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Melanie Hutchinson

Melanie Hutchinson works as a Ph.D. student at the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology on Moku o Lo'e (also known as Coconut Island). The island and its research facilities have a rich history . The institute is one of the very few research facilities built on a coral reef. About a hundred scientists work on the island. Corals are extensively studied leading to major discoveries such as their thermal tolerance. Besides studying corals, acoustic research is done on false killer whales and new techniques are developed such as the “super sucker” to remove invasive algae from the coral reefs in Kaneohe Bay. Other scientists study the opakapaka (Hawaiian pink snapper) and try to find ways to develop aquaculture of those delicious but endangered fishes. The opakapaka is a long-lived fish that need about fifty years to become mature! Melanie also showed us yellowfin tuna tanks, stingrays, and her main interest, sharks.

Melanie grew up in Northern California far away from the ocean. When going to a camp by the sea in 6^th grade she immediately fell in love with the ocean. A few years later she visited an aquarium with her parents and decided to become a marine biologist. Before coming to Moku o Lo'e four years ago, she was a fisheries observer in Hawai'i. This experience made her worry about the bycatch of sharks and she decided to study the relation between sharks and fishes. Sharks are a long-lived species and they need many years to become reproductively mature. The shark population is in a major state of decline due to fin trade and lack of shark management for fisheries. Melanie showed us a large basin filled with a dozen of young hammerhead sharks she studies. Kaneohe Bay is a breading ground for these endangered animals. They eat buried animals, which produce electromagnetic fields that sharks can detect thanks to their almost-360° vision. Together with her team she catches hammerheads sharks in the Bay and implants acoustic tags to monitor their activities and movements. The data she collects give her a better understanding of the sharks’ behavior. Melanie is also a scientific diver, a skill that comes in handy to check and maintain the receivers that gather information from the tagged fishes. Once she got bitten by a baby hammerhead shark. “I deserved it”, she recalls with a smile. But the most painful experience so far, was the sting of a stingray on the back of her hand. The accident happened while she was tagging the animal, which tail came loose.

Once a research project is finished, the scientists release the animals back into the ocean. Melanie can follow them thanks to their implanted tags, always a little bit worried about whether they are still doing fine. Scientists have also used these tags to study the relation between sharks and tour boats. They found that sharks respond to the very specific sound of the boat engine and once they hear “their” boat up to fifteen of them can show up at once! On Moku o Lo'e fishes and sharks are fed from a distance so they do not associate food with humans.

Melanie finds the scientific program at the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology excellent and she enjoys the nice community where everyone is grateful for working in such a beautiful environment. She says Moku o Lo'e is the greatest place on earth for her!

If you would like to know more about Melanie, the island, or the institute, visit this website.

Mahalo Melanie for sharing your aloha with us!