• WHERE I WORK

I explore the impact of wildfires on Hawaii’s coral reefs

Oceanographer Andrea Kealoha studies how the devastating Lahaina wildfire of 2023 affected the coral systems of Maui.
By
  1. Bianca Nogrady

    1. Bianca Nogrady is a freelance science journalist based in Sydney, Australia.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Andrea Kealoha dives off the coast of Maui, Hawaii to install water gauges that check the coastal reef quality.

Andrea Kealoha is an assistant professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Credit: Nani Welch Keliihoomalu for Nature

Access through your institution
Buy or subscribe

“In August 2023, a wildfire devastated the coastal town of Lahaina on the Hawaiian island of Maui. Within days, the University of Hawaii at Manoa began setting up a response group to focus on the fire’s impacts on water quality and contaminants. I led the work related to coastal water quality, because I am from Maui and was already working with the island’s community to understand the stresses that can affect coral-reef health.

Access options

Access through your institution

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 637, 1014 (2025)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-00076-5

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing