LIHU‘E — Hundreds of residents converged this week at the Kaua‘i Community College cafeteria to learn more about possible new federal limits on their cultural, recreational and commercial uses of the ocean.
The meeting was organized by citizens concerned about the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary’s possible plans for the future. Attendees heard a panel speak about the proposed changes.
The Sanctuary — which falls under the control of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and is co-managed by the state — is undergoing a Management Plan Review.
Sanctuary officials are currently in a 90-day “scoping period” to gather public input regarding their “Proposed Vision” for the future, said Malia Chow, a representative for the sanctuary, in a phone interview this week. The period started in July and ends Oct. 16.
The meeting Tuesday night was not one of those scoping meetings held by sanctuary officials, rather it was a meeting organized by individuals — fishermen, tour-boat operators, surfers and others — whose lives and/or livelihoods are impacted by the ocean. They were alarmed by the Sanctuary’s Proposed Vision possibly restricting their access to the ocean.
The panel of speakers explained to the audience that the Sanctuary’s Proposed Vision may include expanding its scope to “protect and conserve other living marine resources,” such as Hawaiian monk seals, whales, dolphins, sea turtles, federally protected coral species, areas of significant habitat, and submerged cultural and historic resources, which is stated in the Kohola Connection, an informational publication produced by the Sanctuary.
At the meeting, panel members had a petition for attendees to sign, opposing the Sanctuary’s Proposed Vision. Greg Holzman, a commercial fisherman and one of the organizers of Tuesday’s meeting, said 393 signatures were gathered Tuesday night.
“I think these all are signs that people of Kaua‘i are very concerned of losing their culture and lifestyle,” he said in a phone interview this week.
Holzman said he asked NOAA at an earlier meeting whether broad restrictions were a probability of the plan. “They could not tell us that they wouldn’t do what we were concerned about,” he said.
“We’re so early in this process we don’t have a plan,” Chow said, adding that the point of the scoping period is to say to the public, “Here is a proposed vision for the Sanctuary; what do you think?”
According to the Sanctuary’s Management Plan Review Timeline, after this scoping period ends, there are many more parts of the process — including another 90-day public comment period in 2013 — until the plan is finalized in 2014.
“We really want people to be part of this process,” said Jean Souza, Kaua‘i representative for the Sanctuary.
Once all the comments are received from the scoping period, she said the Sanctuary will “investigate these issues in more detail.”
Chow and Souza both added they are “happy to meet with any group” that wants more information about the Sanctuary, its Proposed Vision, and the Management Plan Review.
Some of the speakers on the panel Tuesday night also stated that whales, sea turtles and monk seals do not need to be expanded into the Sanctuary’s protection but instead could be de-listed due to their current high population numbers.
“They need to be taken off the endangered list,” said Mel Wills, tour boat captain of Holo Holo Charters, who said he is out on the water four days a week and sees an abundance of the species.
Nina Monasevitch, who also attended the meeting, and who is chair of Koloha Mana Ohana, an organization to protect whales, said she is out in the water frequently as well, “and is seeing way less whales and dolphins” in Hawaiian waters. She added that sea turtles are plagued by a tumor-laden virus called fibropapilomatosis, with up to 75 percent of sea turtles affected on Maui.
Chow said there is an ongoing status of a “biological review team” which over the next six months is considering the species’ delisting, and will take the information from that research into account with the future plans for the Sanctuary.
Souza said the increased population of whales is largely due to the Sanctuary’s efforts.
“Hawai‘i is building a reputation for being one of the best places to watch the whales,” she said. She added that this reputation has “sparked a lot of visitors, which benefits the tour boat operators.”
Chow and Souza invite people to view the proposal online at http://hawaiihumpbackwhale.noaa.gov/management/management_plan_review.html
Public comments are also invited through Oct. 16 via mail, e-mail or fax, which information can be found on the website, or by calling 1-888-55-WHALE ext. 267. Holzman and Wills also distributed information and comment sheets at surf shops and fishing stores island-wide. For more information call Holzman at 482-0785 or Wills at 635-5795.
