• Send the seals to Big Island; it’s safer there • Let’s keep visitors alive • Bring back profiling Send the seals to Big Island; it’s safer there Growing up on Kaua‘i in the 40’s and 50’s, I never heard
• Send the seals to Big Island; it’s safer there • Let’s keep
visitors alive • Bring back profiling
Send the seals to Big Island; it’s safer there
Growing up on Kaua‘i in the 40’s and 50’s, I never heard of the Hawaiian monk seal. Now there are so many around that some fishermen see them as competition and as newcomers who don’t belong here.
My wife and I volunteer for the monk seal program and here’s what I’ve learned. In the early 90’s, scientists brought 21 male seals from the Northwestern Hawaiian islands (NHI) and spread them out among all the main islands. But if only males were brought here, there must have been females around in order for them to reproduce.
So, I always ask old timers when did they first see a monk seal. A Kilauea man said his father saw a seal in the 1960’s, at Secret Beach. And a retired policeman said he saw one at Aliomanu, also in the ‘60’s. It appears, then, that monk seals have been around Kaua‘i for about 50 years and have been reproducing to the point where we now have roughly 40 that live around this island, or regularly visit.
They were also around in distant past. Archeologists have found a pile of buried monk seal bones on the Big Island dated from about 600 years ago. Haunani-Kay Trask, the Hawaiian Studies professor at UH, has suggested that the seals may have left the main islands soon after the first Polynesian settlers came.
Whatever their history, Hawaiian monk seals are now critically endangered (about 1,100 left). There is talk of bringing some juveniles from the NHI to the main islands, to assist in their survival. But I feel we, on Kaua‘i, cannot safely accommodate more than what we have now. Two were shot dead last year, one a full term pregnant female.
Other islands, like the Big Island, have much less. Send them there. Its safer. Hopefully, this ancient creature, whose DNA hasn’t changed in 15 million years, will be around for our descendants to see.
Lloyd Miyashiro, Kapa‘a
Let’s keep visitors alive
This past Sunday afternoon, three of my children and I were bodysurfing at Brennecke’s Beach. It was a near perfect day; with children, gray-haired people, and others being happily tossed around in the waves together. It was over-crowded for wave riding, but everyone seemed to be having fun anyway. I estimate some waves had 6-foot faces, which have great power in a shore break. But I had very little fear with my children as we dove under the waves that were too big.
After one big wave, I came up and saw a man floating face down. Very quickly his friend came and lifted him. Blood was pouring down from his forehead. The two of us pulled the man to shore through the surf. He could not talk and could not move his arms or legs. Later that day, someone at the hospital told me he was still alive, but could not say any more than that. I am very concerned about him.
This story is an example of the fact that many of the adventures here are relatively safe for the locals but can be quite dangerous for the uninformed visitors. For this reason, I would urge that we give the visitors to Kaua‘i a little more warning. When the visitors are captured by the beauty of the island, it is easy for them to overlook its dangers.
I suggest that a one-page flyer be given out on all flights into Kaua‘i (e.g. when they offer the free maps). Besides a nice welcome statement, this flyer would include a summary of all the visitor deaths and permanent injuries on Kaua‘i over the past 10 years, and how some of these could have been avoided. They would be listed in each category; such as rip currents, shore breaks, falling off cliffs, etc. The flyer could also refer to a website that would contain more extensive information about staying safe on Kaua‘i.
Some may worry about scaring tourists away. But we should be willing to give the visitors some clear facts to be aware of. It would not be right to prevent visitors from seeing the dangers, so that we can make more money from them. We could also include the total number of safe visits in the past 10 years, so the risks are not overstated.
Let’s do a simple step like this to reduce the high number of deaths and injuries at our own island home.
Mark Beeksma, Koloa
Bring back profiling
It’s pure capitalism, convincing the American people they need to show their family jewels by means of a full-body scan while lining the pockets of Wall Street executives.
In Israel at the most dangerous airport in the world there are no full body scanners.
Would President Obama submit his wife, children and mother in-law to full-body scans or body pat-downs?
Why are we making everyone from grandmothers to children go through body scans and pat-downs as though we are all criminals?
How many people who have been convicted of terrorism fit the profile of your mother, father, sister, brother or cousin?
Every terrorist I recollect had a certain profile; why are we making everyone suffer? It may not be politically correct, however, profiling works.
Bring back profiling. In the meantime, men pop a Viagra before going through airport security and give them something enormous to contemplate.
James “Kimo” Rosen, Kapa‘a
