The Lost Files: Volunteering at the Ahihi Kina'u Natural Area Reserve; Exciting Events in the First Two Weeks

For the past two weeks I've been volunteering at the Ahihi Kina'u Natural Area Reserve and it has been EXCITING.

On my second day I helped rescue a lady who had an "anxiety induced asthma attack" while she was snorkeling with her husband.

Picture taken by Sarah Bott

Caught a man feeding the fish (CLICK HERE to read the web log post)

Retrieved a big bunch of net from the shoreline in front of the Sugarman estate.

Picture taken by Sarah Bott

Helped assist with a helicopter lift that took away suspected tsunami debris

Saw some poachers get busted from fishing in the reserve 

And I meet a lot of cool people! Literally! Majority of the people I meet at the reserve are from Canada!

This is only my second week volunteering at the Reserve, but it really is a LOT of fun.

Maui's 3 Can Plan

Yeah Maui County!

FINALLY a recycling program is happening!

Starting August 17, 2012, neighborhoods in South Maui will be a part of Phase 1 Curbside Recycling!

We have been issued two new trash cans. A Blue one and a Green one, where select items acceptable for recycling, will be collected by Maui’s Oplala Pickers! (aka, Garbage Men)

The Brown Cart is for rubbish only.

The Blue Cart is used for Mixed Recyclables. Items allowed are:

• ·         Corrugated cardboard
• ·         Boxboard (ex; cereal boxes, egg cartons)
• ·         Juice cartons (ex; Milk cartons, pog cartons etc)
• ·         Paper bags
• ·         Newspaper (but no phone books)
• ·         Junk mail and envelopes
• ·         Magazines
• ·         Office Paper
• ·         #1 Plastic bottles (ketchup, shoyu and soda bottles)
• ·         #2 Plastic bottles (pog jugs, laundry soap jugs, medicine bottles etc)
• ·         #1 and #2 Containers (plastic bento containers, jamba juice cups, strawberry and tofu containers)
• ·         Dairy Tubs and Lids (sour cream containers, poi containers)
• ·         Beverage Cans (regular Hi5 aluminum cans)
• ·         Food cans (ex; spam, pineapple, dog food cans)
• ·         Aluminum Foil and Trays

However, NO METAL and NO GLASS items are allowed to be recycled for they contaminate the other materials. (Glass shards and rust I suppose)

No PLASTIC BAGS are allowed in this cart either and all beverage and food residue must be rinsed out.

The Green Cart is used for Greenwaste. Item allowed are:

Advanced Open Water "Scuba-fication"

Hey everyone,
I really need to get this blogging thing on a more consistent pace again.
So! A lots has happened in the past month.
I was Open Water Scuba Certified, or what I like to call, "Scuba-fied" and yesterday, I had completed my boat dive and deep dive for my Advanced Open Water!
It was so amazing.
For our deep dive, my partner, my instructor and myself went out to Molokini with the Maui Dive Shops boat the Makakoa.
We jumped off the boat and into the water and went down to 100ft!
And the first sea creature my instructor, Wayne, took us to see were two white tip sharks sleeping in this little cave~
They reminded me of cats! Sleeping all day and staying up all night.
We did our little puzzle thing we had to do underwater, then he took us around Molokini!
SO MANY COOL THINGS TO DORK OUT ON!
Varieties of fish, I saw my first flatworm, there were garden eels, peanut eels, those two white tips, butterflyfish, pufferfish (which are my favorite), so many things down there!

After our deep dive, we headed over to another dive spot called 5 Caves. Other people know it as 7 Graves or Turtle Town. (poh-tay-toe; poh-tah-toe)
We went down to about 40 ft here. And again... SO MANY THINGS TO DORK OUT ON.

CPR and First Aid certified!

Just a little quickie post!
This past Friday was pretty interesting!
I got CPR and First Aid certified at Maui CPR!
I was super nervous because I wasn’t sure how the class was going to be...
Were there going to be a lot of people? Was the instructor going to be some sarcastic jerk teacher?
NO! The class I signed up for was so pleasant. It was only me, one other student and the instructor whose name is Matt.

I could go on and on about exactly what I learned in the class, but instead you should go and check it out yourself!
To me, the class is a bit expensive, but I guess it’s what one has to do to get their certification!
:D
In the end I thought it was worth it. I felt a sense of accomplishment and new found knowledge.
Matt was a great teacher. Very easy to work with and a very kind personality.
I encourage you Mauians to go check it out!

http://mauicpr.com/Home_Page.html

Lipoa Beach Walk: TRASH FINDINGS

After Maui had that big rain, we've still been feeling the after effects. The water at Lipoa was even more brown than usual and there was drift wood all over the entrance with bits of trash, or shells.
When I was at Lipoa again this morning. I decided to pick up what ever little trash I could along the way.
And here's what I found:

MOP Project week 1: Seaweed collection!

So for the past week I've been collecting Hypnea musciformis for my school project.
Ultimately, I want to make awesome compost and fertilizer out of it.
On Monday (1/24/11) from 6am to 7am, Wednesday (1/26/11) 6:30am to 7:30am and this morning from 7:30am to 9:00am I was down at Lipoa in Kihei collecting seaweed.
In my proposal it says it says that I will collect 417 lbs of Hypnea, but since I don't have the space yet at my house I only collected 183 lbs this week.
I took out about 16 lbs and put the seaweed into a blue bucket and rinsed off all the seawater that was sitting on it.