Ocean Love

  I want to share my day at Dolphin Quest located at the Kahala Resort. It was such a fun and educational experience involving dolphins along with the husbandry and training that is required to care for them. I was lucky enough to be able to pay a visit and receive an inside look at their dolphin program because I was an intern at the Waikiki Aquarium and all of us interns were invited, along with the volunteers. The day started out with introductions and a run-down of the activities and educational sessions. The sea life area was divided up into stations and we were divided up into groups to attend those stations. Most of the stations involved dolphin husbandry but a couple of the stations had fish, rays, and turtles to learn about.  At the dolphin stations we got an inside look at medical treatments and exams that were very similar to how we teach and handle our monk seals at the aquarium. Basically the goal is to teach a marine mammal to pose their bodies to expose parts th...

  This week I am highlighting another one of my favorite beaches, Ko`Olina. These are actually lagoons on the westside of the island in a resort area called Aulani Disney Resort. These resort grounds house a small scale waterpark with pools, lazy rivers, and slides for family fun. It is your typical resort but that's not the draw for me anyways. Once you pull off the freeway you are guided into this resort area where you have a choice to pick one out of four lagoons to park and spend the day at. Any one of the four are relaxing and beautiful but for me personally I try to spend my day at the very last one called lagoon 4. I feel it is typically less crowded and I am drawn to the rock wall to the left where there are fish and critters in the water to snorkel with. Picture below... The water is very calm and the rock wall gives you an opportunity to see and photograph some amazing sunsets. I just love to bring a book here and read all day. Another plus of this area is that the resort...

  Hanauma Bay although an extremely crowded touristy attraction is one of my favorite spots on the island to snorkel. This surprises a lot of people because as someone who lives on the island it is known that islanders tend to stay away from the more touristy attractions. I am generally on board with this but certain parts of the island I cannot ignore like Hanauma Bay.  My love for Hanauma Bay is never experiencing the same snorkel scenario twice. There is an abundance of fish species and the quantities of those species is different each time. I may go and see 2 different eel species one time and no eel species the next. It reminds me of the ol' Forrest Gump saying, "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get." This is really true each time I go to experience Hanauma Bay. I am such a nerd when it comes to the ocean that I always play a game/educational tactic with myself and that is to spot a fish and identify which species it is. This mak...

So today I was officially released from my 14-day quarantine that is required for anyone coming into the island. I went to Ohio 2 weeks ago to visit family and since I got back I have basically been under house arrest. Before coming back home I thought, "No big deal, it will go by fast..." but boy was I wrong! It has been torture and I can honestly say the only hobbies I had were reading books for fun, reading books for schoolwork, watching movies/TV shows, studying for my upcoming fall semester classes, played with my cat Puma, talked to friends and family, played zoom trivia twice, and of course the essentials (eat, sleep, bathe, etc.). Well, today was the 15th day and I made my day count. The first thing I did was drive up to North Shore to stop for a quick snorkel session at Shark's Cove. I took my Akaso underwater camera with me. Video and photo below...                                 ...

Very few things can match the power of a raging sea. To see it in pictures is one thing but to be standing there in the midst of it is another. It is amazing that these powerful Pacific storms can create these swells. These winter waves actually come from Japan 3,500 miles away believe it or not! Japanese storm systems naturally more towards us and the winds just help the storms travel even more so. This is a blessing to the local and international surf community which is what draws them to the North Shore during the winter months. Below is a photo comparison of Waimea Bay during the summer months vs winter.  The difference is pretty incredible.  The months that you will experience high surf is between November and February and it is in the month of December that they hold the Billabong Pipe Masters Surf Competition. This is just down the road from the above photos and is really fun to watch!                     ...

Aloha! Today's blog is all about the open water shark swim I went on last year December 8 for my 32nd birthday. It was super early in the morning and was a 2 hour tour. The price is around $130.00 per person and is up in Haleiwa. This was my second time swimming in open water and I had done a cage tour as well which was less exciting to me. The sharks are trained to respond to the boat motor and will swarm to the surface when they hear or feel the vibrations. The reason they do is because fisherman and the cage encounters are encouraged to chum the water in that area so the sharks can learn to associate the motor with food. Of course, the open swim encounter does not deal with chum, the sharks come with the sound of the boat only!  It is a beautiful boat ride out and fairly quick. If you are lucky you get to see other marine life. When the boat reaches the area they slow and get you ready once the boat stops to jump in right away. The initial jump in is the most incredible because ...

One of my favorite beaches on Oahu is Lanikai Beach. Most people know of this beach because it is one of the beaches that get highlighted the most for being one of the best beaches of the islands. There are many reasons to love this beach from the clarity of the water, to the calm surface that allows for snorkeling, paddle boarding, and  kayaking, or the powdery, soft white sand that you feel between your toes. This beach practically has something for everyone. My main reasons for loving it are when I had my dog still with me I took her here because she loved to swim and it is one of the very few beaches that are dog-friendly, and I also love the sand and the cool, clean, turquoise water. Above is the kayak that I used going out to the Moke Islands. It was a cloudy, rainy day as you can see in the photo but we didn't let that stop us. On the island we saw frigate birds nesting in the sand all over. We hiked to the back and there is this pool of clear deep water in the rocks that yo...

As a Hawaiian monk seal intern, I not only trained and cared for the 2 resident monk seals but also took care of the day octopus, tilapia, and many reef organisms. I want to share my fond memories of the 2 years I spent working as a Hawaiian Monk Seal Intern for the Waikiki Aquarium. Pictured above are Ho`ailona (top) and Maka`onaona (bottom).  Maka`onaona ("soft or gentle eyes") called Maka for short was brought from the French Frigate Shoals in 1984 at only 3 weeks old. He was abandoned as a pup and would not have survived if not been taken into human care. Unfortunately in my time working with him he developed a malignant cancer below his right eye. You can see in his picture there is a white spot below his eye which was the cancer starting to grow back soon after he had his first surgery at the aquarium to have it removed. The process was intense as you cannot put a seal fully under anesthesia because they cannot breathe on their own. He had to be put under just enough to...

The Sunrise Seashells of Hawaii These little rays of sunshine in shell form are pretty special. They are endemic to Hawaii meaning they are found no where else in the world. The shells belong to a scallop known as the Langford Pectens. It is legend that these seashells were once only worn by Hawaiian royalty (ali'i). The name sunrise comes from the most common color variation of the shell that resembles the colors of a Hawaiian sunrise. These seashells used to be far more abundant where they could be found on seashores which is not the case anymore. The growing demand for these seashells have created a major market for them. Divers collect and sell them for a pretty penny. This is the reason why you can expect to pay a high price for just one of these shells because they are not easy to come by. Where once beachcombers had the chance to get lucky and find one on the beach, nowadays it is rare. In fact, these shells can only be found on the beach after a swell brings the dead scallo...