News
Monument Field Research: Summer 2021 Team
Cruise 1
Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument Staff:
Brian Hauk
Brian Hauk is the Resource Protection Specialist for Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (PMNM) and is employed by the Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research (JIMAR). He is acting as Chief Scientist for Cruise 1 in addition to being a backup coxswain and scientific diver. Hauk’s duties at PMNM focus on minimizing threats to PMNM resources caused by marine alien species, marine debris, vessel groundings and/or incident response activities in the monument. Hauk has participated in numerous ecological research expeditions serving as an operations lead, fish or benthic survey diver, and as a topside supervisor and/or diver during PMNM’s closed circuit mixed gas technical rebreather operations. His favorite activities include spending time with his wife, two children and dog while they explore the world in search of action and adventure.
Jason Leonard
Jason Leonard is the NOAA Marine Operations Coordinator for Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. For these cruises his work focuses on supporting research and resources protection projects done in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. His passion is conducting diving operations to survey the deep reef areas of the Monument using closed circuit rebreathers and mixed gases. He enjoys spending time with his wife and two boys and watching pirate movies.
Luke Evancoe
Luke Evancoe is a NOAA Corps Officer and the Vessel Operations Coordinator for PMNM; he will be operating as a coxswain and back up NOAA diver on the cruises. His prior assignment was on NOAA Ship Pisces in Pascagoula, MS as an Officer of the Deck while underway. He is supporting the mission of the scientific party and visiting the NW Hawaiian Islands for the first time.
Keolohilani H. Lopes Jr.
Keo Lopes is the JIMAR/Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument Field Logistics Coordinator with many interests and hobbies. These include cinematography, photography, documentary filmmaking, drone flying, science, more science, SCUBA diving, technical CCR diving, nitrogen narcosis, and even more science. Keo will be shooting video, flying drones, driving boats, SCUBA diving, and collecting image/video data for a wide range of scientific inquiries. He will also be the lead scientist in bringing a “Positive Mental Attitude” (PMA All Day).
Scientists:
Arik Dadez
Arik Dadez was born and raised on Maui. He works in the water quality lab at UH Maui College. His passion is to fish and scuba dive.
James Fumo
James Fumo is a PhD student studying the biogeography and taxonomy of marine algae in the Hawaiian Islands with Dr. Alison Sherwood at UH Mānoa. He is especially interested in the processes driving the evolution of algal species diversity across the Pacific. In Papahānaumokuākea he will be conducting eDNA surveys for future studies by Dr. Peter Marko and Patrick Nichols and SCUBA diving on the reefs of Manawai (Pearl and Hermes Atoll) to assess the impact of the nuisance alga Chondria tumulosa. In his free time he enjoys diving, surfing, hiking, playing music, and a good cup of coffee.
Heather Spalding
Heather Spalding is an Assistant Professor, College of Charleston, with a BS from Southampton College, Long Island University, MS from Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, San Francisco State University, and PhD from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where she has also done postdoctoral studies.
Macroalgae, or limu, are an integral component of coastal marine ecosystems from arctic to tropical environments. The ability of macroalgae to occur from the exposed shores of the intertidal to the dimly-lit reaches of the mesophotic across a range of environmental conditions makes this organismal group a fascinating subject for research across wide gradients of light, temperature, nutrients, and herbivory. The theme of her research has focused on the ecological and physiological interactions generating and maintaining the distribution, abundance, and biodiversity of macroalgae and corals. Within the monument, Spalding will be studying the ecology of the newly discovered, cryptogenic alga Chondria tumulosa and its interactions with native limu and corals. le they explore the world in search of action and adventure.
Taylor Williams
Taylor Williams was born and raised along the Central Coast of California before moving to Oahu and earning her B.S. in Marine Biology at the University of Hawaii, Manoa. She is currently a masters student in Dr. Heather Spalding’s lab at the College of Charleston where she is studying the population connectivity of Chondria tumulosa, a cryptogenic red alga found at Manawai. After she completes her masters program she plans to pursue a PhD in hopes of continuing her career in science.
Cruise 2
Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument Staff:
Jason Leonard
Jason Leonard is the NOAA Marine Operations Coordinator for Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. For these cruises his work focuses on supporting research and resources protection projects done in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. His passion is conducting diving operations to survey the deep reef areas of the Monument using closed circuit rebreathers and mixed gases. He enjoys spending time with his wife and two boys and watching pirate movies.
Atsuko Fukunaga
Atsuko Fukunaga is JIMAR ecological research statistician for Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. She will conduct coral health surveys during the cruises.
Keolohilani H. Lopes Jr.
Keo Lopes is the JIMAR/Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument Field Logistics Coordinator with many interests and hobbies. These include cinematography, photography, documentary filmmaking, drone flying, science, more science, SCUBA diving, technical CCR diving, nitrogen narcosis, and even more science. Keo will be shooting video, flying drones, driving boats, SCUBA diving, and collecting image/video data for a wide range of scientific inquiries. He will also be the lead scientist in bringing a “Positive Mental Attitude” (PMA All Day).
Luke Evancoe
Luke Evancoe is a NOAA Corps Officer and the Vessel Operations Coordinator for PMNM; he will be operating as a coxswain and back up NOAA diver on the cruises. His prior assignment was on NOAA Ship Pisces in Pascagoula, MS as an Officer of the Deck while underway. He is supporting the mission of the scientific party and visiting the NW Hawaiian Islands for the first time.
Scientists:
Taylor Williams
Taylor Williams was born and raised along the Central Coast of California before moving to Oahu and earning her B.S. in Marine Biology at the University of Hawaiʻi, Mānoa. She is currently a masters student in Dr. Heather Spalding’s lab at the College of Charleston where she is studying the population connectivity of Chondria tumulosa, a cryptogenic red alga found at Manawai. After she completes her masters program she plans to pursue a PhD in hopes of continuing her career in science.
Kimberly Jeffries
Kimberly is an underwater photographer/cinematographer, rebreather and freediving instructor, and scientific diver, attending the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Previous and ongoing work includes several productions for National Geographic, Netflix and Exposure Labs (Chasing Coral). She will be assisting Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument and the MEGA lab with documenting research in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands to help tell the story of how scientists are working to protect species and the vital research that is happening.
Kailey Pascoe
Kailey is research technician for the Multi-scale Environmental Graphical Analysis (MEGA) Lab at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo. She has been working with Papahānaumokuākea since 2015. Kailey has dedicated much of her time conducting benthic surveys with a primary focus on assessing coral health and 3D modeling. She will be joining this cruise as a benthic coral diver, during which she will be surveying coral conditions and 3D habitat complexity. The benthic team will be surveying long-term monitoring sites to determine how coral health is changing over time. In addition, the benthic team will be documenting the recovery of coral at Lalo after Hurricane Walaka.
Ashley Pugh
Ashley is an alumni of the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo Marine Sciences Undergraduate and Tropical Conservation Biology and Environmental Science Masters programs. She has intermittently supported the benthic research of the MEGA Lab for several years and will be joining this research expeditions as a benthic survey diver to collect data for looking at 3D habitat complexity and coral health. The survey team will visit fixed long-term monitoring sites to look at change over time. Aside from intermittent involvement with the MEGA lab, Ashley is the West Hawaiʻi Fish & Habitat Monitoring Planner on contract for the State of Hawaii's Division of Aquatic Resources.
Follow the expedition on Facebook!