Saving Seafood

Senator Brian Schatz Releases Marine Reserve Plan

June 17, 2016 — U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz made the proposal to expand the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument official Thursday in a letter to President Barack Obama. Schatz called for the monument to grow to 582,578 square miles, which would make it the world’s largest marine protected area.

Parts of the monument would extend from shore by 200 miles to the limit of the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone, while other parts would have their boundaries maintained to provide “access for local fishermen on Kauai and Niihau” according to a press release from the senator’s office.

Schatz said he and his staff met with Gov. David Ige, state Senate President Ron Kouchi, Kauai Mayor Bernard Carvalho, and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to discuss their concerns.

“With their feedback, Schatz developed the proposal sent to the president,” the release said.

A large group of state lawmakers, including Kouchi, recently wrote a letter to Obama opposing the possible expansion.

Read the full story at Civil Beat

Scientist says expanding Hawaii monument is abuse of law

June 16, 2016 — The senior scientist of a regional fishing body says a presidential executive order to expand Hawaii’s protected waters is an abuse of federal law.

United States President Barack Obama announced a series of measures in 2014 to protect parts of the world’s oceans which include expanding Hawaii’s Papahanaumokuakea monument under the Antiquities Act.

Paul Dalzell said claims that the expansion would improve conservation were false.

“The Antiquities Act was meant to protect small places. Stop them from being overrun by tourists or being stripped by souvenir hunters. And it’s supposed to be the for the smallest area possible. It was never intended to parcel off great large areas of land or indeed to be applied to make these huge expansions of water.”

Read the full story at Radio New Zealand

Researchers Discover 3 New Species of Fish Off Hawaii

June 16, 2016 — Researchers in Hawaii have discovered three probable new species of fish while on an expedition in the protected waters of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument.

In a statement released Wednesday, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials said divers collected two previously unknown species of fish and filmed a third.

Read the full story at NBC New York

Regional fishing body opposes expansion of Hawaii monument

June 14, 2016 — A regional fishing body is opposing the proposed expansion of United States protected waters around Hawaii.

Members of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council have raised their concerns about the sustainability of local fishing if Hawaii’s Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument was expanded.

The proposal would increase the protected zone fivefold and could reduce the available fishing grounds in the US exclusive economic zone waters around Hawaii from 63 percent to 15 percent.

Read the full story at Radio New Zealand

Petition: Save Hawaii Fisheries

June 2, 2016 — Petition the President of the United States to Not expand the outer boundary of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Moument from 50 nautical miles out to 200 nautical miles around the Northwest Hawaiian Islands.   This will have a devastating impact on small business, fisheries, and culture without justification or public input. Our Kauai Fishermen run the risk of loosing middle bank and key fish grounds.

Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument (PMNM).

Established in 2006 by Pres. George W. Bush, this marine protected area (MPA) currently encompasses the Northwestern Hawaiian Island (NWHI) chain, covering an area 100 miles wide and 1200 miles long. It sits within the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Hawaii’s waters, a swath of ocean that’s 400 miles wide and includes both the PMNM and the Main Hawaiian Islands.

Half of the bottomfish for Hawaii and most of the lobster came from the area within the PMNM, prior to the establishment of the monument. Fishing boats operated in that area for decades with very little ecological impact. Early in the 21st Century, it was decided that the near-pristine condition of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands should be protected indefinitely, and that was the rationale for creating the PMNM.

Now there are groups that are asking Pres. Obama to expand the PMNM to include the entire EEZ around the NWHI. Imagine an area that would be as long as the distance between the borders of Canada and Mexico, and wider than the state of California.

Read the full petition at Change.org

Hawaii Lawmakers To Obama: Don’t Grow Marine Monument

May 13, 2016 — Amid the flurry of final votes on hundreds of bills last week, Hawaii lawmakers privately weighed whether to sign a letter to President Obama that Rep. James Tokioka was circulating during the last few days of the legislative session.

The letter called on the president not to consider expanding the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument, stating that “there is no scientific justification or conservation benefit in doing so.”

In all, 30 House lawmakers, including Speaker Joe Souki, signed the May 3 letter. Just days earlier, Hawaii Senate President Ron Kouchi sent Obama a nearly identical one.

This opposition, which lawmakers kept out of public view, has been overshadowed by a strong public push to expand the monument, officially designated by President George W. Bush as Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument in 2007.

Read the full story at the Honolulu Civil Beat

CNMI Gov: No To Expansion Of Hawaii Marine Monument

May 11, 2016 — SAIPAN, CNMI — Governor Ralph Torres does not support the expansion of the marine national monument in Hawaii, citing the CNMI’s disappointing experience with the Marianas Trench monument.

The governor in an interview on Tuesday said he wrote to President Obama to raise some concerns regarding the proposed expansion of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument in Hawaii also known as the Northwestern Hawaiian monument.

“I don’t think I’m supporting it,” he said. “What we were offered here [for the Marianas monument] was not the one given to us. The proponents mentioned hundreds of millions of dollars and many jobs, but none of those have occurred.”

Read the full story at the Pacific Islands Report

Considering Pacific marine monument expansion

May 9, 2016 — HONOLULU — A Native Hawaiian proposal that calls for the expansion of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument is picking up steam and this week a delegation from the Obama Administration is meeting with stakeholders to discuss the possibility.

The waters around Kauai and Niihau, however, would be exempt from the expansion, according to news release sent to The Garden Island on Thursday.

“As Native Hawaiians, our core identity and survival is tied to the ocean. The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands is where we believe life originated,” said Kekuewa Kikiloi, Chair, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Native Hawaiian Cultural Working Group. “All resources in nature – from corals to sharks – have cultural significance for Native Hawaiians and are an embodiment of our ancestors. By expanding Papahanaumokuakea we can help protect our cultural ocean-scapes and show future generations that preservation of the environment is preservation of our cultural traditions.”

Read the full story at the Garden Island

Hawaiian leaders seek expansion of marine conservation area

April 18, 2016 — HONOLULU — A group of Native Hawaiian leaders have urged President Barack Obama to expand what’s already one of the largest marine conservation areas in the world.

But the president of the Hawaii Longline Association said Friday the lobbying effort is using Hawaiian culture as an excuse to close off more waters to fishermen.

Papahanaumokuakea (pah-pah-HAH-now-moh-cuh-ah-cay-ah) Marine National Monument is a 140,000-square-mile area of the Pacific where remote islands, atolls, islets and coral reefs serve as habitat for some of the world’s most endangered species.

The region is also a sacred place in the history, culture and cosmology of Native Hawaiians.

“Mr. President, as an island boy from Hawaii, we trust that you understand the significance of the ocean to our islands,” said a letter signed by leaders of the expansion push.

They want Obama to expand the monument to the full 200 nautical-mile limit of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands exclusive economic zone while keeping the main Hawaiian islands outside the boundaries.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Jersey Herald