One of the great things about bringing this class to Oahu each year is the opportunity to reconnect with Nicholas School alumni and old friends.  On Tuesday night we had dinner with three CEM alumnae who are working in Honolulu: Kristen Maize, Kristana Erickson and Elia Herman.  On Wednesday afternoon two more CEM alumnae, Nancy Young and Kim Maison, welcomed us to the NOAA Pacific Islands Regional Office.  And Kyle Van Houtan, who leads the Sea Turtle Assessment Team at the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center and led our adventure in Hanauma Bay, received his Ph.D. from the Nicholas School.  This afternoon were fortunate enough to attend the seminar of another old friend, Carl Safina, at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

So we feel very welcomed by members of our extended Nicholas School family (also known as the CEM mafia).   We were particularly fortunate to spend a couple of days with Steve Roady from Earthjustice, who teaches a very popular class in Ocean and Coastal Law and Policy to our CEM students.  Steve was in Honolulu to teach a short class at the UH Law School and managed to steal away for a few hours to accompany us to Hanauma Bay and Kaena Point.

Needles to say, it was good to see Steve wearing an Aloha shirt and great fun to welcome him into our class activities, including the sea turtle health assessment and banding albatrosses.  He did pretty well for a lawyer…