Kona Natural Energy Laboratory Tours Amaze and Astound

Makai Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Plant near Kona airport, Hawaii

If you do nothing else while on vacation in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, make sure you take at least one Natural Energy Laboratory Tour. It is really incredible. You’ll find a variety of tours to choose from, and all sorts of adventures await. You will see and learn things that seem impossible to ordinary mortals. It’s enough to make you want to go back to school to become a marine biologist or some other kind of scientist instead of maybe a Sacramento Realtor.

When the OTEC project was completed a couple years ago, I recall reading about it and feeling like science fiction has met finally met reality and the future is now. It’s a renewable and sustainable way to convert sea water into energy, utilizing science, that thing Donald Trump doesn’t believe in, science. The Makai Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion plant cost only $2 million to build. There is an entire park built around the Makai OTEC plant called the HOST Park, which stands for Hawaii Ocean Science and Technology.

This is also where you can buy Kona lobsters. They grow Maine lobsters here at the park, along with a large variety of other shellfish and seafood. They also do a lot of algae energy research and production from biofuels to food supplements.

Scientists at Octopus Farm in Kailua-Kona study octopus, with Makai OTEC in distance.

Many of the tubs in the photo above at the Octopus Farm support a live octopus for study. They are under one year of age. The scientists would like to find a way to provide a sustainable resource of octopus due to overfishing and killing of these magnificent creatures. Like my husband says, octopus are smarter than many people he has worked with. Certainly smarter than real estate agents, and I can say that being in the profession.

Octopus are friendly, inquisitive and extremely smart.

You can put your hand into the water and let them wrap around your fingers. After you meet an octopus in person, I don’t know if you could ever eat an octopus again. It seems too cruel to kill such an intelligent creature when there are much dumber species one could consume instead. Even The Beatles knew about an Octopus’s Garden, and how these remarkable cephalopods tend to rearrange their environment to suit themselves.

One of two monk seals in the wild of Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.

When our guide, Candee, and CEO of the nonprofit from Friends of the Natural Energy Laboratory, asked if we would like to see a monk seal in the wild, I did not believe we would find one. I thought maybe it was an excuse to stroll along the beach, climb over a bit of lava and hope to spot a monk seal. After all, there are only two monk seals who live in Kailua-Kona in the Pacific Ocean.

Hawaiian monk seal in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, in the wild.

I was very surprised to stumble upon this cove and find a monk seal. The Hawaiian monk seal is endangered. In the park, we were able to visit the Marine Mammal Center Ke Kai Ola as part of our tour. This place rescues and rehabilitates monk seals and releases them back into the wild. They say a monk seal needs to live to be at least 5 years old before the female can mate, but getting them to that age is a challenge.

Monk seals swallow fishermen’s hooks and face all sorts of dangers as a baby. The mother doesn’t stay with the monk seals for very long after birth and they either make it in the wild or they die.