WHEN YOU’RE READY TO MOVE,
CALL McCOURT!
A whale of an effort
A snorkeler and a whale shark meet offshore, north of Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport. BO PARDAU/SPECIAL TO WEST HAWAII TODAY
BUDDING NONPROFIT LOOKS TO DOCUMENT WHALE SHARKS IN HAWAII
HILO — The eruption
on Kilauea’s lower East
Rift Zone continues to
consume the few remaining
homes in Kapoho
Beach Lots.
HILO — With the eruption in
lower Puna settling into a fairly
consistent pattern, state elections
officials are considering opening a
polling place for Pahoa on primary
election day.
“Right now, we’re in the process
of getting that established,” said
Scott Nago, chief
election officer, on
Thursday. “We’re in
contact with Civil
Defense, we understand
the situation
has stabilized.”
A consolidated
location for precincts
04-03 and
04-04 hasn’t been selected yet,
but he added that he is “pretty
confident it’s going to happen.”
In the meantime, early walk-in
voting will be available for voters
in those precincts at the Pahoa
Community Center from July
30-Aug. 9.
The move comes as the office is
facing criticism from the American
Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii,
which is threatening a lawsuit,
and area lawmakers for previously
announcing that polling
places at Pahoa High School and
Pahoa Community Center would
be closed on primary election day,
Aug. 11, and that each of the registered
voters in the precincts will
be mailed ballots. Officials said in
early June they didn’t want to delay
a decision to avoid confusion.
The decision to open an early
walk-in site in Pahoa was made later.
Ballots to the 6,070 affected
voters were mailed last week
and 48 had been returned by
Thursday, said Pat Nakamoto,
Hawaii County elections administrator.
Absentee mail ballots for
other precincts will be mailed
July 17.
Nakamoto said voters can still
use walk-in voting
sites if they
were mailed an
absentee ballot.
Voters can use any
early walk-in site
around the county
but must use their
designated polling
place on primary
election day.
KAILUA-KONA — Maria
Harvey worked for seven years
in various capacities off the
shores of West Hawaii before
she saw her first whale shark.
Since then, she’s seen something
near 30 members of the
endangered species in Hawaii
waters.
A marine researcher and disentanglement
specialist, the
seemingly excess number of
whale sharks piqued Harvey’s
curiosity, as the world’s largest
extant fish species weren’t
regarded as all that typical in
Hawaii.
In late 2016, Harvey came
up with the concept for
Hawaii Uncharted Research
Collective (HURC), a nonprofit
organization that became a
legal entity last summer and
began charting whale sharks
around the islands last fall.
“Whale sharks are considered
an endangered species,”
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INSIDE
PRUITT
BLEW IT
EPA head calls
it quits, Trump
appoints coal
lobbyist instead
PAGE 4A
▼
LUCKY LAKE
Lake Waiau
bounces back
from puddle
to alpine lake
once again
PAGE 7A
▼
HI 88 LO 75 WEATHER, PAGE 4A
VOL. 50, NO. 186 18 PAGES
BY MAX DIBLE
WEST HAWAII TODAY
mdible@westhawaiitoday.com
“If they are in our waters,
we need to understand
how to protect them and
how to preserve them.”
MARIA HARVEY
CHIEF RESEARCH COORDINATOR, HURC
KILAUEA ERUPTION
Looking for a place to vote
STATE ‘CONFIDENT’ IT WILL OPEN PAHOA POLLING PLACE
BY TOM CALLIS
HAWAII TRIBUNE-HERALD
SEE WHALE SHARK PAGE 8A
Nago Nakamoto
SEE VOTING PAGE 9A
Lava enters the sea along the Kapoho coastline
Thursday. U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY/COURTESY PHOTO
Kapoho Beach Lots
still getting burned
LAVA FLOW HAS DESTROYED
BETWEEN 668-700 HOMES
BY TOM CALLIS
HAWAII TRIBUNE-HERALD
SEE LAVA PAGE 9A
link