Blue Planet Journey

While Caroline and the Wanderlust yoga group drove to Ko Olina to snorkel, I headed over to the Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve to volunteer for a few hours. The weather was... perky. Windy, rainy, and cool. I parked in the staff lot and walked to the education program office. On the way, I noticed a number of birds feeding on a piece of bread in the parking lot. Let's see... cattle egrets (introduced), zebra doves (introduced), myna bird (introduced), and a chicken (introduced).  Not a great start for visiting a nature preserve!  And with the cats and the mongoose (more introductions), I wondered again about the city's ability to manage this area. The only non-human species I know somebody is attempting to manage is cats, with some restrictions on feeding and I believe a more concerted attempt to manage the cats as a TNVR colony. Last week there was a report of a critically ill Hawaiian monk seal on Oahu infected with the Toxoplasma gondii parasite. I h...

Sign in lavatory of ultra-economy Jetstar flight to Sydney. The main purpose of signs is to communicate, to send a message.  Here's a brief collection of some of the iconic or interesting signs I've photographed since December. These eels are in the ponds of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney. I'm guessing they were the inspiration for the " shrieking eels " in the movie, The Princess Bride. Legal drinking age in Australia. Where is it natural to show your love for the lawn?  Why, on the top deck of an ocean cruise liner, in this case, the Celebrity Solstice .  Nothing like laying on the lawn with no land in sight! In Australia, they even ride their bikes on the wrong side of the bike paths! In a Sydney bookstore.  Now you know why Australians are so laid back. Left with the trash in Sydney.  I hope somebody snatched it and gave it a good home.  I love Ansel Adams' work. Visitors sometimes complain that the ...

Caroline observing 2 Hawaiian monk seals at Poipu Beach, Kauai. I am not a Hawaiian monk seal biologist.  I am interested in monk seals , I discuss monk seals in my wildlife course, and I may have even sent in a written comment on a draft monk seal management plan.  Daughter Katelin probably knows more about monk seals than I do, as evidenced by her publication : In 2016, the Hawaiian monk seal population was estimated to be 1427 individuals.  That is not a large population, although over the past 5 years, the growth rate of the population seems to be increasing at 3% per year, with the highest growth rates on the Main Hawaiian Islands.  That’s good news.  The bad news is that the the population is still small, and threats to the population continue. What are those threats ?  NOAA lists them as follows, although they are not listed in any order of priority or importance: •. Adult male aggression :  Some males cause injury or death t...