Homecoming
By Jan Wizinowich
Blake in Oregon
The Big Island is a special place to grow up. It sinks into the core and is always drawing its keiki back home. But more importantly, the Big Island sends people out into the world filled with Aloha and wonder and a willingness to work to make the world a better place.
Blake McNaughton, born and raised in Kamuela, is one such individual. He has currently come full circle and is back on the Big Island living and working in Hilo after completing a master’s degree in Marine Science at the University of Hawaii Hilo. Blake’s interest in Marine Biology was inspired by school experiences and his love for the ocean. Although he didn’t actually declare his major until his sophomore year at Davidson College in North Carolina, “I knew I was going to go into biology, but didn’t know what exactly,” early experiences moved him in that direction. “What really got me interested was the first time I saw a sargassum fish washed ashore. I thought it was the most amazing thing I’d ever seen.”
Blake McNaughton, born and raised in Kamuela, is one such individual. He has currently come full circle and is back on the Big Island living and working in Hilo after completing a master’s degree in Marine Science at the University of Hawaii Hilo. Blake’s interest in Marine Biology was inspired by school experiences and his love for the ocean. Although he didn’t actually declare his major until his sophomore year at Davidson College in North Carolina, “I knew I was going to go into biology, but didn’t know what exactly,” early experiences moved him in that direction. “What really got me interested was the first time I saw a sargassum fish washed ashore. I thought it was the most amazing thing I’d ever seen.”
Blake was certified to dive when he was 15 and participated in NFWS green sea turtle program, which consisted of tagging and monitoring turtles on the Kona coast. Also Blake’s high school senior thesis involved a comparative study of corals inside and outside the small boat harbor at Kawaihae Harbor after dredging. When it was time for college, Blake selected Davidson College in North Carolina. “When I visited the campus I thought the area was really beautiful. I was also able to play football for 4 years and at the time Davidson was ranked 8th or 9th of liberal arts colleges.” Many Hawaii kids have a hard time transitioning from our small community culture to the large bustling and very different mainland culture, but Blake managed the transition by finding connections. “I was the only Hawaii kid there but football gave me a family.”
Although he found that even though the social environment was conservative and very different from Hawaii, “North Carolina is a porch culture like Hawaii. They like to sit on the porch, eat and talk story.” For the next few summers, and one regular semester, Blake gained experiences in diverse parts of the world, always with his home island in mind, “I compare all my experiences with here (Hawaii).” After declaring a marine biology major, Blake spent seven weeks in a program on a different island—Iceland, but was able to find more connections.“When I was flying in, I thought Iceland looked like the Big Island. It had large lava fields.”
The course had two groups: geologists and biologists. The two groups would spend some class time together and then, “The geologist would go out to dig things up and we’d go out and poke things.” The instructor was Icelandic so had a lot of local knowledge. To Blake the most interesting experience was on Vestmannjaer Islands, which is the place where they held Keiko the whale when he was recovering. The group spent one week there diving in a small fishing harbor, which was rather barren compared with tropical marine environments and had lots of seaweed, kelp and mollusks. They did a study of TBT, which is an ingredient in antifouling paint. The snails sift the sediment where they ingest TBT, a substance that causes the females to change into males, impacting their reproductive ability. They surveyed the populations outside and inside the harbor to get a gender count, as well as taking sediment samples to test for TBT.
In the spring of his junior year, Blake spent a semester on another island, New Zealand, where he did a course at Auckland University, which included Maori sociology along with an array of marine biology courses. He combined course work with a lot of field work. “Somehow I was able to schedule my classes for Tues, Wed, Thurs. Some buddies and I bought a used camper bus and went camping and diving almost every weekend.” There were many small islands that made interesting dive sites and they also did a lot of cave diving. “It was very temperate. There was less coral, and no tropical corals. There were very different species of fish.”
Blake’s main marine focus was on estuaries and mangrove swamps. He studied the “…environmental role these areas had in maintaining a healthy fish population and protecting the inland from ocean incursion.” The following summer, Blake went to Alaska to help out a family friend with salmon fishing. While there, he met someone from the National Fish and Wildlife Service and volunteered to participate in a count of the salmon take in Yakatat. “It was good to see the fishing industry from both sides, the fisherman and resource management.”
After graduating from Davidson, Blake returned home to participate in a study sponsored by the Pacific Whale Foundation to monitor tumor infested reef fish. He then joined the Peace Corp and based on his stated interest area, was sent to Pilau. His previous experience studying mangrove estuaries provided good background for his experiences in Micronesia. His focus there was helping to manage marine resources of both inland and ocean marine environments. This encompassed the outer reef, inner lagoon and a big bay lined with mangroves. Here he had another unique island experience.
After training for about 3 months, he was assigned to live with a family in Koror, which is the main island town. “The family you are assigned is a make or break situation. Sometimes there are problems. It makes it hard to work all day and then come home to an uncomfortable situation. My family was awesome.” They lived in an old quonset hut that had running water, but an outside bathroom. Blake truly became a hanai member of his Pilauan family and remains in touch with them.
During his two and a half years in Pilau, Blake surveyed these diverse marine environments to gather information and assist with management decisions. Many of the problems were identified by local management, but problems were also identified in the course of the survey work. Blake was scrambling to learn the language, but had a Pilauan counterpart that would deal with presenting the information and questions he had. “I was working to learn the language and I didn’t really have enough to address these questions.” Also, he tried to stay out of the politics. The leadership was both traditional tribal chiefs as well as contemporary legislators, making for some potentially complicated situations. The biggest conflict was when conservation interfered with the possibility of financial gain. He felt that he was most successful with the mangrove crab fishermen, setting up seasonal bans in order to maintain the crab population.
Blake returned to the Big Island and enrolled in a master’s program in marine biology at U. H. Hilo. His thesis project involved monitoring big eye tuna using a technique called acoustic tagging. The fish are caught and tagged internally with a sensor that senses depth to 500 yards. A receiver on fishing buoys records the information; the depth and location along with the size of the fish are recorded. Through this technique, fishermen will know where certain size fish are at different periods of the day. “The information will have an impact on world fishing because the information provided will help purse seiners rethink strategies for fishing. Instead of taking small fish from the surface, they will be able to go for a larger catch.”
Blake plans to continue to do work involving marine environment issues resulting from the presence of humans. “You can’t really separate marine biology from human impact on the marine environment. As soon as you start looking at marine environments, human impact is very obvious.” Blake’s sense of justice and a “can do” attitude are what signify his Big Island roots, where he has returned from world island hopping.
Although he found that even though the social environment was conservative and very different from Hawaii, “North Carolina is a porch culture like Hawaii. They like to sit on the porch, eat and talk story.” For the next few summers, and one regular semester, Blake gained experiences in diverse parts of the world, always with his home island in mind, “I compare all my experiences with here (Hawaii).” After declaring a marine biology major, Blake spent seven weeks in a program on a different island—Iceland, but was able to find more connections.“When I was flying in, I thought Iceland looked like the Big Island. It had large lava fields.”
The course had two groups: geologists and biologists. The two groups would spend some class time together and then, “The geologist would go out to dig things up and we’d go out and poke things.” The instructor was Icelandic so had a lot of local knowledge. To Blake the most interesting experience was on Vestmannjaer Islands, which is the place where they held Keiko the whale when he was recovering. The group spent one week there diving in a small fishing harbor, which was rather barren compared with tropical marine environments and had lots of seaweed, kelp and mollusks. They did a study of TBT, which is an ingredient in antifouling paint. The snails sift the sediment where they ingest TBT, a substance that causes the females to change into males, impacting their reproductive ability. They surveyed the populations outside and inside the harbor to get a gender count, as well as taking sediment samples to test for TBT.
In the spring of his junior year, Blake spent a semester on another island, New Zealand, where he did a course at Auckland University, which included Maori sociology along with an array of marine biology courses. He combined course work with a lot of field work. “Somehow I was able to schedule my classes for Tues, Wed, Thurs. Some buddies and I bought a used camper bus and went camping and diving almost every weekend.” There were many small islands that made interesting dive sites and they also did a lot of cave diving. “It was very temperate. There was less coral, and no tropical corals. There were very different species of fish.”
Blake’s main marine focus was on estuaries and mangrove swamps. He studied the “…environmental role these areas had in maintaining a healthy fish population and protecting the inland from ocean incursion.” The following summer, Blake went to Alaska to help out a family friend with salmon fishing. While there, he met someone from the National Fish and Wildlife Service and volunteered to participate in a count of the salmon take in Yakatat. “It was good to see the fishing industry from both sides, the fisherman and resource management.”
After graduating from Davidson, Blake returned home to participate in a study sponsored by the Pacific Whale Foundation to monitor tumor infested reef fish. He then joined the Peace Corp and based on his stated interest area, was sent to Pilau. His previous experience studying mangrove estuaries provided good background for his experiences in Micronesia. His focus there was helping to manage marine resources of both inland and ocean marine environments. This encompassed the outer reef, inner lagoon and a big bay lined with mangroves. Here he had another unique island experience.
After training for about 3 months, he was assigned to live with a family in Koror, which is the main island town. “The family you are assigned is a make or break situation. Sometimes there are problems. It makes it hard to work all day and then come home to an uncomfortable situation. My family was awesome.” They lived in an old quonset hut that had running water, but an outside bathroom. Blake truly became a hanai member of his Pilauan family and remains in touch with them.
During his two and a half years in Pilau, Blake surveyed these diverse marine environments to gather information and assist with management decisions. Many of the problems were identified by local management, but problems were also identified in the course of the survey work. Blake was scrambling to learn the language, but had a Pilauan counterpart that would deal with presenting the information and questions he had. “I was working to learn the language and I didn’t really have enough to address these questions.” Also, he tried to stay out of the politics. The leadership was both traditional tribal chiefs as well as contemporary legislators, making for some potentially complicated situations. The biggest conflict was when conservation interfered with the possibility of financial gain. He felt that he was most successful with the mangrove crab fishermen, setting up seasonal bans in order to maintain the crab population.
Blake returned to the Big Island and enrolled in a master’s program in marine biology at U. H. Hilo. His thesis project involved monitoring big eye tuna using a technique called acoustic tagging. The fish are caught and tagged internally with a sensor that senses depth to 500 yards. A receiver on fishing buoys records the information; the depth and location along with the size of the fish are recorded. Through this technique, fishermen will know where certain size fish are at different periods of the day. “The information will have an impact on world fishing because the information provided will help purse seiners rethink strategies for fishing. Instead of taking small fish from the surface, they will be able to go for a larger catch.”
Blake plans to continue to do work involving marine environment issues resulting from the presence of humans. “You can’t really separate marine biology from human impact on the marine environment. As soon as you start looking at marine environments, human impact is very obvious.” Blake’s sense of justice and a “can do” attitude are what signify his Big Island roots, where he has returned from world island hopping.
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