Islands

The death toll in Samoa and American Samoa rose to 99 early today, according to news reports, after a powerful tsunami triggered by a deep ocean earthquake devastated coastal towns. Dozens of people were still missing. Seventeen hours after the magnitude 8.0 temblor struck, another massive ocean earthquake off the coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island early today killed at least 75 people and trapping thousands under rubble. A tsunami warning was issued in the region but was later lifted.

A major earthquake in the Bay Area could flood numerous islands in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, cripple the state's water system and cost billions of dollars, according to a state report released Friday. The report, from the Department of Water Resources, found there is a 40% probability of an earthquake of magnitude 6.7 or higher causing 27 or more islands to flood at the same time in the next 25 years.

Re "Honey, I saved the fish, " editorial, Dec. 30, 2008 Contrary to The Times' editorial, the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council has been an excellent steward of the offshore fisheries in the U.S. Pacific Islands and understands the benefits of marine reserves. In 1987, we were the first to prohibit drift gill-net fishing throughout our jurisdiction (1.5 million square miles). We also prohibited bottom trawling and other nondiscriminatory and potentially destructive fishing methods.

Stager obituary: The obituary of Kenneth E. Stager in Wednesday's Section A said he organized or participated in numerous expeditions, including to the Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean. Stager, who served as a curator at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, made an expedition to Cocos Island in the Pacific Ocean off Costa Rica.

Since climate change fears first gripped the globe, tourists have flocked to the Maldives to enjoy the islands' spectacular vistas before they vanish. Do they really need to rush? Scientists have long warned that the Maldives, an archipelago of nearly 1,200 islands in the Indian Ocean, will be wiped out by rising sea levels in the coming decades. President Mohamed Nasheed is so convinced of his nation's imminent demise he has proposed relocating all 350,000 inhabitants to other countries.

Wrecking coral will cost you in Hawaii. A Maui tour company is paying the state nearly $400,000 for damaging more than 1,200 coral colonies when one of its boats sank at Molokini, a pristine reef and popular diving spot. Another tour operator faces penalties for wrecking coral when it illegally dropped an anchor on a Maui reef. The state plans to sue the U.S. Navy to seek compensation for coral ruined when a guided missile cruiser the length of two football fields ran aground near Pearl Harbor in February.

Island residents kept a watchful eye on Felicia as the weakening tropical storm approached. A tropical storm watch for the Big Island was canceled but remained in effect for Oahu and Maui County. Felicia had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph with higher gusts, according to Air Force reconnaissance aircraft. The storm was expected to weaken to a tropical depression with maximum sustained winds of 38 mph and to reach the islands today. The Navy said ships in Pearl Harbor would ride out the storm.

Both Japan and South Korea on Tuesday laid claim to waters between them, but they sidestepped the volatile issue of who owns two tiny islands in the Sea of Japan's rich fishing grounds. The Japanese Cabinet approved a plan to establish a 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone in the area under the U.N. Law of the Sea treaty, a series of coordinated rules that took effect in 1994 to provide more equity in the carving-up of the world's ocean resources. Hours later, Seoul followed suit.

No sooner had the Greyfield Inn ferryboat chugged out of the Fernandina Beach, Fla., marina when somebody popped the question. "All right, let's get this over with," said Jerry, a brash, 40-ish businessman on vacation from Atlanta. With a cold Busch beer in one hand and a bag of boiled peanuts in the other, he looked at the young woman in the Greyfield Inn uniform, offered a charming, crooked smile and asked, "Did you see any of them from the wedding?"

At first it seems sufficient to be in Rome, taking the measure of the city that calls itself eternal but has the attention span and metabolism of a fruit fly. Yet even the most avid visitor eventually notices that the place is too noisy, too crowded, too chaotic. It's then that one searches for a quiet corner, an enclave of calm, where it's possible to draw a deep breath before plunging back into the maelstrom. In short, one needs an island refuge, and Rome has such a refuge, Isola Tiberina.