Las Vegas is often called the 9th Hawaiian island. But when it comes to science the real 9th island sits a mile below the ocean’s surface off the Big Island of Hawaii. Few have seen Loihi up close, a native Hawaiian has joined that select group.
Tom Pohaku Stone is beaming from his trip to Loihi Seamount.
"Chicken skin all the way it was about an hour and a half drop to the bottom of the ocean," said Stone.
Stone is a well-respected Hawaiian practitioner and the administrator of Kanalu, a non-profit organization that focuses on Hawaiian cultural education. On Friday, he received a call from National Geographic asking if he’d join scientists in their latest mission to the active volcano under the sea.
"Being the first Hawaiian going down it’s amazing to see the birth of the new island that tutu Pele is working on," said Stone who couldn’t believe his eyes once the deep submersible from the Hawaii Undersea Research Lab reached its destination. "A pahoehoe flow sitting on the top of the crater looking down it looks like an old lady standing there I was amazed when we came upon it. It was like wow, Luahine kai, it’s the old lady of the sea."
The image reminded him of Pele.
"It look like she’s holding her pahoa and digging the earth, it’s fabulous!"
Prior to the landmark trip Stone gathered taro, breadfruit and ocean salts and wrapped them in ti leaves.
"I had sent an offering to Pele and they had taken it down one of the dives prior and put it on the crater," he said.
He says he was greeted by a special lava field.
"I saw the rock there and said ‘eh that has to come home with me.’ You mean you’re going to take rocks from there I said, ‘yeah I am, it’s a gift to all of my people that are going to go to the schools."
Scientists loaded a basket of the molten rock and Stone brought them home to share with Hawaii’s children.
"So the kids can see or have a piece of the new island that’s coming," said Stone.
Although Loihi is not expected to break the ocean’s surface for another 200 years, Stone says one never knows.
"Pele works in different ways, you know she may become very active there and it can break the surface very quickly."
A new partnership, bridging science and culture.
"With the help of National Geographic things are changing and its become a reality," said Stone. "I left that ship, having shared a lot with them of who we are as people."
See the original article at: KHON2 Local News
