Bigeye Tuna Coming to Kohala. A revoluti…
Bigeye Tuna Coming to Kohala. A revolutionary bigeye tuna farm off Kohala on the Big Island is approved. Hawaii Oceanic Technology will build an initial 3 Oceanspheres cages holding a total of 60,000 fish. The tuna will be harvested weighing 100 pounds.
The initial 3,000 tons of tuna will expand to 12,000 tons and have a revenue of $120 million dollars. In 2007 224,000 tons of bigeye were caught in the Pacific. The 2008 value of Hawaii aquaculture sales was a record $34.7 million dollars. Algae was the largest aquaculture crop at $15.7 million dollars. The DLNR land board approved the tuna project with a 4-1 vote.
Oceanspheres will be revolutionary unanchored cages made of aluminum, plastic, 165 feet in diameter and submerged 65 feet below the surface. The cages located in 1,300 feet of water will use solar and ocean thermal energy to keep the cages stabilized and within the 247 acre aquaculture lease site.
Hawaii Oceanic Technology hopes to be a world leader and hatch tuna fry from eggs at the University of Hawaii Hilo aquaculture lab. The Australian Seafood Co-operative Research Centre’s South Australian hatchery recently made history by hatching tuna that lived to the 100 day mark. This is more than five times what tuna breeders have been able to achieve previously. The young fish were spawned from adult females that were given hormone injections to facilitate egg production.
As for fish feed Hawaii Oceanic Technology is saying that it won’t feed farmed tuna antibiotics or sustainably harvested fish meal. To help with the high cost of imported feed, The Oceanic Institute at Makapu’u is developing a feed mill using seafood scraps, produce waste, algae and biofuel plant renderings. The trial plant is up and running and producing 300 pounds an hour.
A $4 million dollar plant is slated for Hilo that will produce 4 tons an hour. The feed will be used for fish and animal food. The plants are modeled after one developed at Kansas State University. The Hawaii feed plant is funded by USDA, State of Hawaii and local foundations. It will focus on aquaculture. Half of the current fish waste in Hawaii is buried in landfills.
Not all wanted a fish farm in Kohala. At least 400 people petitioned DLNR against the project. The Sierra Club complained about the large scope of the plans and the untested cage propulsion system. The UH-Manoa Environmental Center was against the project’s EIS’s lack of economic analysis. Rob Parsons of Maui Tommorrow said it didn’t like that the tuna farm was exporting 90% of its harvest: “This is not a farm. This is an industrial feed lot.”
Kauai Sea Scouts Score Trawler. The Kauai Sea Scouts received a 40-foot cruising trawler donation. The trawler will be taking them on their 2010 summer island chain adventure. The 1973 Taiwan built trawler was moored in Maui and has a 700 gallon fuel tank giving it a 2,200 mile range. There are 13 Kauai sea scouts. Their leader Larry Richardson says the program gives them sailing experience, boating safety and Sea Scouting skills. Richardson says there is plenty work to be done but monthly cruises are the goal. A survey shows that engine runs fine but minor repairs and maintenance is needed. Two staterooms and heads round out the free boat.
Robots Biomimic Fish Schools. Robots that biomimic fish school movements are being used to avoid vehicle crashes. The tiny 3-wheeled Eporo robots developed by Nissan can detect obstacles, and avoid collisions while traveling along side each other just like a school of fish. Using laser and radio communications, the robots can change directions. Nissan previously created robots copying bumble bee moves. It hopes the fish school technology will lead to anti-collision cars.
Bellows Community Cleanup Torpedoes. A community clean up day at the beach was torpedoed when real torpedoes were found. The military said all six of the torpedoes were dummy practice models. Regardless, the area was supposedly clear all all hazardous waste. Landfill 24 also known as the Pier Dump was active from 1942 to 1945. Marines own the land but the Air Force is responsible as former owners. The landfill is just feet from the beach.
In 2007 Congresswoman Mazie Hirono helped get $2 million in funding to clean the area with 50 percent of the work completed. Wilson Ho of the Waimanalo Neighborhood Board said originally the military wanted to just cover the site. “It is a form of betrayal that we had been lied to.”
None of the munitions had explosives and 8500 tons of debris is being removed from the site. Carrol Cox, of Enviro Watch, was concerned that the debris is just being moved to Nanakuli PVT dump. Cox said of the “Mutt and Jeff” cleanup move: “Now you’ve got two sites with contaminants.”
Flippers Inspire Wind Turbines. Whale flippers with their front bumpy edge have inspired a new wind turbine blade. The bumpy blades defy traditional theories by creating vortexes that help lift and cut stall. Frank Fish discovered the concept studying a dead whale on the beach. Fish is a professor of biology and took 2 hours and a Black and Decker crosscut saw to hack off a 300 pound humpback fin cut in three pieces. In a wind tunnel Fish found that the bumpy fins could be tilted at a higher angle with out stall. the bumps are called tubercles. The high angle attack helps whales swim in tight circles for eating fish schools by blowing a net of bubbles which fish don’t cross. The effect comes from pressure difference of air rushing over the tubercles and air channeled in the troughs between bumps. Bumpy edged wind turbines are now being manufactured.
Palau’s World Shark Sanctuary. The small Pacific nation Palau is making a 240,000 square mile shark sanctuary. Palau President Johnson Toribiong said patrolling an area the size of Texas will be difficult with only one boat. The shark’s that call Palau home are hammerheads, leopards, oceanic whitetips, gray reef sharks, blacktips and nearly 130 other shark species some of which are endangered. Palau’s exclusive economic zone which extends 200 miles from its shoreline will be covered.
Snickers Rescued While Gulliver Sits. It’s a dog life for cocker spaniel Snickers. Snickers is lost at sea for 95 days. Marooned on Fanning island for 4 months he rides a luxury liner to Honolulu before jetting to his new desert home Las Vegas. But Gulliver the hapless Macaw may be the dog s*** lucky one. He’s still free on a tropical paradise island.
Jerry and Darla Merrow are living the nightmare of their sailing dreams. Their 48 foot catamaran Darla Jean encounters mast problems during a 4 day, 40 knot storm 1200 miles from land. The autopilot dies, mainsail rips, and the engine swamps. They chart towards Hawaii limping along with adequate provisions, solar panels and wind generator.
On day 94 of their trip, 110 miles from Fanning Island they get caught in a current. It pulls them to small atoll in the Christmas Island group. Failing to radio hail Coast Guard or Fanning and using a scribbled chart taken from GPS notes, they slam into the Fanning reef. Sinking they swam ashore towing Snickers and Gulliver along.
Snickers 3 months adrift with his witless masters is bon voyaged. Jerry and Darla Merrow are rescued off Fanning by a cargo ship with a sign that reads: “No Pets Allowed.”
Snickers is left on an island atoll where there isn’t a word for “pets.” Dogs roam wild. And dinner can be small and furry. A coconut wireless message comes to the atoll saying that Snickers can be euthanized or put into dessert.
Jack Joslin is a sailing lover living in the Las Vegas desert. He reads about Snickers in the article that the Merrows write in the sailing magazine “Latitude 38.” The Merrows want to forget and that includes the abandoned Snickers.
Joslin calls the Hawaii humane Society. He would do whatever it takes to stop the Snicker death sentence. Joslin’s dog Tucker, a border collie found abandoned roadside at a Navajo Indian Reservation, was recently euthanized after 15 years. The Norwegian Shipping Lines and the Humane Society work with customs and Hawaii animal quarantine. Norwegian’s Pride of Aloha will be happy to take Snickers to Aloha tower. Hawaiian Airlines offers cargo space to Los Angeles where Joslin drives him to his new home lucky town USA, Las Vegas.
Snickers is saved. That only leaves Gulliver the hapless macaw. Because the bird is on the endangered list Honolulu won’t accept him as cargo. So for now the cast off, adrift, shipwrecked, marooned bird will just have to endure paradise for another day. Gulliver was quoted in the Tarawa, Kiribati newpaper Newstar: “Raaaaah, matey a pirates life for me.”
