Saving Seafood

Both Sides in Marine Monument Fight Invoke Hawaiian Culture

August 17, 2016 — This year, a group of Native Hawaiian leaders urged President Barack Obama to expand Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, while keeping the main Hawaiian islands outside the boundaries. The move would make the monument about 582,000 square miles, more than twice the size of Texas.

The White House isn’t indicating when a decision will be made. Obama also has been asked to designate new national monuments in Utah, Arizona, Nevada, Maine and elsewhere.

The effort to expand the Pacific monument has supporters and opponents invoking Hawaiian culture to further their agendas. Some believe expansion of one of the world’s largest marine conservation areas will protect a sacred place, while others say making more waters off-limits will harm fishermen for a cause pushed by environmentalists with deep pockets.

Peter Apo opposes adding the massive area to the monument and said doing so contradicts the way ancient Hawaiians managed natural resources.

Apo is a trustee of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, which supports expansion as long as the agency gets an official say in management of the area, including advocating for Native Hawaiian access.

It’s difficult to be a Native Hawaiian and an expansion opponent, Apo said.

“We look like we’re bad guys. We’re opposing what seems to be addressing a global problem,” he said of issues like climate change and overfishing that supporters point to.

He cited how Hawaiians utilized periods of kapu, or temporary restrictions in response to overharvesting.

“Food security was critical to Hawaiians,” Apo said.

It’s difficult to estimate the financial effect that expansion would have on the $100 million per year longline industry, which supplies a large portion of the fresh tuna and other fish consumed in Hawaii, said Sean Martin, president of the Hawaii Longline Association.

He estimated about 2 million pounds of fish annually come from the proposed expansion area, where vessels string lines ranging from a mile to 50 miles long in the ocean to catch fish.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at ABC News

Creation Of World’s Largest Marine Reserve In Hawaii Sparks Water Fight

August 15, 2016 — HONOLULU — The vast ocean surrounding the remote western portion of the Hawaiian archipelago has become the focus of a fierce debate in the state where lawmakers and longline fishers have been pitted against conservationists and Native Hawaiian groups who hope the president will designate it as the world’s largest marine reserve.

Earlier this summer, US Sen. Brian Schatz sent a proposal to President Barack Obama to greatly expand the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (PMNM), an existing protected area established 10 years ago by President George W. Bush.

The current monument covers 139,800 square miles in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, an area nearly the size of California, and is home to some of the world’s most extensive coral populations, at least 7,000 marine species, and 22 types of seabirds. When it was established in June 2006, it was the largest protected area in the world, but now ranks 10th.

Under Schatz’s proposal the monument would expand to 582,578 square miles — four times its current size — and would include almost the entire exclusive economic zone of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. While advocates say the expanded protection will better safeguard endangered species, preserve biodiversity, and fight climate change, opponents argue that it would significantly restrict their access to certain fish and hinder the state’s economic well-being.

In May, 30 state lawmakers, including Hawaii House Speaker Joe Souki and Senate President Ron Kouchi, signed a letter asking Obama not to expand the monument and questioning his authority to use the Antiquities Act. The law, passed in 1906, gives the president the power to designate national monuments with the stroke of a pen, and is among the most controversial tools used to set aside land.

“Without sufficient scientific and empirical data and evidence, this arbitrary expansion would be in direct violation of the Antiquities Act,” the letter read.

The lawmakers said an expansion of the preserve would cut Hawaii’s commercial fishing industry by 8% and would mean 2.16 million fewer pounds of fish, resulting in an estimated $6.8 million loss.

Read the full story at Buzzfeed News

Concerns Over Whether US Can Manage Massive Expansion To Hawaii’s Fishing Protected Zone

August 15, 2016 — The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council has agreed to ask the United States government to address a range of concerns about a proposal to expand Hawaii’s protected waters.

The government plans to expand the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in Hawaii five-fold, which would prohibit fishing in two-thirds of the US Exclusive Economic Zone.

The council, which manages the United States’ fisheries in the Pacific, says it wants a public, transparent, deliberative and science-based process to address its concerns.

Read the full story at the Pacific Islands Report

Questions arise over Papahanaumokuakea expansion plan

August 15, 2016 — LIHUE, Hawaii — The potential expansion of Papahanaumokuakea National Marine Monument was the main concern at Wednesday evening’s Kauai Office of Hawaiian Affairs Board of Trustees meeting.

Puanani Rogers, from Kealia, said when it comes to the potential marine monument expansion, she thinks there’s too much misinformation floating around in the community.

“This is the worst thing, it’s dividing the community, family against family and friend against friend,” Rogers said.

Because of that, she said she has reservations against supporting the expansion proposal, which is being evaluated by the federal Council for Environmental Equality, according to OHA chief executive officer, Kamana‘opono Crabbe.

Rogers said she’s also concerned that the military is exempt from the rules of the monument.

The proposal calls for the expansion of the monument on all sides except the southeast boundary, avoiding the islands of Kauai and Ni’ihau as well the Middle Banks fishing area.

If President Barack Obama approves it, the proposal would establish the largest protected marine area in the world.

The bid for Native Hawaiian sovereignty and OHA’s work with the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency and Department of Homeland Security were also part of the talks during the meeting at Wilcox Elementary School attended by about 70 people.

Read the full story at The Garden Island

CALEB MCMAHAN: Expanding the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument Would Set A Dangerous Precedent

August 12, 2016 — The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently held a public meeting to discuss the proposed expansion of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument.

Proponents of the expansion stand behind the request of Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz and a group of seven Native Hawaiians for President Barack Obama to consider invoking the Antiquities Act of 1906 to expand the existing 50 mile monument boundary four-fold. The new monument would include nearly all of the Exclusive Economic Zone surrounding the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and a whopping 60 percent of the greater Hawaiian Islands EEZ.

Proponents argue that the expansion is necessary and justified on a variety of accounts. But the invocation of the Antiquities Act would mean that nearly 1.3 million square kilometers of U.S. waters would be made off-limits to American fishermen without public review or scientific analysis of the impacts or potential benefits.

Given the permanence of such a designation and the ramifications for the affected user groups, it’s no surprise that the recent meeting included a lively debate between those for and against expansion.

Read the full story at the Honolulu Civil Beat

Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council Asks for Transparent Analysis of Proposed Marine Monument Expansion

August 8, 2016 — The following is excerpted from a press release from the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council addressing transparency in the proposed marine monument expansion. In particular, the release highlighted the failure by White House officials to fulfill promises made during the expansion of the Pacific Remote Islands Monument in 2014:

The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council on Wednesday agreed to a resolution that asks the U.S. government to address a suite of concerns before acting on the proposed expansion on the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (MNM) in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Council members Suzanne Case, Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources chair, and Julie Leialoha, Conservation Council for Hawaii president, voted against the proposal. National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Pacific Islands Regional Administrator Michael Tosatto abstained.

The resolution requests a “public, transparent, deliberative, documented and science-based process” to address the proposed expansion, which could prohibit fishing in two-thirds of the U.S. exclusive economic zone (EEZ), i.e., waters out to 200 miles from shore, around Hawaii. The resolution is being sent to President Obama, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and the Secretaries of Commerce, the Interior and State.

The Council’s resolution also requests that the U.S. government address the resources and tools needed to effectively manage and administer an expanded monument and to specify the technical, scientific and socioeconomic costs and benefits from monument expansion on marine resources, residents of Hawaii and the nation.

If any designation is made under the Antiquities Act of 1906 to proclaim an expanded monument, the Council recommends that the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act process continue to be used to develop, analyze and implement fisheries management in the U.S. EEZ waters enclosed by the monument.

Council Executive Director Kitty M. Simonds noted that the Homeland Security Department and U.S. Coast Guard did not receive additional enforcement assets to monitor the Pacific Remote Islands MNM after it was expanded in 2014, despite White House statements that additional enforcement would be provided.

Council members John Gourley of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) said promises made by the White House and Pew Charitable Trusts during the 2009 creation of the Marianas MNM were also not fulfilled, such as the construction of a monument visitors’ center and increased jobs, tourism and revenue.

Read the full release from the WPRFMC here

Ni’ihau owner warns against potential expansion of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument

August 8, 2016 — LIHUE, H.I. — One concern with the potential expansion of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument is the possibility of interference with military operations.

At a recent Lihue community meeting where the Obama Administration was gathering comments on the expansion from Kauai residents, Keith Robinson voiced his concerns.

“I’m against the expansion of the reserve because I don’t want environmentalists to have an excuse to cripple Navy operations,” Robinson said in the meeting. “The Navy has never caused any environmental problems.”

Robinson, who owns the island of Ni’ihau with his brother Bruce, also operates a private botanical garden on Kauai.

Robert Purdy, spokesman for Kauai’s Pacific Missile Range Facility, said the facility is still evaluating the potential expansion.

“The remarks are those of interested parties who were voicing their personal opinions and/or views at a public meeting, and though PMRF will not speculate on their comments, we welcome the feedback of concerned individuals and encourage public engagement while we work with the local community on this issue,” Purdy said.

He continued: “The subject of expansion is currently being discussed at various government and community levels, and speculating on the subject or its impact on current or future PMRF and/or military operations would also be inappropriate at this time.”

In his Tuesday public comments at the Kauai Community College forum, however, Robinson offered a glimpse of insight into further reasons for his concern about the military’s activities.

“My family was informed by the U.S. military very secretly about the coming attack on Pearl Harbor eight years before it happened. We tried to prepare very secretly,” Robinson said. “History seems to be repeating itself now and Russia and China are becoming quite aggressive in the Western Pacific.”

Read the full story at The Garden Island

Activists Push for Hawaii National Monument Expansion After Public Meetings

August 5, 2016 — Native Hawaiians, marine scientists, conservationists, and the commercial longline fishing industry have been speaking out about U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz’s (D-HI) proposal to expand the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Public hearings conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on the Hawaiian islands of Oahu and Kauai concluded Tuesday.

“It’s really important for people to have an opportunity to be heard,” Schatz said in a statement. “I am grateful to President Obama and his Administration for accepting my invitation to hear directly from Hawai’i residents before making any decisions.”

President George W. Bush created Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument 10 years ago by executive order. The 139,797 square-mile protected area is almost the size of California and is home to 7,000 species of birds, fish, and marine mammals, at least a quarter of which are found only in Hawaii, according to the NOAA.

Read the full story at NBC News

KELI’I AKINA: OHA Violates Trust Responsibility to Native Hawaiians

August 3, 2016 — The state Office of Hawaiian Affairs is angling for a “co-trusteeship” of an expanded Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. But a July 22 letter to President Barack Obama from former U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka and former state Govs. Ben Cayetano and George Ariyoshi point out, “The proposed expansion will impact the state’s ability to continue its trust responsibility to native Hawaiians.”

I agree. Papahanaumokuakea expansion would put money in OHA’s pockets at the expense of Hawaii’s local food supplies and native Hawaiian fishermen. Unfortunately, Papahanaumokuakea is not the only place where OHA’s interests are diametrically opposed to those of native Hawaiians. In fact, it’s the latest example of a long-running pattern.

According to Trustee Lei Ahu Isa, OHA wasted $33 million on its failed effort to impose federal tribal recognition on native Hawaiians — $33 million that could have done wonders to ease homelessness and other issues plaguing native Hawaiian communities. But this money was directed instead toward Washington lobbyists and a handful of politically connected OHA insiders pushing an agenda opposed by thousands of Hawaiians at last year’s Interior Department hearings.

Read the full opinion column at the Honolulu Civil Beat

HAWAII: Public meetings held on the expansion of Papahanaumokuakea National Monument

August 2, 2016 — A public meeting at the Filipino Community Center in Waipahu Monday night drew more than 300 people.

The topic was whether to expand the current boundaries of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument.

Some fishermen, local chefs, and others, including former Governor George Ariyoshi are opposed to it.

“The position i’m taking is don’t ban everything. The ocean is our background. We are totally surrounded by the ocean. And it’s our ocean and we should be the ones to decide what to do with the ocean,” said Ariyoshi.

Read the full story at KHON