Aloha, and welcome to the blog. The Best Hawaii Vacation Ever is based on Kauai, the Garden Island. Special thanks to Air Kauai Helicopters, our activity of the month. If you have never been on a helicopter ride, Kauai is the place.

Some of the biggest stories of 2006 was the largest environmental fine ever.   Long before the Ka loko dam breached during the spring's record rains, owner James Pflueger was already on the hot seat for a November 2001 mudslide in Pila'a that damaged property before running into the ocean and blanketing the reef in Pila'a Bay.

Pflueger, who had been doing roadwork without a permit, agreed earlier this year to pay a $7.5 million fine levied by the Environmental Protection Agency for violating the Clean Water Act, the largest single environmental fine on record.   Pflueger has also been named in a civil suit filed by the families of the victims of the March 14 th Ka Loko disaster.  

After months of wrangling, the Navy reached an agreement in July 2006 with various conservationist groups on the use of sonar in its Rim of the Pacific naval exercises.   Protesters turned the heat up in May, using the mysterious stranding of approximately 150 melon-headed whales in Hanalei Bay in 2004, during the last RIMPAC exercises off Kaua'i as their rallying cry.

On July 2, a U.S. District Court judge in California issued a temporary restraining order against the use of active sonar, but six days later the Navy go the go-ahead after agreeing to not use mid-frequency sonar, and not use any sonar within 25 nautical miles of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument.

Some were still not happy about it, and led protests on the North Shore throughout July.

One whale in late June was seen breaching and bleeding in Halalei, the same time the Navy did their exercises supposedly without the use of sonar.

The constant battle against GMO continued in 2006, with the threat of genetically modified taro.   Essentially naysayers feared that UH would be at liberty to uproot fields of the resilient, low maintenance crop that has long been a sacred staple to the Hawaiian diet.   Furthermore, they argued that because farmers have crossbred crops for centuries and taro often crossbreeds itself it would be impossible to positively identify on estrain from another.   The debate his home on Kauai where 65 percent of Hawaii's taro is grown.

GMO opponents entered in the scene when the UH scenario become reminiscent of when the seed giant Monsanto filed hundreds of lawsuits against farmers over patented corn.   The GMO drama did not end there, in November 2006 a Syngenta fild sprayed with herbicides next to the campus of Waimea Canyon Elementary school, sent several students home and many more to the infirmary.   The official spin was that the pungent odors was from a wild spider flower, commonly called stinkweed.   Many have there doubt and still blame the untested experimental top secret GMO crops and herbicides.

Another major issue in 2006 and 2007 is the superferry that can bring 200 cars at a time inter island.   Adding more cars to the traffic congested roads, and having no environmental impact statement, the superferry has go the go ahead by big business, but not the people.   During the peak tourist season of winter 2006/7 the normal 15 minute drive form Kapaa to Lihue on Kauai was a two hour traffic jam.

The tiny and noisy coqui frog also made the news, with   a small colony located in Lawai, Kauai.  

If you are wanting to know more about Hawaii, try our educational section under Hawaii Facts, the link at the top of the page. In this section you can read informative articles from the University of Hawaii.

More news to come later.