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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, May 15, 2001

Tourism Talk
Hawai'i needs to keep whales safe to ensure return visits

By Michele Kayal
Advertiser Staff Writer

In other lives, in colder places, I've measured the seasons by the time the sky goes dark, the week the cherry blossoms appear, the day I trade my scratchy woolen pea coat for short-sleeved cotton sweaters.

But here in Hawai'i, I mark the time by the coming and going of the whales.

In the next couple of weeks the last few stragglers will finally head north, leaving Hawai'i's waters quiet and longing until winter. In addition to being the state's largest visitors, the mammoth mammals are also some of Hawai'i's largest visitor attractions, enticing people to spend $16 million a year on boat trips just to be near them (that's $5 million more than last week's Asian Development Bank delegates brought in).

The great pull toward the great whales lies in their freedom, in their grace, in their joy, and in the sheer, unbridled wonder that anything so large and simultaneously so beautiful could possibly exist in the world.

The exact number of humpbacks is tough to pin down, but experts estimate 4,000 to 6,000 have been visiting Hawai'i in recent years, about twice as many as they think were showing up in the early 1980s (and about twice as many whales as ADB delegates). Experts say they are hopeful the numbers will continue growing. But for that to happen, Hawai'i will have to carefully monitor at least two growing issues.

• Boats. While boats bring average folks from land-locked places like Iowa as close as they'll ever get to the creatures, they become potential foes if there are too many of them in too small an area.

No one is saying this has happened yet. At last count in 1999, the Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary tallied 52 whale-watching vessels making about 90 trips a day. But the incident of a rambunctious baby whale leaping onto the stern of a boat off Kaua'i in February points to the fact that boats and whales do get in each other's way.

The various marine agencies that watch over the whales in Hawai'i waters say they do not yet have an exact count of the number of "collisions" between mammals and motor vehicles this year. But next March the sanctuary hopes to hold a two-day workshop to look at whether the number of incidents is growing, what kind of boats are involved, how fast they're moving, and what kind of damage they're doing.

• Battleships. The U.S. Navy has asked the National Marine Fisheries Service for a five-year permit to operate a sub-hunting system that uses low-frequency active sonar. The Navy says the sonar will "harass" a certain number of animals, but tests have shown no significant changes in behavior. Critics say it could be harmful — and even deadly — to marine mammals.

Last year, more than a dozen beaked whales and dolphins beached themselves and seven died during Navy tests with a different kind of sonar in the Bahamas. The Navy says it is incorrect to compare the mid-frequency sonar used in the Bahamas to the newer, low-frequency sonar. Critics say there is not enough information.

After holding three hearings and receiving what it called "the equivalent of a couple of trees" worth of comment, the National Marine Fisheries Service has extended the comment deadline to May 30. Service representatives said that if they give the Navy the go-ahead, it would not be before September.

The whales, for sure, will be like any other tourists when it comes to choosing Hawai'i for their winter vacation: They'll come as long as they enjoy it, and as long as the destination is safe, hospitable and happy to see them.

It is up to Hawai'i and to those who await the humpbacks' return each year to make sure that government agencies, private companies and even fellow whale watchers keep a close eye on all that could harm them, so that Hawai'i's waters stay warm and welcoming to its best and most beautiful visitors.

Michele Kayal can be e-mailed at mkayal@honoluluadvertiser.com