It is Megan Dailer, a scientist who has been actively involved in numerous marine water quality issues on Maui for several years.

#kihei 4/12/17 

This morning April 12, we spotted a familiar face wading into the kai taking samples in North Kihei: Megan Dailer, who among other things is an algal biologist and has conducted several related scientific studies (SEE Dailer et. al, ad. infinitum).

For many years Roland was the single individual (KCA has advocated for a second sampler several times) for our island taking the water samples, until fall of 2016, when he retired. Then for the rest of 2016 and beginning of 2017 we were down to 0, as State government prohibited hiring a new person until his benefits were exhausted!

SEE: https://gokihei.org/environment/who-is-looking-out-for-our-community-health-and-welfare-no-one

But now Megan is in the temporary position, while decision makers reach conclusion on a permanent assignment, and we are advocating she remain in place.

As she works with strict time-sensitive samples, zipping from stop to stop along the coast, our chat was limited, but she did alert us that DOH CWB plans to hold public meetings on Maui, likely in the next few months. Stay tuned!

We did briefly commiserate about the dire situation in D. C., expecting huge reduction in federal funding for all environmental issues, surely including preserving our coral reef systems and our near shore waters.

These DOH CWB marine water samples are the basis for our ongoing analysis of trends, hot spots, and sources.  The project has now been fully funded by a wide variety of caring, generous donors. Stay tuned for updates.