UH Hilo genetics lab visits loko iʻa, conducts DNA testing, helps with restoration
The lab class worked with community stewards of the fishpond to not only collect water samples for DNA testing but also to help with preservation efforts.
Story and photos by Zackary Walters/UH Hilo Stories.
Lab instruction in genetics at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo is not limited to rooms filled with beakers and microscopes.
A UH Hilo genetics class along with their biology professor, geneticist Natalie Graham, took a field trip last week Tuesday to a loko iʻa (traditional fishpond) called Kaumaui located in Keaukaha at the southern side of Hilo Bay. The class worked with community stewards of the fishpond to not only collect water samples for DNA testing back at UH Hilo’s ʻElala Biodiversity Laboratory, founded by Assistant Professor of Biology Graham, but also to help with preservation efforts, namely of the rock walls.
“We have worked with the stewards of this place in spring and fall 2025 as well,” says Graham. With this type of hands-on field work, the students learn not only how to conduct scientific investigations of fish and fisheries but also about loko iʻa restoration practices and the ways in which the ponds support sustainable food practices in the community.
This holistic approach of conducting science while recognizing, honoring, and participating in Native Hawaiian cultural traditions is a hallmark of many UH Hilo labs.
“Bringing Western science and Hawaiian culture together creates a powerful synergy that honors generations of kilo (careful observation) and the ancestral natural history preserved in ʻike kūpuna (ancestral knowledge),” says Assistant Professor Graham, noting that western science and cutting edge technology is a resource that the university is positioned to provide as needed for local stewardship and restoration.
The loko iʻa is owned and managed by Hui Hoʻoleimaluō, a local nonprofit dedicated to Hawaiian fishpond restoration and community education that expanded its stewardship along the Keaukaha coastline in 2021 to include three acres of ʻāina (land) and loko wai (anchialine pools) at Kaumaui. The loko wai at Kaumaui are a mix of fresh and salt water creating a unique brackish or waikai ecosystem, an oasis that nurtures juvenile fish, endemic seaweed, seabirds, and native plants, according to their website.
It’s a perfect place for not only restorative activity but also for use as a “living laboratory” for students of all ages including keiki, older schoolchildren, and in this case, university scientists-in-training.
Representing Hui Hoʻoleimaluō during the field trip were community leaders ʻElika Jardin and Manoa Johansen. Also providing support during the trip was Hannah McKLamb, manager at Graham’s ʻElala Biodiversity Lab.
For last week’s restoration task at Kaumaui, the students and mentors formed moving collaborative lines, passing rocks to help with fishpond restoration. They also helped secure land-based shelters after a wind event that had caused the closure of state schools throughout the island chain the day before.
In addition to the restorative work during the field trip, the UH Hilo biology students and their mentors collected fish DNA by means of water samples. The DNA contains the genetic information of all that is alive in the water. The lab analyses are done at the ʻElala Biodiversity Lab.
“The samples are a semester long experiment conducted by the Biology 376L Genetics Lab class,” says Assistant Professor Graham. “The aim is to discover what the relative abundance is of the fish species in the ponds as well as the limu they feed on.”
Learn more about Natalie Graham’s research
Story and photos by Zackary Walters, a philosophy major at UH Hilo.
