The Coast Guard is asking the public’s help identifying the owner of a 12-foot paddleboard found adrift Sunday about 2 miles off Ulua Beach Park on Maui.
The white board, with yellow and red markings, was found by the fishing vessel Strike Zone, which notified the Coast Guard at about 8 a.m.
There were no reported signs of distress or missing persons in the area, the Coast Guard said by email.
Anyone with information that might help identify the board’s owner is asked to contact the Honolulu Command Center at 842-2600.
“The Coast Guard strongly encourages owners to label their gear with a name and contact information,” said Lt. Nicholas Spence, a search and rescue coordinator.
The Coast Guard offers free “If Found” decals to be placed in a visible location on small, human-powered watercraft through the Operation Paddle Smart program. The information on the sticker can allow response entities to quickly identify the vessel’s owner.
The stickers can be obtained at local harbormasters’ offices, through the Coast Guard Auxiliary, from Honolulu Sail and Power Squadron offices and at select marine retail and supply stores.
Benham set to take reins at UH-West Oahu
University of Hawaii-West Oahu Chancellor Maenette Benham envisions cultivating creative and imaginative learning and teaching opportunities at the Kapolei campus as she takes over the helm this month.
In a video posted to the university’s website last week, Benham emphasized building kauhale, which she described as an opportunity to learn and work together through “dynamic, trans-disciplinary (and) community-based initiatives.”
“I feel very very privileged to have this opportunity to lead a university campus that has so much potential and so much promise,” Benham said in the video. “(Building kauhale) is an opportunity for people to be creative, imaginative (and) use their intellectual capacities to put down on paper, to conceptualize what it is they do. It’s very informative.”
University students and officials, including UH President David Lassner, held a ceremony to welcome her as chancellor last week.
Benham, who was named inaugural dean of the Hawai‘inuiakea School of Hawaiian Knowledge in 2008, was recommended for the chancellor position and approved by the UH Board of Regents in November. She was one of three finalists named by a search advisory committee in September.
A former schoolteacher, Benham holds a doctorate in educational administration from UH Manoa and has taught at her alma mater, Kamehameha Schools, Kaiser High School and Chaminade University, as well as in California and Texas. She began her teaching career in 1978 and joined the College of Education faculty at Michigan State University in 1993.
