A Reef Villain's Archnemesis: The Super Sucker
What was intended as a noble science experiment in the 1970s has turned into a modern-day plague for the delicate coral reefs surrounding the University of Hawaii's research station here.
A professor scoured the seas for the heartiest, fastest-growing algae to help Third World nations develop a seaweed crop for carrageenan -- the gelatinous thickener and emulsifier used in such items as toothpaste, shoe polish and nonfat ice cream.
The late Maxwell Doty succeeded, in one regard. His research helped the Philippines and other island nations establish multimillion-dollar industries to supply carrageenan to the food, beverage and cosmetic industries.
Yet his efforts also left an unwanted legacy. Open-cage experiments inoculated Hawaiian coastal waters with half a dozen types of foreign algae. These aggressive invaders have smothered at least half the reefs in Kaneohe Bay on Oahu's west coast and have begun to spread to waters beyond.
The sprouting problem has kept professors, graduate students and state officials busy trying to rein in the shaggy mats of thick-stemmed seaweed, which threaten coral reefs and the fish, turtles and other sea life that depend on them. After years of trial and error, scientists believe they have arrived at a solution.
It involves a giant underwater vacuum that they call the Super Sucker.
On a recent Sunday, a pair of divers ripped chunks of the foot-thick blanket of algae from atop a coral reef and fed it into a fat hose.
The suction is created by back-pressure from a special vacuum pump that doesn't damage any animals inadvertently scooped up -- and it doesn't chop the algae into bits, which could make the effort futile: Even the smallest seaweed fragments flushed back into the water reseed the reef with the aggressive algae
