CENTER FOR PACIFIC ISLANDS COASTAL AND COMMUNITY HEALTH
Overview
The Pacific Islands Coastal and Community Health Center is a hub for interdisciplinary collaboration. Our team represents diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise, all addressing questions concerning the health of our ocean ecosystems and coastal communities.
Our work spans many interrelated sectors of coastal health, ranging from reef fish biology to contaminants in coastal ecosystems to seafood poisoning. This work is enriched by the variety of perspectives and skill sets our team brings, pushing us to think about hard questions and creative solutions for the benefit of the communities we serve.
How did this Center come to be?
It began with researching what reef fish prefer to eat…
Some of our early work examined dietary specialization in herbivorous reef fishes that are commonly found in Hawaiʻi. Molecular meta-barcoding techniques and meta-analyses of existing literature helped characterize the diets of these important fishes, elucidate specialization and resulting vulnerability, and highlight taxa that were consuming invasive algae. This work further explored the ways in which ecological, biophysical, and anthropogenic drivers shape herbivore assemblages in the Pacific Islands. While completing this work, we found ourselves returning to a question:
Were fish accumulating contaminants from the environment, and if so, what were the resulting risks to downstream organisms and human health?
It quickly became apparent that this was a question of great interest to communities across the Pacific, so we set out to better understand the issue.
We started to think about how contaminants move through coastal ecosystems and impact human health.
We conducted a series of studies looking at contaminant transfer in reef ecosystems in Hawaiʻi and the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), with a particular focus on the potential impacts to human health through fish consumption. While we directly measured contaminants in reef fish and sediment, we also set out to think about the questions on a bigger scale by synthesizing data to understand the thresholds for different water quality related stressors beyond which physiological impacts on corals could be expected. This work was done in support of NOAA’s efforts to manage Essential Fish Habitat and focused primarily on nutrients and contaminants, such as metals, pesticides, and legacy pollutants. This work clearly identified numerous knowledge gaps in Hawaiʻi and the broader Pacific region, but it also became apparent that there are certain contaminants that are well studied and strongly associated with certain types of historic and current land use. We sought to integrate knowledge of historic land use with associated contaminants and potential human health vulnerabilities using Puʻuloa (Pearl Harbor) as a model.
Building on this localized study, we also set out to address some of the existing data gaps for our island, state, and region. For example, contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) also emerged as a large gap in our current knowledge, so we have been working to generate a Needs Assessment for Monitoring CECs in Hawaiʻi. After the Red Hill Underground Fuel Storage Facility on Oʻahu leaked fuel into the island’s primary drinking water aquifer, causing a public health crisis and environmental disaster, we also began thinking about anticipating risk and preparing for it in advance of disaster. Together with colleagues in Public Health we conducted a systematic review of reported military contamination events with negative human health implications in the Pacific Islands and met with management partners to understand their capacity to mitigate potential future risks. This study revealed critical gaps in the monitoring of contaminants on a regional scale.
As we began to better understand contaminants, we also grew increasingly curious about other types of toxins, like those that cause ciguatera poisoning.
This work began as most of our work does – through conversations with fishers and resource managers. Ciguatera poisoning (CP) can impact the social, cultural, economic, and nutritional practices of an individual or even an entire community, yet it remains incredibly understudied in the Pacific region. CP is caused by consuming reef fish that have accumulated ciguatoxins, mainly produced by epiphytic dinoflagellates such as Gambierdiscus, but CP is often misdiagnosed or has unreliable modes of testing, which has significant implications for geographically isolated coastal communities that rely on marine resources as a primary form of sustenance. The Pacific Ciguatera Network (PCN) was created in collaboration with PacIOOS and NOAA to improve communication and collaboration to support ciguatera research and monitoring throughout the Pacific.
We also saw that coral reef ecosystems were impacted by marine debris, which ties directly back to fisheries in many places.
Marine debris affects reef health on micro and macro scales ranging from marine organisms consuming microplastics to coral reefs suffering structural damage from derelict fishing gear. Much of this marine debris is not locally generated, but accumulates as a result of oceanic gyres. To address some of these impacts we have been working with Hawaiʻi based organizations like the Papahānaumokuākea Marine Debris Project and the Center for Marine Debris Research at HPU, while also building collaborations with regional partners. Through this effort we have synthesized the primary issues, challenges, solutions, and opportunities for partners throughout the region related to marine debris, with feedback from managers incorporated into the report as well.
Moving forward, we are excited to continue this work while also increasing our focus on capacity building.
To meet this goal we developed a new collaborative undergraduate research program with the Hawaiʻi Division of Aquatic Resources (DAR) and NOAA to engage students in research and support their transition into future careers in fisheries. We also worked with PacIOOS to develop a new post-baccalaureate Pacific Islands Coastal and Community Health Fellowship that places recent graduates with agencies or organizations in their own communities to build their skills, refine their research questions, and build their network while receiving professional development training. Finally, our team was integrally involved in the development and implementation of the new Sustainable Fisheries Graduate Program at UH Mānoa.
From PICCH’s beginning of figuring out what fish eat to now exploring how to make eating fish safer, everything we do ties back to strengthening the health of our ocean ecosystems and coastal communities.
Learn more about the Center for Pacific Islands Coastal and Community Health
Center for Pacific Islands Coastal and Community Health
2525 Correa Road, HIG 214
Honolulu, HI 96822
Phone: (808) 956-7031
Director
Eileen Nalley, Ph.D.
enalley@hawaii.edu
(808) 956-3349
Each pattern represents a Center of Excellence. Learn more about the cultural connections and meanings behind them.