In the ocean's "twilight zone," at depths where only blue light can reach, scientists are discovering a rainbow of brilliant limu, the Hawaiian word for algae.
"When we get to the bottom and switch our video lights on, the whole world explodes with colors that were invisible seconds earlier," says National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research ecologist Randy Kosaki, who recently dived three hundred-plus feet into the mesophotic zone of Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument (PMNM), the string of islands to the northwest of the main Hawaiian Islands.
University of Hawaii at Manoa and NOAA scientists are finding troves of new limu in the relatively unexplored reefs of Hawai'i between one hundred and six hundred feet-too deep for scuba but too shallow for submersibles. "About 50 percent of limu from that habitat are undescribed and likely endemic," says Alison Sherwood, botany professor at UH Manoa, meaning they are found nowhere else on Earth. "I think there are probably hundreds of species remaining to be discovered."
Discovering new species is always exciting, and naming these new life forms can be an opportunity. The PMNM Native Hawaiian Cultural Working Group is tasked with bestowing an official Hawaiian taxonomic name that not just identifies but tells a story about the limu. The group considers everything "from where the limu was collected and what the habitat was like to its color, shape and the distinctive features like taste or smell," says Sherwood. "The working group then uses that information to discuss what these features evoke."
Two of the new species of limu (algae) recently collected from the deep reefs off Lisianski Atoll in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. (ABOVE) An undescribed species of Leiomenia; (TOP), a newly described species, Psaromenia laulamaula.
Croisettea haukoaweo, found off Maui, honors Maui aquatic biologist Skippy Hau. Martensia lauhiekoeloa, a gorgeous lavender alga from PMNM, is "a noble leaf that flutters," the literal translation of lauhiekoela. And the "most regal, beautiful red alga is for Laura," says Kosaki of Croisettea kalaukapuae, named for the late Laura Kalaukapu Low Lucas Thompson, who was a fierce guardian of cultural and natural resources as well as a founding member of the Advisory Council of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve.
So a name is not just a name. "We're aiming to restore some cultural and geographical accountability to science," says Kosaki. "Many specimens come from places where there is an extant indigenous culture. In many ways, I think this could be our greatest contribution to science, maybe even more important than the actual new species themselves."
