Topic overview
The Pacific Islands Coastal 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 investigated how contaminants move through coastal ecosystems and affect marine health.
Dr. Nalley conducted studies of contaminants in reef ecosystems in Hawaiʻi and the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). Contamination was not restricted to fish; corals and algae suffered from sedimentation and polluted wastewater as well. Although it is well understood that chronic exposure to elevated nutrient conditions impacts the short-term interactions of reef organisms and the long-term performance of coral holobionts, not many studies quantified these links with regard to coastal water quality standards. Dr. Nalley’s work with two large meta-analysis studies revealed crucial data gaps and quantified toxicant and nutrient stressor thresholds of corals to provide conservative guidelines for coastal management strategies.
Through this species-focused work, it became clear that a broader understanding of trophic transfer across ecosystems was necessary to inform more preventative measures. Dr. Nalley’s team began a project in Hawaiʻi using the Puʻuloa (Pearl Harbor) watershed as a model to track contaminants in fish, invertebrates, and sediment from up the Waikele, Kapakahi, and Honolulu streams down into the West Loch. This research primed her for aiding the contaminant disaster response to come next.
Red Hill’s water crisis demonstrated other dimensions of contaminant transfer.
In 2021, 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. UHM assembled a response team including Dr. Nalley to assist state and military remediation efforts and support affected communities. This crisis reaffirmed that many contamination risks aren’t hidden–investigations showed concerning signs months and years prior to this leak event, yet the military and state were still so unprepared when it happened. There needed to be a thorough study of potential contaminant risks from urban, agriculture, and militarization history across Hawaiʻi and the Pacific Islands.
Soon after, Dr. Nalley acquired funding in NASA’s environmental justice project cohort to classify the historic land use transitions and contamination reports in the Puʻuloa area. Her team developed a risk assessment for an array of potential contaminant risks linked to specific locations, creating a more accessible response plan for nonexpert community members. The interdisciplinary PICH team found its start with this project, with new members who brought expertise in geography and GIS, urban planning, and public health perspectives.
A big goal for PICH’s contaminant projects over the next few years was finding what other lurking threats existed on a regional scale–‘what could be the next Red Hill?’ The team compiled a systematic review of historical reports of military contamination events and testing protocol across the U.S. Affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPI). The report revealed critical gaps in contaminant testing for particular islands or types of contaminants, sometimes for decades at a time. PICH has continued to provide support in direct collaboration with communities or agencies asking after local contaminant concerns.
But human contaminants aren’t the only thing impacting coastal health; ciguatera poisoning is an underestimated threat.
PICH’s work to better understand ciguatera poisoning (CP) in the Pacific began with an impactful conversation with a local fisher on Kauaʻi’s north shore expressing his worries about its effect on his family’s health. Despite it being considered a “non-fatal” type of food poisoning, fear of CP has verifiably disrupted cultural and lifestyle practices of subsistence fishing and well-established food-sharing economies across the Pacific. This broadens the threat of CP from being just a health issue (which has also exposed gaps in government trust for registering reports and in medical support for treating it) to being a damaging social justice issue as well.
CP is caused by consuming reef fish contaminated with ciguatoxins, mainly produced by epiphytic dinoflagellates such as Gambierdiscus, but the exact knowledge of species affected and where those toxins concentrate within the fish were largely unknown in the Pacific. To complicate matters, CP is often misdiagnosed or has unreliable modes of testing, which has significant implications for remote coastal communities that rely on a marine diet as a primary form of sustenance.
As Dr. Nalley dug into the issue and talked to other fishers and researchers, the more she realized everybody was curious, everybody was worried, and everybody wanted to know more and be involved. The Pacific Ciguatera Network (PCN) was created in collaboration with PacIOOS and NOAA to characterize the impacts and prevalence, improve detection methods, foster collaborations among regional stakeholders, and strengthen local capacities for standardized research and response. Training workshops and agency-fellowship partnerships have been helpful thus far to establish localized interest in ciguatera monitoring, but more work is underway to secure successful long-term practices to serve and protect the health of coastal communities.
The Pacific Ciguatera Network provided a regional hub to share concerns, research, and solutions to problems beyond ciguatera as well.
We joined regional collaborations to address marine debris issues.
Ciguatera isn’t the only environmental health issue impacting USAPI fishing communities. Marine debris affects reef health on micro and macro scales ranging from marine organisms consuming microplastics to coral reefs being tangled up and shaded out by derelict fishing gear settling atop them. Much marine debris is not even locally generated, but accumulates in these islands via tropical gyre currents.
Since efforts to mitigate this problem have been limited historically, PICH and other researchers aim to connect communities seeking change with nonprofit organizations, government agencies, and academic institutions to develop a regional Marine Debris Community Action Coalition. Organizations like the Center for Marine Debris Research and Papahānaumokuākea Marine Debris Project have been vital collaborators. The PICH team has compiled reports of marine debris issues, challenges, policies, solutions, and opportunities for collaboration from across USAPI to share at a regional meeting for addressing marine debris concerns on a wider scale. Future work also includes exploring other ways to support organizations, like with funding opportunities and policy development.
Along the way, our work continues to emphasize the importance of water quality monitoring.
In each project done to investigate coastal ecosystem health, water quality monitoring has been essential for assessing ecosystem health and resilience. Dr. Nalley’s work has prioritized water quality through the lens of nutrient and pollutant transport from land to sea, with primary concerns of sedimentation on coastal, estuarine, and marine ecosystems. Her team’s water monitoring work supports localized communities, such as during the Puʻuloa Environmental Justice Mapping project and the contaminant assessments (with plans for additional PCP-tracking) after the 2023 wildfires in Lāhainā, Maui. These projects helped in developing strategies to restore and protect water resources, ensure the sustainability of marine life, and safeguard human health in coastal communities. Ultimately, spikes of poor coastal water quality are more easily restored by natural ocean current cycling, but sustained human inputs from sewage and agriculture are of much greater concern and require more social and political efforts to reduce.
Moving forward, we will strive to instigate broader change to support the health of our ecosystem and communities.
Starting in 2026, PICH hosted a new Sustainable Fisheries Graduate Program at UHM in collaboration with NOAA and the Hawaiʻi Department of Aquatic Resources (DAR) for students to be trained for and assist state and federal fishery management programs. The reef fish life history data collected directly support management decisions and generate opportunities to connect with local fishing communities and broaden perspectives in the industry.
Additional work to affect broader change includes sketching out policy propositions on the state-level to address environmental health and social justice problems more comprehensively instead of continuing work solely with isolated studies.
From PICH’s beginning of figuring out what fish eat to now figuring out 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 Health
Center for Pacific Islands Coastal 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.