campaign with the vision of bringing awareness to the importance of replenishing herbivore fish populations to foster healthy coral reefs.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_180294\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-180294\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/manoa-life-sciences-parrotfish-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"fish eating algae\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-180294\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/manoa-life-sciences-parrotfish-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/manoa-life-sciences-parrotfish-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/manoa-life-sciences-parrotfish.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-180294\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A male Bullethead Parrotfish (<em>Chlorurus spilurus<\/em>), or uhu in Hawaiian, cleans algae from dead coral, making space for new coral. (Photo credit: Jeff Kuwabara)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Five University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa faculty, staff and alumni are supporting this effort. <em>Fish Pono<\/em> scientific advisors include Alan Friedlander and Kawika Winter of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.himb.hawaii.edu\/\"><span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Institute of Marine Biology<\/a>, Mark Hixon of the <a href=\"https:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/lifesciences\/\">School of Life Sciences<\/a>, as well as alumnus Randy Kosaki of the <abbr>NOAA<\/abbr> Papah\u0101naumoku\u0101kea Marine National Monument. Photography on the Fish Pono website was provided by <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> alumnus Jeff Kuwabara, who directs the <a href=\"https:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/mop\/\"><abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa Marine Option Program<\/a>, and waterman Keoki Stender.<\/p>\n<p>When herbivores&#8212;our reef\u2019s lawnmowers&#8212;such as uhu (parrotfishes), nenue (chubs), kala, kole, manini, other surgeonfishes and sea urchins are in low abundance, coral reefs are overgrown with seaweeds and begin to suffocate and die. These ever-important lawnmowers, especially the uhu, must be abundant and thriving for seaweeds to remain in check, our corals to survive and flourish, and our beaches to get their essential, desperately needed sand (uhu poop sand).<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;As our islands experience serious effects of poor water quality and climate change, including severe coral bleaching, a simple effort of giving uhu and other herbivore fishes a break, taking only what you need to feed your immediate family for that day, will save our coral reefs,&rdquo; Kosaki said. &ldquo;Scientists have found that uhu and important surgeonfishes are particularly overfished, and highly populated islands like <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span> are at less than 5&#37; of their original herbivore fish abundance.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>Raising awareness<\/h2>\n<p>Ongoing <em>Fish Pono<\/em> television and radio <abbr>PSA<\/abbr>s feature well-known ocean enthusiasts, including navigator Nainoa Thompson of the Polynesian Voyaging Society, champion spearfisher Kimi Werner, waterman and ocean safety expert Brian Keaulana, and bodysurfing champion Mark Cunningham. The <abbr>PSA<\/abbr>s were filmed around <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O&#699;ahu<\/span> and offer testimony of the importance of saving our coral reefs by saving our uhu and friends. The television and radio <abbr>PSA<\/abbr>s can be found on the <a href=\"https:\/\/fishpono.org\/\"><em>Fish Pono<\/em> website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Herbivores allow corals to replenish and grow, and thus save our coastlines and coastal fishing for future generations,&rdquo; Winter said.<\/p>\n<p>Hixon added, &ldquo;Coral reefs are extremely valuable to <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>, providing subsistence and recreational fishing, coastal protection, surfable waves, tourism, medicines and spiritual connection.&rdquo;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When herbivores are in low abundance, coral reefs are overgrown with seaweeds and begin to suffocate and die.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[308,665,109,53,1085,1363,1314,175,568,1473,92,73,9,56],"class_list":["post-180293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-college-of-natural-sciences","tag-conservation","tag-coral-reefs","tag-hawaii-institute-of-marine-biology","tag-life-science","tag-manoa-research","tag-manoa-sustainability","tag-marine-biology","tag-natural-science","tag-school-of-life-sciences","tag-school-of-ocean-and-earth-science-and-technology","tag-sustainability","tag-uh-manoa","tag-video-2","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180293","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=180293"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":180342,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180293\/revisions\/180342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}