A healthy green sea turtle. Photo Credit: NOAA
The debilitating tumor disease that racked Hawaiian green sea turtle populations starting in the 1950s appears to have declined since its peak, and some individual turtles seem to be able to overcome it.
It’s a hopeful sign in the upbeat story of turtle recovery in the Islands.
Source: Raising Islands
Earl, a retired champion rope horse, and Buddy, a 5-year-old quarterhorse, were mysteriously shot last week in a Kapaia, Kauai pasture, leaving one dead and the other injured.
At 7:30 a.m. Thursday, owner Ben Ellsworth found Buddy shot in the face and standing over Earl, who was lying down in the pasture with a fatal wound to his side.
“I have no idea who” shot the horses, said Andrea Ellsworth. “I don’t think it was personal. I think it was probably random.”
Kauai Humane Society Executive Director Rebecca Rhoades said police believe the horses were shot with a high-powered rifle, judging from the size of the bullets removed from the animals.
The group is offering a $10,000 reward for tips that lead to the arrest and conviction of the shooter.
Source: Leila Fujimori, Honolulu Star-Bulletin
Unite Here Local 5 will hold a vigil today in support of members who work at the hotel
The storied but money-losing Ilikai Hotel will close tomorrow after more than 45 years of hosting Waikiki vacations for millions of travelers, many of them repeat visitors to Hawaii.
Current guests have been told they will receive other accommodations, as will travelers with future reservations.
New York-based iStar Financial Inc. said the hotel operation would close tomorrow, that its subsidiary would take possession of the property Friday and that it continues to evaluate possible uses for the property that will address community needs.
Source: Erika Engle, Honolulu Star-Bulletin
Three women donned scuba masks and jumped into the waters off Oahu’s North Shore, floating inside a submerged cage as about a dozen sharks glided toward bloody fish scraps tossed into the water by a tour company.
Tourist Kim Duniec said the experience of coming eye to eye with sharks was exhilarating.
“Their eyes were scary, but they were still graceful, absolutely beautiful,” the Beaver Dam, Wis., woman said.
Shark tours like this have become a popular visitor attraction in Hawaii, but a movement to shut them down is gaining momentum.
Some native Hawaiians consider sharks to be ancestral gods and view feeding them for entertainment to be disrespectful of their culture. Surfers and environmentalists fear the tours will teach sharks to associate people with food — leading to an increase in attacks — while disrupting the ocean’s ecological balance. Federal fisheries regulators are investigating the tours on the grounds that they are illegally feeding sharks.
Source: Honolulu Star-Bulletin
Buyers at the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Waikiki have less than a month to line up financing and get their documentation into escrow for a September closing.
Construction of the 38-story luxury hotel-condominium tower across from Fort DeRussy is nearing completion, as workers finish the interior suites and public areas.
The building sold all 464 condominium units, which were priced from $500,000 to more than $5 million, in one day in November 2006. None of the buyers have canceled, according to Jeff Skinner of S&P Destination Properties, principal broker for the project.
Any buyer who pulls out now will lose their 20 percent deposit.
About half of the buyers are from Japan; the balance are from Hawaii, North America, Asia and Europe.
Source: Pacific Business News
There are no signs of an imminent long-range missile launch from North Korea, easing fears that a missile could be aimed at Hawaii, according to Seoul’s YTN television news network.
A Japanese newspaper reported last month that North Korea could test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile toward Hawaii as early as July 4. The U.S. has increased defenses around the island state.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry says North Korea test-fired four short-range missiles today.
The launches came as North Korea’s relations with the United States, South Korea and other countries were already severely strained after its May 25 underground nuclear test and a series of missile firings.
Source: Honolulu Star-Bulletin
