Grey Whale Spotted

My evening walk lead me in a different direction. Rain had washed out the dirt path of Ocean Front and so undeterred, I turned back and headed towards the lighthouse. As I neared the Point Vicente Interpetive Center, I saw a group of onlookers standing outside the building looking out towards the ocean. There is a little outdoor amphitheater and trekked up the steps and noticed the onlookers were of varying age, size, ethnicity, dress and I thought it was wonderful how admiring nature is universal. "See any whales today" I asked? The middle-aged Japanese couple next to me said "Yes...look over there" and almost on cue, a plume of water was spotted and you could hear everyone ooh and ah. What joy it brought. It had been 8 minutes since the grey whale had popped up before. A young Indian father lifted his beautiful little girl on the stone wall so she could see better. She looked through her binoculars made of two empty roles of toilet paper tied together with string. She was so cute as she earnestly pointed to the waters exclaiming, "Pappa, I see something!" A volunteer who helps track grey whale activity stated that there were 8 grey whale sitings today and one finn whale. What a great way to enjoy the sunset on beautiful Palos Verdes peninsula

Here's info on the
Point Vicente Interpretive Center:
This beautiful park, located adjacent to the Pt. Vicente Lighthouse, offers recreational and educational opportunities to the public..The Interpretive Center opened in 1984 with a mission to present and interpret the unique features and history of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. The almost 10, 000 square foot newly expanded Interpretive Center, re-opened on July 15, 2006, features exhibits on the natural and cultural history of the Peninsula, with a special emphasis on the Pacific gray whale. This premier whale watch site provides spectacular opportunities to view the annual migration of the Pacific gray whale, from December through April.

Sonar, the Navy and Whales

It is very unfortuante that the government is allowing the Navy to use sonar....

Here's an except from an interesting article: Dissenting judge Ruth Ginsburg further said the navy had failed to obey the law by not supplying a full report on the environmental risks before beginning to use sonar, and just sticking to its preliminary report. At the start of the Supreme Court hearing in October, government lawyer Gregory Carre acknowledged that a preliminary navy study found that sonar could disorient 170,000 marine mammals, and leave 8,000 whales temporarily deaf.

Drilling, sonar, sewage negatively impact our own ecosystem. I did a google search to see what individuals, groups or countries are doing to help the environment in which we all live I am impressed by Tunisia's environmental policy which reads... (www.tunisiaonline.com/culture/index.html)

Tunisia's environmental policy aims to preserve the ecological balance, safeguard natural and human resources, and control all forms of pollution. It also seeks to reconcile development needs with environmental imperatives in order to protect natural elements (air, water, soil, and biodiversity), reduce existing risks to such resources, and improve the living conditions of the population.

It is notable I did not find such a policy for the U.S. but there are plenty of articles on sonar use harming wildlife.

NRDC: Protecting Whales from Dangerous Sonar
International campaign to regulate active sonar systems that harm marine mammals.www.nrdc.org/wildlife/marine/nlfa.asp - Cached
Whales Index Page - NRDC's BioGems
NRDC BioGems page to save whales and other marine mammals. ... Ear-splitting military sonar is needlessly threatening whales and other marine ...www.savebiogems.org/whales -
Is Navy Sonar Killing Whales? Holology by Freydis
This report studies the connections between Navy active-sonar and reports of whale deaths. ... sonar system could have caused a mass stranding of whales off ...www.holology.com/whale.html
Orca Network - News - Navy Sonar Blasts Whales
The Orca Network Lolita campaign: Enhancing awareness of a captive member of the Southern Resident ... US Navy Sonar blasts Pacific Northwest killer whales ...www.orcanetwork.org/news/shoup.html - 77k - Cached
Whale - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pathology: whales, sonar and decompression sickness". Nature 428 (6894) ... "Sonar versus whales: noise may disrupt neural activity in deep-diving cetaceans" ...en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale - 68k - Cached
Sonar May Be Linked to Stranding of Whales LiveScience
The Navy's use of sonar during maritime exercises may have contributed to the mass stranding of more than 150 whales in Hawaii's Hanalei Bay two years ago, ...www.livescience.com/animals/ap_060428_sonar_whales.html - Cached

Images of Kahui, HI

Here are a couple of images that I took this week. I spotted a flower on a bananna tree. Did you know that roosters and chickens rule on this small island? So much so, that their are t-shirts with their image. The roosters seems to have no sense of time - since they cackadoodledo through out the day. Included is a shot of the Spouting horn - a blow hole on the Southern part of the island and hot pink hibiscus. From our condo their was a protected nesting area for birds and from our lanai we could see spouting whales. More whales had been seen on this coast in record numbers.