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Life for many of the world’s marine fish begins at the ocean surface. Ocean conditions dictate food availability and govern survivorship, yet little is known about the habitat preferences of larval fish during this highly vulnerable life-history stage. Here we show that surface slicks, a ubiquitous coastal ocean convergence feature, are important nurseries for larval fish from many ocean habitats at ecosystem scales. Slicks had higher densities of marine phytoplankton (1.7-fold), zooplankton (larval fish prey; 3.7-fold), and larval fish (8.1-fold) than nearby ambient waters across our study region in Hawai’i. Slicks contained larger, more well-developed individuals with competent swimming abilities compared to ambient waters, suggesting a physiological benefit to increased prey resources. Slicks also disproportionately accumulated prey-size plastics, resulting in a 60-fold higher ratio of plastics to larval fish prey than nearby waters. Dissections of hundreds of larval fish found that 8.6% of individuals in slicks had ingested plastics, a 2.3-fold higher occurrence than larval fish from ambient waters. Plastics were found in 7 of 8 families dissected, including swordfish (Xiphiidae), a commercially targeted species, and flying fish (Exocoetidae), a principal prey item for tuna and seabirds. Scaling up across an ∼1,000 km² coastal ecosystem in Hawai’i revealed slicks occupied only 8.3% of ocean surface habitat but contained 42.3% of all neustonic larval fish and 91.8% of all floating plastics. The ingestion of plastics by larval fish could reduce survivorship, compounding threats to fisheries productivity posed by overfishing, climate change, and habitat loss.

The coral reef fish community of Hawaii is composed of hundreds of species, supports a multimillion dollar fishing and tourism industry, and is of great cultural importance to the local population. However, a major stock assessment of Hawaiian coral reef fish populations has not yet been conducted. Here we used the robust indicator variable \"average length in the exploited phase of the population ([Formula: see text])\", estimated from size composition data from commercial fisheries trip reports and fishery-independent diver surveys, to evaluate exploitation rates for 19 Hawaiian reef fishes. By and large, the average lengths obtained from diver surveys agreed well with those from commercial data. We used the estimated exploitation rates coupled with life history parameters synthesized from the literature to parameterize a numerical population model and generate stock sustainability metrics such as spawning potential ratios (SPR). We found good agreement between predicted average lengths in an unfished population (from our population model) and those observed from diver surveys in the largely unexploited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Of 19 exploited reef fish species assessed in the main Hawaiian Islands, 9 had SPRs close to or below the 30% overfishing threshold. In general, longer-lived species such as surgeonfishes, the redlip parrotfish (Scarus rubroviolaceus), and the gray snapper (Aprion virescens) had the lowest SPRs, while short-lived species such as goatfishes and jacks, as well as two invasive species (Lutjanus kasmira and Cephalopholis argus), had SPRs above the 30% threshold.

Octopus cyanea is taken as an unregulated, recreationally fished species from the intertidal reefs of Ningaloo, Western Australia. Yet despite its exploitation and importance in many artisanal fisheries throughout the world, little is known about its life history, ecology and vulnerability. We used stylet increment analysis to age a wild O. cyanea population for the first time and gonad histology to examine their reproductive characteristics. O. cyanea conforms to many cephalopod life history generalisations having rapid, non-asymptotic growth, a short life-span and high levels of mortality. Males were found to mature at much younger ages and sizes than females with reproductive activity concentrated in the spring and summer months. The female dominated sex-ratios in association with female brooding behaviours also suggest that larger conspicuous females may be more prone to capture and suggests that this intertidal octopus population has the potential to be negatively impacted in an unregulated fishery. Size at age and maturity comparisons between our temperate bordering population and lower latitude Tanzanian and Hawaiian populations indicated stark differences in growth rates that correlate with water temperatures. The variability in life history traits between global populations suggests that management of O. cyanea populations should be tailored to each unique set of life history characteristics and that stylet increment analysis may provide the integrity needed to accurately assess this.

Bonefishes and other elopomorphs have a unique, transparent leptocephalus larval stage that is challenging to study due to its cryptic nature. Understanding life history is important especially considering adult bonefishes in Hawaiʻi are highly sought gamefish valued for their tenacious fight on rod-and-reel and delicate taste. In this study light traps were used to capture leptocephali at three nearshore locations around Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi. Across 130 + h of trapping, 59 larvae were captured, most during 2000–2100 h on rising tides. Lengths ranged from 54 to 66 mm, indicating late stage I larvae. Otolith analyses (N = 26) revealed ages from 28 to 72 days with an average age of about 48 days. Genetic species identification on a subset of the larvae showed that one of 28 total specimens was Albula virgata, which is endemic to Hawaiʻi, and the remaining were the Indo-Pacific A. glossodonta. Along with calm inshore waters, estuarine habitat appears to be a critical element for leptocephali recruitment success. Reducing impacts to these estuarine habitats and protecting and restoring freshwater input may have positive impacts on leptocephali recruitment, the essential starting point for thriving bonefish fisheries in Hawaiʻi.

Six primnoid species are reported from depths of 280–480 m from the southern Emperor Seamounts, including two new species (Callogorgia imperialis and Thouarella taylorae). Only the new species are fully described and illustrated. Also, Callogorgia elegans, which has a confused taxonomic history, is discussed and illustrated. Not unexpectedly, the Emperor Seamount primnoids have a strong affinity with the fauna of the Hawaiian Islands, an affinity that is expected to increase as more collecting is done in the region.

Larval settlement is shaped by the interaction of biological processes (e.g., life history strategies, behavior etc.) and the environment (e.g., temperature, currents etc.). This is particularly true for many reef fishes where larval stages disperse offshore, often spending weeks to months in the pelagic realm before settling to shallow-water reefs. Our ability to predict reef fish settlement and subsequent recruitment and population dynamics depends on our ability to characterize how biological processes interact with the dynamic physical environment. Here we develop and apply an individual-based model that combines biological processes with high-resolution physical forcing to predict larval fish dispersal and settlement over time and space. Our model tracks individual larval fish from spawning to settlement and allows for the inclusion of biologically relevant stochasticity (individual variability) in modeled processes. Our model is also trait-based, which allows individuals to vary in life history characteristics, making it possible to mechanistically link the resulting variability in settlement probabilities to underlying traits such as spawning date and location, pelagic larval duration (PLD), body morphology, etc. We employ our biophysical model to examine how biology interacts with the physical environment to shape settlement predictions for reef fish off western and southern Hawai‘i Island. Linked to prevailing surface currents, we find increased probabilities of settling associated with shorter PLDs and fish spawned in southern and southwestern locations. Superimposed on this, eddies, common to leeward Hawai‘i Island, offer a second pathway to successful settlement for individuals with longer PLDs, particularly for fish spawning in summer months. Finally, we illustrate how lunar-timed spawning as well as morphological features (e.g., fin and head spines) may impact settlement success by altering the mortality landscape experienced by larvae. This work identifies life history characteristics that predict the self-recruitment pathways necessary for population persistence for the relatively isolated Hawai‘i Island. Our results can be used to develop future hypotheses regarding temporal and spatial variation in recruitment for reef fishes on Hawai‘i Island and beyond.

Between 1935 and 1942, over one hundred thirty young, mostly Native Hawaiian men (later known as the Hui Panalā'au) \"colonized\" five small islands in the Equatorial Pacific as employees of the US Departments of Commerce and Interior. Students and alumni from the Kamehameha Schools served exclusively in the first year, and their experiences largely structured the ways that the project was represented at the time and would be remembered later in a 2002 Bishop Museum exhibit. In this essay, I examine the ways that the bodies and memories of the Kamehameha colonists became fertile grounds for re-membering masculinities, a type of gendered memory work that facilitates the formation of group subjectivities through the coordination of personal memories, historical narratives, and bodily experiences and representations. The colonists embodied a Hawaiian-American masculinity that allowed a wide range of interlocutors and audiences to make (sometimes divergent) claims to racialized citizenship and gendered belonging. Their experiences spoke to the predicament of Hawaiian men working in and against US colonialism, and thus they enabled a collective re-membering of Hawaiian masculinities that helped counter notions of Hawaiian men's laziness, marginality, and absence, both in the political economy of the territory and the present-day movements for self-determination and decolonization.

Growth rates were estimated for recaptured Hawaiian spiny lobsters Panulirus marginatus tagged between 2002 and 2007 at Necker Island (23°30′N; 164°35′W), Gardner Pinnacles (25°00′N; 168°50′W), and Maro Reef (25°30′N; 170°45′W) in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI). The location and year-specific nature of the tag–recapture cruises enabled investigation of spatial and temporal variability in growth. Mean growth rates, estimated by using the von Bertalanffy and Schnute growth models and fitted via a maximum likelihood technique, differed between sexes and particularly among locations and years. Male lobster growth rates at Necker Island were, in general, one-third those at Gardner Pinnacles and one-half those at Maro Reef. Female lobsters exhibited the same pattern with less-pronounced differences. Maro Reef lobsters exhibited several abrupt, significant growth reductions among years, while Necker Island lobster growth rates increased significantly from 2004 to 2005. Model results also indicated substantial individual variability in growth. Neither density nor temperature could account for the differences in growth rates. No palinurid species studied to date has shown such spatial variability in growth, and only one panilurid species has exhibited similar variability on a temporal scale. Recognition of and accounting for the mean and individual variability in a life history trait of this endemic species will result in more accurate stock assessments and, ultimately, a better understanding of lobster dynamics and the NWHI coral reef ecosystem.