A researcher at Texas A&M University-Chorpus Christi has developed an android cellphone app that he hopes will help Hawaii’s declining opihi population. 

The app, which uses GPS, allows researchers to track the population of the mollusks, according to a university press release: 

In Hawaii, ‘opihi is considered a prized delicacy and is served only at special occasions. As the Hawaiian Kingdom transitioned from traditional to western practices of harvesting fish and marine life in the 1890’s and 1900’s, the ‘opihi fishery crashed from 150,000 pounds-per-year to about 10,000 pounds-per-year by 1944.  Since then, there’s been no recovery despite management efforts over the past 35 years.  As a result, the price of ‘opihi is skyrocketing; up to $42.50 a pound at markets in Honolulu this past summer.  

Dr. Chris Bird, Assistant Professor in the College of Science and Engineering, developed an android cellphone app that uses GPS, to not only keep count of the ‘opihi numbers, but to mark where they were found.  Bird and his team used the new technology over the summer within parts of the federally protected Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.

“As we count ‘opihi, we enter the number into the app. The app pinpoints our location with GPS and tracks what we found and where we found it,” said Bird.  “This will be used to help scientists assess how ‘opihi populations vary over time, and measure their genetic diversity.”