Moananuiākea Voyage – Leg 8: Crew Member Profile

https://hokulea.com/crewmember/savannah-mapes/

Hometown

Texas

Voyage(s)

Moananuiākea Voyage – Leg 8: San Francisco to Ventura

Bio

Savannah is a micro-phycologist, dedicated to the study of phytoplankton. She recalls telling a mentor not long ago, that her biggest dream “would be to immerse myself in their (phytoplanktonʻs) environment” and “maybe Iʻll sail around the world, study phytoplankton, and teach communities about phytoplankton in their area along the way!” Two months later she was listening to a presentation by Nainoa Thompson and Lehua Kamalu and learned about Hōkūleʻa and the mission of the Moananuiākea Voyage. That was at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), a PVS partner and where Savannah is a PhD candidate.

She said: “I felt alive! I was tingling. I had never resonated with a mission so much in my life. Connecting with nature, using stars, wind and waves as a compass, learning about the ocean while immersed in the ocean, sailing around the world, engaging with communities around the world - learning and exchanging knowledge about Earth, oceans, and life itself. Everything about the mission inspired me.”

Little did Savannah know, a few months later, she would be in Seattle, placing a planktoscope on Hōkūleʻa to track the oceanʻs phytoplankton, and teaching crew how to use it to take microscopic pictures of the planktonic community in just a few drops of water. Then she got in a VIMS car and served as land support as Hokuleʻa sailed south. In San Francisco, she moved from land crew to Hokuleʻa Leg 8 crew.

As a marine scientist, Savannah sees the negative impacts of human actions on our oceans. But, she sees Hokuleʻa as “a vessel of hope.” She says “We are all connected, to everyone and everything. Connected to the things we can see and to what we cannot see. The things we cannot see, the tiny things, are the building blocks that provide the life force of everything else. As a micro-phycologist, I have a deep curiosity and admiration for phytoplankton, the tiny water plants of the sea that produce more than half of the Earthʻs atmospheric oxygen and create energy that sustains all higher orders of life in the ocean. It is my personal lifeʻs mission and mission for the voyage for us to learn from phytoplankton and gain a better understanding of how we can live in communion with them.”

Coastside welcomes visitors from Hawaii on 4-year tour

Ceremony connects indigenous peoples

https://www.hmbreview.com/news/coastside-welcomes-visitors-from-hawaii-on-4-year-tour/article_6fad7278-62c8-11ee-8d53-f7fefd4c0626.html

By Peter Tokofsky Oct 4, 2023 Updated Oct 4, 2023

A bevy of paddleboarders greeted the Hōkūleʻa sea-voyaging canoe as it arrived in Pillar Point Harbor on Sunday afternoon. It was the 41st stop on its four-year, 43,000-mile voyage around the Pacific.

“Gentle tears ran down my face,” said Maria Mesina, who was among those who paddled out. “It brought me back 28 years ago when they first came to San Francisco and we greeted them before they passed under the Golden Gate Bridge.”

The traditional vessel docked near Johnson Pier while a crowd gathered in front of the Half Moon Bay Yacht Club to welcome the crew. As they eagerly awaited the seafarers, Native American elders addressed the people assembled on the beach and lit a sacred fire to connect with the ancestors.

Catalina Gomes, executive director of the Muchia Te’ Indigenous Land Trust in Pacifica, urged the crowd to form an unbroken circle to embrace the guests as they approached the shore in small motorboats.

Capt. Bruce Blankenfeld said that his crew always asks Native peoples for permission to alight when they reach a dock. “It’s our way of honoring them as the first people of the land who have lived here sustainably for generations.”

The Hōkūleʻa was expected to stay in its current port until today when it continues south to Monterey Bay and eventually along the coast of California to South America before heading west toward Polynesia.

A line of visitors gathered early Monday to step aboard and learn about the moored vessel. The crew was ready for a common question and showed guests the buckets they use when nature calls. The tour also offered the opportunity to try out the cozy sleeping compartments inside each of the two hulls and to guide the hoe ama, or steering paddle, through the still water of the harbor. The paddle, the crew explained, distinguishes a double-hulled canoe from a catamaran.

The purpose of the Hōkūleʻa’s voyages is to reaffirm traditional Polynesian values. However, that does not exclude new ways of doing things. According to the website of the Polynesian Voyaging Society that launched the sea journeys, the ancestors “were willing to experiment, to try new things.”

In this spirit, Savannah Mapes, a doctoral candidate at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, is joining the crew from San Francisco to Ventura and will use the latest technology to study phytoplankton samples taken along the way. She said that by employing planktonscopes, native populations that consume shellfish can prevent illnesses caused by toxic blooms.

As the Hōkūleʻa passed Pacifica on Sunday, Mapes spotted whales for the first time in her oceanographic career. When Gomes told her that they were the ancestors coming to greet the visitors, Mapes acknowledged the need to go beyond science to understand the world.

VIMS Launches Science Program on PVS Moananuiākea Voyage

https://hokulea.com/vims-launches-science-program-on-pvs-moananuiakea-voyage/

Posted September 7, 2023

By PVS Hawaii

Moananuiākea Voyage

Today the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) and the Polynesian Voyaging Society (PVS) announced a new partnership to monitor phytoplankton and water quality as the PVS double-hulled canoe Hōkūleʻa circumnavigates the Pacific. Savannah Mapes, a VIMS PhD student, was on site with the Hōkūleʻa crew in Seattle last week to train them in using the Planktoscope’s modular, open-source hardware and software for imaging plankton samples and a YSI water quality monitoring device.

Through this partnership, PVS and VIMS will pair indigenous knowledge, science, and student engagement to better understand and help amplify the importance of the oceans to a healthy earth. VIMS and William & Mary students will have the opportunity to be involved in the Moananuiākea Voyage and learn from the many Indigenous and coastal communities visited by the Hōkūleʻa.

VIMS is also sponsoring a “companion car” or “land canoe” that is traveling down the west coast to provide land transportation for the crew at Hōkūleʻa’s ports of call from Seattle to San Diego. The crew have named the car ʻElepaio after the small, lively Hawaiian bird that was once considered the guardian spirit of canoe builders. According to one legend, if an ʻElepaio pecked at a koa tree, it meant the tree was infested with insects and not suitable for carving into a canoe. If, however, the ʻElepaio lands on the tree and sings “ono-ka-ia” (translation: ‘sweet the fish’), it indicates that the wood is sound for canoe building. The Oʻahu ʻElepaio was abundant and widespread in forest habitats throughout the island in the early 20th century, but it has declined steadily and is listed as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and by the State of Hawaiʻi.

Hōkūleʻa has been sailing from Southeast Alaska since the Polynesian Voyaging Society (PVS) held its global launch of Moananuiākea, the four-year circumnavigation of the Pacific, in Juneau, Alaska on June 15, 2023. The canoe and her crews sailed south through British Columbia engaging with First Nations communities, before arriving in Seattle.