The Lost Files: Memoirs of The Kaupo Get Away

There have been so many events and issues that have popped up since my last post. But everything that was on my camera and on my computer was somehow corrupted and I wasn't able to view, upload or edit any of my files… UNTIL NOW.

Thanks to some snazzy computer magic, I was able to recover most of my files!

So from this post on, any entry or upload that has the title “The Lost Files” in front of it, is a file that I was able to recover from the pits of computer hell.

To start off the Lost Files Series, last year I was able to take an amazing trip out to a part of Maui called Kaupo with some friends and family.

Kaupo is along the Southeastern shore of Maui, is a slightly isolated and rugged place and the people of

An Evening with Plastic at Kahului Harbor! 10/15/2012

Okay. I will admit. The last two weekends I was not at Kahului Harbor doing my weekly clean ups.
And I regret not being out there because of THIS!

Mystery Bones at Kahului Harbor

A couple of weeks ago I found a bone at Kahului Harbor Section 2.
It looked like a turtle beak, but I'm not quite sure. Last time I made a guess about a turtle I was incorrect.
Anyways, here's some pictures:

International Coastal Clean Up! Sept. 15, 2012, Kahului Harbor

Saturday September 15, 2012 was the International Coastal Clean Up Day!

A worldwide (for lack of better words) revolution where clubs, organizations and individuals around the world get together to clean up their beaches.

A group that I usually hang out with went to Kahekili Beach Park in Lahaina, Maui; However, I had to work in the morning, so I missed participating with them.

Instead, after I  finished work, I went down to Kahului Harbor to the portion I call Section 1, to collect marine debris!

I had started at 11:55 am.

Second Follow Up on Dead Turtle at Kahului Harbor

I met Michelle out at Kahului Harbor and showed her where the dead turtle was. (I must have not explained it correctly the first time).

After having a rather difficult time taking pictures of the turtle and e-mailing them to her Head of her division, we've finally identified that it was NOT a hawksbill turtle.

She measured it at 81cm long and it was a green sea turtle.

Since hawksbill turtle are critically endangered and green sea turtles are not, Michelle did not need to collect the carcass. Which was totally okay with us since the remains were even WORSE than tuesday.

I also confirmed that it did indeed have Fibropapilloma (turtle tumors/turtle herpes). Those lumps protruding out of the bottom of its eye and at the base of its neck are remnants of those tumors.

So after all that, the carcass will just be left there to let the ocean take it bit by bit.

(more pictures and video log to be posted later tonight)

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.

Long time no blog!

Jeezum crow I haven't entered anything new in a LONG time!
I promise this weekend your gonna get hit with at LEAST 8 to 10 new blog posts!
I've been writing everything down in this handy little notebook of mine and soon it shall be on my blog!
So manye crazy things have passed:
Kihei got flooded from the rainstorm. Beaches are either getting cleaned up or polluted. The 8.9m earthquake that shifted Japan and the tsunami that followed it causing so many people to lose lives and lifestyles...
So many things happening in the world. At least people have been trying to help.
There are tsunami relief events happening around the islands AND the world.
There are beach clean ups that help a bunch. And Maui even had a small tsunami of there own! Very very small of course. THANKFULLY no horrible destructive damage.
(Maui better count their blessings)

There are so many things I want to blog about I'm not sure where to start!

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.

A Beautiful Evening with a nice Rainfall. But please be careful of run-off

It's pouring tonight on Maui, and there'e that lovely smell in the air of a nice clean rain.



But please remember everyone, with all that rain comes run-off. And contaminated run-off is bad juju for our oceans.
Everything that gets thrown out into the streets will either wash right down to the ocean or will travel through the storm drains only to get washed up on our beaches and (again) our oceans.



Be mindful of the things you see or throw onto the ground. There are consequences for careless actions.
So i ask again. Please be mindful of what is on the ground.
Mahalo!
:3

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle! Step Two: REUSE

Continuing on from the 3 R’s post
These are my examples on how to perform them to help protect the environment.

The second R is Reuse:

1.)You can reuse plastic and glass bottles many times over.
Bottled water is the dumbest thing I have ever heard of. Water is available through your tap! The only thing you buy when you buy bottled water is… lower quality water and the plastic.