LIHU‘E — Questions remain unanswered in regards to last month’s reported Ni‘ihau and Lehua fish kill, the deaths of two young humpback whales on Kaua‘i and Ni‘ihau, and the Jan. 20 Kalapaki Bay fish kill. In a Feb. 19 article,
LIHU‘E — Questions remain unanswered in regards to last month’s reported Ni‘ihau and Lehua fish kill, the deaths of two young humpback whales on Kaua‘i and Ni‘ihau, and the Jan. 20 Kalapaki Bay fish kill.
In a Feb. 19 article, The Garden Island reported that preliminary data suggested there was no direct correlation between these deaths and the rodenticide applications that were administered Jan. 6 and Jan. 13 on the uninhabited island of Lehua.
Evidence has already shown that diphacinone, the toxic element found in rodenticide, was not present within the “freshly found” fish that washed ashore on both islands, located northwest of Kaua‘i.
Chris Swenson, coastal program administrator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, agreed on Wednesday that results have ultimately revealed that rodenticide was not the cause of the fish and whale kills.
“A lot of information is indicating that it’s time to start looking at other possibilities,” he said Wednesday. “The bottom line is that agencies are taking this seriously and the data that has been collected hasn’t found any diphacinone.”
Kenneth Foote, information and education specialist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Division of External Affairs, also confirmed this on Feb. 19, along with Don Heacock, marine biologist for the state Department of Land and Natural Resources Aquatics Division on Kaua‘i.
Swenson said there are a number of factors that could have contributed to the incident and further testing must be done for confirmation.
He added that it was difficult to test the species of fish found on Ni‘ihau as they weren’t reported to officials until one or two weeks after they had already washed ashore.
“Many were already decayed,” he said, implying that most of the fish collected were unable to undergo examination.
When asked what he thought could be the contributing factor, Swenson replied that “what is being considered now is a whole universe of possibilities,” including military activity and chemical run-off of other varieties besides rodenticide.
“What we really need to know is if the fish are safe,” he said. “Even if we can’t find the cause, people want to know whether they can consume the fish.”
In response to recent assertions that military activity could have affected marine life, causing large fish kills, Tom Clements, spokesperson for the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Mana, said no activities out of the ordinary were conducted when the fish were reportedly affected.
“Nothing occurred outside of the scope of the Environmental Impact Statement; nothing unusual,” he said.
Clements added that PMRF has a “very busy schedule” and over the past three decades, activities have virtually remained the same.
When asked if he agreed with speculations that military operations could have coincided with the fish kill, he said, “The key word is speculation; I will not speculate on gross speculation.”
Dr. Carl Berg, marine biologist and water quality expert, however, is unconvinced that certain military operations didn’t have something to do with the incident.
He believes that certain “classified operations” were occurring around Ni‘ihau at the same time.
“It can’t possibly be a coincidence,” he said. “It just doesn’t happen.”
His main concern is that if rodenticide cannot be linked to the deaths, why hasn’t another answer been found?
“It’s really upsetting that the state does not do more to find out what the true cause of this is,” he said. “The people of Ni‘ihau are afraid to eat the fishes because they don’t know what it is. It’s the state’s responsibility to look broadly at what is causing the fish mortality and not simply look at the rat poison problem.”
Based upon preliminary data released on Feb. 19 by Dr. Thierry Work, wildlife disease pathologist with the National Wildlife Health Center, “no visible external lesions” and “no evidence of external or internal bleeding” were found after a gross necropsy administered to an adult male trigger fish, or humuhumu, collected Feb. 2 on Ni‘ihau.
According to Heacock, the fish had a “pale liver and swollen swim bladder.”
“Typically where we see distended fish bladders is when someone is bottom fishing and bring the fish up really fast and it doesn’t have time to acclimate to the pressure changes,” Heacock said.
But he could not confirm what he believed to be the possible link to the recent deaths nor what caused the fish to have a bloated swim bladder.
“We’re still trying to pursue finding out what happened,” he said.
