http://action.foodandwaterwatch.org/t/741/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=2622...
You might think that after their controversial decision to allow cloned animals into the food supply, the Bush administration would take a break for while. But they're up against the clock, and trying to push genetically engineered animals onto your dinner plate. Can you help us make sure they don't get their way?

The Food and Drug Administration recently released its draft plan for how it will approve animals that are genetically engineered to grow faster, produce more milk, or even produce drugs in their meat or milk. The agency wants to use its drug approval process to approve new GE animals - a process that is flawed and wrapped in secrecy. This approval process would require the agency to review the effectiveness of the genetically engineered trait and any health impact on the animal, but not test the food that comes from these animals.

And this process does nothing to weigh any environmental damage caused by things like GE fish escaping from fish farms and breeding with wild fish, or the ethical considerations of altering the genes of animals in the first place. And to make matters worse, the FDA is not requiring that food from GE animals be labeled, so consumers won't know if the food they buy for their families was produced with this controversial technology.

Tell FDA to ban the use of genetically engineered animals for food. Take action.

Thanks for taking action,
Sarah Alexander, Senior Food Organizer
Food & Water Watch

Published on Thursday, November 13, 2008 by The San Francisco Chronicle
Supreme Court On Sonar: Navy Trumps Whales

by Bob Egelko

WASHINGTON - Threats to national security are more important than possible harm to whales and dolphins, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in lightening restrictions on the Navy's use of sonar in anti-submarine training off Southern California despite its potential effects on undersea creatures.

[A humpback whale breaches out the ocean not far from the Farallon Islands. The Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary protects 948 square nautical miles off the California coast, just a few miles west of San Francisco. Threats to national security are more important than possible harm to whales and dolphins, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in lightening restrictions on the Navy's use of sonar in anti-submarine training off Southern California despite its potential effects on undersea creatures. (SFC)]A humpback whale breaches out the ocean not far from the Farallon Islands. The Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary protects 948 square nautical miles off the California coast, just a few miles west of San Francisco. Threats to national security are more important than possible harm to whales and dolphins, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in lightening restrictions on the Navy's use of sonar in anti-submarine training off Southern California despite its potential effects on undersea creatures. (SFC)

Please Come help us clean up Marine Debris at Kealia Beach Sunday Nov. 23
Please come for just an hour, and you can make a big difference.
A flyer is attached for posting.

Meet at 9:00a.m.

Kealia Beach Park

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Join us for a fun and filthy morning at the beach!

- Trash bags and gloves will be provided -

· Get outside, get dirty and feel great!

· Help remove rubbish from the beach

· Learn how marine debris affects marine mammals and seabirds

Please bring sunscreen, hat, and water…and bring your friends!
Co-Sponsored with The Sierra Club
For more info, contact Sheri @ 652-4648.
Mahalos,
Surfrider Kaua'i.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

http://www.khnl.com/Global/story.asp?S=7334574

"Big Island Beach Attracts Plastic Trash"
Nov 9, 2007
Featured Video
Pollution Spoiling South Hawaii Beach
By Howard Dashefsky

KAMILO BEACH, Big Island (KHNL) -- "A beach that was once a place where Native Hawaiians used to come to find logs for their voyaging canoes, is now a place where tons of trash wind up every year.

A once scenic beach on the Big Island is now a disturbing reminder of pollution spoiling the world's oceans.

It's one of the most picturesque place on Earth. And sadly, it's one of the most polluted. It's Kamilo Beach on the southern tip of the Big Island.

Because it's constantly exposed to the trade winds blowing directly on shore, it winds up being a gathering place for marine debris from all over the Pacific.

Specifically, it's become an accumulation zone for plastic trash.

"Here what were seeing is what all plastic trash turns into as t floats for hundreds of years in the ocean. Plastic fragments" said environmentalist Charles Moore.

What was once a beautiful white sand beach is what Moore and others now call ‘Plastic Beach'. And it is not only on the surface.

"This plastic goes down a foot deep. At one time these were toothbrushes, pens, cigarette lighters, plastic bottles, plastic caps, but now they're plastic fragments and pre-production plastic pellets, together forming a new kind of sand: plastic sand here on the beaches of Hawaii".

In all, tons and tons of debris, and none of it generated here.

Suggesting ‘retreat’ for beach conservation
http://kauaiworld.com/articles/2008/10/24/news/kauai_news/doc490183211aa...

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By Michael Levine - The Garden Island
Published: Friday, October 24, 2008 12:12 AM HST
With rising and warming seas accelerating natural erosion of Hawai‘i’s many beaches and placing coastal infrastructure at risk, experts representing the University of Hawai‘i and the state government said yesterday that improved resource management was needed to maintain the lifeblood of the islands’ already-struggling tourism industry.

In the last of five presentations that comprised an afternoon seminar at the Kaua‘i War Memorial Convention Hall, Samuel Lemmo of the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands said the long-term mitigation options basically came down to fight or flight.

Examples of resisting the forces of nature include proposals to truck “millions of cubic yards” of sand to Ha‘ena, a plan that Lemmo categorized as impractical and unlikely, and the use of revetments to protect near-ocean infrastructure, such as Kaumuali‘i Highway in Kekaha.

The alternative, simply, is retreat.

“Just get away from the beach. ... Just pick up and leave,” Lemmo said by way of advice. “At the end of the day, that’s what needs to happen to protect these areas.”

Earlier, a quartet of University of Hawai‘i coastal geologists explained the factors that are setting up what Lemmo described as a “paradigm shift” on the thinking pertaining to erosion.

http://kauaiworld.com/articles/2008/10/21/news/kauai_news/doc48fd88f5630...
Failing seawall poses safety threat

A portion of the shoreline on the Kapa‘a town side of the sea wall has been eroded away by waves along the pedestrian/bike path fronting the Pono Kai resort. Photos by Dennis Fujimoto/The Garden Island

County moving to resolve issue by building new Eastside revetment
By Nathan Eagle
Published: Tuesday, October 21, 2008 12:14 AM HST
Natural erosion mixed with a few manmade decisions has created a costly cocktail for the county to swallow if it wants to preserve an Eastside shoreline and valuable coastal property.

There is an urgent need to address a deteriorating and unpermitted seawall fronting Pono Kai Resort in Kapa‘a. It is expected to cost taxpayers more than $2 million to remedy, County Engineer Donald Fujimoto said yesterday.

“It’s one of those situations where you can allow the (ocean) currents to take the coastline or you can protect it for public access for fishing and recreational purposes,” he said. “Although we may lose the white sand beach, just having access is a huge value.”

After searching for a solution for more than a year, Fujimoto told the Kaua‘i County Council last week that the only feasible option is to build a new revetment behind the existing one.

This will entail ripping up a portion of the coastal path that the county completed last year. Due to space constraints created by an abutting private property, the path will likely be redesigned to run on top of the new seawall, Fujimoto said.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

An Orca takes its last breath on Kauai
http://www.khon2.com/home/ticker/32729604.html
KHON2 - Honolulu,HI,USA
A juvenile killer whale clings to life rolling in the surf at Brennecke's beach on Kauai. "This animal has been in trouble for a long time, three to four ...

Whale Stranded on Kauai Beach
http://kgmb9.com/main/content/view/10698/40/
KGMB9 - Honolulu,HI,USA
A large crowd watched, as an excavator pulled the whale off one of Kauai busiest beaches, in the middle of all the hotels along the south shore. ...

Killer Whale Stranded On Kauai Beach Euthanized
http://www.kitv.com/news/17781212/detail.html
KITV.com - Honolulu,HI,USA
HONOLULU -- Officials euthanized a killer whale that stranded itself on a Kauai beach on Wednesday morning, officials said. The juvenile orca was found at 2 ...

Aloha, Brad

Very strange to have an orka here...?

Updated at 3:42 p.m., Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Sick orca whale euthanized on Kauai

By Diana Leone
Advertiser Kaua‘i Bureau

PO'IPU, Kaua'i — A sick killer whale was euthanized by federal wildlife officials at about noon today after it washed ashore early this morning at Brennecke's Beach.
Advertisement

The 18-foot-long female was very emaciated and had cookie-cutter shark bites and whale lice, all signs that it had been sick for some time, said Wende Goo, spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The animal was given two rounds of sedatives before it received a euthanasia shot about noon, Goo said. A Hawaiian cultural practitioner conducted rites for the animal before it was euthanized, she said.

Scientists will perform a necropsy to attempt to determine its cause of death. That procedure will be at an undisclosed location on Kaua'i, Goo said. Results of the necropsy probably will not be available today.

John Boulay, a manager at Brennecke's Beach Broiler, said he came to work at 6:30 a.m. and saw what he called "a 14-foot-long orca whale" washed up on the beach.

"It was all scratched up, from the coral," he said.

People were trying to push the animal back into the ocean, but it kept washing back, Boulay said.

Dwayne Akau said the animal still appeared alive when he was at the beach at 10 a.m. He said hundreds of people have gathered at the beach, including many state and federal wildlife officials, firefighters and lifeguards.

Supreme Court Shows Little Sympathy for Whales Beset by Sonar
Wednesday 08 October 2008

»
by: Michael Doyle, McClatchy Newspapers

Orca whales swim near a whale-watching boat off British Columbia. The US Navy vessel USS Shoup sails in the background. (Photo: Kenneth Balcomb / Center for Whale Research)
Washington - Whales may simply have to pay the price as the Navy prepares for war, Supreme Court justices suggested Wednesday.

In a closely watched environmental case, justices Wednesday morning repeatedly sounded sympathetic to Pentagon officials who want to run large-scale Navy exercises off the Southern California coast. While the resulting underwater sonar storm disturbs marine mammals, it also helps prepare sailors for combat.

"I thought the whole point of the armed forces was to hurt the environment, " Associate Justice Stephen Breyer said, half-jokingly. "Of course they're going to do harm."

The Pentagon and environmentalists disagree over exactly how much mid-frequency active sonar injures marine mammals, and justices Wednesday couldn't resolve the conflict. An apparent majority of justices, though, did appear ready to defer to military expertise in matters of national security.

NRDC newsletter clip

Whales Go to the Supreme Court

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a critical case on Oct. 8.

NRDC will fight to defend thousands of whales and other marine life from sonar exercises that disrupt their ability to navigate, find food and communicate.

Hear from NRDC experts
http://switchboard. nrdc.org/ whales_supremeco urt.php

Read about protecting whales
http://www.nrdc. org/wildlife/ marine/sonar. asp

Tell the Navy to turn off the noise
http://www.nrdconli ne.org/campaign/ nrdcaction_ 092506_a