by Brynn Hooton-Kaufman, Science Communication Intern

Look for their vibrant sails dotting the horizon – red, yellow, and orange,  the colors of a sunset.  Hopefully full of wind, these sails will be speeding along seven vaka, Polynesian voyaging canoes, toward their next anchorage in Monterey Bay.   They’re  crewed by the Pacific Voyagers, who hail from island nations flung across the southern Pacific – Aotearoa, Cook Islands, Fiji, and Samoa just to name a few.

The Pacific Voyagers are bringing to life an idea inspired by Dieter Paulmann, the founder of Okeanos Foundation for the Sea.  Okeanos, together with the Center for Ocean Solutions and several other organizations, sponsors the Kava Bowl Ocean Summit held in Honolulu and one of the destinations for the vaka.  Several years ago Paulmann learned of poorly-known threats to the oceans, including noise pollution, acidification, and hypoxia.  In his search for a means to spread awareness of these threats to the public, he came across a vaka, and learned of Nainoa Thompson, Master-Navigator from Hawaii.  Paulmann knew he had found the symbol he was looking for, and the Pacific Voyager project weighed anchor. 

The project began with building the vaka in Aotearoa, and as word spread across the Pacific, many other islands joined in.  For the voyagers, the journey is not only a way to spread awareness of the threats to the ocean,; it is also a way for the next generation to renew their ties to the sea and its life-sustaining strength.

“Te Mana o Te Moana,” is the name of the voyage, which translates to “The Spirit of the Sea.”Setting out in April 2011, the voyagers sailed from Auckland, New Zealand, hopscotched the Pacific to Fakarava and Nuku Hiva, and made their first big stop in Honolulu, Hawaii where they attended the Kava Bowl Ocean Summit 2011.  Attended and supported by the Center for Ocean Solutions, the purpose of the Summit was to bring together people of diverse cultures, backgrounds, and expertise to find creative solutions to the problems threatening the Pacific Ocean.  COS Management Committee member Stephen Palumbi and COS associated researcher Barbara Block presented at the Summit.   The original Kava Bowl, supported by COS, resulted in the Pacific Ocean Synthesis, a document by COS authors that distills Pacific threats, impacts, and solutions from over 3,500 peer-reviewed science papers into a powerful report. 

Next up,  COS will again have the opportunity to speak with the Voyagers upon their arrival in Monterey.