The Puu Puai Overlook at Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park is temporarily closed to protect breeding nene.
The gate to the Puu Puai parking lot entrance near the intersection of Chain of Craters Road and Crater Rim Drive is closed. Spokeswoman Jessica Ferracane said there is no target date for its expected reopening.
Ferracane said the overlook is a small section of the park.
“It shouldn’t really cause any visitor disruption at all,” she said.
More than 250 endangered nene, or Hawaiian geese, are at the park, representing 10 percent of the statewide population.
In the 1970s the park initiated the Nene Recovery Program to help protect the state bird after the population plummeted to just 30 nene across the islands in 1952.
Puu Puai, which means “gushing hill,” is a cinder cone that formed during the 1959 eruption at Kilauea Iki crater. It can be seen from areas along Crater Rim and Kilauea Iki trails.
Magnitude-3.2 earthquake strikes in ocean off South Point
A magnitude-3.2 earthquake rattled Hawaii island Tuesday but caused no damage.
The quake struck just before 8:25 a.m. in the ocean a bit east of South Point and west of Loihi Seamount, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The epicenter was 23.2 miles deep.
Earthquakes that are not associated with volcanic activity are usually the result of stress on the seafloor from the weight of Hawaii island, scientists say. As measured from the seabed, Mauna Kea is the largest mountain on the planet, rising 33,000 feet.
By comparison, Mount Everest is 29,029 feet.
