2025 GAO Coral Mapping Campaign
January 27, 2025
Annual GAO Mapping Campaign: Take Flight with ‘Āko‘ako‘a
‘Āko‘ako‘a is happy to report that the ASU Global Airborne Observatory coral mapping campaign of Hawai’i has officially been completed for 2025. The GAO team mapped reefs on six islands over the course of the month of January. This year’s coral maps are vital to understanding the reef conditions in not only West Hawai’i, but across the entire Hawaiian Archipelago.
On board the Global Airborne Observatory, the primary instrument is an imaging spectrometer that is the only one of its kind. The instrument points downward from the aircraft at 100 frames per second which creates a map of the target areas. This allows us to map the health of our coral reefs in very fine detail, and to see where they are declining due to stressors such as ocean warming, land-based pollution, and overfishing or where they are thriving. ‘Āko‘ako‘a is grateful to have access to such state-of-the-art technology which is foundational to our restoration efforts.
There is no amount of field work and diving that could produce such a reliable annual assessment of coral cover, coral loss, and now, coral growth, so GAO is truly the sole source for such a capability. And none of this would be possible without the GAO team: Nick Vaughn, Joseph Heckler, Sheldon Decosse, and Devon Woodward. These ASU team members have been working on the GAO for over a decade, making their work foundational to the ‘Āko‘ako‘a Reef Restoration Program.