Hawaii Snorkeling 101

Snorkeling! Super fun, educational, great exercise, and a wonderful experience. However, if you're new to snorkeling and you don't know how your equipment works, what the weather is like, or basic skills, the experience can be a little scary and down right miserable.

No worries beef curries! This little guide offers some advice on how to prepare for and enjoy your snorkel experience. 

If you're about to snorkel for the first time and you're not well acquainted with the water and don't have any snorkeling skills you may find yourself in a bit of trouble.

The Hanohano Controversy and Speaking Hawaiian

This post way off topic from Ocean Awareness but I’ve came across a few articles about Representative Faye Hanohano that have piqued my interest and I wanted to share my opinions.

You can view the articles here:

'I Don't Want to Translate': Rep. Hanohano's Use of Hawaiian Leads to Tension on House Floor

and

Chad Blair: How Do You Solve a Problem Like Hanohano?

After reading both articles I've been seeing comments like the following, which is what prompted me to write this entry.

“If the official languages of the State of Hawai'i are Hawaiian and English...then wouldn't it make sense for those who are in Hawaii's legislative offices learn to speak Hawaiian too? How silly to have a translator if the elected body of the legislation can't understand the language's they uphold!”

“when speaking your native language in your native homeland is considered an offense, the native Hawaiian oppression continues, and our nation remains occupied. any haoles complaining about "racism" or telling us our oppression is in the past need to wake the hell up.”

Yes, it would make sense for Hawaii officials to learn to speak Hawaiian since it is one of the official languages. But there are a few things I'd like to address.

DISCOVERY! New Species of Coral Off the Big Island

Hey everyone! I have some exciting news. A new species of coral has been discovered!
Instead of summarizing the message I received from one of my mentors I'll post the entire message for you to read along with the links that came with it.

"Subject: News release from DLNR - UNUSUAL CORALS DISCOVERED OFF OF THE BIG ISLAND

DEPARTMENT OF LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCES

NEIL ABERCROMBIE
GOVERNOR

WILLIAM J. AILA, JR.
CHAIRPERSON

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jan. 29, 2014

UNUSUAL CORALS DISCOVERED OFF OF THE BIG ISLAND

Stuck on the Olowalu Town Project; Whispers, Rumors... Truth?

I'm stuck everyone. Just stuck.

It's been 50 days since the last time I spoke with Mr. Bill Frampton of the Olowalu Town Project and gave him a list of questions he said he would be able to answer. I told him all I wanted was the truth and I gave him the benefit of the doubt since a lot of people thought he was the "big bad developer" who basically wanted to screw over Olowalu for a large town that cannot be put there.

But it's been 50 days everyone. 50 days since our meeting.

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

Overpopulation Cartoon

By BlueMenpachi

You might have to zoom in (ctrl +) in order to find all the themes.

Kahului Harbor Clean Up Log: Week 1

Greetings Readers!

Sunday August 12, 2012 marks the beginning of my weekly logged adventures to Kahului Harbor. Every Sunday, from 12:00pm to 5:00pm (possibly earlier in the day), I will head to Kahului Harbor to pick up trash and plastic debris which is brought in from the tides.

The amount of plastic debris out there is RIDICULOUS.

Tiny bits of plastic are scattered EVERYWHERE and is even mixed in with the rocks because of the ebb and flow of the tide.

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)

Dead Hawksbill at Kahului Harbor... Still there; Turtle Birthdays at Maui Ocean Center Tomorrow, June 29!

Two days ago, Michelle, one of the ladies with the Turtle Stranding Network, was unable to locate the dead turtle at Kahului Harbor.

So I went back there yesterday to see if it was still there, and yes it was.
It actually got a little worse (I think) because the odor was ridiculously strong... Very stink and nasty...

I took a short video to show that I had propped its head up on some rocks. You can really see the lump on the back of its neck, which I still think is a tumor.

(The following is the video of the dead turtle):

Walk to Kahului Harbor Turns into an Interesting (and nasty) Adventure: The Remains of a Dead Hawksbills Turtle

Hello Readers!

As the title says, I found a very mangled and very DEAD turtle at Kahului Harbor today.
I was walking along the coast line looking for parts that I could use.

Kahului Harbor has a LOT of junk/trash that washes up on the "beach" from God knows where. (This place is also at the top of my list of beach clean ups).

So I was walking along when I came across what I thought was whale intestines!
It was just a heaping hunk of flesh just washed up on the shore. There was no shell, so I couldn't tell it was a turtle at first.

As I got closer, I could just barely make out it front right flipper. I didn't have my video camera on me, but I did have my phone. The following video is my raw footage of the turtle find:

**WARNING** The video is pretty gross. If you have a weak stomach, DON'T watch it. 

Maui Ocean Awareness Training; My first O.A.T.!

WHERE DO I BEGIN?
I guess I should start at the beginning...
Last night at the Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, I attended my first OAT. (Ocean Awareness Training)

Our first guest speaker was a man named Dean Tokishi. He is an Ocean Resources Specialist for the Kaho'olawe Island Reserve Commission.

He talked about the history of Kaho'olawe;
How it wasn't only the bombing that lead to it's degradation, but the ranching period from 1858 to 1941. They had cattle, sheep and goats, which degraded the island.

First Ever Online "Fishinar"; A Webinar Made for Fish Dorks~

Earlier this evening, I was able to attend my very first "fishinar"!
It's like a seminar, on the web, that covered fish!
There were some pretty cool people online tonight!
One of them was my teacher, Donna Brown, along with some of her colleagues; Liz Foote and Janna Nichols, along with other "students" who wanted to learn more about fish!
We're all members of this online website called reef.org. REEF stands for Reef Environmental Education Foundation.

Their mission is "To conserve marine ecosystems for their recreational, commercial, and intrinsic value by educating, enlisting and enabling divers and other marine enthusiasts to become active stewards and citizen scientists. REEF links the diving community with scientists, resource managers and conservationists through marine-life data collection and related activities."

Basically, they want to help protect the marine ecosystem, so they do it through educating the public and try to get them physically involved with doing fish surveys by snorkeling or even diving.

I've done a few fish surveys myself, with Uncle Rick Long and some other awesome fish dorks like myself!

"Code Of Conduct"

This past Saturday, August 27, 2011, some friends and I went out to Black Rock here on Maui to go enjoy a nice day at the beach with some exchange students from Japan.
All was well for the entire day! Well, almost the entire day. We were having fun, jumping off the rocks in the ocean and showing the Japanese students how to jump off and everything.

My cousin and I were going for our last jump off the top of Black Rock when i noticed, down to my left at the bottom of the jump, there were many snorkelers gathering around something that was in the water.

I saw there were two green sea turtles and the way the tourists were gathering around them, looked so dangerous... They were literally CORNERING the turtles against the rock face that it almost got stuck on the rocks... I was so angry... I watched the tourists as they continued to get even CLOSER to the turtles!

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!