Dear Readers:  

Aloha and welcome to February on Maui!!! If you are planning a trip to Maui this month bring your camera and binoculars. Our friends from the deep have returned…that of course being WHALES! Feb 4^th-6^th - “The Wendy’s Champion Skins Game at Wailea;” This event features an elite handful of the most renowned pros on the Tour. Last years participants included Palmer, Nicklaus, Trevino and Watson. Feb 12^th - “Chinese New Year in Lahaina;” Lahaina town welcomes the Lunar New Year with colorful lion dancing, martial arts demos, traditional drums, food booths and tons of fun! 

Having been through a couple of tsunami warnings and one evacuation on Maui since moving here 26 years ago, I thought I knew and understood the potential dangers. I was wrong. Our hearts go out to all those effected by the Indian Ocean tsunami.  Please keep those affected in your prayers. I thought it would be appropriate to show the system that is in place in the Pacific Ocean which provides Hawaii with advance warning of tsunamis. Information provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

“…As part of the U.S. National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program (NTHMP), the Deep Ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis (DART) Project is an ongoing effort to maintain and improve the capability for the early detection and real-time reporting of tsunamis in the open ocean. Developed by NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) and operated by NOAA's National Data Buoy Center (NDBC), DART is essential to fulfilling NOAA's national responsibility for tsunami hazard mitigation and warnings. Project goals are the:

1.       Reduction in the loss of life and property in U.S. coastal communities.

2.       Elimination of false alarms which result in high economic costs for unnecessary evacuations.

DART stations have been sited in regions with a history of generating destructive tsunamis to ensure early detection of tsunamis and to acquire data critical to real-time forecasts. The 6 buoy operational array shown on the accompanying map was completed in 2001.

DART systems consist of an anchored seafloor bottom pressure recorder (BPR) and a companion moored surface buoy for real-time communications (Gonzalez et al, 1998). An acoustic link transmits data from the BPR on the seafloor to the surface buoy. The data are then relayed via a GOES satellite link to ground stations (Milburn, et al., 1996), which demodulate the signals for immediate dissemination to NOAA's Tsunami Warning Centers, NDBC, and PMEL. The moored system is shown in the accompanying figure….”

*Information & excerpts from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration web site (http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/Dart/dart.shtml)

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