Rescue crew aids exhausted hiker on Maui

A Maui Fire Department helicopter helped an 85-year-old man from a trail near La Perouse Bay in South Maui on Saturday after he became exhausted and was unable to walk.

A Fire Department spokesman said the part-time Kihei resident was hiking with a female friend on the King’s Trail at about 2:20 p.m. Another hiker found the couple and called for help after hiking out to the trailhead at La Perouse Bay.

The Fire Department helicopter found the man about a half-mile up the trail in a lava field southeast of the bay. The helicopter airlifted him to a landing zone near the trailhead, where paramedics treated him. The man declined to be taken to the hospital.

Cameras will gauge growth of Kauai corals

Two teachers at Kauai Community College are using a $15,000 grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to set up underwater cameras to document coral growth, changes in sediment and marine life populations.

The money went toward a pair of GoPro cameras, which have been outfitted with motion sensors, the Garden Island newspaper reports.

Serge Marcil, a parttime digital media arts instructor, said the system will be similar to game cameras, which turn on when a critter enters the frame.

But the system has also been programmed to snap a photo every five minutes for eight hours per day — a total of 2,880 photos over a three-week period. One camera is also set up to shoot video.

Engineering and electronics instructor Georgeanne Purvinis is also involved with the project. A team of KCC students and Kauai Junior Lifeguard members deployed the cameras Sunday near Poipu