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Tags: Hawaii Superferry / Ferry Travel / Environment / Recession / → All Tags

Hawaii Superferry Awaiting Its Next Assignment In Virginia

Our last update in the saga of the Hawaii Superferry wasn’t a positive one. The company had filed for bankruptcy, and the once mighty catamarans were in the process of heading out of Hawaii’s warm water paradise. As of this week, it looks like the ships are planning to call Norfolk, Virginia their home while they await their final fate.

The Alakai, one of two high speed ferries, arrived in Virginia this week. The other is on its way and should arrive before the end of the month. They were in Alabama for a little bit, but the US Maritime Administration feels that a home in Virginia is better for insurance reasons. They were also a little bit worried about hurricane season—good thinking.

At this point, it’s pretty much a guarantee that these vessels will never find their way back to the islands. However, they may have a busy schedule ahead of them. Rumors suggest that the Navy is looking into leasing both of them. For now, if you’re looking for a used high-speed ferry, and have some cash, you could get a hell of a deal on these two.

Related Stories:
· Ferries From Bankrupt Hawaii Company Land in Norfolk [Virginian-Pilot]
· Hawaii Superferry Is Grounded and Lonely [Jaunted]
· Ferry Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: hawaii]

Tags: Hawaii Superferry / Hawaii Travel / Ferry Travel / Environment / Recession / → All Tags

Bankruptcy Is The New Destination of The Hawaii Superferry

When we last heard about the Hawaii Superferry, it wasn’t up to much ferrying. Due to potential negative environmental impact, it was ordered to stay at dock until further assessments could be completed. But when you own a huge, expensive boat and it’s not carrying passengers day after day, bad things are bound to happen.

Thus, it was no surprise to learn that the company which runs the ferry filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this week, claiming that because it had to stop operations the money simply dried up. They’ve reported that they have between $50 and $100 million in debts, but only $10 million in assets at most. It doesn’t take someone like Ben Stein to figure out that economic math problem.

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Tags: Hawaii Superferry / Hawaii Travel / Ferry Travel / Environment / → All Tags

Hawaii Superferry Is Grounded and Lonely

We admit we've been a bit more interested in the cheap prices you can get on the Hawaii Superferry than the big legal/environmental impact drama, but it's the latter that's meant the big boat is now sitting at the dock in Honolulu with nowhere to go.

The Supreme Court decision by five justices has said the ferry can't go anywhere until a full impact assessment is carried out. Environmentalists have a bunch of concerns, including that the ferry

would strike whales, spread invasive species and create traffic jams at its destinations, first on Maui and later on the Big Island and Kauai.

Trouble was brewing for the Superferry even before the court bigwigs put their heads together--delivery of the planned second ferry was cancelled in October thanks to the depressed economy. Now there are a bunch of ferry employees and prospective passengers who are feeling a bit depressed too.

Related Stories:
· Hawaii Superferry: End of the Saga? [Forbes]
· Is the Hawaii Superferry Finally Catching On? [Jaunted]
· Hawaii Superferry Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: hawaii]

Tags: Marine Parks / Green Travel / Islands / Environment / Ecotourism / Atolls / → All Tags

Pacific Reefs, Trenches, Atolls, and Islands Now Protected from Us

Okay, this one's kind of out there, but I remember as a kid flipping through the dictionary in school and pausing at the miniature illustration for the word atoll. For a simple thumbnail sketch, it seemed like such a fascinating place to visit: a beautiful coral island with languid palm trees and a protected lagoon in the center. What I would have given to hop on a sailboat and explore the real-life model for the Merriam-Webster artwork. It seemed like the perfect setting for a pirate adventure.

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Tags: National Parks / Environment / → All Tags

US Officials Battle Over Oil Drilling Near National Parks

On Election Day, when most Americans were glued to their televisions, the US Bureau of Land Management announced they’d be selling more than 50,000 acres of land with the intention of offering the new owner an opportunity for gas and oil drilling. So what? These lands sit right outside the boundaries of national parks.

Obviously environmentalists are concerned over this and are quick to accuse the Bush administration of trying to sneak one by the American people. Even National Park Service officials are claiming that they weren't properly notified of the offering, and are less than pleased with the administration’s decision.

On the other side of the issue, if you're interested in submitting a bid for these acres, they're primarily located on the borders of Arches National Park in Utah along with Dinosaur and Canyonlands National Parks. So far there’s been a lot of finger pointing as government agencies continue to blame one another about what was decided and how to move forward. The lands are scheduled to hit the auction block on December 19, but we have a feeling that might soon change.

Related Stories:
· Uproar Over Federal Drilling Leases Next to Parks [AP, via Google]
· National Parks coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: NatalieMaynor]

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Tags: Sex / Romantic Travel / Green Travel / Environment / → All Tags

Is Long Distance Dating Killing The Planet?

So you've been eating local, biking to work and using those light bulbs Al Gore said we had to. Being eco-conscious is feeling pretty good, right?

Wrong. Apparently, we all have one more thing to feel eco-guilty about. Well, at least those of us in long-distance relationships.

Slate reports that locawhores are now the new locavores, and you had better quit those every-other-weekend cross-country flights to visit your sweetheart:

The same type of environmental logic has already been applied to our eating habits. The Local Food movement encourages us to cut CO2 emissions by calculating food miles—the distance a meal travels from production to the dinner table—and eating only what's produced within a 100-mile radius. Isn't it time for a Date Local movement, too? Let's start thinking about "sex miles": Just how far was this person shipped to hook up with you? And how many times more efficient would it be to date someone within a 100-mile radius?

Cleary, Jaunted can't get behind this kind of anti-travel, anti-long-distance-hookup stance--particularly now that a new website is here to help get us some action--but we just wanted to make sure everyone knows there's one more thing we're supposed to not be doing.

Related Stories:
· The Environmental Case Against Long Distance Relationships [Slate]
· Romantic Travel coverage

[Photo: Kossy@FINEDAYS]

Tags: Bounty Travel / Green Travel / Animals / Elephants / Environment / → All Tags

Elephant Tusks On Parade

Southern Africa opened an auction of existing ivory stockpiles Tuesday, selling off more than 220,000 pounds of what's ordinarily contraband in Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa. The nations plan to sell the confiscated, poached tusks to approved Chinese and Japanese entities, and return the funds they earn to existing environmental conservation efforts.

The whole things strikes us as a bit counter-intuitive, like PETA hosting a pig roast fund raiser to promote vegan lifestyles. But if the pig’s already dead, then why not right? No point in letting good tusks go to waste.

Opponents say the sales could reignite a dying trade, and warn that the ivory could eventually end up in the wrong hands, particularly in China where the rules appear particularly lax. The potential bounty from the sales could be as high as $30 million: We hope our surviving trunked friends see a chunk of the cash.

Related Stories:
· Controversial Ivory Sale to Open [BBC]
· Addo Elephant National Park [Jaunted]

[Photo: rocky0009]

Tags: Environment / Ecotourism / → All Tags

Good News for Coconut Crabs: U.S. to Protect Three Pacific Island Chains

Environmentalists have plenty of valid reasons to look forward to the end of the Bush administration, but when it's all said and done, there may well be a handful of environmental positives to weigh against the ecological damage it has wrought. Case in point: the president is proposing a ban on commercial fishing and mineral exploration on and around three large Pacific island chains. The Northern Mariana Islands, the Line Islands, and American Samoa are likely to be deemed protected areas, preserving a remote swath of extreme biodiversity that might otherwise be destroyed in our pursuit of food and energy.

Animals like migratory birds, sea turtles, and the scary-looking coconut crab (pictured) will benefit from the designation, which comes just two years after similar protections were placed on the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument (easy for you to say) represents the largest protected marine area in the world, but here's hoping it's just the beginning.

As far as tourism is concerned, larger islands like Saipan, Tinian, and Tutuila have plenty of fancy hotels with all the beachy amenities. The smaller Line Islands of Jarvis Island, Kingman Reef, and Palmyra Atoll, meanwhile, are uninhabited, but you can sail your yacht or luxury submarine close enough to take a dinghy to shore for a picnic.

Related Stories:
· Bush Seeks to Protect 3 Pacific Island Chains [Live Science]
· Environment Coverage [Jaunted]

Tags: Environment / Carbon Offsets / Australia Travel / World's Worst Tourists / → All Tags

World's Worst Tourists: Aussies Recklessly Emit Carbon

Ever felt guilty for flying to your vacation because of all those carbon emissions your plane is pumping out? Unless you're Australian, there's no need. According to a recent Sydney Morning Herald opinion, because Australia's so far away from pretty much everywhere, and because Australians really love to travel, then Aussies who fly to Europe or America are really doing a pile of damage to the planet.

Scoffing Aussies might be sobered by this fact: A Sydney to London return trip emits about 9 tons of carbon dioxide per passenger, which is the same amount this passenger would use in two years of eating, driving, heating and air-conditioning at home.

Add to this the fact that you always bump into Australians wherever you travel overseas--they really are everywhere--and you can see the problem. Do Aussies have to start staying home now? Maybe. But wouldn't the bottom drop out of the global beer market if traveling Aussies weren't there to prop it up?

Related Stories:
· Are Australian Travel Junkies Destroying the Planet? [Wired]
· Globetrotting Boomers Fly in the Face of Carbon Reality [Sydney Morning Herald]
· World's Worst Tourists: Drunken Aussies on Japanese Slopes [Jaunted]

[Photo: :ray]

Tags: Animals / Beaches / Environment / → All Tags

Oh Noes! Travel: Dead Baby Penguins Make Us Sad

What a beach bummer: Hundreds of baby penguins have washed up on the famous sands of Rio de Janeiro, sparking a debate about how we might be affecting the livelihood of adorable fuzzy animals.

Typically some penguins every year get caught in currents off Patagonia and Antarctica and wind up dead hundreds of miles away, but this has been a particularly bad year for the Cute Overload crowd. Suspects include overfishing, which forces penguins to swim farther for their food, and immunity-damaging pollution, but it could also be the result of changing weather patterns at the Strait of Magellan.

Luckily, the Brazilian Coast Guard has been keeping a special watch on the coast, rescuing penguins and bringing them to Rio's Niteroi Zoo to recuperate.

Related Stories:
· Dead Penguins Washing Up In Brazil [TIME]
· Penguin and Polar Bear Problems [Jaunted]

[Photo: winklerw]

Tags: Olympics / Beijing Olympics / Beijing Olympics 2008 / Sailing / Boats / Environment / Beaches / → All Tags

Adventures of Link: The Algae-Free Sea

That didn't take long. Just a couple weeks ago, Olympics officials and sailing enthusiasts were panicking about an algal attack off the coast of Qingdao.

But thanks to 20,000 "volunteers," the Yellow Sea is all cleaned up--at least so says the country's state-run media outlet. Officials also say that three sea barriers designed to hold back any further algal outbreaks have been set up around the waters designated for competition.

Related Stories:
· Qingdao Confident of Sailing Success [Xinhua]
· Algae Plaguing Olympic Sailing Venue [AFP, via Google]
· China Says Algae Cleared for Sailing [NYT]
· China Says Olympics Sailing Site is Algae-Free [AP, via Google]
· Scary China Travel: Algae Attack! [Jaunted]

[Photo: Xinhua]

Tags: Olympics / Beijing Olympics / Beijing Olympics 2008 / Sailing / Boats / Environment / Beaches / → All Tags

Scary China Travel: Algae Attack!

Sound the alarms! The Chinese city of Qingdao has come under algal attack--and the Olympics could be at risk! More than 30 percent of the waters designated for sailing contests off the coast of the city are inundated with thick enteromorpha prolifera. But the Chinese authorities have a way with getting people to "volunteer," and a reported 20,000 citizens have pitched in to clean up the Yellow Sea.

Agricultural run off is often the culprit when it comes to algal blooms, but Chinese officials told the state news agency that isn't the case this time. And they may not be lying! Blooms fueled by nitrates from fertilizers are usually red, and the stuff on the shores of Qingdao is bright green.

As the clean-up continues, the local Olympics Sailing Committee is planning a 30-mile-long fence to help keep the bloom at bay. The group says everything should be sorted by July 15; the games start on August 8.

Related Stories:
· Algae Threatens Olympic Sailing [NYT]
· Qingdao Vows to Clean Algae Invading Olympic Venue [Xinhua]
· Beijing Olympics coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Guardian]