Honolulu Star-Advertiser © Susan Scott
September 16, 1996
My desk is piled high with notes to myself and tidbits of marine news. The biggest note says, “Plover monograph.” This refers to the 10 or so calls I received from readers asking for information about a golden plover monograph I mentioned in a recent column.
There’s good news and bad news about this publication. The bad news is local bookstores can’t get it. This means you have to order it from the mainland, which adds about $5 to the already hefty $15 price.
The good news is I tracked down two 800-number places that can be called to order it. One is Buteo Books in Virginia (800-722-2460); the other is American Birding Association Sales (800-634-7736). Ask for monograph #201-202 (American and Pacific Golden Plover) in The Birds of North America published by The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (1996).
The up-to-date information in this 40-page reference is worth the cost.
You can’t beat the price of the Waikiki Aquarium’s docent training program – it’s free. Celebrate the Year of the Coral Reef and get a marine biology fix at the same time by volunteering for this comprehensive education program.
The five-week training program begins October 8. Classes are taught by the education staff Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. and Saturdays 8:30 a.m. to noon.
As a volunteer docent, you learn about Hawaii’s marine environment, then share that knowledge with students and teachers. For more information, or for a brochure featuring the aquarium’s fall activities and field trips, call 923-9741.
Here’s a piece of marine biology information to share: The U.S. Navy has asked for a type of patent on a method of teaching beluga whales to fetch.
The invention involves training the white whales to carry in their mouths a tool that latches onto sunken objects.
The animals dive 1,000 to 1,500 feet, use their natural sonar system to find hardware such as unarmed test torpedoes, attach their recovery tool, then bring the object back to the surface.
The whale project is out of favor with the Navy because it’s so hard to move whales around to different locations. (This is why they’ve gone public on the formerly secret project by asking for a patent.) But sea lions travel just fine.
Navy workers train sea lions to walk onto a plane like a dog, then fly the marine mammals to retrieval sites. As long as something in the object makes a noise, sea lions will dive to it over and over all day long. The disadvantage is that sea lions don’t dive as deep as whales. Sea lions usually go only about 600 feet down.
Speaking of sea lions, remember Hondo, the largest California sea lion on record who gained his girth by snatching steelhead trout from Seattle’s locks? Hondo was one of three sea lions exiled to Florida’s Sea World last spring for such clever poaching. But even though he was the biggest, he did the worst – Hondo died September 2 from an infection.
No one knows yet how, where or why this magnificent specimen of a sea lion got such a lethal infection, but a necropsy is being done.
Fortunately, the infection type is not usually contagious, so Hondo’s buddies, Big Frank and Bob, aren’t at much risk. The two are eating well and have active love lives in their new home with 48 other sea lions.
Hondo’s death came as a surprise to Sea World’s workers because he looked and behaved normally right up to his death. This isn’t unusual for wild animals, which often mask symptoms of illness to avoid falling prey to other animals.
We loved you for being bad, Hondo. Rest in peace.