A little over two months away from our Hawaiian cruise. Perfect time for checking out a couple of the latest happenings around the former Sandwich Islands:

* Sounds like the U.S. Navy and environmentalists have reached a compromise on the use of active sonar in naval exercises that take place near the Islands.

The settlement reached Friday prevents the Navy from using the sonar within 25 miles of the newly established Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument during its Rim of the Pacific 2006 exercises. It also imposes a variety of methods to watch for and report the presence of marine mammals.

Navy officials have said the value of training to detect stealthy submarines would have been severely diminished without the sonar, which bounces sound off objects in the ocean.

But don’t tell that to environmentalists, though. Here’s their take:

Environmentalists claim whales have stranded themselves on beaches after being exposed to high-intensity mid-frequency sonar. In some cases, whales bled around the brain and in the ears. The sonar is also claimed to interfere with the ability of marine mammals to navigate, hunt, take care of their offspring and avoid predators.

“Military readiness does not require, and our laws do not allow, our natural resources to be sacrificed in the name of national defense,” said Joel Reynolds, a Natural Resources Defense Council attorney.

Funny, I don’t recall marine life encountering any problems while the Seaview was doing its thing. (Boy, they don’t make TV shows like that anymore, do they?)

* I can’t imagine the Humuhumunukunukuapuaa not being the official state fish of Hawaii, but obviously others have. Geez, what’s this world coming to? What’s next to go the way of the dodo – the little grass shack in Kealakekua? Or the little grass skirt for that little grass shack?