Posted on: Sunday, August 8, 2004
HAWAI'I BRIEFS
Gray sea worms wash ashore
Advertiser Staff
They were a strange sight at Ala Moana Beach.
An estimated 200 gray sea worms, called polycheate worms, washed ashore Friday to the amazement of veteran lifeguard Steve Clendenin.
Clendenin, who has been assigned to the beach since 1979, had never seen one before.
Clendenin described the worms as a "nightmarish cross between a centipede and a sea urchin."
The 1- to- 6-inch-long worms normally live beneath the sand on the ocean floor, feeding on algae, state Health Department spokeswoman Janice Okubo said.
Most of the worms that washed ashore appeared to be dying.
Okubo attributed the deaths to the ocean's salt water being diluted with fresh water from recent rains.
The worms don't sting or bite, although they sometimes have thornlike spines on their backs, according to the department's Clean Water Branch.
The department found it unnecessary to close the beach.
There were no reports of the worms coming ashore yesterday.
The United Chinese Society has honored Dr. Wendell K.S. Foo and Rosalie Ho Hong as 2004 Model Chinese Father and Mother of the Year.
Foo, an assistant clinical professor at the University of Hawai'i John A. Burns School of Medicine, and his wife, Susan, are the parents of three children. Born in Kona, he also is a member of the HealthSouth SurgiCare of Hawaii and of the state Board of Medical Examiners.
Hong graduated from McKinley High School and Chung Shan Chinese Language School. She and her husband, Dr. Gilbert S. N. Hong, raised five children. She has been a community volunteer with St. Francis Hospital Auxiliary, American Chinese Club Auxiliary, Star of the Sea church and school, Girl Scouts and the Nu'uanu YMCA.
A fire that officials say was deliberately set has destroyed all the equipment of the three Kapa'a Pop Warner football teams.
The fire early Thursday destroyed a Kaua'i County building at Kapa'a Ball Park that was being used for storage by the Kapa'a Pop Warner Association.
Kapa'a association vice president Fran Johnson said the teams lost all their footballs, 135 helmets and all their practice jerseys and game uniforms. The equipment was valued at $34,500. None of it was insured.
Johnson said the other five Pop Warner associations on Kaua'i are offering help. She said offers have come in from around the state. A representative of the Pro Bowl on O'ahu contacted the association and promised to ask the National Football League for a donation.
The three teams, which have 75 players and 25 cheerleaders, started practice on Monday, three days before the fire. The season starts on Sept. 11.
'Olelo Community TV is sponsoring a series of advertisements in local newspapers encouraging Hawai'i residents to vote.
The "Take Control!" series of four ads are slated to run now through early October in The Honolulu Advertiser, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Honolulu Weekly and the Pacific Business News. The ads are being run in conjunction with "Vote! 2004," a series of cable television programs that will air over the next four months
Chinese honor model parents
Fire destroys football gear
Election Notes
