Hawaii

Tourists Are Loving Hawaii’s Coral Reefs To Death

Published

2 years ago

January 16, 2023

Tourists Are Loving Hawaii’s Coral Reefs To Death

Thousands and thousands of vacationers go to Hawaii yearly, however tragically, these vacationers are damaging and destroying the very coral reefs they arrive to expertise, that are already at excessive threat of worldwide collapse

Vacationers on Hanauma Bay, Oahu, Hawaii. (Credit score: Rick Zhuang / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Rick Zhuang through a Artistic Commons license

Thousands and thousands of vacationers go to Hawaii yearly, however tragically, these vacationers are damaging and destroying these islands’ pure setting, notably its coral reefs, in response to a current research.

A crew of scientists led by Princeton College, in collaboration with Arizona State College (ASU), examined the native impacts of vacationers on stay coral cowl. The scientists had been restricted of their investigations by the COVID lockdown, so that they needed to devise a special option to doc the place guests had been positioned. To do that, they searched out geotagged Instagram pictures from vacationers visiting the Hawaiian reefs and located greater than 250,000 pictures posted on the positioning between 2018 to 2021.

“They take photos of the seashores, they usually put up on social media”, mentioned Bing Lin, a PhD candidate in science, expertise and environmental coverage at Princeton College’s Faculty of Public and Worldwide Affairs and lead writer of the research. “Instagram is by far the primary platform by which social media presence is documented, and so I got here up with the concept of utilizing Instagram to get a way of a large-scale illustration of the place persons are distributed in Hawaii.”

After accumulating the Instagram vacationer pictures, they then used Synthetic Intelligence to investigate and examine them to aerial mapping pictures of Hawaii’s coral reefs that had a 2 meter (6.5 toes) decision depth, or a 16 meter (52.5 toes) decision depth supplied by ASU scientists.

ASU researchers used high-resolution airborne mapping and a machine studying process to map the … [+] Hawaiian sea flooring. This picture reveals the ASU World Airborne Observatory in motion. (Picture courtesy of ASU.)

Picture courtesy of ASU

“We took the world’s first stay coral maps and mixed them with the ability of social media and information analytics to derive wholly new info on the interplay between individuals and reefs”, mentioned research co-author, Greg Asner, director of the ASU Heart for World Discovery and Conservation Science within the Julie Ann Wrigley World Futures Laboratory.

“The outcomes had been astonishing to see at such a big geographic scale and but additionally corroborative on the native scales wherein some communities have voiced vital concern about coral reef tourism”, Professor Asner added.

Not surprisingly, Mr Lin and his collaborators discovered that websites with extra stay coral cowl that had been accessible to vacationers had been visited extra usually (Determine 1). Additionally not surprisingly, they discovered that the preferred vacationer websites had been extra degraded in comparison with much less fashionable websites.

“We had been capable of finding that coral reefs not solely performed a very vital function in attracting tourism, but in addition that the tourism subsequently appeared to suppress stay coral protection on the websites wherein tourism was most concentrated”, Mr Lin reported.

F I G U R E 1 | The relative distributions and drivers of on-reef and total coastal visitation … [+] throughout the primary Hawaiian Islands. Prime panels: relative coastal visitation intensities throughout the primary Hawaiian islands, with the three most visited websites for total and on-reef tourism labelled. Backside panels: relative contributions of an important variables related to on-reef and total coastal visitation based mostly on random forest regression fashions, and their corresponding partial dependence plots. Error bars depict 95% CI of 100 bootstrap samples within the variable significance plots. Dotted strains depict partial dependencies, shaded areas depict 95% CI of 100 bootstrap samples, and blue strains depict LOESS easy curves within the partial dependence plots. (doi:10.1038/s41893-022-01021-4)

doi:10.1038/s41893-022-01021-4

The info additionally confirmed that the majority guests both stayed near shore or remained on the seashores, while a smaller (however not insignificant) variety of vacationers went snorkelling or took scuba diving excursions that introduced them into oblique and direct contact with extra distant reefs. These interactions had been apparent from the situation of the corals — the farther that the corals had been from shore (and from the hoards of individuals), the higher their well being.

In keeping with Mr Lin and his collaborators’ findings, essentially the most degraded reefs on the island of Oahu had been Waikīkī Seaside, Waimea Bay, Lanikai Seaside and Shark’s Cove. The Large Island additionally had a number of websites with closely degraded reefs. These reefs are immediately impacted by on-reef visitations and bodily damages attributable to recreating vacationers, resembling sitting or strolling on corals or bodily breaking them, Mr Lin informed me in e-mail. Damages and degradation to extra distant reefs principally come from diver contact, when divers both deliberately or unintentionally come into contact with corals.

Coral reefs are additionally not directly impacted by native infrastructure improvement (particularly accommodations) and by the elevated ranges of air pollution created by the presence of so many individuals. Probably the most frequent types of localized air pollution comes from the almost common use of sunscreens designed to stop sunburn and pores and skin most cancers attributable to robust ultraviolet (UV) daylight radiation (ref & ref). Sunscreens rinse off into water when individuals go swimming or wading, and can even enter waterways by wastewater, notably from bathing or showering. The energetic elements in sunscreens that cut back the quantity of UV radiation on the pores and skin have been detected within the water, sediment, and animal tissues in aquatic environments, however scientists are nonetheless intensively investigating what the implications of those chemical pollution is perhaps.

Excessive-rise accommodations on the seaside in Hawaii. (Credit score: Jess Loiterton / CC BY)

Jess Loiterton through a Artistic Commons license

“Native stressors to the world’s reefs are sometimes overshadowed by the massive, looming menace of worldwide local weather change and subsequent coral bleaching”, Mr Lin identified. “Nonetheless, our analysis underscores the significance of localized stressors in additionally contributing to coral decline.”

Along with drawing tens of millions of tourists yearly, creating tens of millions of native jobs and producing billions of {dollars} in tourism revenues, coral reefs are vital ecosystems which can be important to defending coastlines by mitigating storm waves in addition to offering a house to quite a few economically invaluable marine fisheries and safeguarding an astonishing number of marine biodiversity.

Numerous fish together with bigscale soldierfish / ‘ū’ū (Myripristis berndti), Moorish idols / kihikihi … [+] (Zanclus cornutus), and a masked angelfish (Genicanthus personatus) swim in a small outcropping of coral on a reef in Papahānaumokuākea Marine Nationwide Monument. (Credit score: Andrew Grey / NOAA / CC BY-NC 2.0)

Andrew Grey / NOAA through a Artistic Commons license

For these causes, establishing robust native reef-protecting insurance policies and coral restoration efforts might change into frequent practices, particularly at fashionable vacationer websites in Hawaii and elsewhere. We already know that reef visitation is larger when the reef is wholesome, the water is clear and the positioning is well accessible. Thus, selling stronger coastal administration practices can concurrently profit each coastal ecology and conservation in addition to improve the revenues generated from tourism.

“Coastal tourism is a multibillion-dollar trade and can more and more characteristic sooner or later use of marine assets”, Mr Lin informed me in e-mail. “It’s only by an sufficient understanding of tourism’s large-scale impacts on reef ecosystems that we will appropriately pinpoint pathways to make it extra sustainable.”

Source:

Bing Lin, Yiwen Zeng, Gregory P. Asner and David S. Wilcove (2023). Coral reefs and coastal tourism in Hawaii, Nature Sustainability | doi:10.1038/s41893-022-01021-4

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Hawaii

Family of missing Hawaii woman Hannah Kobayashi reveal shocking police detail after she mysteriously vanished on trip of a lifetime

Published

4 hours ago

November 22, 2024

Press Room

Family of missing Hawaii woman Hannah Kobayashi reveal shocking police detail after she mysteriously vanished on trip of a lifetime

Detectives waited ten days from when she was last heard from to interview the family of missing Hannah Kobayashi, her worried family has revealed.

The 30-year-old aspiring photographer disappeared from the streets of downtown Los Angeles after missing a connecting flight from her native Maui in Hawaii en-route to New York City.

It remains unclear why she left LA’s LAX airport and ventured out into the city 15 miles away but she sent a text to a friend saying she had had a ‘spiritual awakening’, and was later seen in the company of a mystery man.

On Thursday, frantic friends and family gathered in downtown LA, a block from where she was last seen, to spread the message and encourage the public to report any sightings and information they may have.

‘As of today the police have reached out to family members who last spoke with Hannah,’ her aunt Larie Pidgeon told DailyMail.com on Thursday.

‘We want them to take it a bit more seriously.

‘We think they realize we’re not going away and we’re going to be really loud. We’re going to do something until they do something.

‘I think now they are beginning the process of what we began six days ago.

Hannah Kobayashi, 30, disappeared from the streets of downtown Los Angeles after missing a connecting flight from her native Maui in Hawaii en route to New York City

On Thursday, frantic friends and family, including her devastated dad Ryan Kobayashi (pictured) gathered in downtown LA, a block from where she was last seen, to spread the message and encourage the public to report any sightings and information they may have

Hannah had been flying to meet another aunt in New York when she missed her connecting flight in Los Angeles

‘The entire world is looking for you (Hannah) because that’s how special you are.

‘We are not going to stop until we find you. We love you.’

Hannah’s father, Ryan Kobayashi, was handing out missing person flyers to passers-by and told DailyMail.com: ‘We will do everything we can until we have found her. We just need to get the word out there about her.

‘She’s a wonderful person who brings joy to so many people.’

The trip began in Maui on November 8 which she described in a hand-written itinerary as a ‘bucket list dreams become reality.’

Hannah had been flying to meet another aunt in New York when she missed her connecting flight in LA.

Family members and a friend received a series of cryptic texts from Hannah’s phone, causing them to fear she may have been abducted or trafficked.

Another aunt, Geordan Montalvo and her husband Bob, both 51, were scheduled to see Hannah when she arrived in New York.

‘She’s really amazing,’ he tells DailyMail.com of Hannah. ‘She’s got a great spirit. She’s artistic and loving.’

The trio were scheduled to attend a DJ Scott Hansen – aka Tycho – concert at Brooklyn Steel in Brooklyn on November 12.

They had planned the trip with a former boyfriend who was on the flight from Maui with her, says her mother Brandi Yee, although the former couple would not be together in New York after landing at JFK airport.

Bob Montalvo and Geordan Montalvo, the uncle and aunt of Hannah Kobayashi , who has been missing for 11 days gathers with the rest of the family in downtown Los Angeles to speak to the media and pass out flyers to raise awareness for their missing loved one

It remains unclear why the 30-year-old aspiring photographer left LAX airport and ventured out into the city 15 miles away

She said the ex-boyfriend, who had continued on to New York, is being helpful with the hunt for Hannah.

Hannah was spotted out in Los Angeles on November 9 at the Tashen bookstore located at The Grove shopping center.

Her sister Sydni Kobayashi has previously stated that Hannah sent a Venmo payment to two people whose names the family does not recognize. A photo of the event also appeared to have been posted on her Instagram account.

That day, family and friends received ‘weird’ texts from Kobayashi, but they did not hear from her again.

However, a day later on November 11, surveillance video around a downtown Los Angeles Metro train station near the Crypto.com arena showed her with an unknown person. Her family said she “does not appear to be in good condition” in the footage.

‘She didn’t look her normal self,’ Pigeon told DailyMail.com ‘She was with someone but we don’t know it was at this point. She didn’t look like she was safe.’

On November 11, Hannah sent a string of strange texts to a friend.

The missing Maui native vanished during a layover in Los Angeles while traveling from her home in Hawaii to New York and was spotted getting off her flight at LAX

A series of texts have led the family to believe Kobayashi was not alone when she disappeared. They say diction in the texts indicates they were written by someone else

She wrote ‘Deep Hackers wiped my identity, stole all of my funds, & have had me on a mind f*** since Friday.’

Another text said ‘I got tricked pretty much into giving away all my funds, followed by one saying, ‘For someone I thought I loved.’

Pidgeon added: ‘We’re not sure if Hannah actually wrote the texts or if someone else did.’

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Hawaii

Lawsuit challenges Hawaii’s gun ownership ban for young adults

Published

14 hours ago

November 21, 2024

Press Room

Lawsuit challenges Hawaii’s gun ownership ban for young adults

The latest lawsuit to take aim at Hawaii’s gun laws challenges the state’s ban on gun ownership for young adults 18 to 20 years old, which Second Amendment advocates say is an unconstitutional restriction on the right of Americans to bear arms.

Elijah Pinales, 19, and Juda Roache, who turns 18 next month, want to own guns for self-defense, according to their lawsuit filed Wednesday night in U.S. District Court in Honolulu.

Their lawyers assert that Hawaii is the only state with a complete ban on acquiring and owning firearms and ammunition by those who are 18 to 20. Some states allow 18-year-olds to purchase a long gun and some allow for private party transfer of handguns, said Alan Beck, one of the lawyers who filed the lawsuit and has lodged numerous other challenges to Hawaii weapons laws.

Roache’s mother wants to give him a firearm and ammunition, the lawsuit says.

Federal law requires a person to be 21 to purchase a handgun from a licensed firearm dealer and 18 to buy a long gun from a dealer, according to Everytown for Gun Safety. There’s an 18-year-old minimum for handgun purchases from unlicensed sellers and no minimum age for long guns, according to the group’s research.

New York and Illinois also have broad laws limiting people under 21 from possessing firearms, said David Pucino, legal director and deputy chief counsel for the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

“Hawai’i has some of the strongest gun laws in the country and it has among the very lowest gun death rates,” he said in a statement Thursday. “That’s not an accident, but it hasn’t stopped extremists from attacking Hawai’i’s gun laws at every turn.”

According to Everytown, firearms are the leading cause of death for young people ages 18 to 20, the firearm suicide rate in that age group has jumped 41% in the last decade, and 18- to 20-year-olds commit gun homicides at triple the rate of those 21 and older.

The Hawaii attorney general’s office said it had not been served with the complaint and declined to comment.

“There can be no real argument that adults under 21 are not part of the national community,” the lawsuit said, noting that 18-to-20-year-olds have the right to vote. “They have the right to serve in the military and are otherwise full-fledged members of society and the People.”

The quest for a preliminary injunction against enforcing a prohibition on gun ownership for young adults comes as Hawaii continues to contend with a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision that said Americans have a right to carry firearms in public for self-defense.

The so-called Bruen decision upended gun laws nationwide and set a new standard for interpreting gun laws, such that modern firearm laws must be consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.

There’s no historical tradition of prohibiting the purchase and ownership of firearms and ammunition by adults under 21, according to the lawsuit, which describes some of the nation’s founding figures such as Aaron Burr, who at 19 enlisted in the Continental Army with his own arms and ammunition, and James Monroe who did the same at 18.

Hawaii’s gun ownership ban for young adults dates to 1994, the lawsuit said. The state “doubled down” this year by prohibiting the possession of ammunition by those under 21, the lawsuit said.

Danger Close Tactical in Honolulu and JGB Arms on Kauai are federally licensed firearms dealers who are plaintiffs in the case because they want to do business with customers who are 18 to 20 years old, the lawsuit said.

Another plaintiff is the Second Amendment Foundation, a nonprofit in Bellevue, Washington.

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Hawaii

First Alert Forecast: Bring out the sunscreen! Blue Skies and light winds

Published

22 hours ago

November 21, 2024

Press Room

First Alert Forecast: Bring out the sunscreen! Blue Skies and light winds

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Today thru the weekend, it’ll be nice beach weather during the daytime with light winds and minimal rainfall. A few windward showers are possible over the eastern half of the state, but an overall drier trend is expected heading into the weekend.

Gradually diminishing trade winds will deliver just a few showers to windward areas of the smaller islands for the next day or so, while windward Big Island will continue to receive passing showers. Light and variable winds and mostly dry weather are expected statewide from Thursday night into Sunday. A weak front may move over the islands from the northwest late this weekend. This front is expected to bring little in the way of rainfall, however, and winds will remain fairly light.

Download HNN’s weather app for everything you need to plan your day.(Hawaii News Now)

A series of northwest and north-northeast swells are due later this week. Several small bumps along the way for north shores, but a medium north swell builds today and an overlapping swell arrives late Saturday, peaking Sunday into Monday. Surf should remain below high surf advisory criteria for the foreseeable future.

Get weather updates every ten minutes and your 7-Day First Alert Forecast on HNN Sunrise, weekdays with Guy Hagi and weekends with Billy V. Meteorologist Drew Davis has your forecasts on This is Now, First at Four and Hawaii News Now at 6:30. And join Chief Meteorologist Jennifer Robbins at 5, 5:30, 6, 9 and 10 and Ben Gutierrez on weekends.

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