Ocean Blog

Three endangered Hawaiian monk seals have a second chance at life in the ocean after being rehabilitated at Kona’s marine hospital, Ke Kai Ola.

Emergency medical services was called just before 7 a.m. and treated a man bit by an 8-foot tiger shark in Kewalo Basin in Honolulu on Easter Sunday.

During a routine patrol in the South Kona District, the officers took photographs and drone video showing the large group of swimmers appearing to be aggressively pursuing, corralling and harassing the pod in Hōnaunau Bay on Hawaiʻi Island.

The potential new National Marine Sanctuary identified in the Presidential Memorandum would conserve 777,000 square miles, including the existing Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.

The separate State of Hawaiʻi projects address temporary, short-term fixes and permanent, long-term solutions for water problems at popular Hāpuna Beach State Recreation Area.

The forecast is for dangerously large breaking waves of 10 to 15 feet in Kona and Kohala.

The public is advised to stay out of flood waters and storm water runoff in Hilo Bay due to possible overflowing cesspools, sewers, manholes, pesticides, animal fecal matter, dead animals, pathogens, chemicals and associated flood debris.

David Jiménez, who calls himself “Dolphin Dave,” was cited for two violations after the state Department of Land and Natural Resources received numerous calls reporting alleged wildlife harassment.

Maui volunteers spotted the most humpback whales on Feb. 25 with 596, followed by O’ahu with 232, the Big Island with 105 and 64 for Kaua’i.

A 120-ton, 94-foot luxury yacht that grounded in a Maui bay now is defueled. Next is a $460,000 plus salvage operation.

The Hawaiʻi State Department of Land and Natural Resources said it has hired Visionary Marine of Honolulu to do the salvage operations of the luxury yacht that grounded in Honolua Bay.

The owners of a grounded 94-foot yacht have hired a private contractor to salvage the vessel, according to the Hawaiʻi State Department of Land and Natural Resources.

“Based on recordings of whale song, our research reveals that nearly the entire Hawaiian archipelago is visited by humpback whales during the winter and early spring months,” says the paper’s lead author Marc Lammers, research ecologist with the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. “We documented an abundance of koholā in Papahānaumokuākea.”

“While some agencies saw this kanaloa as a ‘specimen,’ we understand that this kanaloa is our ancestor and as such, requires us to engage in a specific manner.” — statement from Native Hawaiian group Kiaʻi Kanaloa regarding handling of dead whale that washed ashore on Kauaʻi.

While tako is a common name for the octopus in the Aloha State, it is of Japanese origin. The Hawaiian word for octopus is he’e.

On Jan. 6, Kanaloa Octopus Farm was sent the letter, which said the state’s Division of Aquatic Resources learned the facility “is propagating Octopus cyanea and attempting to rear juvenile individuals.” Without a permit, even the temporary possession of Octopus cyanea specimens less than one pound in weight (including newly hatched larvae) is unlawful.

Researchers at the Health and Stranding Lab spent 15-hours trying to find clues about the death of a 56-foot-long sperm whale that washed up Friday on the reef in front of Lydgate Park on Kaua’i.

The whale, which is in poor condition, emaciated and suffering physical trauma, is thought to be fully disentangled with some non-wrapping embedded lines that will hopefully be shed with time.

The sperm whale’s burial location on Kauaʻi is not being publicized to avoid the taking of body parts of a protected species, which is illegal under federal and state laws.

Prior to its discovery in 10 whale and dolphin host species across the Pacific, the virus was found in only a single marine mammal worldwide, a Longman’s beaked whale stranded on Maui in 2010.