Posted on: Tuesday, July 24, 2001

Coral reserve review draws fire

By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Staff Writer

The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council yesterday was accused of conducting a misinformation campaign aimed at overturning or weakening the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve.

Cha Smith, executive director of Kahea, the Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance, said the quasi-governmental agency established to manage U.S. fisheries is largely responsible for causing the Bush administration to put the reserve under review.

Smith said Kahea, a coalition of environmentalists and Native Hawaiians, is worried that Bush may reverse or severely limit the scope of the reserve established by President Bill Clinton before he left office. The group, along with scientists and a number of other organizations has sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Donald Evans expressing concern for the review.

"The reserve has broad support, big support,'' Smith said. "If they mess with it, they are going to have to have a really good reason.''

Mark Mitsuyasu of the management council responded that his agency is on record supporting the reserve. He said the council's only concern has been with some of the proposed conservation measures and the overlapping jurisdiction.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration spokeswoman Stephanie Balian said the review is something any new administration would do.

Reaching 1,200 miles northwest of the main Hawaiian Islands, the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are a largely uninhabited group of shoals and atolls that connect hundreds of miles of coral, accounting for more than 70 percent of the coral reefs under U.S. jurisdiction.

In November, Congress passed the National Marine Sanctuaries Amendments Act giving Clinton authority to establish the reserve. He did just that following two rounds of public hearings in Hawai'i.

Smith said the council from the beginning orchestrated a campaign against the reserve, misrepresenting and "grossly'' overstating its impact.

According to Smith, the council has said the reserve closed up "massive'' areas to bottomfishing and caused major economic losses to the fishery when, in fact, bottomfishing is allowed in 95 percent of the reserve. Mitsuyasu said that while it's true bottomfishing is allowed in 95 percent of the reserve, the closed part represents where most of the fishing occurred.

Sharane Gomes, whose husband, Bobby Gomes, owns a fishery management council permit to fish in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, said that because they own one of the fishery's smallest boats, the restrictions established for the reserve affect 80 percent of their catch.

Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve Manager Robert Smith said even if some of the fishing limits were removed from the reserve, there is plenty more to accomplish.