Hawaii Travel

Archive for September, 2009

Image by Alan Light via FlickrA new menu at Orchids in the Halekulani Hotel is always a good thing for Hawaii eating. The hotel restaurant in Waikiki has long been among my favorite settings on Oahu, if not all of Hawaii. Oceanside and quiet yet, a sedate alabaster repose within

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I have no idea how they shot this (is it digital? I can’t tell). But it gives a wonderful flavor for what you might get in backcountry waterfalls in Hawaii. These guys give a very nice guide to Hawaii waterfalls. Most of the better ones are hard to reach

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Tree climbing, omniverous and fast-reproducing black rats are among the scourges of the Hawaiian natural landscape.

They destroy nesting native birds and their eggs, they eat native plant seedlings, they can eat a native loulu palm’s entire season’s production of seeds—and there’s evidence that when they are removed, much of the native habitat can recover.

(Image: We couldn’t quickly put our hands on a black rat photo. This is Hawai’i's first rat, the Pacific or Polynesian rat, which arrived with Polynesian settlers. Credit: New Zealand government.)

But there’s another side to this story. Rats, though invasive themselves, can also keep invasive species at bay—and in some conditions, removing rats can create new problems.

University of Hawai’i zoologist Wallace M. Meyer III and University of Hawai’i botanist Aaron B. Shiels review some of the complicated issues in a new paper in Pacific Science, “Black Rat (Rattus rattus) Predation on Nonindigenous Snails in Hawai‘i: Complex Management Implications.” (Pacific Science (2009), vol. 63, no. 3:339–347: 2009 by University of Hawai‘i Press)

The paper, as its title suggests, is focused on snails.

Black rats are considered a major threat to Hawai’i's gorgeous native tree snails, which were once common but are now fadingly rare, and many species are extinct.

But rats also eat the cannibal snail, Euglandina rosea, which also preys on the tree snails. Furthermore, they eat the common garden and forest pest, the giant African snail, Achatina fulica. In tests conducted by the authors, black rats chowed down aggressively on both species. Even quite large snails have their shells readily crushed by rats.

What does this mean for rat control as a conservation tool? It means it ain’t simple.

“We hypothesize that reduction or eradication of R. rattus populations may cause an ecological release of some nonindigenous snail species where these groups coexist. As such, effective restoration for native snails and plants may not be realized after R. rattus removal in forest ecosystems as a consequence of the complex interactions that currently exist among rats, nonindigenous snails, and the remaining food web,” the authors write

What remains clear is that rats—not only the black rat, but also the Pacific or Polynesian rat and the Norwegian rat—have had significant impacts on the Hawaiian natural environment.

“Introductions of rats and terrestrial snails have been implicated in the decline of native Hawaiian flora and fauna. All three rat species were introduced to the Hawaiian Islands by people and are among the most noxious invasive species on islands worldwide,” the authors write.

But at this point, in the case of native tree snails, it is not clear whether the rat or the cannibal snail is the greater threat.

“It is unknown if E. rosea predation on other mollusk species would equal or exceed that of R. rattus,” the authors write.

So the research isn’t saying rat control is a bad thing. It’s urging caution, and as so many scientific papers do, it argues for more research.

© Jan TenBruggencate 2009

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Image via WikipediaYou can’t make this stuff up. The company is called Crispy Critters. And its coming to Hawaii to smoke out any bed bug issues in the Aloha State. Bed bug incidents in Hawaii had been on the rise with some even calling it an “epidemic.” We’ve talked before

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Quickest way I’ve ever seen to get a feel for driving the Road to Hana. Everyone has to do it once, eh?

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The Lodge has definitely enjoyed a Rennaissance under Four Seasons management. Service is better. I don’t know about the food, have heard mixed reports. But this photo montage taken only a couple of months about by Celebrate Travel, gives you a pretty rich visual overview not shot by professionals

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welp, i got my non-live-in non-bf back. the first thing we did was blind taste vodkas. there goes my new healthy lifestyle…

nah, it’s fine. whatever. at least i get yummy food cooked for me. and damn does he know how to cook. so does apartm3nt tho. man, i had THE nicest date there the other [...]
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A very cool amateur video tour of a typical room at one of my fave Hawaii hotels, the Hotel Hana Maui. This place is totally unplugged – no TV, no Internet in the rooms. Outdoor lava showers are amazing. The sound of the ocean is everywhere. Only 70 rooms

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My old friend Lesa Griffith went to Maui and uncorked a nifty find. Turns out a crackerjack resto team with a chef who formerly was a sous at the famed Union Square Tavern is doing locally sourced cuisine in hole-in-the-wall in Makawao. It’s nondescript name is Market Cafe. Lesa

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There was a time when discovery was the hallmark of great science.

Discovering continents, lost islands, and new species.

Today, with the the world pretty well mapped and a dwindling of new species to find, great science has moved on to less Indiana Jones-like fields such as gene expression and conservation.

But there are still finds to be made.

(Image: A new species of butterfly fish, found during deep dives in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. Credit: Yannis Papastamatiou/NOAA .)

Simply find a place where nobody’s looked, and you’re likely to find wonderful things.

In a remote New Guinea jungle recently, scientists found several new species of animals, including a giant long-haired rat. It was found at Mount Bosavi, and is temporarily being called the Bosavi Woolly Rat. More here.

And in Hawaiian waters, intrepid divers using mixed-gas tanks dove to previously unexplored depths in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument and found, surprise!, a bunch of new species of fish.

Their project, Deep Reef 2009, took scientists more than 200 feet down—places deeper than divers normally go, yet shallower than submersibles are normally tasked.

And, of course, there was cool stuff. Here is the blog produced during that trip last month.

In addition to several species of fish that were new to science, the researchers found beds of algae filled with numerous young fishes, and they concluded that the deep water habitats may serve as nurseries that replenish shallower water fish populations.

Neat stuff. New stuff.

For the adventurers among us, discoveries are still out there.

© Jan TenBruggencate 2009

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