Jan. 27, 2016

Contributed by Pakalani Bello

When our keiki think of the ocean, what do they think about the water? It’s wet, sometimes it’s warm other times it’s cold, it’s salty, we need to hold our breath when we put our heads down in it. When we’re in the ocean, its water surrounds us, supports us, and moves us. We can surf on its waves and when we put on our masks we might see a fish in it.

For our keiki, ocean water is as familiar and ordinary an element as their mākua’s love for them. But ocean water is filled with organisms that we cannot see; life that we are not aware of and don’t appreciate. How do you think about something invisible to you? And how does your thinking change when suddenly, you can see it?

Marine biologist and Hikianalia crew member Anuschka Faucci (Auntie Anu to the keiki) recently visited our preschool. With a short lecture, a jar of sea water and two microscopes, she invited our keiki into the crowded, busy, and beautiful world of plants and creatures that are plankton – a world that up until then, our keiki had only believed and imagined existed.

Before arriving, Auntie Anu stopped at Heʻeia Pier and did a “plankton tow.” She collected live plankton samples using a cone-shaped fine mesh. We’d been eagerly anticipating her visit and greeted her with our mele for Hikianalia, then watched as she launched into a short but information-packed lecture about plankton.

In ten minutes, she explained how she uses her net, phytoplankton (plant) vs. zooplankton (animal), the food chain – of which plankton is the nutritional base, and how phytoplankton takes in sunshine and produces oxygen. She also talked about her experience sailing on Hikianalia and the meaning of the theme of Hōkūleʻa’s worldwide voyage, “Mālama Honua.” Our keiki listened intently and engaged enthusiastically.

At one point in her lecture, Auntie Anu laid out pictures representing the food chain. Phytoplankton take in the sun, zooplankton eat phytoplankton, little fish eat plankton, bigger fish eat little fish, apex predators like sharks eat big fish.

She asked the keiki, “If we put garbage in the ocean and make the water dirty, who will be affected by the pollution?” When the keiki guessed “Sharks!” she explained that plankton are the most fragile creatures in the ocean food chain and that they would be the first to get sick and die.

She removed the plankton card and asked, “If there are no plankton, what will happen to the little fish?” The keiki immediately responded, “They’ll starve and die!” As she removed card after card, the keiki witnessed the emptying of the sea and we saw a first glimmer of understanding: Our actions affect this chain of life. We are in fact a part of this chain.

During Choice Time, Aunty Anu sat with two keiki at a time and looked at slides of plankton using a tech tool called a CellScope, being developed by UC Berkeley’s Fletcher Lab. The tool turns the camera of a mobile phone or tablet computer into a high-quality light microscope. She uses the CellScope both on Hikianalia and in her work with the online community Kahi Kai to study and teach about plankton.

For more information about the Polynesian Voyaging Society and the Worldwide Voyage, visit www.hokulea.com or find the society on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Google+. To see more Wa‘a Wednesday stories and much more about the Mālama Honua Voyage, go to the KS Online Mālama Honua page.

Hikianalia Polynesian voyaging canoe crew member Anuschka Faucci (Auntie Anu to keiki) teaches the children about plankton using a tool called a CellScope.

Auntie Anu explains how she uses her net to collect plankton.

Keiki learn that ocean water is filled with organisms that we cannot see.