CTSA, the Center for Tropical and Subtropical Aquaculture, recently participated in the ‘Host Park Open House’ to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawai‘i Authority (NELHA), home to several key innovative aquaculture businesses and activities. The all-day event on October 19 featured farm and nursery tours, interactive exhibits and demonstrations by more than 30 HOST Park tenants and community partners, hands-on keiki activities, and live entertainment.
“The free open house event showcases many park clients,” said Noelani Kalipi, NELHA Chair. “This provides an opportunity for community members to learn about projects that do important work in sustainability, conservation, food and energy security.”
At the CTSA booth, participants were invited to learn more about the Regional Aquaculture Center program and CTSA projects and initiatives. Our booth featured publications and other resources created specifically to share the benefits of aquaculture with the public. Long-time CTSA partner and researcher Dr. Harry Ako talked story with visitors about his CTSA-funded aquaponics projects in Hawaii and American Samoa, while Lara Hackney of CTAHR shared information about the nutritional benefits of eating seafood. The unique highlight of our booth was an interactive Virtual Reality (VR) experience presented by CTSA administrative staff Maggie Ma.
The experience is the product of a recent CTSA project “Development of an Immersive Virtual Reality Experience for Increasing Engagement in Aquaculture,” led by Dr. Jason Leigh. The project explored the use of VR capture and display technology to help overcome current outreach limitations. Access to aquaculture facilities is highly restricted, making the outreach of aquaculture practices to the community difficult and limited. At the same time, knowledge of the aquaculture industry among the public often consists of misconceptions and prejudices. The result is declining interest in those considering aquaculture as a future career. The goal of the project was to create a virtual aquaculture experience that allows individuals to experience various aspects of aquaculture as a profession without having to be physically present at an aquaculture facility.
The VR project was conducted in partnership with the Oceanic Institute of HPU Finfish Department, which provided the primary setting for the VR experience. The project group used stereoscopic 3D, 360 video capture and 3D photogrammetry to capture physical aquaculture sites for reconstruction into a VR experience where users can engage in interactive quests where they learn about aquaculture from virtual experts.
At the NELHA Open House, visitors donned VR headsets to test out the experience. CTSA received valuable feedback on the program and ways to improve future VR aquaculture products. Participants shared that by the end of the experience, they understood different types of fish, average lifespan, and other traits, and expressed that it is a good educational tool to get more people involved in aquaculture.
NELHA is a state agency, attached to the State of Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT). NELHA administers an energy and ocean technology demonstration site, the Hawai‘i Ocean Science and Technology (HOST) Park, focused on sustainable economic development projects and blue technology. This unique master-permitted park is on 870 acres of prime coastal property in Kailua-Kona, Hawai‘i and offers research support facilities for the development of marine science, renewable energy and other demonstration projects that use the unique resources found at the park. Tenants located in HOST Park work at the pre-commercial, commercial, research and educational levels.