Efforts to protect reef, wildlife backed by fishermen across island

LIHU’E – Efforts to protect endangered marine life, fish stock and pristine coral kingdoms in the newly created Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Reserve are sorely needed.

But the task should remain with the Coast Guard, the state and the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council and not be turned over to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), federal officials were told at Wednesday night’s meeting on the reserve at the Kaua’i War Memorial Convention Hall.

“Why would you want to come here and take this over when it is managed properly?” Jonathan Hurd, a fisherman, asked U.S. Department of Commerce officials.

The officials said they held the meeting to solicit comments, not necessarily to respond to them. Michael Weiss of NOAA said he was there to explain the details of President Clinton’s executive order creating the refuge.

In contrast to Hurd’s stand, Isacc Harp, a fisherman, said he welcomed expanded federal jurisdiction over the area.

The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council has done an adequate job in protecting fish populations by allowing only 17 commercial fishermen, including two Native Hawaiian fishermen, to conduct bottomfishing (for fish at lower depths) in the refuge, but much can be done through the plan called for by Clinton, Harp said.

Clinton formally established the reserve last week in waters surrounding the 10 tiny islands and atolls extending 1,200 miles northwest of Kaua’i.

The goal is to protect an area that is home to more than 7,000 marine species, of which half are unique only to the Hawaiian Islands.

Marine species include the endangered Hawaiian monk seal, leatherback and hawksbill sea turtles, and threatened green sea turtles.

If the refuge is to be managed properly, fisherman Rick Prowse said, the federal government must crack down on the activities of foreign fishing fleets.

“They are finning sharks, they are killing everything. They have been doing this for, you know, how long,” Prowse said. “Those people anchor whenever they want to anchor, they do whatever they want to do.” The fishing practices of foreign fleets have made Hawaii’s fishing industry a “shell of what it was,” Prowse claimed.

Debris that degrades the marine environment and the nets in which monk seals become entangled and die “are not from” local fishermen, Prowse said.

Local fishermen have done everything possible to protect the resources, including taking classes on conservation offered by federal agencies and turning in vessels that are not permitted in the area, Hurd said.

Stricter enforcement will help protect the fishing stock in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, Prowse said.

The deployment of two Coast Guard cutters during the summer months would deter unpermitted activities and bring about a change “that would be dramatic,” Prowse contended.

Audience members offered these recommendations to protect the refuge resources: l Simplify the language of the executive order so that he and other fishermen can better understand where fishing is allowed and how much fish can be taken, said Greg Holzman.

l Raise the limits on the amount of bottomfish that can be taken from the area.

l Set up mandatory education programs for those who fish in the region. “If money is to be spent on behalf of these resources, it should be spent on education and enforcement now,” said Makaala Kaaumoana, who is program coordinator for the Hanalei Heritage River program, a project to protect the river.

l Protect the fish stock in the region to promote better fishing opportunities in the main Hawaiian Islands, Buzzy Agard said.

l Have the federal government use data on fish catches from local fishermen as a way to help protect the resources, Don Moses said.

l Don’t allow corporate commercial companies to operate in the area.

l Monitor ecotoursim activities in the region, said Carl Berg, who described himself as a professional ecologist.

l Avoid in-fighting among agencies responsible for managing the region.

l Put waters controlled by the state – three miles out from the shoreline – within the refuge for better protection of resources.

“Right now, it is not really protected, because the state doesn’t have money to protect the area,” Harp said.

But NOAA has said it wants to work with the U.S. Department of Interior, the Coast Guard, the state and the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council to provide proper protection of the resources in the refuge.

The refuge is the largest protected area in U.S.

history and is the second largest marine protected area on Earth, behind the Barrier Reef in Australia.

Preservation measures in the refuge would prohibit exploration for oil, gas and minerals, anchoring on living or dead coral, drilling, altering the seabed or placement of structures on the seabed (with the exception of incidental anchoring), discharging of materials and injuring of species.

The executive order also sets aside 15 reserve preservation areas, within which consumptive uses, including commercial and recreational fishing, would be prohibited.

Bottomfishing, however, would be allowed to continue in eight of those areas.

The preservation areas are Nihoa Island, Necker Island, French Frigate Shoals, Gardener Pinnacles, Maro Reef, Laysan Island, Lisianski Island, Pearl and Hermes Atoll, Kure Island, the first bank east of French Frigate Schoals, the Southeast Brooks Bank, which is immediately west of French Frigate Shoals, St. Rogatien Bank, the first bank west of the St. Rogatien Bank, Raita Bank and Pioneer Bank.

Clinton has proposed making these preservation areas permanent and is asking, through the meetings, the public’s comment on his plan.

About 50 people attended Wednesday’s meeting here.

Other meetings were scheduled elsewhere in Hawai’i and in Washington, D.C. throughout this week.

Staff writer Lester Chang can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) and lchang@pulitzer.net.