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Tag: Hawaii

  • Justin Bartha: ‘Hangover’ Star Marries in Hawaii

    Another hunky actor falls off the gorgeous, rich and eligible list.

    Florida native Justin Bartha married fitness trainer Lia Smith at sunset Saturday on the island of Oahu in the bride’s home state of Hawaii.

    The Hangover star met his bride at a Pilates session at the Los Angeles gym where Smith works and announced their engagement in May 2013.

    Reese Witherspoon and her husband, agent Jim Toth, attended the wedding and a reception at Kualoa Ranch. Jesse Eisenberg and Hangover costar Ken Jeong also attended.

    They couple, who tend to keep their private life private, were first spotted on New Year’s Eve in January 2013 on a trip to Hawaii.

    Bartha, who split from Ashley Olsen in 2011 after a two-year relationship, has also been linked to Scarlett Johansson.

    Image via YouTube

  • Obama Hawaii: Back to Reality Today

    President Obama comes back to cold and blustery D.C. after two weeks in his hometown Hawaii.

    As the country watched his hair go from black to almost white in the past five years, the Associated Press tell us that the Obama leaves from his longest vacation since his presidency today. In the last two weeks, the Obama family has spent a little down time in a quiet suburb of Kailua on Hawaii’s eastern coast.

    As every hard-working guy should, the president has gotten in a few rounds of golf while chumming it up with a foreign official at the same time– the area has a golf course on the US Marine Corps base, and Barack Obama and New Zealand Prime Minister John Key spent a little time on the green.

    Honolulu Star Advertiser tells us that the bond shared by Obama and Key represents a growing trade relationship with New Zealand, and affirms their “continued work together to… enhance regional security and support the democratic values that the United States and New Zealand share.”

    To solidify the “a man’s work is never done” saying, Obama has also signed a defense bill and budget deal for the country on his time off with the ocean breeze easing the strain of making those important signatures. He’s also begun pushing for unemployment benefit reinstatement for his not-so-lucky citizens, all while avoiding a polar bear protester.

    Not entirely mixing work with play, besides relaxing in his rented beachfront home, Obama has been watching Breaking Bad, visited the zoo with the family and caught some basketball games at the Diamond Head Classic tournament at the Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu.

    Image via Youtube

  • Charlize Theron And Sean Penn Vacation Together In Hawaii

    It looks like Charlize Theron and Sean Penn may be more than just friends. Pictures from sources show the twosome having a good old time at the beach in Oahu, Hawaii.

    A source told E! News that the pair spent some time together upon returning to California. Indeed, the 53-year-old actor and his gorgeous 38-year-old South African friend were seen getting off the same flight at LAX airport on Wednesday.

    So, are these two the latest Hollywood hot couple, or are we just witnessing two friends hanging out? Romance rumors about the pair first surfaced in 2010 when the two were seen dining together. This might have been treated as nothing more than a dinner between two friends as it happened months before Penn’s divorce from Robin Wright and also prior to the split between Charlize and her then boyfriend Stuart Townsend.

    Sean and Charlize also attended the 40th birthday of  Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane in October and have been romantically linked by the media since. However, the two haven’t done anything that definitively suggests they are in a relationship. If they aren’t a couple, they’re surely acting like one.

    Charlize Theron’s Top 10 Performances

    Image via YouTube

  • Hawaii Plane Crash Kills Woman Responsible for Obama Birth Certificate

    The woman, who gained notoriety after she presented Barack Obama’s birth certificate in 2011, has died.

    Loretta Fuddy was the director of the Hawaii Department of Health and was a passenger in a single-engine plane with nine other people on board. The plane went down approximately 300 yards off Molokai’s Kalaupapa peninsula on Wednesday during an inter-island flight.

    The others, including the pilot, survived the crash – one passenger even swam to shore to safety.

    A spokesman for the Hawaii Department of Health said Fuddy’s deputy, Keith Yamamoto, was among the passengers who survived the crash of the Cessna 208 Caravan.

    “Our hearts are broken. Loretta was deeply loved and respected. She was selfless, utterly dedicated, and committed to her colleagues in the Department of Health and to the people of Hawaii,” Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie, who appointed Fuddy in 2011, said in a statement.

    The Governor went on to say, “We send our best thoughts to her family and will do all in our power to reflect her professionalism, her love of Hawaii and the high standard she set for herself and all of us.”

    The flight operators, Makani Kai Air, fly between Oahu and Molokai on a regular basis.

    When the local news officials with KITV4 spoke with the airline owner, Richard Schuman, he revealed that the plane crashed due to engine failure and that the pilot tried to bring the plane down safely and keep the passengers together after they were in the ocean.

    According to the Coast Guard, Fuddy had a life jacket on, but she either let go or slipped through it – and drowned. Coast Guard Lt. Kevin Cooper, who helped coordinate the rescue effort from Oahu, said life jackets were key factors for surviving the crash.

    The National Transportation Safety Board, as well as the Federal Aviation Administration is going to investigate the crash further in an effort to report exactly what caused the plane to go down into the Pacific.

    Although, the National Transportation Safety Board stated they would issue a preliminary report within 10 to 14 days, the plane was probably not going to be recovered anytime soon. The location of the wreckage, combined with wind and wave conditions, likely means it won’t be recoverable, NTSB spokesman Eric Weiss added.

    “We handle lots of investigations in which the airplane is not recoverable,” he said. “The fact gathering on the ground continues.”

    Fuddy was the one who released the birth certificate of President Obama in an effort to satisfy the so called “birthers” who claimed that Obama wasn’t born in the United States. She said that “in recognition of your status as president of the United States,” she was making an exception to her department’s policy of only releasing a computer-generated certified copy. Fuddy also said that she had viewed the records that “further prove the fact that he was born in Hawaii.”

    Obama then released a longer version of his “proof of birth” in the U.S. that finally put a stop to the unsound allegations.

    Image via YouTube

  • Tragic Plane Crash Kills Loretta Fuddy

    State public health Director Loretta Fuddy, the woman who verified the authenticity of President Obama’s birth certificate has died in a plane crash off the coast of Hawaii.

    Some thought the tragic death was fixed, suggesting that Obama had something to do with the crash. While there’s been professors and people alike who believe in conspiracy theories, no one has been as upfront about their take on the crash until yesterday late-afternoon.

    Donald Trump angrily took to Twitter, blatantly broadcasting his opinion.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2R2Ra_gS3I

    While there is still much controversy spinning through the air, the important thing to remember is the life that was lost.

    65-year-old Fuddy was one of 9 people in the plane that crashed into the ocean. After leaving the Kalaupapa Airport at 3:15, the plane crashed shortly after.

    According to Honolulu Fire Capt. Terry Seelig, everyone else on the plane was rescued except for Fruddy was “remained in the fuselage of the plane.”

    Photo Credit: YouTube

  • Healthiest States: Hawaii Tops The 2013 List

    Hawaii is seen by many as a beautiful, tropical paradise, full of gorgeous fauna, lovely beaches, and breathtaking views. The chain of islands seems to stand as a beacon of happiness, a dot of sunshine on the American map. Now, it can add one more thing to its list of awesome things about itself; Hawaii was recently proclaimed to be the healthiest state in America in 2013. The announcement comes from America’s Health Rankings, which releases information about the healthiest and least healthy areas in the United States on an annual basis. This year, Hawaii topped the list of the former.

    What, exactly, qualified Hawaii for this honor? For starters, the amount of smokers and violent crime dropped significantly over the past year. The state also has high rates of child immunizations, low obesity rates, and has had a decrease in instances of preventable hospitalizations. 48.2% of high school educated adults aged 25 or older from the state reported that their health was either “very good” or “excellent.”

    America’s Health Rankings has been taking on the task of ranking the nation’s health state-by-state for twenty years, now, according to their website. They also claim that they take into account “numerous health measures to compile a comprehensive perspective on our nation’s health issues.” Hawaii has a history of making the top 10 list; the lowest it has dropped has been #6. Other states that graced the top 10 this year included Vermont, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Minnesota.

    It’s well worth a look to check and see where your state falls on the healthiness scale. America’s Health Ranking’s also includes specific analysis and data for individual states, explaining why they have received their designated rankings. Tell us, WebProNews readers; where does your state stand? Does your lifestyle mimic your state’s, or are you set apart in some way?

    [Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.]

  • Jada Pinkett Smith Sports A Thong!

    Jada Pinkett Smith Sports A Thong!

    Jada Pinkett Smith has a hot public announcement for America: 40-somethings can rock thongs! (But women only please!) Pinkett vacationed in the beautiful Hawaii for Thanksgiving with her two children Willow and Jaden. Although this was a family vacation, Pinkett made it quite clear that there is no need for moms to be G-rated as she sported a zebra-print thong on the beach.

    Pinkett shamelessly splashed around in the water and frolicked in the sand. But of course with a body like that, who could be shameful? Pinkett strolled in the sun with braids down to her waist and buns unconcealed. Pinkett paired the sexy bikini bottoms with a skimpy black top exposing her killer abdominals.

    But according to E! News, this isn’t the first time this goddess of the sea has left everyone drooling. A year ago, Pinkett also tweeted some photos of herself emerging from the sparkling water in a hot pink bikini with her hair pulled regally back, and of course, a sculpted tummy to match the rest of her perfect physique.

    Along with this stunningly sexy tweet, Pinkett had a kick-ass message to tweet about age and beauty:

    But 40-years pride may not be the only reason that Ms. Pinkett Smith is deciding to bare it all on the beach. After the swirling rumors that her husband Will Smith might be cheating on her with his Focus co-star Margot Robbie, Jada might just being trying to let the public know that her husband has absolutely no reason to cheat. When Will has a woman with tight buns and abs of steel, what other temptation is left in the world?

    Image via Youtube

  • Maui Shark Attack Kills Fisherman

    Maui Shark Attack Kills Fisherman

    A shark attack in Maui resulted in the death of a kayak fisherman whose foot was severed in the attack. The fisherman, who has been identified by the Maui County Police Department as Patrick Briney Stevenson, was reported to have been fishing with a partner at the time of his attack.

    Briney’s fishing partner allegedly spotted a nearby boat from which he sought help. Briney was taken ashore by the boat and then to a hospital where he was later pronounced dead.  According to CNN,  William Dunaway was one of the passengers of the boat that helped to transport Briney’s body. Dunaway reported what he says he witnessed of the incident:

    “We noticed in the distance there was a man in a kayak that was waving to us, and he started paddling over to us. We saw that he was tethered to another kayak. And as he got closer we saw that there was a body lying flat out in the kayak and the body didn’t look good. It had a very odd tint to it, and I think we all realized that there was something wrong.”

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VacKx9s7q4w

    While shark attacks have been greatly feared (especially since the production of Jaws), marine scientists have always worked hard to assure the public that shark attacks are typically rare and few in number.

    But little consolation comes to those who frequent the waters as well as those who do not, due to the highly televised stories of the most grizzly shark attacks, such as the attack suffered by pro-surfer Bethany Hamilton back in 2003. Hamilton was only 13 years old when she lost her arm to a tiger shark during a morning surf at Tunnels Beach in Kauai.

    And this year, Hawaii has been more shark-infested than usual with a total of 13 shark attacks recorded. Of the 13 incidents, Maui makes up the majority of these attacks with what is being counted now as its eighth attack this year.

    The chairman of the Department of Land and Natural Resources William J. Aila has announced measures toward finding the reason for the increase in shark attacks happening around Hawaii:

    “We are not sure why these bites are occurring more frequently than normal, especially around Maui. That’s why we are conducting a two-year study of shark behavior around Maui that may give us better insights.”

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

    Video and via Youtube

  • Kailua Residents Want Tourists To Stay Away

    Most cities and locations look forward to having tourists visit and help out the economy, but not Kailua, Hawaii residents. They say that tourists are taking over and they want their tourism agency to stop inviting tourists to visit.

    Kailua is known for its white sand beaches and laid back atmosphere. Thousands of people from all around the world travel their every year, including President Barack Obama and his family. So why would Kailua residents want the tourism to start?

    The reason could be that many people who travel to Kailua want to spend their vacation visiting the same spots as the locals. Many tourists prefer to rent rooms in bed and breakfasts instead of staying in hotel or beach houses. This means the tourists become neighbors to the locals, and the locals are not too fond of this idea.

    Many of the tourists bring drinking, drugs and violence into otherwise calm neighborhoods. The residents of Kailu seem to be split on their feelings about tourists. While many are unhappy about the rising amount of visitors, others say that the increase in tourism has helped bring money to the area and vacation rental owners in particular seem pleased with the travel increase.

    “It’s a little too late to keep Hawaii in a box. Everybody wants to go. Not everyone wants to stay in a hotel,” said Angie Larson, who operated an unpermitted bed-and-breakfast in Kailua.

    Hopefully Kailua can find the right balance of tourism that will allow tourists to explore and enjoy the area, without changing it or causing trouble for the locals.

  • Passenger Overboard: Woman Jumps Off Hawaii Cruise

    “I’ll just get off here.”

    According to an article in the L.A. Times, Princess Cruise Lines says that one of their boat passengers intentionally went overboard off the coast of Hawaii into the frigid waters of the Pacific Ocean.

    A Princess Cruises spokesperson said observers told them that the woman jumped ship sometime Wednesday afternoon and that they they got the whole thing on the ship’s video security cameras.

    “It’s very apparent from the witnesses and the video that this was her intention,” spokeswoman Julie Benson said.

    Benson said that the woman leaped from Deck level 7, and fell about 50 feet to the waters below.

    “The water is quite cold, and the seas are quite rough,” Benson said. “But it’s not inconceivable that she could have survived.”

    Benson said the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard have been searching for hours, but they still have not found the overboard passenger. The Cruise Line did say that the woman boarded with a companion when they departed from San Francisco for Hawaii. The companion remained on board.

    Princess Cruises said the 1,300-cabin ship was only a few days into a roundtrip cruise to Hawaii from San Francisco. The Grand Princess ship has 17 decks, is almost 950 feet long and almost 190 feet tall.

    image via: wikimedia commons

  • Kailua, Hawaii: Tourists, Please Stop Coming Here

    The AP reports that the Hawaiian town of Kailua has endured a lot of popular tourism lately. With even President Barack Obama and his family spending Christmas in Kailua, some of the town’s residents have decided to take a stand against tourism.

    Well, Kailua has had enough of the haoles. A neighborhood board has asked the state tourism agency not to encourage visitors to come and stay overnight in Kailua anymore. They voted 12-2 in September to “stop promoting Kailua as a tourist destination and alternative to Waikiki.”

    The AP is reporting the board’s actions as a “salvo in a long-running battle” regarding how much tourism Kailua’s residents are willing to tolerate. Tourists became a problem when they arrived seeking the “local island life” experience rather than simply visiting as a tourist.

    One of the board’s big issues is the bed-and-breakfast vacation rental industry. Their argument is that such businesses are inflating the costs of real estate and making homes unaffordable to locals.

    Lisa Marten, one of the board members, said “It doesn’t feel like a neighborhood when you don’t know the people there… If there’s any sort of safety issue, there’s no one to ask for help because you don’t know them.” Two of three nearby houses are vacation rental homes.

    Hawaii maintains between 7000 and 10,000 county-regulated vacation rental homes. The AP estimates, based on the Hawaii Tourism Authority, that between 280 and 500 vacation rentals are in Kailua, but only a few dozen are actually licensed; the rest are considered illegal, according to Board Chairman Chuck Prentiss.

    Oahu hasn’t issued new vacation rental permits since 1990, and Marten believes there’s a certain hypocrisy in the Hawaiian Tourism Authority promoting vacation rentals in Kailua while the city of Kailua struggles to shut down illegal vacation rentals.

    However, Marten’s neighborhood board hardly represents the entire town. Kailua’s Honolulu City Council representative, Ikaika Anderson, called the resolution “an embarrassment,” adding that it “[sends] a signal to those folks who do not live in Kailua that Kailua residents do not welcome them.”

    Apologists of the vacation homes said their activities support the local economy, and that those owners who rent out their homes to tourists do so for the extra income needed to afford Kailua’s expensive mortgages.

    [Image via YouTube]

  • Hawaii Gay Marriage: Hawaii Has Legalized Gay Marriage

    Hawaii has finally legalized gay marriage, and they have become the 16th state to do so. Each time a new state decides to legalize gay marriage, it becomes big news around the country.

    This idea starts to beg the question, how long will it take for gay marriage to simply be legal in the United States?

    On Tuesday, the Hawaii Senate passed a House-amended bill that legalizes gay marriage in the state of Hawaii.

    The law will allow same-sex couple to marry one another beginning on December 2nd, which is right around the time when people like to flock to Hawaii in order to get hitched.

    Despite the fact that the vote in the Senate was fairly uneventful, in a decision that was voted in favor 19-4, the Hawaii House only passed the law 30-19, after a wildly exciting five-day public hearing that featured testimonies of opposition,and protesters. A recent poll in Hawaii showed that voters were split on the issue, however support has been growing rapidly in the state, as well as the rest of the country.

    Neil Abercrombie, the democratic governor of Hawaii, is expected to sign the bill into law as early as Wednesday, allowing them to follow Illinois as the next state to legalize gay marriage.

    Cheers erupted in the gallery after the vote was taken, and those living in Hawaii, and who want to get married there are all likely to get excited over the big news. Any time gay marriage is legalized in a state, it also sets a precedent for the others, making us all wonder who will be next?

    This is a also a big win for Hawaii, where in 1990, a lesbian couple became famous for applying for a marriage license. This set off a court battle that led to a national discussion of gay marriage, and led Congress to pass the Defense of Marriage Act.

    A strong statement also came from President Obama on the issue of Hawaii’s gay marriage vote, and he said “Whenever freedom and equality are affirmed, our country becomes stronger. By giving loving gay and lesbian couples the right to marry if they choose, Hawaii exemplifies the values we hold dear as a nation. I’ve always been proud to have been born in Hawaii, and today’s vote makes me even prouder.”

    The vote on gay marriage in Hawaii is another historic one in the history of the United States, making the idea of gay marriage more mainstream all the time.

    Image via Youtube

  • Tsunami Debris Still Headed to US, Just No Island

    UPDATE: Nicholas Mallos, Ocean Conservancy’s marine debris specialist, said this with regard to clarifications from the NOAA about the reports of a “Texas-sized” island: “Following the 2011 tsunami that hit Japan a tremendous quantity of debris washed into the Pacific and began heading toward North America. While this debris was initially a solid mass, NOAA is right to indicate that it is not a flotilla and has dispersed significantly in the two years since.

    Tsunami debris is still a very real threat for which we must remain vigilant. What doesn’t reach land will likely end up in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre with the myriad ocean trash already there due to our excessive use of disposable products. As a result, we’re communicating regularly with the Japanese government and environmental officials to ensure a swift response if or when debris makes landfall.”

    Main Story: In the spring of 2011, a massive tsunami/earthquake disaster struck Japan, killing roughly 15,000 and sweeping millions of artifacts and debris from Japanese cities into the Pacific Ocean.

    Earlier this year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was reportedly continuing their efforts to keep the North American coast and the island of Hawaii relatively free from debris, but artifacts like housing materials and styrofoam likely originate from the March 2011 tsunami.

    Nancy Wallace, the director of the marine debris program at NOAA, told LiveScience last March that “This has been a very unprecedented event… We just don’t know how much debris is still floating in the water.”

    The drama came to a climax this week when it was reported on multiple media outlets that an island of tsunami debris the size of Texas was on a crash-course with the West Coast.

    NOAA officials with the Marine Debris Program tried to calm the calamitous media with a blog post. “Here’s the bottom line:” they write. “There is no solid mass of debris from Japan heading to the United States.”

    The team went on, saying “While there likely is some debris still floating at sea, the North Pacific is an enormous area, and it’s hard to tell exactly where the debris is or how much is left. A significant amount of debris has already arrived on U.S. and Canadian shores, and it will likely continue arriving in the same scattered way over the next several years.”

    Essentially, there are too many unknowns and variables to calculate before anyone can make conclusions about aspects of the debris like the surface area. (“Texas”-sized, really?) Lots of debris has already arrived, anyway: at least a dock, a Japanese skiff, and 30 other items have washed up on beaches in Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, Alaska, and British Columbia. Some of those items had so much foreign marine life, they needed to be decontaminated lest we endure even more invasive species.

    Here’s some news footage from earlier this year of the cleanup efforts, which were still underway:

    [Image via Wikimedia Commons]

  • Hawaii Surfer Repeatedly Punches Attacking Shark

    A 25-year-old former boxer landed multiple punches on a hark that bit into his surfboard in Hawaii Sunday.

    Jeff Horton was with ten other surfers off of Kauai when the incident occurred. He initially spotted a fin in the water, and about 20 minutes later, a dark shape appeared in the water. Horton initially figured it was a stingray as it approached – the mass was black on top, white on the bottom.

    It turned out to be a shark, and Horton quickly pulled his leg out of the water. “It came flying straight toward me,” Horton said. The shark then got a mouthful of the board, knocking Horton into the water in the process.

    The surfer then grabbed onto one of the shark’s fins, and began beating it over the head with his free fist, as hard as he could. Horton guesses he got about 8 good blows in. “I finally got one nice punch into the eye,” Horton said. “I put some really good hits on it, for sure.”

    Ideally, the finest way to ward off a shark attack is to leave the water. When this isn’t possible, playing dead, like one might do with a Grizzly bear, isn’t going to cut it. What Horton did was the right course of action, according to The Florida Museum of Natural History.

    If a shark is trying to eat you, the best thing to do is attack its nose, eyes or gills, which are all very sensitive areas on the fish. Though, one must be sure to remember that a shark can’t actually be frightened; it’s a killing machine running on basic instinct, and lacks a limbic system. Essentially, after beating a shark, be sure to get away from it, because there’s a large chance it might return.

    After Horton poked the shark in the eye, it took off for a bit, allowing him time to get back onto his board. Along with another surfer, Horton caught a wave and headed to shore. The shark briefly followed, but then lost interest. Upon making it to the beach, a tourist gave Horton $50 to go buy some booze, and his only injuries were scrapes made by the rough skin of the shark.

    His 7-foot board, which Horton plans to mount on his wall, has teeth marks in it. Horton was back in the water surfer at another beach the next day.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons.

  • Hawaii Woman’s Name Too Long for License

    Hawaii Woman’s Name Too Long for License

    The Hawaii Department of Transportation is changing a policy after Janice “Lokelani” Keihanaikukauakahihuliheekahaunaele’s name was too long to fit on her state identification card and driver’s license. Presently, there’s a 35 character limit on state-issued identification cards, and the 36th letter of Keihanaikukauakahihuliheekahaunaele’s name is cut off, along with her first and middle names. By the end of the year, Hawaii plans to increase the number of characters allowed on ID’s.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwjWA5pg-ps

    Keihanaikukauakahihuliheekahaunaele said, “I have had phone calls all day today from all over the world calling me about this story. People are telling me about other people who have just learned about the story and seeing how long my name is. I’m not the only one. I hope that solves problems for other folks in the future.”

    Traditionally, surnames didn’t exist in old Hawaii. Genuine Hawaiian names are unisex, and typically have a clear, literal meaning. For example, “Keanu” means cool mountain breeze. Though, in 1860 King Kamehameha IV signed the Act to Regulate Names. Henceforth, Hawaiians user their father’s first name as their surname, and all babies born had to be given Christian (English) first names. Their given Hawaiian names served as their middle names. This law was repealed in 1967.

    In an email, Keihanaikukauakahihuliheekahaunaele wrote, “You see, to some people in the world, your name is everything. If I say my name to an elder Hawaiian, they know everything about my husband’s family going back many generations … just from the name.”

    The Hawaii DOT will soon allow 40 characters for the first name, 40 characters for the last name, 35 characters for the middle name, and 5 characters for any suffix.

    Image courtesy of YouTube.

  • Tropical Storm Flossie Headed Towards Hawaii

    Tropical Storm Flossie is moving toward Hawaii and it should continue on that path for the next week. Flossie was classified as a tropical storm not long after taking shape early on Thursday morning. It is expected that Flossie will gain strength through Friday, with winds reaching 50 miles-per-hour. However, it is believed that the storm will weaken as it makes its way toward land. The storm is not expected to ever reach the status of a hurricane, which to be classified, the storm must reach sustained wind speeds of 74 miles-per-hour.

    Flossie is running out of time for much more strengthening since the circulation will begin to reach cooler waters in about a day.
    Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center

    The storm is still approximately 1,000 miles from Hawaii. According to AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist Kristina Pydynowski, Flossie should reach land Tuesday morning and may weaken to a tropical rainstorm. “That does not mean that Flossie will pass unnoticed across Hawaii,” Pydynowski said. “Enhanced shower activity will spread from east to west across the islands Monday night through Wednesday, threatening to put a damper on outdoor activities.” The National Weather Service wrote that it is “Important to keep in mind that even the remnants of tropical cyclones can sometimes bring copious, excessive rainfall.”

    Another tropical storm has been located in the Atlantic Ocean this week. Tropical storm Dorian, which formed Wednesday, is now traveling west-northwest towards Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, Cuba and Florida, with sustained winds of approximately 60 mils-per-hour. Dorian is the fourth tropical storm of the season in the Atlantic Ocean.

  • Tuna Capsizes Boat, Nearly Kills Fisherman

    Tuna Capsizes Boat, Nearly Kills Fisherman

    When most people think of Hawaii, they think of luaus, volcanoes, gorgeous sunsets over calm waters. Paradise, in other words. Those who go fishing in those waters know that the surf can be rough–especially during their “winter” months–but these aren’t “Deadliest Catch” conditions. However, one man recently had the fight of his life while battling a monstrous tuna off the coast of Kauai, and the tuna almost won.

    Anthony Wichman reeled in the 230-pound Ahi fish and fought with it in his 14-foot boat, eventually stabbing it in the eye with a gaffe–a long pole with a sharp hook on the end–in order to get it under control. But that only made the fish angry, and it managed to jump back into the water with the line still attached to it. Unfortunately, it also wrapped around Wichman’s ankle and he went overboard, too, flipping the boat as he went.

    “He gaffed it once in the back, and the second gaffe went straight into the fish’s eye and that caused the fish to take a final dive,” said Anuhea Wichman, whose father called her during his fight with the fish. “And [the fish] dove straight down, and the line wrapped around my dad’s ankle and pulled him overboard.”

    Luckily, Wichman had his cell phone with him that day. His daughter called the coast guard and they used his signal to track him down in the water. As he was being rescued, friends of the family found the boat and towed it to shore, where they found the fish still attached. Wichman told them to keep it as a gesture of his appreciation.

    This is far from the first wild story about sea life we’ve heard this year; earlier this month, a Nantucket man caught a 200-pound sand shark in his boat and wrestled him on the beach with his bare hands.

  • Hawaii: 5.3 Earthquake Hits Just Off Big Island

    A 5.3 magnitude earthquake hit near Hawaii’s Big Island this week. The rumble occurred at around 2 pm local time, and hit just 34 miles off the southeastern coast of Pahala, Hawaii.

    According to the U.S. Geological Survey, residents throughout the Big Island reported feeling light to moderate shaking during the quake, and even some residents on Maui reported feeling some shaking. Though homes near the epicenter were well-shaken, there have been no reports of injury or major property damage.

    The earthquake occurred at a depth of 25 miles. According to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, no tsunami is expected to result from the quake.

    This Hawaiian earthquake comes during a significant year for earthquake activity. Just two weeks ago, a massive 8.2 earthquake hit just off the coast of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. Before that, a 7.2 earthquake had hit northern Japanese islands in mid-April.

  • Newborn Left On Beach Rescued By Passerby

    A newborn baby girl was found naked and crying in the sand on a beach in Honolulu on Sunday, having just been born possibly moments earlier.

    The baby was discovered by a woman who had just arrived at the beach and heard screaming down by the water. As she got closer, the screaming stopped and she could hear a baby crying, but there was no one else around. The infant was taken to the hospital, where she was closely examined and declared healthy at 8 pounds, but as of now no one has come forward to claim her. According to Hawaii law, prosecution can be avoided if an infant is left in the care of a hospital or with fire/police services. Since the baby was left on the beach, officials are investigating and will prosecute if the mother is found.

    If the child isn’t claimed within a week, the Department of Human Services will file a petition to ask for custody and will eventually release a photo of her in the hopes that family will come forward.

  • Klum Saves Drowning Son in Hawaii

    It turns out that Heidi Klum has skills that go beyond hosting and modeling. The 39-year-old host of TV show Project Runway has told US Weekly that she had a hand in saving her family from drowning.

    According to the report, Klum was on a beach in Oahu, Hawaii this week when a riptide swept two nannies and her seven-year-old son Henry out into the water. She and her bodyguard, Martin Kirsten (who is also her boyfriend), were able to play Baywatch and save the stranded swimmers. Heidi admits, though, that Henry was able to swim back to shore by himself.

    Klum and her family had been vacationing in Hawaii for the Easter holiday. Before the incident occurred, Klum had posted a picture to her Twitter feed depicting Easter eggs sitting on the black volcanic rock of a Hawaiian beach:

  • Oahu Dissolving Into the Pacific, Shows Study

    Oahu, the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands and the home of Honolulu, is dissolving from the inside, shows a new study. Geologists state that the island’s Koolau and Waianae mountains will gradually be reduced to nothing, leaving Oahu a flat, low-lying island.

    “We tried to figure out how fast the island is going away and what the influence of climate is on that rate,” said Steve Nelson, a Brigham Young University geologist. “More material is dissolving from those islands than what is being carried off through erosion.”

    The study, published in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, looked at both groundwater and stream water, comparing them to see which removes more mineral material. Geologists spent two months sampling both types on Oahu, then added data from the U.S. Geological Survey to calculate the total mass that disappeared from the island in various years.

    “All of the Hawaiian Islands are made of just one kind of rock,” said Nelson. “The weathering rates are variable, too, because rainfall is so variable, so it’s a great natural laboratory.”

    According to Nelson and his colleagues’ estimates, the plate tectonics affecting Oahu will continue to grow the island for 1.5 million years. After that, groundwater will begin to force the island and its mountains into a flat landscape.