386 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. XXII, July 1968 
Hawaiian beach sands can be found in the 
report by Moberly et al. (1965). 
As can be seen from the composition, most 
of the sand-size particles are produced in the 
nearshore zone by disintegration of reef-asso- 
ciated organisms. Their route of transportation 
is unknown but probably complex. Some of the 
particles move onto the beaches and, as the 
beaches are eroded and accreted during the 
year, the particles migrate onshore and offshore, 
but year after year they are set in the direction 
of net alongshore transport, that is, to the 
south. Just north of Kepuhi Point, thick, exten- 
sive sand deposits attest to this southerly migra- 
tion. During periods of intense northwesterly 
waves, strong littoral currents deflected seaward 
by Kepuhi Point as they flow southward, prob- 
ably carry large quantities of this material 
nearshore and offshore, where it completely 
buries the various offshore terraces and escarp- 
ments at least down to 180 meters, the diving 
limitation of the "Asherah.” A similar littoral 
cell a few miles to the south (Kahe) has been 
well studied and shows a similar nearshore sand 
circulatory pattern (Chamberlain and Marine 
Advisers, 1964). 
The masses of sand lying on the Penguin 
Banks and Mamala shelves, and the accumula- 
tions of calcareous sand on the inner edges of 
the Lualualei Shelf at the base of the deeper 
escarpment must be explained in a somewhat 
different manner. It is quite possible that little 
of this sand has ever been on the beaches. Most 
of it, except that in the larger channels con- 
nected to the nearshore zone, is probably pro- 
duced in situ on the deeper terraces, and by 
some process, yet unclear, it progresses seaward 
across the shelves, eventually spilling down 
onto the Lualualei Shelf. The larger sand chan- 
nels on the deeper terraces may well be located 
relative to strong, offshore currents that develop 
within the Makua Cell during periods of storm. 
But most of the sand observed from the 
"Asherah” is moving slowly downslope under 
the influence of gravity, disturbed occasionally 
by the orbital velocity of large waves in the 
unidirectional flow of periodic bottom currents. 
Where the escarpments are very steep, for 
example, between the Mamala and Lualualei 
shelves, the calcareous sand simply spills over 
the escarpment edge and falls down upon vari- 
ous ledges and finally upon the inner edge of 
the Lualualei Shelf. 
The quantity of sand within the Makua Cell 
has been estimated previously at approximately 
5 X Id 5 cu yd (Chamberlain, in press). How- 
ever, in light of the observations made from 
the "Asherah,” this estimate is probably too 
low by a factor of two, perhaps even by an 
order of magnitude. Assuming this amount 
(say, 10 6 cu yd) to be a sand reservoir essenti- 
ally in equilibrium with the present geologic 
and oceanographic conditions, then the yearly 
addition of new sand to this reservoir must be 
balanced by the yearly loss of sand from the 
reservoir. The yearly production or input of 
sand-size particles per length of coast along 
western Oahu is not known, but from the 
analyses made just to the south at Kahe, the 
total yearly production, or introduction, of sand 
into the Makua Cell is probably less than 10,000 
cu yd. Nevertheless, since the principal loss of 
sand from the Makua Cell is to deep water 
sedimentation, this figure means that approxi- 
mately 10,000 cu yd of sand are deposited 
yearly onto the inner portions of the Lualualei 
Shelf. The distance that this sedimentation ex- 
tended out onto the Lualualei Shelf could not 
be ascertained from the "Asherah” due to 
depth restrictions, but sand-size particles were 
photographed on the shelf down to below 600 
meters. 
BENTHIC ECOLOGY AND FISH COMMUNITIES 
Information on the kinds, distributions, and 
associations of organisms were obtained through 
four more or less complementary investigations: 
(1) by dredging and trawling, (2) by precision 
echo sounding, (3) by submarine photography 
with an automatic camera system, (4) direct 
observations from a research submarine. 
The submarine was limited to depths of 180 
meters or less and, while the other methods of 
investigation were not thus limited, the discus- 
sions concern observations from about 180 
meters to about 25 meters. Few observations 
were made in water shallower than this. The 
nature of the bottom and its topography is 
described in detail in the section on geomor- 
phology. Considered as an environment the area 
comprised two major biotopes: terraces, gen- 
