It seems that in recent years, most of the news coming out of Hawaii has been fairly bad. More often than not, we find ourselves discussing how the aquarium trade gets unfairly targeted by misguided activists, but this time around the news is different. According to Hawaii News Now, a research team from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) Division of Aquatic Resources has, for the first time ever, discovered colonies of Acropora gemmifera in West Hawaii.
In addition, it is said that this is the first record of any Acropora species occurring around the island of Hawaii, not to be confused with other areas like the Northwest Hawaiian islands where Acroporids have been discovered. According to the article, there have been no reports of any Acropora species occurring around the Island of Hawaii from more than 4,500 coral reef monitoring and research dives from the past 15 years.
The corals were initially identified based on aesthetic features, though the ID was later confirmed with genetic testing by the Richmond Lab at the Kewalo Marine Laboratory, Pacific Biomedical Research Center in Honolulu.
So what is the significance of this discovery? Well, for starters it still shows that there is so much more to discover around Hawaii and just proves that a lot of the expectations from the scientific community and any activists may not be all that accurate. The discovery also reinforces the fact that the ecosystem is full of delicate creatures that anthropomorphic activities can easily impact.
Via Kevin Rezendes
