In this edition of Poi Dog Blog, you'll find a short piece on the tsunami's damaging effects at Kahalu'u Beach Park, a blog post about adventurers making an epic sail around the Pacific--old-style, a cool photo of a green sea turtle, a video of Kualoa Valley and one person's recounting of his hike up Diamond Head.
1. Kohala Center recaps the damage of the March 2011 tsuanami that was generated as a result of the mega-quake that centered off of Japan. "The Power of Mother Nature"paints a vivid picture of what happened at Kahalu'u Beach Park on Hawaii Island.
2. The ocean. It supplies us food, oxygen and, even, medicine, making this expansive part of our planet a literal life-saver. Earlier this summer, seven traditional voyaging canoes--vakas--representing the peoples of Aotearoa, Cook Islands, Fiji, Samoa, Tahiti, Kiribati, Papua New Guindea, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Hawaii and VAnuatu, sailed through Hawaii, making quite a stir and leaving quite a memory in their wake. The purpose of their trip is to investigate first-hand the plight of our oceans--over-fishing, rising sea-levels, plastic debris, and fossil fuel contamination. As well, threats we are only now coming to recognize: dead zones, ocean acidification, and noise pollution. The sailors will make their way across the sea recognizing the amazing journeys of their ancestors, using the stars, sun, wind, and wildlife as their guides.
Hawaii was just a stopping point on this around-the-Pacific journey, which started in Aotearoa (New Zealand) and stopped at Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas Islands before weaving their way through the Hawaiian archipelago. From here, the vakas headed northeast for San Francisco. They've since sailed south, down the California Coast. Along the way, they've encountered dolphins and seals of myriad species, humpback whales, fin whales, even blue whales. One such encounter with an entangled blue whale epitomizes the reason for the journey. But don't just read this one blog post. Read (and subscribe) to the whole thing.
3. Lorenzo Menendez captured a spectacular shot of a green sea turtle off the coast of Big Island, and it was featured on the National Geographic website.
4. Here's a three-and-a-half-minute video featuring Kualoa Valley--and various adventures there--created by devinsupertramp on YouTube.
5. And, lastly, a recounting of Jason Hussong's recent Diamond Head hike.
About Poi Dog Blog: Ask someone in Hawaii, “What kind of dog is that?” and they’re likely to say, “Oh, I don’t know. A poi dog.”
Poi dog. Also known as “mixed breed.” Or, better yet, mutt. (I like how “mutt” doubles the “t” at the end of the word, a hint at the definition—a dog with an ancestry of more than one breed.)
This column—Poi Dog Blog—as I’ve decided to call it, is simply a mash-up of articles I like from the Internet, all about Hawaii and written by a variety of authors. I hope you enjoy.