A Coral Reef Strengthens Out to Land on Hawaii Five-0 with Lobe Corals

Summary: Fish eating cult casualties on Hawaii Five-0's He Puko'a Kani 'Āina Feb. 2, 2018, never affects lobe corals by which a coral reef strengthens out to land.

(left to right): Cauliflower coral (Pocillopora meandrina), lobe coral (Porites lobata) and finger coral (Porites compressa) typify coral reef assemblage in Shark Island lagoon, French Frigate Shoals, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands; May 18, 2011: Lindsey Kramer/USFWS (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service), CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

An absconded automobile and an aquatic assassination on Hawaii Five-0 2010 active police procedural series episode He Pūko'a Kani 'Āina Feb. 2, 2018, amaze crime-solvers less than abundant lobe corals attract researchers.

Director Bryan Spicer and writers Matt Wheeler and David Wolkove brandish an 'ōlelo a'o ("advice") that becomes, in English, A coral reef strengthens out to land. Season 8's 15th episode commences with a cult casualty, private investigator Leighton Pruitt, in coastal waters and Adam Noshimuri (Ian Anthony Dale) car-boosting a parked vehicle. The series' 183rd episode overall divulges a two-year-old dunking death of cult casualty Micah Kalani and directs Jessie Nomura (Christine Ko) to Hideki Tashiro (Aaron Yoo).

Coastal fish eat chicken-wired, weighted-down Kalani and Pruitt before Jessie, confidential informant for organized crime division investigator Noshimuri, enters Hideki's crime entourage with an eavesdropping wire.

Coastal fish feed on lobe corals (Porites lobata), whose limestone skeletons form coral reefs for algae, anemones, clams, cucumbers, sea grasses, seaweed, snails, sponges and starfish.

Population data gathered since 1999 from 60 Coral Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program sites give the six most common corals off the eight main Hawaiian Islands. Lobe, compressed (Porites compressa), rice (Montipora capitata), sandpaper rice (Montipora patula), cauliflower (Pocillopora meandrina) and blue rice (Montipora flabellata) corals have high-profile, near-shore, reef-building, shallow-water populations. Their respective representation is 6.1, 4.5, 3.9, 2.7, 2.4 and 0.7 percent of total coral populations off Hawai'i, Kaho'olawe, Kaua'i, Lāna'i, Maui, Moloka'i, Ni'ihau and O'ahu.

Eight main and 124 minor Hawaiian Islands altogether juggle the three basic near-shore fringing, offshore barrier and open-sea atoll (from Persian آب‌تل, "water-hillock") coral reef types.

Limestone skeletons of dead stony lobe corals, known scientifically as Porites lobata (from Latin porus, "pore"; -ītēs, "of, belonging to"; lobāta, "having lobes"), kindle fringing reefs.

The Poritidae (from Latin porus, "pore" and -idae, "of, belonging to") stony coral family member lines fringing reefs landward from maximum 98.42-foot (30-meter) lagoon floor depths. The Cnidaria (from Greek κνίδη, knidē, "nettle") coral, hydra, hydroid, jellyfish, sea anemone and sea fan phylum member makes reef flats from reef crests to shore. Lobe corals, noted scientifically in 1846 by James Dwight Dana (Feb. 12, 1813-April 14, 1895), need flat-sheeted connective tissue midway down their inner-layered, outer-layered cell-walled bodies.

Exterior sheet-released buds and female- and male-only population-released gametes (from Greek γαμετή, gametē, "wife" and γαμέτης, gametēs, "husband") organize brooding extended familial, not spawning spread-out, colonies.

Coral lobe mouths and digestive cavities process dissolved organic matter, plankton and, from their tissue-positioned zooxanthellae (from Greek ζῷον zôion, "animal" and ξανθός, xanthós, "yellow"), wastes.

Bryozoans (from Greek βρύον, brúon, "moss" and ζῷα, zôia, "animal"), photosynthesizing zooxanthellic algae and lobe corals queue limestone from seawater calcium onto the latter's lower body. Lobe coral fringing reefs realize minimum yearly 0.39-inch (1-centimeter) expansions despite climate change, disease, marine acidification and debris, nutrient and sediment pollution, overfishing, predation and tourism. Temperatures between 61 and 68 degrees Fahrenheit (16 and 20 degrees Celsius) sustain branching, flat, roundish lobe corals against blue-purpling or pinkening from stress and trematodes.

Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett (Alex O'Loughlin) and Detective Danny Williams (Scott Caan) tackle cult casualties whose trawling from tourist-trampled jungle pool floors threatens no lobe corals.

Hawaii Five-0 Task Force member Adam Noshimuri (Ian Anthony Dale) and his confidential informant, Jessie Nomura (Christine Ko), track Yakuza boss Hideki Tashiro (Aaron Yoo) in CBS TV's Hawaii Five-0 season 8, episode 15, He Puko'a Kani 'Aina (A Coral Reef Strengthens Out to Land): CBS Hawaii Five-0 episode 8.15 promotional photo via SpoilerTV Feb. 1, 2018

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

(left to right): Cauliflower coral (Pocillopora meandrina), lobe coral (Porites lobata) and finger coral (Porites compressa) typify coral reef assemblage in Shark Island lagoon, French Frigate Shoals, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands; May 18, 2011: Lindsey Kramer/USFWS (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service), CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Auliflower_coral_(Pocillopora_meandrina),_lobe_coral_(Porites_lobata),_and_finger_coral_(Porites_compressa)_(5762963067).jpg

Hawaii Five-0 Task Force member Adam Noshimuri (Ian Anthony Dale) and his confidential informant, Jessie Nomura (Christine Ko), track Yakuza boss Hideki Tashiro (Aaron Yoo) in CBS TV's Hawaii Five-0 season 8, episode 15, He Puko'a Kani 'Aina (A Coral Reef Strengthens Out to Land): CBS Hawaii Five-0 episode 8.15 promotional photo via SpoilerTV Feb. 1, 2018, @ https://www.spoilertv.com/2018/01/hawaii-five-0-episode-815-he-pukoa-kani.html

For further information:

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