John & Karen's report from Kahekili today

John and I ran into 3 spearfishermen a little past the Mahana today, 2 of the 3 had Brown Tangs on their strings, and they were both out spearing fish for bait.  We talked to them, told them about the management area, and hopefully got through to them, although I don't know about the 3rd guy.  He was older, was a strong pigeon-speaker, and I wasn't sure if he understood what we were saying.  The 2 younger guys did, though, the guy I spoke to said, "Holy sh*t!"

On our way back down the beach, we ran into a school of 7 very large Omilu, all about 2 1/2 feet to 3 feet, very beautiful and a little intimidating!!  I told John I thought they were looking for their friend from yesterday (yesterday we saw a spearfisherman with a speared Omilu, about 2 1/2 feet - I e-mailed Liz, Darla and Luna about this spearfisherman; I gave him a flyer and invited him to join the Makai Watch, or at least check out one of the meetings, his name was Hoku), at one point the school started to circle us, so John ran them off.  They weren't afraid of us, though!  John got one of them separated from the pack, chased him a little bit, the rest of the school drifted off at this point and seemed to lose interest.

There was a huge crowd of schoolkids from Lahaina Intermediate at Kahekili today, a couple hundred kids running around in orange t-shirts.  After our swim, I talked to 2 women who were wearing the same orange t-shirts, they said today had been a "Rewards Day" for kids who hadn't gotten a "D" or an "F" the last quarter.  Evidently they have 4 "Rewards Days" a year, and 1 of them is at Kahekili.  John gave them flyers and talked to them about the management area and the possibility of getting the kids interested in it.

John also did more repair work on Emily's urchin cages today.