On August 29, 2019, ten melon-headed whales were found stranded on a beach on the Island of Maui.
Out of the five whales that have died, four had to be sedated and euthanized by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) after the group’s veterinarians determined that the mammals were in critical condition and was unable to be saved according to Jeffrey Walters, NOAA’s wildlife management and conservation branch.(nbcnews)“The animals were made comfortable with a sedative and then humanely euthanized to relieve their suffering,” Walters said. After that, all of the remaining whales were rescued, and refloated back into the ocean.
The cause of these whales could mainly be caused by climate change. Climate change has been a real problem in our generations, and there hasn’t really been any solutions that can help us solve this problem. Climate change has been changing this world practically everyday such as potential increases in global temperatures and other changes, if not arrested, could pose serious challenges to maintaining critical ecosystems.

Jayvon Dumot, a junior at JCHS, stated that Hawaii has been getting really hot ever since school has started and climate change has been a problem with our environment due to Antarctica beginning to slowly melt, then it’ll mean places such as our island will soon melt, putting us in danger. “Climate change is a real thing because I’m not gonna lie, it’s been getting hot. Probably the reason why I’ve been sweating a lot. And uhm, it’s been a very big problem like let’s just say if Antarctica starts to melt, a lot of places would be flooded.”

Trinity Caitlyn Hiltner, a junior at JCHS, explained how people in this world can make such a big difference in life without leaving any marine life in terrible conditions. “Honestly, we could do so much better with the world. And, do so many different things instead of letting like whales on the beach die, having turtles get straws stuck in their nose if they can’t breathe. We could stop the icyle’s from falling and save polar bears. We could have such a big difference, but that’s on everyone. Everyone has to make that big difference.”

Kivabelle Tsoi, a sophomore at JCHS, reiterated that climate change has been a real problem, especially when it comes to the animals who live in Antarctica are currently dying ever since the ice caps are slowly melting away. “ Uhm, it’s been going on for like when I was really young but I never bothered a lot because I didn’t understand. Well, when you grow up, you kinda know that you see all these animals that get killed in Antarctica because the ice is like decreasing, it’s melting, and then the water is like rising really high.
Tsoi emphasized that the weather has been changing from one weather to another. “ And, it’s getting really hot over here, especially over here, it’s getting hotter and hotter. It’s not really cold anymore. And I also feel like the weather is very bipolar. Like either it’s really hot or it’s really cold and it starts raining. It’s vey not consistent anymore.”