October 23, 2013 — The lives of fishermen have been washed away as they tried to pry opihi from rocks in rough waves. It is why the shellfish has been dubbed the “fish of death." But ultimately, the fishermen have been so successful in harvesting the small conic opihi that some experts fear for the shellfish.
Researchers have developed an android app that will help them track the population of opihi, the popular shellfish delicacy in Hawaii, to measure — and hopefully help prevent — over-harvesting. The app uses GPS technology to count the number of opihi and record their species and location.
The biologist and developer of the app is Dr. Chris Bird, a researcher and assistant professor in the college of science and engineering at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi. He has been surveying the opihi for years and concluded that the methods available weren’t adequate to monitor large amounts of coastline at the same time.
Members of the Opihi Partnership, an initiative that was launched by The Nature Conservancy of Hawaii, and Bird believe that the number of opihi on the islands have declined dramatically. The partnership includes Hawaiian culturalists, government agencies and scientists who hope to monitor the opihi over time, through the app, to see how they are doing.
“We’re trying to facilitate sustainable harvesting,” Bird said. “We need to protect the breeding areas where they produce the next generation.”
The app will be used to help measure how easily accessible the shellfish is to humans.
Read the full story at the Huffington Post