Lower Sea Temperatures Could Bring Positive Conditions for Stressed Coral

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Credit: West Hawaii Today

Good news in the short-term with coral recovery after a stressful El Nino summer for our precious coastal resources. However, in the long run, our coral reefs face a number of challenges, one of those being post-fire runoff from wildfires. We are expected for a very dry winter, which could mean an uptick in wildfires. An increase in wildfires could mean more trouble for our reefs once the exposed soil is potentially washed out to sea by rainfall.

From the Source:

"'Many of the bleached corals in Kaneohe Bay are now showing signs of recovery — that is, their color is returning to normal darker brown rather than very pale brown or white that was the state of play in the middle of the bleaching event in September,' Gates said. 'The immediate threat to corals associated with higher than normal sea water temperatures has receded. The longer term impact of the bleaching event remain to be seen, sometimes bleached corals recover but they fail to reproduce the following year. This is not good.'"

"On land, El Nino is expected to dry out the Big Island and even cause drought, especially in leeward areas where the winter tends to be the dry season anyway. Fire personnel also expect the dry weather ahead to raise fire danger because of a massive fuel load created when vegetation flourished during heavy rainfall this summer."

Makaha Valley Fire

CONGRATULATIONS! You have found one of the four fires of your scavenger hunt. 

"A firefighter waters down hot spots along a steep slope in Makaha Valley after this week's brushfire, which started Tuesday night and was mostly extinguished by late yesterday afternoon." (Jeff Widener/Honolulu Advertiser)

The Makaha Valley Fire was the largest wildfire between 2003-2007 that burned during the hooilo season. Pay close attention to the description of the changing weather patterns and vegetation conditions that led up to the fire. Sounds a lot like El Niño 2016!

From the Source:

"'It was just a small fire when we first saw it but it went berserko in a matter of minutes," DeSoto said. "You know what happened last year. If it turns out to be a dry spring and summer, given the amount of rain we had during the fall and all of the foliage that results from it, we could be in for another bad season again.'

Speculation among DeSoto's neighbors is that the fire is the result of someone igniting fireworks in the area."

"The brushfire scorched a mile-long area on the west side of Makaha Valley, burning off all the green and brown grass cover, along with hale koa scrub brush. From Farrington Highway, the charred earth extended along Kili Drive up to a large water tank.

The area burned had no structures, and firefighters struggled to control it because of the steep slopes and remote location. Tejada said it could have been a small fire, but winds caught it and sent it up the slope quickly."

"In 2005, arsonists set more than 700 brushfires on O'ahu. Seven arrests were made, but only one case is being prosecuted, in federal court."