Midway tourism still on hold

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Science Writer

Tourism to remote Midway Atoll, halted earlier this year, is not expected to resume until late spring or summer of next year, pending a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service study of the concept of using a wildlife refuge as a visitor destination.

"We need to get a better handle on what kind of visitation is desired there," said Joan Jewett, of the service's Pacific region. "We remain committed to having it open to the public."

When the federal agency took over Midway from the Navy in 1996, it signed a contract with Midway Phoenix Corp. to keep the airport open, maintain its facilities and run an ecotourism resort. Visitors went diving, watched sea birds, fished and toured historic military sites.

It was the first national wildlife refuge with commercial tourism activities.

Midway, in addition to being a near-pristine mid-Pacific atoll environment and nesting site for seabirds, was the focus of World War II naval battle that is viewed as the turning point for the United States in the war against Japan.

Midway Phoenix earlier this year shut down its operation, complaining that wildlife officials set restrictions that were making it impossible to run a profitable tourism operation. The firm's officers suggested that the National Park Service, which has more experience with tourism, would be a more appropriate agency to run Midway.

On the firm's departure, the Fish and Wildlife Service stopped inviting visitors and hired GeoEngineers of Oregon to keep the buildings maintained, the water system flowing and the power running. Another firm, American Airports, was hired to keep the airport open as an emergency landing site for cross-Pacific flights and the Fish and Wildlife Service.

This move, however, put the service in a position that it said it never wanted to be in: footing the cost of running a remote reserve with far more facilities than are required for simple wildlife protection.

Midway is like a small city, with a harbor, sewage plant, airport hangar and cluster of former military buildings, including barracks, mess hall, maintenance buildings and offices. By contrast, the Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service operate research stations elsewhere in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands on a shoestring, with a few researchers and volunteers often living in tents. The islands often are abandoned when sea birds, seals and turtles are not nesting.

In recent weeks, there were 33 people on Midway, said Barbara Maxfield of the Fish and Wildlife Service office in Honolulu. They include refuge manager Tim Bodeen, his wife and two daughters, plus a staff of three. Also present are a National Wildlife Service wildlife biologist and four volunteers. GeoEngineers has 13 staffers and three dependents and American Airports has five people on-island.

The six-month GeoEngineers contract alone was estimated at $1.3 million. Both contracts with GeoEngineers and American Airports run through Dec. 31, but can be extended on a month-to-month basis, Jewett said. She said the firm has invited permanent contractors to submit bids, and has received several proposals.

"They will go to an evaluation team within the Fish and Wildlife Service, and we hope to select one in December," she said. "It will be just to operate the infrastructure and the airport. Visitor services are a separate thing, and that's going to take a little longer to figure out. We're doing an analysis of visitor use and are developing a plan for visitor access."

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 245-3074.