Kai’hana Yamada & Shanalin Lee Ling, marine
science students at COM-FSM, worked collaboratively on Laalong conservation. Their research was conducted in the natural environment (coastal ocean) and laboratory. In order to grow the sea cucumbers (Holothuria scabra), the students built a three tiered system and secured it in a shallow lagoon with water bottles filled with sand. The contraption supported a simplistic and cost effective design and used local materials such as bamboo where possible. In this design, macro algae collected on the top tier attracted the Kiok and Umele (Siganus fuscescens & Siganus argenteus, respectively). Their excrement in turn fed the sea cucumbers which were collected on a mesh mat and later transported into large salt water tanks at the lab. During their research, the students also learned how to facilitate algal production of Haetoceros muelleri, for larval feeding, and Navicula for juvenile feeding.