Pacific Whale Foundation to discuss Mauka to Makai wildfire response in webinar, Feb. 7

Maui Nui Marine Resource Council will host the February edition of its “Know Your Ocean Speaker Series” featuring Susan Frett of Pacific Whale Foundation, on Feb. 7 at 5:30 p.m. via Zoom.

Frett will share work being done by Mauka to Makai, a collaborative effort by the conservation, research, and PacWhale Eco-Adventures vessel teams to restore the health of Maui’s ocean, land and air in response to the Aug. 8 wildfire in Lahaina. 

Mauka to Makai’s primary work has been monitoring coral reef ecosystems nearest the burn zones by capturing coral substrate photography for analysis and conducting abundance studies of indicator species at two locations in West Maui. In September 2023, Pacific Whale Foundation (PWF) Research conducted drone surveys over West Maui, which will be used to analyze oceanic and terrestrial composition and associated changes that may occur as a result of the fire.

Mauka to Makai also performs debris and ecosystem monitoring to asses the fire’s impact on the accumulation of related debris. Part of this effort included PWF’s first beach cleanup on Lānaʻi, which successfully removed 2,980 items after receiving reports of large amounts of debris washing up on land.

In addition to their reef and debris monitoring, the team recently launched a new volunteer program called Mālama Pono, which works with a variety of land-based partners to help restore the health of the land. 

Susan Frett is the conservation and outreach manager at Pacific Whale Foundation. In addition to leading the Conservation team at PWF, she leads the newly formed Outreach team that was created following the August 2023 fires. Susan has been with PWF since August 2022. Before joining PWF, Frett was the community engagement coordinator at Maui Invasive Species Committee. Frett received her master’s degree in environmental conservation from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Registration for the talk is free and can be completed at https://bit.ly/M2M24.