Another example of how cause-and-effected things are: a disease spread by feral cats has killed three Hawaiian monk seals.

The seals were found dead last month — and toxoplasmosis, a disease spread by feral cats’ feces, is the culprit. It’s thought that this particularly rainy year might have caused flushing of the fecal matter on land down to coastal areas — and that’s concerning, given that the Hawaiian monk seal is among the world’s most-endangered mammals.

This latest fatal link is even more reason for people to stop feeding feral cats. Already a sanitation problem in some areas, their growing populations only increase the chances of toxoplasmosis endangering species on land, and in the water.

Here comes the sun of summer solstice

Today is the summer solstice — the annual moment when the sun is at its highest point in the sky — also known as the first day of summer and the longest day of the year. In Honolulu, in terms of daylight, clock-watchers say we can expect to see the sun some 2 hours and 36 minutes longer than on the winter solstice.

At about this time last year, Hawaii’s shorelines were getting soaked (with some flooding) by higher-than-normal king tides, the highest tides of the year, which usually occur around the winter and summer solstices. This year, it appears that the king tides are calmer. So far.