The HI'IALAKAI was acquired from the U.S. Coast Guard in November, 2001 and is currently being converted by NOAA from a T-AGOS surveillance vessel to a versatile platform that will support the research of NOAA's National Ocean Service (NOS), National Marine Sanctuaries (NMS), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) as well as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the University of Hawaii, Honolulu. The ship will operate in the Hawaiian Islands and the Pacific Insular area which include the U.S. Trust Territories of American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and Guam. The HI'IALAKAI is an addition to NOAA's Marine Operations Center - Pacific (MOC-P) fleet and will join the NOAA ships, KA'IMIMOANA and OSCAR ELTON SETTE, at their homeport in Honolulu, Hawaii.

HI'IALAKAI, Hawaiian for "embracing pathways to the sea" and has a second meaning of "guiding leaders of the seas" will conduct coral reef ecosystem mapping, bio-analysis assessments, coral reef health and fish stock studies. Scuba diving operations will play a major role in scientific operations, and HI'IALAKAI will be well suited to support both shallow and deep-water dive projects. The ship will be equipped to carry 2 to 5 small work boats for transporting divers to and from working areas, a dive locker to store scientific gear and equipment, and an air compressor to fill tanks. The ship will also be outfitted with a 3-person, double-lock decompression chamber.

HI'IALAKAI will be equipped with multibeam equipment to continue the coral reef mapping activities that were initiated in 2002 by the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force. A primary goal will be to use the multibeam and backscatter echosounder data to develop a suitable baseline map of the working area. This will enable researchers to periodically monitor the reefs to determine whether or not the reef systems are growing or shrinking over time. The coral reef ecosystems are especially important because they support several endemic, threatened, and endangered marine mammals, fish, sea turtles, and birds.

HI'IALAKAI's E-mail address is:

Noaa.Ship.Hiialakai@noaa.gov

HI'IALAKAI's Telephone Numbers

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