Steve Cole, owner of Reef Guides Hawai‘i and a principal with Aquatic Resource Mapping LLC of Hanalei, has received an award for his presentation before the Pacific Congress on Marine Science and Technology (PACON International, Hawai‘i Chapter). His award for
Steve Cole, owner of Reef Guides Hawai‘i and a principal with Aquatic Resource Mapping LLC of Hanalei, has received an award for his presentation before the Pacific Congress on Marine Science and Technology (PACON International, Hawai‘i Chapter).
His award for “best paper integrating marine science and technology with a Pacific focus” was presented at the Marine Option Program Symposium at the University of Hawai‘i-Manoa on April 14, according to a news release.
PACON International is an organization of marine scientists, engineers, industrial organizations, and policy makers dedicated to sharing state-of-the-art marine science and technology and the appropriate applications of this technology.
Cole’s presentation outlined continuing research and development of a reef mapping system being developed by Aquatic Resource Mapping in Hanalei.
The idea for the project came from Cole’s involvement with the QUEST program with the University of Hawai‘i-Hilo last summer, according to the release.
QUEST —for Quantitative Underwater Ecological Surveying Techniques — trains divers in scientific methodology related to coral reefs.
Cole been working with Don Heacock of the DLNR Kaua‘i District, Aquatics Division, Carl M. Stepath of Kaua‘i Community College, Stephan Taylor of Kaua‘i Community College and Art Gleason of the University of Miami.
With Sepath and Taylor serving as advisors and other team members, Aquatic Resource Mapping is developing tools and techniques to produce a baseline of high-resolution underwater photo imagery and to collect water quality data on critical near-shore reefs of islands in the Pacific Region for evidence of coral reef health and for statistical analysis.
The project will use a wide underwater camera array and data collection foil that will capture reef images.
The digital images will be stitched into image maps, which will be keyed to water quality, GPS and coral recognition technology, to be posted on a free, globally-available Internet resource accessible to anyone interested in near-shore reef imagery, reef water quality and reef coverage.
