On Earth Day, April 22, The Black Cat Salon will be participating in a world-record setting event! Aveda salons worldwide will be trying to break the record for most money raised for charity by doing hair cuts in one day. We will be doing hair cuts from 10am-8pm on April 22 for $20 donations to Surfrider HI. Call now to make your appointment, make history, and make a difference! Call 808-263-7366
Both locations are participating.
In Kailua at 25 Malaniu St.
In Kaimuki at 3512 Waialae Ave.

https://www.facebook.com/events/230960473708327/?ref=22

Please celebrate Earth Day with a good clean time! We’re partnering again with Sustainable Coastlines and it’ll be another great event with amazingly discounted access ($5!) to Sea Life Park and a great community event.
Please join Surfrider at Waimanalo Beach Park, 41-741 Kalanianaole Hwy. Start time 9:30 and look for the blue flags and tent near the lifeguard stand. We’ll head to Sea Life Park after the clean around noon: 41-202 Kalanianaole Hwy Waimanalo Beach, HI 96795

Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii, Surfrider Oahu Chapter, the Hawaii Association of Environmental Professionals, Kokua Hawaii Foundation, Sea Life Park and a bunch of other organizations and individuals are hoping to form a record-breaking number of participants for the annual Earth Day Cleanup!

This will conclude and continue the fun with an Arts & Music Festival at Sea Life Park .

The cleanup starts at 9:30AM at any of the following locations:
WAIMANALO BEACH PARK : Surfrider Oahu’s spot -> come find us there!
PYRAMID ROCK - Kaneohe Marine Base
SHOREBREAKS/GREENWALLS - Kailua
KALAMA BEACH PARK - Kailua
KAILUA BEACH PARK - Across from Buzz’s
LANIKAI BEACH - Park Access
BELLOWS - Waimanalo
SHERWOODS - Waimanalo
KAUPO BAY - Across from Sea Life Park
MAKAPU’U
SANDY BEACH
Then head to Sea Life Park for an afternoon of live music, guest speakers, educational activities, games, keiki tent, live art exhibitions, the whole park, and more. All this for a small entry fee of $5 for beach cleaners only.
Sea Life Park After Cleanup Music Festival goes from 12-4:30

If you live closer, please feel free to attend these locations:

Cleaning from 9:30 to 11:45

A big MAHALO to Volcano E-Cigs, Blue Tree Cafe and to all the volunteers who helped remove 11,176 cigarette butts and 287 lbs of trash from Kaka’ako Beach Park!

Check out the coverage from Hawaii News Now http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/21836824/volunteers-collect-cigarette-butts-raise-money

The Surfrider Foundation Oahu Chapter will host a cleanup at Kaka’ako Waterfront Park on Saturday, Mar. 30th, from 10 am to noon, in partnership with Volcano Fine Electronic Cigarettes. Volcano will be donating $.05 to the Oahu Chapter for every cigarette butt collected during the cleanup in support of Surfrider’s Hold On To Your Butts Campaign.

To reduce cigarette litter in our coastal areas, the Oahu Chapter is supporting Bill 72 to ban smoking at beaches and parks along the South Shore. Surfrider members will join many other environmental and citizen groups to testify at the Honolulu City Council hearing on Wed., March 20, 10:00am.  For more info, go to: Hon. Gov. - Bill 72.  In a recent research poll, 72% of respondents supported smoke-free beaches.

“We are pleased to bring awareness to this issue on the beaches not only of Hawaii but worldwide,” explained Cory Smith, owner and CEO of VOLCANO Fine Electronic Cigarettes. “Our electronic cigarettes can end this issue easily because our e-cigs produce no cigarette butt litter, which pollutes our environment. We applaud the Surfrider Foundation and happily donate to their cause of protecting our coastal areas.”

“We NEVER clean a beach without finding lots of cigarette butts,” said James McCay, the Oahu Chapter’s Beach Cleanup Coordinator. “Far from harmless, each of these butts is a little bundle of toxins that can be deadly to all kinds of aquatic life.” Volunteers are encouraged to bring sunscreen, reusable water bottles, gloves and recycled plastic bags to pick up trash.

At the end of the cleanup, Blue Tree Cafe will be sponsoring lunch for the volunteers who help clean up the park. “Kevin Aoki & I are thrilled to be a part of the Kakaako Beach Clean up,” says Juliann Gigi, co-owner of Blue Tree Café.  ”We are proud to support this eco-conscious, community event to support the Surfrider Foundation, and we welcome our customers to help keep our beaches and ocean clean.”

VOLCANO Fine Electronic Cigarettes is a manufacturer and retailer of electronic cigarettes and vaping accessories. Headquartered in Hawaii, the company has been in business since August 2009 and has expanded its operations throughout the USA, UK and Southeast Asia.

Blue Tree is a Cafe in Kakaako that serves local and organic coffee, tea, juices, smoothies and delicious raw and traditional cafe food.  They are dedicated to educating their customers and supporting their “be conscious motto” by offering plenty of affordable, healthy & nutritious choices to the local community.

Founded in 1984, the Surfrider Foundation Surfrider has over 83 chapters and 250,000 supporters, activists and members in the US, including five chapter in Hawaii and thousands of activists. The Oahu Chapter is in its 16th year of activism and has been working on issues of beach access, water quality, coastal preservation and plastic marine debris.  For more information, go to www.surfrider.org/oahu.

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A Deeper Shade of Blue in US theaters March 28th for a special one-night-only Fathom Event!

www.facebook.com/TurtleBayEndangeredSpecies

Editorial in the Honolulu Star Advertizer
Turtle Bay expansion threatens endangered animals, plants

By Angela Huntemer

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Jan 16, 2013

After careful review and consultation with biologists, I strongly contend that Turtle Bay Resort’s surveys of flora and fauna, in its draft supplemental environmental impact statement (DSEIS), are incomplete and inaccurate.

They do not address:

» The issues of animals and plants listed under the Endangered Species Act; Hawaiian monk seals, green sea turtles, Hawaiian stilts, moorhens, coots, ducks, ohai (sesbania-tomentosa) and others.

» The presence of migratory birds such as bristle thighed curlews, golden plovers, wandering tattlers, ruddy turnstones, sanderlings, dowitchers, yellowlegs and others protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

» The presence, and sensitivity to light, of shearwaters and petrels.

The surveys also:

» Deny that the property contains or is adjacent to critical habitat.

» Did not attempt inventories of invertebrates or freshwater aquatic resources.

» Assume that Hawaiian owls and bats are not present. Best practices are to assume they are present, since their presence is documented on adjacent properties (at the First Wind project and James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge).

» Did not investigate “the fragile ecosystem” of Punahoolapa Marsh and then declared that no endangered plants were found.

» Incorrectly maintain that there are no endangered plants on the property.

The DSEIS lacks discussion of preservation and restoration of dune habitat, overgrown with invasive species through neglect, a predator control program and, as suggested more than 20 years ago by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, restoration of the marsh. The existing resort has no functional education programs for staff to prevent the destruction of protected birdlife, or to coordinate wildlife emergencies with state and federal authorities.

I attended the open house event at Turtle Bay Resort last month. The consultant who did the “near shore study” was asked why he inventoried only the turtles at Kawela Bay when they are present all along the coastline. He replied that he didn’t know how to do that and asked me to explain to him how to do it. I told him it was not my job.

He was asked why he also restricted his surveys of Hawaiian monk seals to Kawela, when everyone knows they haul out and pup on the eastern end of the property. He replied that he was the first person to see a Hawaiian monk seal here in the main Hawaiian islands and was familiar with what they looked like. That’s great, but it did not answer the question.

The consultants who did the animal and plant studies were not at the open house. These are the biologists who didn’t want to investigate the plants in part of the Punahoolapa Marsh because they were afraid of disturbing the fragile ecosystem and then — guess what — didn’t find any endangered wetland plants or indeed any endangered plants anywhere on the property.

Without proper surveys of flora and fauna, impact assessment of the proposed action on the coastal wetland and dune habitats is meaningless. Mitigation in the form of undefined “education programs,” run largely by volunteers, is insufficient. This is not full disclosure.

This area of coastal wetland, while degraded by the presence of a hotel, condos and golf courses, does contain important ecosystems that are rare and fragile enough to warrant protection and restoration. Any expansion of the current footprint of Turtle Bay Resort is untenable with the presence of protected animal and plant species in the SEIS lands and incompatible with their long-term survival.

• Saturday, January 26, 2013 8:00 am-10:00 am Beach Clean-Up at Diamond Head Beaches Join the Waikiki Aquarium and Hard Rock Cafe as we help keep our beaches clean. Participants will be collecting rubbish along Makalei and Leahi Beach Parks in the Diamond Head area. This morning volunteer activity is great for individuals and families or groups. Supplies provided by the City and County of Honolulu. Email volunteer@waquarium.org or call 440-9020 for more information or to sign-up.

Aloha and Happy New Year! Looking for a way to get involved, make a difference, and start 2013 off right? Join us on Saturday January 26 as we help to keep our beaches and beach parks clean. Please see the attached flyer and join us for a morning volunteer effort in the Diamond Head area.

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Wednesday,June 5th, 7 - 9 pm: Come to our monthly meetings and get involved with Surfrider Foundation!! We would like to invite you to attend our monthly SF meeting. We hold meetings every first Wednesday of the month.

All are welcome to join! The meeting is potluck-style so please bring something to share if you want.  Also, please carpool as street parking may be limited.

If you are interested in becoming a member in 2013 or want to renew your membership, just visit our website at oahu.surfrider.org to find out about how you can get involved.

The Surfrider Foundation is dedicated to the protection and preservation of our world’s oceans, waves and beaches. Founded in 1984 by a handful of visionary surfers, the Surfrider Foundation now maintains over 50,000 members and 63 chapters across the country and around the world. The Oahu Chapter has been working on issues of beach access, water quality, coastal preservation and plastic marine debris. For more information, go towww.surfrider.org/oahu.

CoXist Studio, 331 Keawe St., Honolulu, HI

https://www.facebook.com/coxiststudio