0
2006
A three-week scientific expedition to French Frigate Shoals in the
Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument returned to
Honolulu on Sunday with the discovery of many new species and a better
understanding of marine biodiversity in the Hawaiian Archipelago.
An all-star team of world-renowned taxonomists (biologists
specializing in identifying and naming organisms) and an experienced
support crew collected and photographed many species that they cannot
identify and are thought to be new species to science. The expedition
found several potentially new species of crabs, corals, sea cucumbers,
sea quirts, worms, sea stars, snails, and clams. Many other species
were found that are known from other areas but have never been
recorded from French Frigate Shoals, the Northwestern Hawaiian
Islands, or even the Hawaiian Archipelago. From this expedition, well
over a hundred new species records will likely be identified for
French Frigate Shoals.
Scientists aboard the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration Ship Oscar Elton Sette conducted biodiversity
surveys at French Frigate Shoals, with a focus on the small marine
organisms - crabs, worms, and many other invertebrates, algae, and
even microbes - which are often overlooked but that make up the
majority of living diversity on coral reefs. "It was a very successful
expedition by almost any criterion, and the discovery phase has really
only just begun. In the coming months, and even over the next several
years, we will be conducting morphological examinations and analyzing
genetic sequence data in order to further identify and classify these
organisms, and possibly to shed some light on where these species
originated," said Dr. Joel W. Martin of the Natural History Museum of
Los Angeles County. "What we did not find is also important. There
were several groups of animals that we expected to find but did not
find, or found only rarely, such as porcellanid crabs. The apparent
absence of these common reef organisms may provide insight into how
the unique flora and fauna of French Frigate Shoals came to be."
Over 50 different sites were surveyed throughout the atoll using a
variety of ingenious collection methods including baited traps,
brushing of rubble, underwater vacuuming with gentle suction, plankton
tows, light traps, sediment and water sampling and many others. These
methods were meticulously developed with consultation between
scientists, management agencies, and the public over the course of a
year, to minimize impact to the environment. "Because our work was
conducted within the borders of the world's largest fully protected
marine area, we have been extremely careful to follow protocols that
would minimize any disturbance to this ecologically delicate region.
It's hoped that our work will heighten public appreciation and
awareness of this unique area and lead to a better understanding of
how we manage such large and sensitive marine areas," said Dr. Martin.
In all, more than 200 sampling events were conducted, producing more
than 2,500 recorded collections.
The expedition was part of the international Census of Marine
Life’s Census of Coral Reef Ecosystems or CReefs and was led by NOAA’s
Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, with funding from NOAA’s
Coral Reef Conservation Program and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
This expedition is the first in a series of proposed CReefs surveys
led jointly by Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego,
Australian Institute of Marine Science, and NOAA Pacific Islands
Fisheries Science Center’s Coral Reef Ecosystem Division to take place
around the globe. The broader Census of Marine Life consists of 17
projects intended to assess the diversity, distribution, and abundance
of ocean life and explain how it changes over time. Fourteen of these
projects focus on different ocean realms, of which the CReefs project
focuses on providing baseline information that is currently lacking
for coral reef ecosystems around the world.
Chief Scientist Dr. Russell Brainard of NOAA Fisheries Coral Reef
Ecosystem Division was very pleased with the results from this Census
of Coral Reefs expedition in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. "I
hope the positive results from this CReefs expedition will demonstrate
the usefulness of these types of intensive biodiversity surveys for
understanding and conserving the coral reef ecosystems of Hawaii and
elsewhere around the globe. A comprehensive understanding of the
biodiversity of our marine areas is necessary so that we can be better
stewards of our ocean resources through ecosystem approaches to
management."
Expedition members not only collected the organisms, but they took
hundreds of stunning images that show these organisms in all their
spectacular complexity and beauty using an impressive arsenal of
photographic equipment. Many of these images can be seen on the
expedition websites. In addition to the photographs taken by the
scientists, Susan Middleton, who recently co-produced a photographic
book for National Geographic on the plants and animals of the
Northwestern Hawaiian Islands called "Archipelago: Portraits of Life
in the World’s Most Remote Island Sanctuary," was onboard and glued to
her camera the majority of the time.
"It is not until you start looking through the macro lens at these
organisms, and give them time to get settled, that you start to see
the vibrant colors, the fine hairs covering a crab’s shell, the flecks
of color in the translucent tentacles of an anemone, the incredible
evolutionary adaptations for survival," she said. "It is then that I
realize how infinitely complex life is on a coral reef, and how
grateful I am to these scientists for helping me to see organisms that
have spent millions of years evolving colors, shapes, and behaviors in
order not to be seen."
Dr. Gustav Paulay, Curator of Invertebrates for the Florida Museum
of Natural History and an expert on tropical Pacific coral reef
invertebrates, said "the information gained from this expedition will
help us to understand the evolution of life in the Northwestern
Hawaiian Islands, and provide a biogeographic baseline to study the
pathways by which marine organisms have spread throughout the
archipelago."
Dr. Jim Maragos, a coral expert with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service’s Pacific Remote Islands National Wildlife Refuge Complex who
has worked in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands for over 6 years and
participated in many research expeditions to the area, as well as
spent a long career spanning the tropical Pacific, was astounded when
another expedition member, John Starmer, showed him a species he has
never seen. "There was this tiny coral colony that John showed to me
off the eastern side of the atoll that I have no idea what it is," he
said. "I cannot even place the genus or family it belongs to. It is a
complete unknown." During the cruise Dr. Maragos has discovered as
many as 11 new species of coral and 18 new records at French Frigate
Shoals, but this one is unique in that he cannot even place it in a
category, nor could Dr. Paulay, also a recognized coral expert. Dr.
Maragos reported the second sighting of an improbable new species of
Acropora coral discovered last month further up the chain at
Lisianski.
Managers from the three co-trustee agencies responsible for
management of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National
Monument were also enthusiastic about the results from the expedition,
and their application to management of the area. Dr. Dan Polhemus of
the State of Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division
of Aquatic Resources, himself an invertebrate expert, applauded the
scientists’ efforts, many of whom donated their time to participate in
the expedition. Although it will take a year or more before all the
data are processed, and species are fully identified or newly
described, according to Dr. Polhemus, the State looks forward with
great anticipation to the results from this expedition and the benefit
this understanding will give to management of the natural marine
resources.
The scientists who participated are a diverse group of experts from
highly regarded institutions around the world such as Hawaii’s Bishop
Museum; the Florida Museum of Natural History; the Natural History
Museum of Los Angeles County; Universities of Puerto Rico and Hawaii;
Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology; Universidade Federal do Ceara
Brazil; as well as the CoML’s International Census of Marine Microbes,
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, and NOAA.
Additional funding was provided for Dr. Martin’s participation through
a grant from the "Tree of Life" program of the National Science
Foundation. Many other agencies and organizations contributed funding
and staff time as well as several individuals who volunteered their
time and expertise.
Information from this effort is posted on the CReefs website at
www.creefs.org, and articles and
other information about the cruise can also be viewed at
www.hawaiianatolls.org.
Records from the cruise will be placed in the Pacific regional NBII
Pacific Basin Information Node and international Ocean Biogeographic
Information System databases.
More than 1,700 scientists from 73 countries are at work on the
Census, designed to assess the diversity, distribution and abundance
of ocean life and explain how it changes over time. The scientists,
their institutions and government agencies are pooling their findings
to create a comprehensive and authoritative portrait of life in the
oceans today, yesterday and tomorrow.
Support for the Census of Marine Life comes from government
agencies concerned with science, environment, and fisheries in a
growing list of nations as well as from private foundations and
companies. The Census is associated or affiliated with several
intergovernmental international organizations including the
Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of the UN, the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the UN, the UN Environment Programme and
its World Conservation Monitoring Centre, the Global Biodiversity
Information Facility, the International Council for the Exploration of
the Seas, and the North Pacific Marine Science Organization. It is
also affiliated with international nongovernmental organizations
including the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research and the
International Association of Biological Oceanography of the
International Council for Science. The Census is led by an
independently constituted international Scientific Steering Committee,
whose members serve in their individual capacities, and a growing set
of national and regional implementation committees.
