Friday, May 5, 2017

Marine Biologist for a day with Make-a-Wish


This week, the Community Education Program helped grant a wish for 17-year-old Destiny.  Destiny and her family traveled from Florida to visit Hawaii to fulfill her wish of being a marine biologist. Make-a-Wish Hawaii has been granting wishes to more than 12,000 children in the past three decades.

Photo by Abe McAulton, Wish Coordinator
Destiny had the opportunity to visit the Holland Lab and participate in a shark feeding to some hungry hammerhead and sandbar sharks.  View the exciting video below, filmed by Mark Royer.

  


She enjoyed learning about different shark jaws and tracking methods used by the marine biologists at the Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology.

Photo by Abe McAulton, Wish Coordinator
Photo by Abe McAulton, Wish Coordinator

Photo by Abe McAulton, Wish Coordinator





Destiny and her brother also conducted a plankton tow around Kane'ohe Bay.  The sample of plankton collected was brought to the lab where they met with our volunteer, Mike, who shared his passion for plankton and explained the importance of plankton in the food web and carbon cycle.  Next, the family was asked to draw and identify individual plankton that they saw under the microscope.  We saw a variety of species, such as copepods, fish eggs, worm larvae, zoea, and ascidians. 
  
Photo by Abe McAulton, Wish Coordinator

Destiny's visit ended with a walking tour around Moku o Lo'e, with stops at the black-tipped reef shark lagoon, educational touch tank, coral research labs, and more. 
Photo by Abe McAulton, Wish Coordinator
Photo by Abe McAulton, Wish Coordinator
Photo by Abe McAulton, Wish Coordinator
Photo by Abe McAulton, Wish Coordinator



We really enjoyed Destiny and her family's visit to Moku o Lo'e, and hope to help grant wishes to more Make-a-Wish children in the future.

Mahalo,
Lyndsey

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