Posted on: Tuesday, June 21, 2005

ISLAND VOICES
Here are facts about Northwestern Islands

By Roy Morioka

Nearly every person who has visited the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) would agree that they are one of the healthiest and one of the few remaining, intact, predator-dominated coral reef ecosystems left on Earth.

The stringent protections put into place by the state of Hawai'i, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service and the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council over the past 25 years have contributed immensely to maintaining this incredibly diverse ecosystem.

Yet, despite these successful and cooperative management efforts, anti-fishing advocates are spreading incorrect statements that claim the NWHI faces the devastating, accelerating and cumulative threats of invasive species, marine discharges, overfishing and other human occupancy and extractive uses.

They have intentionally misinformed Hawai'i's lawmakers and a Hawai'i congressman by claiming that existing fisheries of the NWHI are harmful to the ecosystem and, unless these islands are made into a no-fishing Marine Refuge, the existing regulations that have protected them for the last three decades would not be sufficient to protect and maintain them in the future. Listed below are just a few of the many erroneous and misinformed claims:

• The NWHI contains 70 percent of our nation's coral reefs. This is false.

Recent evaluations of potential coral reef ecosystems in the United States by NOAA have found that the NWHI contains less than 5 percent of the nation's potential shallow-water coral ecosystems when defined as areas within the 10-fathom (60-foot) depth contour, and less than 10 percent of the nation's total when this area is defined within the 100-fathom (600-foot) depth contour.

• The NWHI is the nursery and spawning grounds for the Main Hawaiian Islands (MHI) fishery resources and protecting the NWHI will replenish the MHI. This is unsupported by scientific data.

In fact, a 10-year study conducted by NOAA found that the ocean currents from the surface to a depth of 600 feet flow in a northwesterly direction from the MHI toward the NWHI. This means that fish larvae are more likely to be transported from the MHI to the NWHI, and therefore, the NWHI are not likely a suitable refugia to replenish the MHI fish stocks.

This is supported by the fact that many coral reef fishes such as goatfish and parrotfish remain depleted in the MHI despite no targeted fishing for these species in the NWHI for over 40 years.

• Lobsters are a critical component of the Hawaiian monk seal's diet, and seals are starving because there are no lobsters. This is also unsupported by scientific data.

While monk seal diet studies are ongoing, the seals' dependence upon lobsters as an important food source remains inconclusive. Scientific studies have found that seals eat a wide range of marine species and fish appear to be their primary food source, comprising nearly 80 percent of the items found in their fecal and regurgitated deposits.

Additionally, recent scientific studies using satellite tags and cameras mounted on the backs of monk seals by NOAA scientists show that monk seals primarily forage for bottom-associated reef fish, octopus, squid and eel, not lobsters. A federal lawsuit in 2000 asking the courts to close the lobster fishery on the basis that the removal of lobsters harms monk seals was denied.

• The NWHI lobster fishery is overfished. This is also false.

The NWHI lobster fishery is not listed on the NOAA Status of the Stocks Report to Congress as overfished. Lobster populations worldwide are heavily influenced by environmental conditions, and their abundance naturally goes through decade-long cycles of high abundance and low abundance. Since the mid-1990s, the abundance of NWHI spiny lobsters has been lower than previous years. Scientists also have observed a lower abundance in the number of seabirds, monk seals and other wildlife, suggesting that the NWHI may be experiencing an inter-decadal cycle of lower productivity affecting many species.

Because lobster numbers are low, NOAA closed the NWHI lobster fishery in 2000 as a precautionary measure so scientists could develop a population model to more accurately estimate the number of lobsters that can be safely taken without harming the stocks, not because it is overfished.

• The public overwhelmingly supports maximum protection for the NWHI. This statement is partly true.

But the overwhelming public support to close fishing in the NWHI did not come from Hawai'i residents. Instead, the majority of comments supporting maximum protection for the NWHI and closure of Hawai'i's fisheries were form letters and e-mails sent by members of national environmental organizations on the Mainland, even citizens from foreign countries. Government decision-makers have included comments from non-Hawai'i residents to justify closing Hawaiian fisheries that do not degrade the NWHI coral reef ecosystem.

As a concerned citizen and Hawai'i resident who cares about government actions that affect me and my family, I urge you all not to take any statements by anyone, including mine, as a matter of fact. Instead, I urge you to ask your government officials, the scientific experts and the environmental organizations for the sources of their statements and the rationale for their decisions.

This will better prepare you for the next round of fishing closures and restrictions in the Main Hawaiian Islands once the NWHI are removed from the area government officials use to calculate the amount of fish that can be caught, and the number of monk seal and sea turtle interactions allowed by Hawai'i's recreational and commercial fishermen. Happy fishing, while you still can.

Roy Morioka is retired, an avid recreational fisherman and the chairman of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council. He wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.