WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye announced today that the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory at the University of Hawaii has been awarded a federal grant of nearly $3.3 million for research in the waters off the main and Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.  

“This grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is a testament to the excellent work undertaken by HURL,” Senator Inouye said. “The lab’s research teams have discovered a new species of scorpionfish, observed the growth and evolution of Loihi, the next of Hawaii’s islands, which lies deep underwater off of the Big Island’s southeast coast, and even found in 2002 the Japanese midget submarine that was the first vessel sunk in the attack on Pearl Harbor nearly 67 years ago. HURL is on the cutting edge of ocean science.”  

In addition to the $3,273,459 grant for HURL, the University of Hawaii also was awarded two other ocean-related federal grants from NOAA:  

* $250,000 to develop hatchery and nursery protocols for the commercial production of pink snapper, opakapaka.  

* $120,000 to continue research on reducing sea turtle bycatch, including studying captive sea turtles and conducting open ocean field trials. The program has been expanded to include bycatch mitigation research with sharks.

 

 

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