Ka Moana:  The Sea 

The vast Pacific Ocean surrounds the Hawaiian Island chain, bathing and lashing the islands with its great circular currents and offshoot eddies.  In the North Pacific, Hawai‘i sits in the midst of a colossal clockwise current gyre that circles up and around from Japan and down from the Arctic bearing cool waters from the Bering Sea.  For swimmers, this means cooler waters than other tropical islands.  For coral, this makes life more challenging.

Despite the challenge of cooler than normal tropical seas, however, the Hawaiian waters team with life, with corals and mollusks, reef fish and pelagic fish.  Many of these are unique to the islands.  In fact, the numbers of endemic ocean species in Hawai‘i (25% -30%) are greater than any other Pacific island group.  The high rate of endemism is due to the extreme isolation of the Hawaiian archipelago, cutting many sea creatures off from others of their species and allowing them to evolve separately.

Part of the miracle of Hawai‘i’s waters is that there are any reef fish, coral and mollusks at all.  To travel such enormous distances across the Pacific was a remarkable feat.  The majority of those that achieved this feat came from the Indonesia-Asia area, drifting in the currents and eddies in larvae form.  Islands and atolls along the way served as “stepping stones” in the long journey.  As there are no “stepping stone” islands between the Americas and Hawai‘i there were much fewer arrivals from this direction.  In all, there are over 1,100 endemic and indigenous fish species in Hawai‘i, 51 corals, 782 mollusks and 497 seaweeds.

Hawaii is home to Humpback Whales every winter, who come here from Alaska to the warmer tropical waters to spawn.  For more information about these beautiful creatures and about Hawaii's oceans, visit the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary at http://hawaiihumpbackwhale.noaa.gov/Welcome.html. 

You can support them in many ways.  To learn more, visit this link: http://hawaiihumpbackwhale.noaa.gov/support_us.html

They have 2007 Ocean Count T-shirts still available.  Also available are Sanctuary Program Pocket Calendars and Hawaii Sanctuary logo license plates.  Or you can always become a member! 

For their Safe Boating Campaign, visit http://hawaiihumpbackwhale.noaa.gov/safe_boating.html

In a place like Hawaii, where everyone wants to get into the water, knowing how to handle yourself and your craft in the ocean is extremely important.  Just as driving a car safely protects you, other drivers and pedestrians, handling a boat safely helps protect swimmers, divers and marine life.  Here in Hawaii the reef, whales, turtles, dolphins and even our endangered Hawaiian Monk Seals need to be looked out for.  If you plan to man a boat, please visit and support this campaign!

Their "Oceans For Life" video and curriculum is available for interested teachers.  Visit http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/education/ for more information.  They also offer periodic classes for teachers, where teachers can participate in ocean activities so they can better teach them to students.  To keep updated on these events, join their mailing list.