Kids can be rangers

Children 12 and under are invited to participate Saturday in National Junior Ranger Day at Hale­akala National Park on Maui. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., rangers will demonstrate park maintenance and guest safety activities. There is no charge. For more information, call the park at 572-4400.

27 fishermen rescued after boat fire

The Coast Guard is crediting an automated mutual assistance system with helping to rescue 27 fishermen from a boat that caught fire and exploded yesterday about 550 miles east of Guam.Responding to the emergency were a C-130 Hercules plane from Barbers Point Air Station on Oahu and the Washington, a 110-foot patrol boat based at Guam.

The South Islander, a 527-foot Panamanian-flagged cargo ship near the vessel, responded to the request for assistance from the Coast Guard and headed to the scene, arriving there at about 8:10 p.m., Coast Guard spokes­man Michael De Nyse said. Crew members of the fishing vessel had already abandoned their boat, gotten into life rafts and moved a safe distance away from the burning vessel.

They were then safely transferred to the cargo ship and taken to the ship’s next port of call, the Solo­mon Islands. No one was injured.

The Automated Mutual-Assistance Vessel Rescue System, or Amver, allows the Coast Guard to identify vessels in the vicinity of a ship in distress. About 12,000 ships from more than 140 nations participate in Amver, which tracks more than 100,000 voyages annually. — Associated Press

Minors drink 5% of booze sold on Kauai

Minors on Kauai consumed about $4 million worth of alcohol last fiscal year, the Garden Island newspaper reported.

During the year that ended June 30, liquor license holders in the county sold a combined $83 million in alcoholic beverages, according to Eric Honma, director of the county Department of Liquor Control.

About 5 percent or more of those sales were for alcoholic beverages that ended up being consumed by minors, he estimated.

“It’s very easy and obvious to see how that sales number can translate to assaults, violence, accidents and those kinds of things,” Honma told the County Council last week. “We are going to return back to what I refer to as our core function, which

is enforcement and preventing underage drinking.”

County roof leaking again despite fixes

The new roof of Hawaii County’s main office building is leaking again, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported.

Deputy Public Works Director Bran­don Gon­za­lez said the leak occurred last weekend.

The new roof was part of a three-year, $27.7 million building renovation completed in October 2009. More repairs were made after the leaks didn’t stop.

State responds to dead whale close to park

A baby humpback whale carcass was spotted near Baldwin Beach Park on Friday, police Lt. Wayne Ibarra told the Maui News.

State workers removed and buried the whale’s tissues soon after it was found, he said. Later a biologist removed the remaining 300 pounds of whale bones and transported them to Hono­lulu for a necropsy.