Hawaii reefs showing strain of overuse, lack of protection
| • | Reef damage from swimmers not widespread |
By Rob Perez
Advertiser Staff Writer
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Ask Billy Blankenfeld, 72, about his childhood memories of Maunalua Bay, and he talks about a lush undersea world full of fish and crab.
"When I was young, the reefs were vibrant," said Blankenfeld, a fisherman who has lived along the bay his entire life.
Ask Buzzy Agard, 85, about his long-ago memories of O'ahu's shoreline, and he also speaks of an environment of abundance. The near-shore waters, he recalls, were thriving with a diversity of fish and corals.
Today, the picture is far different.
"It's just like you're on another planet," said Agard, who for several decades fished and dove the waters off O'ahu. "It's like the moon. There's nothing there."
While the reefs around the main Hawaiian islands still are considered relatively healthy by some scientists, thanks mainly to the state's geographic isolation, conditions have declined substantially in recent decades. The degradation has been so dramatic in some spots off heavily developed sections of O'ahu and Maui that much of the coral has died and the fish stock is largely wiped out.
And scientists are predicting a continued, accelerating decline, mirroring what's happening globally, if major steps aren't taken to reverse the trend.
"The amount of damage already done on our coastal resources has been stunning," said Bob Richmond, a University of Hawai'i marine biologist.
Scientists blame mostly human behavior, stretching back decades, when scant attention was paid to protecting the environment and less was known about the harms being done. Years of overfishing, pollution, sediment runoff, the spread of invasive algae, recreational overuse and other people-related activities have taken a heavy toll on Hawai'i's reefs, though some scientists believe the impact has been overstated.
And the state government, the steward for Hawai'i's near-shore waters, has done a poor job of protecting such a vital natural resource, one that serves as the foundation for a marine ecosystem critical to the state's No. 1 tourism industry, critics say.
Decades of government inaction, underfunding and poor or piecemeal public policy have contributed to a steady deterioration of the reefs and related fisheries.
Part of the problem is that the state has to balance what the science calls for with the varied interests of its many ocean users. Achieving that balance historically has been complicated by cultural factors, the importance of Hawai'i's fishing traditions and a relatively lax approach to marine enforcement.
CORAL DECLINE
"All is not lost, but we can't get complacent," said Alan Friedlander, a UH scientist with expertise in fisheries and corals. "Now is when we really need to press these issues. It's a lot easier to protect stuff than to fix stuff when it's broken."
Without effective regulatory oversight, fish have been taken from Hawai'i's near-shore waters at a pace not sustainable for healthy reefs. Too much sediment, pollutants and other reef-harming materials also have flowed into the ocean in many places, mainly because the Islands' natural, land-based filtering systems (such as wetlands) have been destroyed, altered or paved over. Fast-growing invasive algae, often brought to Hawai'i by accident or design, likewise have established footholds in many spots, choking off and overtaking wide swaths of coral.
While some decline is attributed to natural causes, especially the periodic beatings the reefs take from hurricanes and powerful surf, the bulk of the destruction is traced to fallout from human behavior, many scientists say.
By some measures, the decline has been significant.
In one ongoing study of coral cover around the main Hawaiian islands, 19 of 27 sites that have been monitored for at least 10 years have experienced coral decreases, some exceeding 75 percent. At two sites in Maui's Honolua Bay, for instance, coral cover since 1974 has plunged nearly 80 percent.
In a 2005 article in the journal Science, a group of marine scientists, led by University of Queensland professor John Pandolfi, concluded that the reefs around the main islands are roughly 60 percent on their way to ecologic extinction and are more degraded than those in the Red Sea, Belize, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.
"I think Hawai'i, like most places in the tropics, has a relatively narrow window for taking action," Pandolfi said in an e-mail interview from Australia.
STATE INACTION
Given some of the policies and practices in Hawai'i, it's not difficult to see why the health of the reefs is slipping and why the fish population — a key barometer of a reef's vibrancy — is estimated by some scientists to be only one quarter of what it was 100 years ago.
Among other things, the state:
The lack of resources and a patchwork system of oversight by multiple agencies results in ineffective enforcement, inefficiencies, inordinate influence by special-interest groups and inadequate protection of the marine ecosystem, according to scientists, environmentalists, fishers and other ocean users.
POLICY FACTORS
A loss of traditional, subsistence-based values and a general skepticism among ocean users whenever new restrictions are proposed have added to the dysfunction of the system, some say.
"Generally, I think we've done a poor job," said Rick Gaffney, a longtime ocean advocate who has run various marine-related businesses in Hawai'i. "The state's financial commitment to the ocean has been pathetic."
Despite the funding limitations, state officials say changes have been made in recent years to more effectively address the threats facing the reefs and fisheries. But more needs to be done, they agreed, including developing a more comprehensive, coordinated approach among the multiple agencies.
"Obviously, the status quo is not an option," said Dan Polhemus, administrator of the Department of Land and Natural Resources' division of aquatic resources.
Polhemus and others noted that the agency is working on developing more marine management areas, looking into changes to fish-size limits, forging partnerships with other organizations and taking other action in line with the department's top priority of resource protection.
But change historically has come slow, particularly given the divisiveness created by previous proposals to restrict access to Hawai'i's marine resources. Often, the battles are couched in cultural terms, adding to the intensity.
When a bill was introduced at the Legislature several years ago to set aside 20 percent of coastal waters as no-take zones, pro-fishing and conservation interests clashed — and nothing passed.
"Both sides essentially beat themselves bloody," Polhemus recalled.
The case of the parrotfish illustrates the dilemma the state faces. For years, the state has allowed fishers to keep various types of parrotfish as long as the fish are 12 inches long. Yet two of those types, uliuli and palukaluka, both particularly important as seaweed grazers, typically don't become sexually mature and reproduce until they hit 14 inches.
If the state raises the keeper limit to 14 inches, that would drastically affect the recreational fishers who target parrotfish because the other species generally grow smaller. Also, the change could backfire by putting more pressure on the very two parrotfish species most important to the reef.
Many fishers already feel picked on as it is.
They say the reef ecosystem is declining for many reasons, yet the state tries to impose measures that disproportionately penalize fishing, leaving little room for compromise.
"So far, it's all one way — their way," said Rolando Galacgac, president of the Atlapac Fishing Club on O'ahu.
NO-TAKE ZONES
Despite the challenges, there have been success stories, often driven by community members taking ownership of a problem.
When tempers flared between tour boat operators and aquarium fish collectors along the Big Island's Kona Coast in the 1980s, residents became more involved and a consensus eventually was reached to set aside about a third of the waters as no-take zones for aquarium fish. Since then, the number of aquarium fish collectors and the total catch of yellow tang — the most popular fish targeted by the collectors — has roughly doubled. The aquarium fish business has become a substantial fishery in the state.
But the value of a healthy reef extends far beyond the fishing industry.
The reefs are home to multiple species found only in Hawai'i. And researchers have estimated that the nearshore reefs generate more than $800 million annually through tourism, ocean recreation and other marine activities. As the reefs degrade, their value as a fish habitat, recreational resource and cultural resource degrades as well.
Not all scientists, however, are sounding alarm bells.
Rick Grigg, a UH professor emeritus in oceanography, said most damage to Hawai'i's reefs is natural, from waves and storms, that the outer reefs are "healthy as a horse" and that talk of gloom and doom by some of his colleagues is overstated to garner headlines, grants and publications in journals.
"All this violin playing about the reefs dying is just eco-terrorism," Grigg said.
Then there are scientists like Paul Jokiel, a researcher at the Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology. He worries about long-term trends, such as global warming and the increasing acidification of the ocean.
If little is done globally to counter those trends, the reefs are doomed, conceivably before the end of the century, and addressing overfishing, sediment runoff, invasive species and the like will hardly matter, Jokiel said.
"Those aren't the main threats," he said. "You're just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic."
Reach Rob Perez at rperez@honoluluadvertiser.com.
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