Conservationists Praise, Fishermen Decry President's Coral Reef Reserve in NWHI

posted in: January 2001 | 0

The prediction that the reefs in Hawaiian waters may be among the world’s last to succumb to the effects of global warming is one reason the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands deserve special protection, say supporters of President Clinton’s executive order of December 4, establishing a coral reef ecosystem reserve around the archipelago of atolls, islets, and banks.

“I think that many researchers agree that the NWHI coral reefs are probably among the last to be threatened by global warming or elevated sea water temperatures,” says Cindy Hunter, a coral reef ecologist with the University of Hawai`i.

“As you can imagine, I’m very supportive of this effort to set aside such an enormous and important area for protection of its vast natural resources.”

But the views of Hunter and other knowledgeable scientists, environmental groups, and several Native Hawaiian organizations were not shared by members of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council. At its recent meeting, held in Honolulu November 29 – December 1, the council twice broke from its published agenda to denounce the proposal at hastily arranged news conferences.

Although fishing would be allowed within the reserve at the 2000-year effort, the council and people close to the fishing industry denounced the president’s order as not providing for “sustainable use of the area.” A news release issued by the council stated that the “executive order … is unfair because it wrongfully displaces fishermen and circumvents the procedures for public input.”

That statement was challenged in a news release issued by several of the environmental groups supporting the reserve, including KAHEA: The Environmental Alliance, the Hawai`i Fishing and Boating Association, the national group Environmental Defense, Na Kupuna O Maui, the Sierra Club, and Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund. “The public input process began May 26, 2000, with the President’s Executive Order 13089 relating to Marine Protected Areas,” their statement said. “The public input process has continued since May and will continue for an additional 30 day comment period following the President’s December 4, 2000 announcement… At the conclusion of the public comment period, the process will have allowed for well over 6 months of public input into developing strong lasting protection of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.”

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Tons of abandoned fishing gear, such as this collection on the pier at Midway Atoll, are among the threats to coral reefs in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The debris pictured was hauled from the reefs in a 1999 cleanup. It was finally removed from Midway late last year.

The Western Pacific council, which for the last few years has been in the process of developing a coral reef ecosystem management plan allowing for commercial use of many of the resources in the area now included in the reserve, went on to say that “federal and state agencies … have already drafted and/or implemented conservation and management plans to protect the coral reef ecosystem and provide for the sustainable use of related area resources.” Bob Schroeder, a biologist with the council, said that the preparation of a draft environmental impact statement for coral reef ecosystems in the council’s jurisdiction would continue for now. The establishment of the reserve, however, would entail preparation of a separate management plan that, in all likelihood, would supersede the council’s plans.

Still, some conservationists are cautious that the president’s executive order does not go far enough in protecting reef resources from commercial plunder. While the order bans commercial bottomfish fishing in what are called “preservation areas” within the reserve, these areas do not include some 30 banks and shoals. What’s more, in several of the banks that are set aside as preservation areas, some portions would still be open to bottomfishing.

Under its management, the council said, “the NWHI reefs and resources are healthy … Fisheries are strictly managed and not overfished, and protected monk seal, green sea turtle and seabird populations in the NWHI are increasing or stable. There are no extenuating circumstances that mandate or justify the drastic measures being proposed.”

Actually, the monk seal population is in perilous condition, with some conservation groups citing it as the second-most endangered marine mammal in the United States. As for the seabirds in the Northwestern Hawaiian islands, many scientists are concerned that albatross – particularly the Black-footed albatross — are being killed in numbers high enough to impact their long-term reproductive health.

Dire economic consequences were predicted by the council. A $1 million-a-year lobster fishery would be closed, the council said, as would the taking of precious deep-water coral in a fishery whose potential revenue also was estimated at $ million a year. Yet the lobster fishery has been closed by the National Marine Fisheries Service until at least 2002 in what the NMFS Southwest Regional Director Rebecca Lent described as “a precautionary action to protect the lobster resources given … the lack of appreciable rebuilding of the lobster population.” The closure was initiated by the service to head off an almost certain order of the federal court hearing a case that alleged, among other things, that bottomfishing and lobster fishing were affecting the recovery of the monk seals.

Jim Maragos, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who served as the leader of a recent rapid ecological assessment of the entire Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, took exception to the council’s cries of wolf.

The claim that the lobster fishery would be closed by the reserve is simply not true, he told Environment Hawai`i. “It’s a smokescreen to avoid discussing the real issue, which is that the lobster fishery has not been managed properly and is depleted in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. To bring the reserve into the picture now is irrelevant. The fishery is closed for a good reason: there are no lobsters out there. In our observations during our September-October 2000 cruise, we found very few lobsters in our surveys of over 170 sites. The only place we found them in any number was in the lagoon at Kure Atoll, where the lobsters haven’t been fished out. Outside of Kure, I saw maybe one or two lobsters, which is really, really low lobster abundance during the 55 dives I personally made during the expedition.

“The lobster issue emerged on its own merits – or demerits – and has been settled by another branch of our government, the federal court. It would have been closed even if NMFS hadn’t closed it voluntarily. It’s clear that management was deficient. This was a virgin fishery in 1980 and has since been fished down to the point where it is now depleted.”

The precious coral fishery in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands has seen no permitted activity since the establishment of the 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone around the atolls in the 1970s. Within the last two years, a company has received the needed permit to take precious corals in Hawaiian waters, but it has not taken corals from any of the beds around the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

Whether it may be able to exercise its permit depends on the location of the banks of precious corals. If such banks can be found beyond the boundaries of the reserve, then there is no reason why they could not be commercially exploited. No precious coral beds are known to exist this far out, however, says the council’s Schroeder; all known banks are inside the reserve.

— Patricia Tummons

The president’s executive order, maps, and other information on the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve are available online at [url=http://www.hawaiireef.noaa.gov]www.hawaiireef.noaa.gov[/url]

Public comments will be accepted until January 10, 2001 (must be postmarked no later than January 8). Comments may be sent by email to [email]hawaiicomments@noaa.gov[/email], by fax to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Service at (301) 713-4306, or by post to Roger Griffis, NOAA, Office of Policy and Strategic Planning, Rm. 6117, 14th & Constitution Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. 20230-0001.

Volume 11, Number 7 January 2001