“We’re not happy,” Lisa Spain told the room after casting the deciding vote to approve an amended Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) that would allow the state’s largest wind farm to kill 160 more endangered bats than the 60 it was … Continued
At the state Endangered Species Recovery Committee (ESRC) meeting last month, members debated the best way to mitigate the effects wind farms have on endangered Hawaiian hoary bats, which are being killed at a rate much higher than expected when … Continued
Kawailoa Wind, LLC is near the end of a four-year effort to amend its Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) so that it allows the additional take of endangered Hawaiian hoary bats. In the course of that effort, it also became clear … Continued
A recent rapid assessment of 83 marine species from throughout the Pacific found that sharks — including the threatened oceanic whitetip — sea cucumbers, urchins and clams are highly vulnerable to expected climate change effects over the next few decades. … Continued
Marti Townsend, director of the Sierra Club’s Hawai‘i Chapter, asked the audience crammed into a state capitol conference room last month to imagine a world in which fossil fuel companies in the 1980s took the warnings of its scientists about … Continued
Talk about splurging. Last June, Western Pacific Fishery Management Council members trumpeted a new Main Hawaiian Islands bottomfish stock assessment that allowed them to recommend to the National Marine Fisheries Service a 60 percent increase in the annual catch limit … Continued
The Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) is inching closer to securing a long-term lease for stream diversions that feed two hydroelectric plants on the island’s east side. This month, the utility is expected to release a draft environmental assessment (EA) … Continued
“Two ‘alalā in the Pu‘u Maka‘ala Natural Area Reserve have reached a new milestone, one not seen in the forests of Hawaiʻi for almost 20 years. They have built a nest,” The ‘Alalā Project announced in a May 8 press … Continued
What the National Marine Fisheries Service had proposed was simply unacceptable to Roger Dang, whose family’s longline vessels make up a significant portion of the Hawai‘i swordfish fleet. He likened it to the NBA limiting LeBron James to just two … Continued
Can the 1,424 adult leatherback sea turtles that ply the western Pacific withstand the losses resulting from their interactions with gear set by the Hawai‘i-based longline fishing vessels that target swordfish? A new “internal and deliberative” draft biological opinion (BiOp) … Continued