Kauai mayor heads to D.C. for meeting

Kauai Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. will leave today for Washington, D.C., for the 78th winter meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Carvalho will join 1,200 other mayors to discuss topics facing American cities and counties.

President Barack Obama and senior administration officials are expected to meet with the mayors on issues ranging from unemployment to climate protection.

Carvalho is to meet with Hawaii's congressional delegation in Washington, and then join Kauai County finance director Wallace Rezentes Jr. and economic development director George Costa to meet various bond rating agencies in San Francisco.

High-surf shore warning in effect

A high-surf warning remains in effect for north- and west-facing shores of Kauai and Niihau and north-facing shores of Oahu, Molokai and Maui until 6 p.m. tomorrow.

The National Weather Service estimates that wave heights could reach 30 to 40 feet overnight and today.

West-facing shores of Oahu and Molokai could get surf of 15 to 25 feet overnight and today.

Surf along exposed east-facing shores of Oahu and north- and west-facing shores of the Big Island was to reach 10 to 15 feet overnight and today.

Experts weigh whale removal choices

Federal marine experts will continue weighing options today for removing a large, decaying whale carcass that has drifted closer to shore on the Windward coast.

The high tide brought the whale body inside the reef and it is resting in only about 1 to 2 feet of water at Punaluu Beach Park, said Wende Goo, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration spokeswoman.

NOAA officials spent the day calculating how to remove the animal body, either by towing it out or hauling it on land, Goo said.

“;It's quite a planning ordeal,”; she said, adding that it's still possible waves could wash the whale back out to sea.

The whale, which apparently has been dead a long time, turned up on the reef about 100 yards from shore Friday morning.

Goo said the carcass was decomposed and its species was not identified.