May 7, 2020 (KITV Island News)—Kahalu‘u Bay on Hawai‘i Island is one of the most popular and heavily visited snorkeling locations in all of Hawai‘i. Hundreds of thousands of people come to view colorful fish and dazzling coral colonies every year, and like in many other over-used locations, the aquatic life in the bay is struggling to survive.
September 30, 2019 (Pacific Business News)—Hawaii Tourism Authority will fund 34 programs throughout the state that work to protect the environment in 2020. The funding, which was announced last week, is provided through the Transient Accommodations Tax as part of HTA’s Aloha Aina program.
September 24, 2019 (USA Today)—At the edge of an ancient lava flow where jagged black rocks meet the Pacific, small off-the-grid homes overlook the calm blue waters of Papa Bay on Hawaii’s Big Island — no tourists or hotels in sight. Here, one of the islands’ most abundant and vibrant coral reefs thrives just below the surface.
August 24, 2019 (Hawaii Tribune-Herald)—Coral bleaching is already occurring in West Hawaii waters, and things are likely to get worse as Hawaii’s reefs enter a major bleaching event within the next two months — if not sooner.
May 29, 2019 (Big Island Video News)—Kahaluʻu Bay beachgoers with sunscreens containing ingredients known to be harmful to corals will have the chance to swap out for a more environmentally-friendly product this weekend.
May 22, 2019 (New York Times)—A Hawaii county has closed a bay to prevent disruption of coral spawning that scientists predicted would occur over two days, officials said.
Hawaii County officials closed Kahaluu Bay to allow the spawning event on Monday through Tuesday on the Big Island, West Hawaii Today reported. The bay reopened on Wednesday.
May 21, 2019 (West Hawaii Today)—Coral submerged in the typically crowded Kahaluu Bay is amid a reprieve from human traffic, which began Monday morning and continues through today.
The purpose of the county-imposed closure is to allow for a coral spawning event scientists predicted was most likely to occur on those two days. West Hawaii reefs lost roughly 95% of their cauliflower coral in the mass bleaching event of 2015.
May 20, 2019 (happi.com)—World Reef Day organizers have announce a series of activities to be held in and out of Hawai‘i on June 1, 2019, the inaugural event to that has been designed to engage individuals, organizations, and corporations alike to come together, raise awareness, and activate positive change for the long-term health of our world’s coral reefs.
April 28, 2019 (West Hawai‘i Today)—The Kahaluu Bay Education Center last April commissioned testing to measure bay waters for the presence of oxybenzone, a chemical compound found in sunscreens and known to be harmful to coral ecosystems.
The results returned last weekend were alarming.
April 22, 2019 (Honolulu Civil Beat)—Extremely high concentrations of oxybenzone have been found on Kona’s busiest snorkeling beach in water test results analyzed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.