Hawai'i's Environment
Columns draw reaction
By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Columnist
Some of these columns generate little response, but some generate a lot.
Stories on low-flow toilets and proposed amendments to state fishing regulations are among the latter.
A man who identified himself as a plumber with 26 years of experience called to challenge any suggestion that low-flow toilets, which have been mandated by the federal government to cut water use, function properly.
"You obviously don't have a clue in the world what you're talking about," he said, referring to last week's column on the subject. "I can state without reservation that low-flow toilets are the bane of modern plumbing."
A woman from Skagit County, Wash., e-mailed to say that low-flow toilets work so poorly that there's an active market in Canadian toilets, which are readily available up north.
"All of the pretty pastel colors are available, as stores haul out their wares for tourists to see. This is big business up here."
Customs officials are taking special measures to slow the flow of oversize Canadian porcelain fixtures into the United States, she said. But her message was that the toilet flush limits are for the birds: "Low flush! Bah humbug!"
Several folks e-mailed in response to the Aug. 20 column on proposed changes to fishing regulations. Almost every writer cited two big complaints: enforcement and nets.
One major area of complaint is that unless existing or new fisheries regulations are adequately enforced, they won't change the depletion of Hawai'i's fisheries.
"Unless they get more enforcement people, making laws is foolish," said one writer. He said regulations on illegal netting should be aggressively enforced. The writer suggested the state implement fees for fishing licenses, and that it use the money strictly to increase enforcement.
Another went strictly after big deep-water nets. "These nets do not discriminate in their catch, snaring large and small fish alike."
He said: "No one's out there to regulate this. Every week thousands of pounds of mixed fish are caught by these people."
A hook-and-line fisherman wrote to say that limits on pole fishing won't be effective unless gill net regulations are amended, at least to increase the size of the mesh so they don't catch fish that are too small.
"I believe the lay-netters pose the biggest threat to the fishing reefs today. They kill everything and unless something is done, we will just be letting our catch go for them to kill," he said.
One correspondent said it's not the nets or the fishing folk, but the fish themselves. He argued that the introduced taape, or blue-line snapper, is eating up the small fish of other species.
Jan TenBruggencate is The Advertiser's Kaua'i bureau chief and its science and environment writer. You can call him at (808) 245-3074 or e-mail jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.
