The Committee provided $9 million above the president's request for the Hawaiian Monk Seal, the Hawaiian Sea Turtle, the Bottlenose Dolphin, and Section 6 Endangered Species Act grants to the States. Of this amount, it is expected that at least $2 million of these funds will be allocated to the Hawaiian Monk Seal Recovery Plan, which is in addition to the $850,000 included in the president's request.

The committee went on to note that, "The Hawaiian Monk Seal may be one of the world's most endangered marine species and the committee is concerned that the agency (National Marine Fisheries Service) has not provided adequate funding to reverse this decline."

Congresswoman Hirono requested a specific earmark for this funding but was pleased when it was included instead as programmatic funding as that will help ensure ongoing support for this vital program.

The total population of critically endangered monk seals is between 900 and 1,200 individuals and the population is in rapid decline (4 percent a year over the past 20 years). The entire population of this seal species is within the United States, principally in the Papahanaumokuakea National Marine Monument in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Delay in implementation of the recovery plan, which focuses on improving the survival rate of pups and juveniles, will make stabilizing the population of this important species far more difficult.

Hawaiian monk seals, together with the critically endangered Mediterranean monk seal, are the last surviving species of the subfamily of tropical seals. The Caribbean Monk Seal was recently declared extinct. Monk seals are also sometimes referred to as "living fossils" because as the oldest living members of the pinniped order they have remained virtually unchanged for 15 million years.

SKIP is an effective re-entry program that creatively helps to establish vital relationships between offenders and their children. Research indicates that nurturing relationships are critical to an offender's successful re-entry into the community. Successful re-entry reduces both criminality among offenders and prison overcrowding in the long term.

SKIP was initially implemented at the Waiawa Correctional Facility in the fall of 2003. The program has since been implemented at the following facilities: Maui Community Correctional Center, the Women's Community Correctional Center on Oahu, and the Kauai Community Correctional Center. The secured funding will be used to support the further expansion of the SKIP program at additional correctional facilities throughout our islands.

In 1972, Ma'alaea coral reefs were described as being "striking in their diversity and in the presence of rare coral species." In just a few decades, the Ma'alaea reef has been transformed from a healthy and diverse coral reef ecosystem to a badly degraded habitat overgrown by algae and with little surviving coral. The committee provided $185,000 to study the effect of pollution from septic and cesspool systems on the Ma'alaea reef system of the island of Maui.

The State of Hawaii spends some $100,000 a year in cleaning up the 20,000 pounds of algae that wash up on beaches in nearby Kihei every week. The study will result in a report describing and evaluating various sources of point and non-point pollution affecting the Ma'alaea reef region and recommendations on steps needed to reverse the degradation of the coral reef system.

Maui Councilmember Michelle Anderson, who represents South Maui, asked Hirono to seek the funding for this project.