PIFSC Facilities
Dole Street Offices
PIFSC is located in Honolulu, Hawaii with its main office at 2570 Dole Street adjacent to the campus of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. The Dole Street facility includes the Directors Office, the Operations, Management and Information Division (OMID) and staff from three of the Center's research divisions, including the Fishery Research and Monitoring Division (FRMD), Ecosystems and Oceanography Division (EOD), and Protected Species Division (PSD).
The Dole Street facility has seminar and conference rooms and is home to the PIFSC Library and the Center's primary IT infrastructure. Proximity of the Dole Street facility to the Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research (JIMAR) and other academic resources of the University of Hawaii, including the Hamilton Library, provides significant benefits to the Center and fosters close interactions between Center research staff and University faculty and students.
Kewalo Research Facility
PIFSC maintains a shoreside research facility at Kewalo Basin on the Honolulu waterfront. Established in 1958 by the Honolulu Laboratory, predecessor to PIFSC, the 1-acre Kewalo Research Facility (KRF) includes a main building with offices, laboratories, a machine shop, and storage areas for research gear. Portable buildings have been installed on the site to provide essential office space for the Center's Coral Reef Ecosystem Division. Two saltwater wells at KRF provide high-quality, coral-filtered seawater to various tanks designed for holding tunas and other pelagic fish, Hawaiian monk seals, sea turtles and other marine life.
During its early years, KRF was the only facility in the world where tunas could be maintained in captivity throughout the year and supported extensive, groundbreaking research on tuna behavior and physiology. The history of KRF research has been chronicled several times:
Kapiolani Boulevard Offices
The Center leases commercial space on Kapiolani Boulevard. This building houses the Pacific Islands Regional Office and PIFSC staff offices for the Protected Species Division, Scientific Operations, Socioeconomics and Planning, and the Fisheries Research and Monitoring Division.
Aiea Heights Research Facility
The Center leases private commercial space in Aiea, near Pearl Harbor, with offices and wet laboratories to accommodate staff of the Fisheries Biology and Stock Assessment Branch's Life History and Fish Ecology Programs. The Aiea Heights Research Facility (AHRF) provides safe, OSHA-compliant working conditions suitable for examination and dissection of fish, crustaceans, and other marine life collected during field research and market sampling; histological preparation and microscopic analysis of tissue samples; and other biological studies.
Ford Island Facility for NOAA Ships
The NOAA Ship Oscar Elton Sette, the Center's primary research vessel, is now berthed at Ford Island in Pearl Harbor at the site of the future NOAA Pacific Regional Center, along with other NOAA ships, including the Hi'ialakai and Ka'imimoana. The Sette and Hi'ialakai support most of the Center's fisheries and oceanographic research, ecological surveys, and other field activities in the central and western Pacific Ocean.
NOAA Pacific Regional Center
The Pacfic Regional Center (PRC) will consolidate NOAA programs and operations on the island of O'ahu into a single facility on federally-owned property at Ford Island. The main move of PIFSC staff is currently scheduled for November 2013. Click here for more information on the PRC.
