All tag results for 'hawaii'

Jamie O'Brien is a professional surfer, based in Hawaii.

A professional photograph recently appeared of him "riding" a sea turtle.

Other than general backlash on the Internet, he may have actually violated state and federal laws.

This could cost him THOUSANDS of dollars in fines.

Some of the more upset people, are the native Hawaiians. To some of them, the "honu" (Hawaiian for sea turtle) is considered to be an ancestral spirit.

So riding them is pretty much a no-no.

A little while after the controversy began rising up, Jamie wrote on his twitter:

Tags: hawaii, illegal, ride, sea turtle, surfer, turtle

Aw!

Filming LOST kept married actors Michael Emerson and Carrie Preston apart for the better part of four and a half years.

Emerson (a.k.a Benjamin Linus) needed to be on location in Hawaii, while Preston stayed in New York City.

When LOST ended Carrie expands that a little pooch, named Chumley, helped the couple get back into to swing of things,

"To be in a situation where we were with each other pretty much every day for a long time, we realize how much we miss that, and we got a dog and that really brought us together. It's just been a very lovely time."

The True Blood star said her husband's is glad to be working from NYC now, so he can be closer to her Chumley. Preston said:

"He's been really wanting to spend time with me and Chumley. It is exciting because he's shooting a show in our primary residency, New York City. That's our home base."

But Chumley doesn't always stay in NYC, he seems to follow Michael around across the country because we see him walking his dog around West Hollywood all the time!

[Image via WENN.]

Tags: carrie preston, celeb pets, dog, hawaii, husband, lost, michael emerson, new york city, true blood, west hollywood

CRAZINESS!!!!!!

A diver carrying a computer that tries to recognise dolphin sounds and generate responses in real time will soon attempt to communicate with wild dolphins off the coast of Florida.

If the bid is successful, it will be a big step towards two-way communication between humans and dolphins.

Since the 1960s, captive dolphins have been communicating via pictures and sounds. In the 1990s, researchers in Hawaii, found that bottlenose dolphins can keep track of over 100 different words. They can also respond appropriately to commands in which the same words appear in a different order, understanding the difference between "bring the surfboard to the man" and "bring the man to the surfboard", for example.

Artificial intelligence researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, are working a project named Cetacean Hearing and Telemetry (CHAT). They want to work with dolphins to "co-create" a language that uses features of sounds that wild dolphins communicate with naturally.

If this works we're betting fish will be a hot topic.

Tags: computer, dolphin, dolphins, hawaii, intelligence, project, research, underwater

Hooray!

California legislators are showing some love for sharks this Valentine's Day and have introduced a bill that would ban the posession, sale, or distribution of shark fins in the state!

During the brutal act of shark finning, fishermen slice the shark's fin off while the animal is still alive and then throw the shark back in the sea to die.

The disgusting practice kills millions of sharks annually and is driving some species of sharks toward extinction.

The fins are used in a Chinese delicassy called shark fin soup, which can cost as much as $40 a bowl!

We'll stick to Campbell's.

The proposed ban announced today follows a similar measure enacted in Hawaii last year, with Oregon and Washington also considering similar legislation.

Keep your fingers crossed that this bill passes, shark lovers!

[Image via AP Images.]

Tags: ban, bill, california, chinese, fishermen, hawaii, news, propose, soup, species

Captain George Pollard Jr.'s Two Brothers whaling boat that sunk February 11, 1823 has been discovered off the coast of Hawaii.

The whaler's earlier excursion into the sea on the whaling vessel The Essex was the inspiration for the American classic Moby Dick after it was rammed and sunk by a sperm whale.

Pollard and his surviving crew were lost at sea in 3 small boats for two months and even resorted to canibalism before being rescued.

The determined whaler from Nantucket, Massachusetts, the birthplace of America's whaling industry, returned to the sea aboard Two Brothers which sunk after hitting a shallow reef near Hawaii.

Luckily, the captain and his boys were only in the ocean for a day before being rescued for a second time.

Maritime heritage archaeologists, working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, found the legendary whaler's Two Brothers shipwreck nearly 600 miles northwest of Honolulu.

In statement, the agency said:

"This rare archaeological discovery is the first discovery of a wrecked whaling ship from Nantucket, Mass., the birthplace of America's whaling industry."

Expeditions to the bottom of the sea yielded such artifacts as the large anchor of the ship, harpoon tips, cast-iron pots for melting whale blubber, and remains of the ships rigging.

Although the whale won in 1820 when encountering the whalers aboard the Essex, these creatures no longer have the tactical advantage and are being hunted and killed to the point of extinction.

So sad.

[Image via CNN.]

Tags: anchor, cnn, hawaii, inspiration, wreck

Aw! Here's some sad news.

Pilots flying over shallow water near the coast of the Hawaiian island Kauai spotted an injured humpback whale on Monday.

Reports say the whale has a broken back probably as a result of being struck by a large ship or boat.

Flight instructor Gerry Charlebois, who snapped the picture above, said:

"He wasn't moving his fluke and was just staying near the surface and sort of limping down the coast. It's kind of sad to see a full adult whale in that condition. … It's definitely something he's not recovering from."

Aww! Poor whale!

Charlebois continued to describe the the disturbing sight, saying:

"It was freaky. The whale was bent in half. Obviously some kind of blunt force trauma on the side. The poor guy was in trouble."

Even sadder is that there is no established method for euthanizing a large whale and large whales tend to die slowly.

The most likely scenario for this whale's future is sinking to the bottom of the ocean until decomposition gases make it float to the surface, where the corpse will attract large numbers of hungry sharks.

Gross!

"You don't want to be snorkeling around there. You don't want to be in that neighborhood," Charlebois added.

We'll take his advice.

[Image via CNN.]

Tags: cnn, disturbing, hawaii, injured, news, sad, shark, trouble

Bo, the First Dog of the United States, has finally been allowed to go on vacation with his presidential family!

Hawaii is the only state that claims to be completely free of rabies, so in order for Bo to go, he had to comply with the state's strict animal quarantine procedures.

The extensive process for adult dogs takes at least four months prior to their arrival on the island with prerequisites including a microchip implant along with the standard series of shots.

Bo arrived with Michelle Obama and her daughters Malia and Sasha this past Saturday.

Have fun in the sun, Bo!

[Image via AP Images.]

Tags: dog, family, hawaii, president, vacation