While most people visit the Islands for its sandy beaches and sunshine, birding enthusiasts flock to Hawai‘i’s lush forests and coastlines hoping to spot some of the rarest birds in the world. Hawai‘i is one of the best places around for birding, primarily because of the many unique and rare birds found here. And Hawai‘i Island is […]
There’s a dry-erase board at Ke Kai Ola, a monk seal hospital at Keāhole Point, with the names of its Hawaiian monk seal patients, where they’re from, when they arrived and their weights, both on arrival and now. One look at this chart and you can see the impact this hospital, built by the California-based Marine Mammal Center, has
There was something great that happened in 2020. A new Hawaiian monk seal was born. And this month that pup (RM90) got a name. It’s Mele, the Hawaiian word for “song.” The pup, who was born in either late spring or early summer on Oʻahu, was given her name by a group of third graders
“An hour in the garden puts life’s problems in perspective.” This is on a sign posted on the door of Ho‘omaluhia Botanical Garden’s visitor center. I’ve only been here a minute, but I can already understand the sentiment on a spiritual level. Ever since my girlfriend, Kaila, and I crossed the the Ko‘olau Mountains on
November is when the koholā (humpback whales) return to Hawaiʻi to breed, birth and nurse calves. An estimated 8,000 to 12,000 of the protected marine mammals migrate from Alaska to the Islands’ warm, shallow waters through April, when they head back north again. This year, though, the first North Pacific humpback whale sighting was reported on Oct.
Hawaiʻi Island residents woke up to an unexpected overnight eruption at Kīlauea’s Halemaʻumaʻu crater this morning. On Sunday night an eruption sent plumes of smoke into the air but posed no immediate threats to nearby communities. No evacuations were needed. By 1 a.m. U.S. Geological Survey officials reported lava fountains that shot 165 feet into the
n an effort to mālama (take care) of Hawaiʻi, Alaska Airlines is planning to plant a small forest on Oʻahu’s Gunstock Ranch—nearly 900 trees—now through the end of 2020. READ MORE: Help Reforest Gunstock Ranch on Oʻahu’s North Shore More specifically, the airline has partnered with Mālama Hawaiʻi and the Hawaiian Legacy Reforestation Initiative to plant one milo
In ancient Hawaiʻi, loko iʻa (fishponds) served as vital resources for Hawaiian communities. By some accounts, there were an estimated 350 fishponds in operation in ancient Hawaiʻi, growing a variety of fresh and saltwater plants and fish, including ʻamaʻama (mullet) and ʻawa (milkfish). Loko kuapā, or walled shoreline ponds, were the most common. These had sluice gates, or mākāhā, to keep fish
Maybe I’m a bird nerd, but every summer I log in my calendar when I see the first kōlea of the year. It’s one of those momentous occasions for me, seeing a Pacific golden plover flap its long wings—these birds have a 17-inch wingspan—or perch on a rooftop in my neighborhood. Growing up on Oʻahu, I
On the North Shore of Kaua‘i, there’s a farm where plants are called allies and the farmers are herbalists. Kaua‘i Farmacy creates plant-based medicine from crops grown on the company’s Kīlauea organic farm. My first experience with its medicinal potions was eight years ago, through the screened window of a mobile “farmacy” parked on a side road off the
If there was a silver lining to COVID-19 in Hawaiʻi, it’s Hanauma Bay. The protected marine bay in East Honolulu on Oʻahu closed to visitors on March 18 and still hasn’t reopened. (Other city beaches had reopened since, but the bay remained closed this whole time because visitors are required to watch an educational video
In a historic effort to help repopulate the endangered Hawaiian Petrel, or ʻuaʻu in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language), project partners were happy to see the first of 87 birds return to the protected bird sanctuary of Nihoku at Kīlauea Point National Wildlife Refuge on the island of Kauaʻi. With a small population of 6,000 to 8,000 mating couples in
