Fouling organisms in Hawaii

This report on fouling organisms is based primarily upon investigations in Kaneohe Bay, Oahu, which were initiated by C. H. Edmondson in March 1935 and are still in progress. In September 1935, W. M. Ingram began a parallel two-year study of such organ~ isms in Kaneohe Bay and Pearl Harbor. However, the Pearl Harbor' station was' abandoned after one year because of unsuitable conditions. Stu.dies were then centered in the Kaneohe Bay area, supplemented by casual observations in other localities. Brief preliminary statements on the progress of these investigations were made in 1937 by Edmondson in a published report (13)1 and by Ingram in an unpublished thesis (19). The present account brings together the most important data and results collected over a period of three years. The windward shore of Oahu was selected for these studies because most previous observations had been made on the leeward shore, in Pearl Harbor and Honolulu Harbor. The field work was done at the end of a pier extending about 400 yards out from the shore of the Territorial Fish and Game Farm in Kaneohe Bay, a potential harbor on the northeast coast. Here the bottom is muddy and sandy with some outcropping of coral rocks nearby. The water in this geneta} area is about one fathom. deep at high tide while a dredged chan-