rodndtube.com's (OLD) MyPaipoBoards Forums. Reading but no posting on the OLD forums.

[Poobah]

For the third year in a row it received the Beach Bummer award:

http://www.healthebay.org/brc/annual/2004/execsumm.asp

[doc]

[John Galera]

Thank God we live in Hawaii. Bacteria counts????

[Poobah]

Some parts of Hawaii have lots of human waste going into the lava tube networks...and that means into the groundwater. Sacred sites, too.

http://www.hawaiiislandjournal.com/stories/5a03a.html

[Poobah]

Central California wavesliders got some bad news recently about brain parasites:

SAN LUIS OBISPO – Most of a startling number of sea otters found sick or dead on the Central California coast last month were infected with a deadly brain parasite, state scientists said Thursday.

In April, 62 southern sea otters were found stranded alive or dead near Morro Bay and Pismo Beach. That's about three times the 10-year average and more than the previous record of 48 stranded or dead otters reported a year earlier.

After examining the animals, researchers determined most were infected with a parasite called Sarcocystis neurona and suffered brain inflammation, according to the state Department of Fish and Game.

The parasite originates in the feces of opossum – a small marsupial mammal not native to California – and is known to cause brain damage. Researchers are unclear how the otters came into contact with the feces.

Sea otter deaths attributed to Sarcocystis neurona have been reported before, but not in a localized cluster, researchers said.

I was talking to a marine biologist buddy of mine last week and he told me there's a parasite in cat turds (in cyst form) that can't be killed by the temperatures used at the sewage treatment plant. The problem isn't from cat litter that goes to the landfills, but from folks that periodically clean their cat box by flushing the cat turds down the toilet. Please people...don't do that.

[John Galera]

Maybe I should have said thank God for our strong ocean currents!