Aloha, Jerry: Passionate, persuasive, persistent. And that’s only the “p” quali ties that came together in this one man. And as much as Jerry Rothstein accomplished in his 68 years on this planet, it is sometimes hard to believe he was just one man. He crossed our path as a con sequence of his extraordinary efforts to preserve public access to Hawai`i’s shorelines. He was also, we learned in the many obituaries written for him and his wife, Judith, an avid photographer, a spiritual leader, an entrepreneur and juice maven.
Jerry was larger than life. His presence filled empty rooms, though he was no egotist. The causes he championed were on behalf of the public, and not even his most ardent opponent would ever have suggested otherwise.
He, his wife, and two visitors from Minnesota died January 23 as their cars collided on the Kohala Coast, where Jerry had worked so diligently to make sure the high-end resorts would always honor public access. It is hard to believe he is gone. He leaves an incredible legacy of achievement across many and diverse areas. Hawai‘i is a far better place as a result of Jerry’s indefatigable efforts.
Tester Papers: Each year, graduate students at the University of Hawai‘i are invited to present their original scientific research at the Alfred L. Tester Memorial Symposium, in honor of a late profes sor of zoology. Last year’s crop of presentations, abstracted in the January 2005 edition of Pacific Science, included several with broad implications for Hawai‘i’s environmental health. Here are summaries of the work of several grad students:
Fish Farm Fall-Out: The caged fish farm off O‘ahu’s south shore that produces thousands of pounds of moi for the market has been described as one of the most environmentally friendly op erations around. The truth may be otherwise. Han Lee, a student of Julie Bailey-Brock, moni tored the ocean floor near the fish farm and at reference areas beyond the range of fish food and waste. His findings? The benthic community was changing, with more worms, fewer amphipods, and other indicators of organic pollution. All in all, he found abundant evidence of “the mounting effects of fish mariculture on the south shore of O‘ahu.”
His professor, Bailey-Brock, adds a few caveats to Lee’s work. The worms “have life histories and feeding strategies which allow them to rapidly take advantage of any available food and space,” she toldEnvironmentHawai`i.“In the case of the Cates International operation, any food particles or feces from the fish in the cage as well as materials generated by cleaning the cage … will be immedi ately utilized by any species capable of feeding on such small particles.” These species “quickly grow and reproduce,” but if you “take away any of the needed resources,” she continued, “the high abun dances of these organisms rapidly decline.”
Poor Wedgies: The wedge-tailed shearwater was the subject of two graduate student reports. The first looked at the impacts of ants on wedge-tailed chicks. Sheldon Plentovich, a student of Sheila Conant, found that wedge-tailed chicks often suffered injuries on off-shore islets domi nated by fire-ants, while no similar injuries were observed on islets dominated by big-headed ants. Application of the ant bait AMDRO could help improve the condition of seabird chicks in areas invaded by fire ants, Plentovich concluded. Aaron Hebshi, a student of David Duffy, looked at connections between skipjack tuna and nutri tion of wedge-tailed shearwater chicks. The chicks are fed by adult shearwaters, which forage at sea on prey that is driven to the surface by schools of skipjack tuna. When the skipjack were absent during critical periods of chick growth, mortality rates of the chicks rose as high as 14 percent.
–Patricia Tummons
Volume 15, Number 9 March 2005
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