Saturday, June 25, 2011

DOCARE's Observation & Incident Reporting workshop for Makai Watch

by Luna Kekoa 

On June 23rd the Kaanapali Makai Watch hosted a DOCARE community training at the Kaunoa Center in Lahaina, Maui.  This was the first, in a statewide series, of community meetings to inform the public, community, and Makai Watch volunteers, as to the role of DOCARE in the Makai Watch program.  This was also an opportunity for DOCARE and the community to interact and express concerns about the reporting process and follow up from DOCARE.   

With more than 30 in attendance the meeting brought both rookie and veteran Makai Watch volunteers from West, Central, and South Maui.  There were 8 DOCARE officers that participated in the meeting including the head of DOCARE Randy Awo.  Brooks Tamaye and Matt Yamamoto took the lead for DOCARE and led the audience through a presentation that explained the roles and responsibilities of DOCARE officers.  The presentation included the reporting process for violations and the follow up that occurs with DOCARE.    

Next, the community participated in an exercise consisting of examining pictures to point out both violations and common mistakes with reporting violations, such as not understanding gear restrictions or site specific regulations.  DOCARE ended the evening with displaying confiscated gear that were illegal to allow the community the ability to examine and see first hand what “illegal” fishing gear looks like.


The next step for the Kaanapali Makai Watch is to hold a site specific community meeting to discuss specific site regulations of the Kahekili Herbivore Fisheries Management Area. The meeting is being planned for early October. The statewide series of meetings has completed the second community meeting in Waikiki, Oahu.  There will be more meetings being held on neighboring islands coming soon as well!
To see more photos from the event, check out the facebook album!

Thursday, June 16, 2011

A Fisherman's Perspective

by Eden Zang

“Fishermen are conservationists. We want management. Status quo is killing our reef.” - Darrell Tanaka

Darrell Tanaka, local fisherman and the organizer of Roi Roundup, spoke Thursday, June 9th at the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary’s volunteer meeting. Tanaka spoke about the origins of the Roi Roundup, an “invasive species spearfishing tournament,” and why continued efforts are imperative. The roi roundup started as a fundraising effort and has morphed into a conservation movement. It brings together fishermen, local government and scientists to address the impact of roi on our local marine ecosystem and to address our ailing resources. Roi, or the peacock grouper, is an alien species introduced in the 1950’s to Hawaiian waters. Darrell made reference to research by University of Hawaii researcher Dr. Jan Dierking, which demonstrates that roi consume local reef fish, finding that a single roi can consume approximately 146 reef fish a year. Multiply that by the hundreds of thousands of roi currently in our waters and it may represent a significant threat to our fisheries. In addition, they can potentially outcompete our local fish for the food they would normally eat.

Tanaka made it clear that he was sharing his own opinions in his presentation, and has a degree in marine biology in addition to being a life-long fisherman. Tanaka made quite clear he fishes not for sport, but to put food on the table. He explained that fish is a resource and not a commodity for him. The difference? A commodity is something you can sell or trade. A resource is something that has great value and is kept for yourself or given to someone extremely important to you.

Tanaka spoke from a fisherman’s point of view. He fielded questions from the crowd and encouraged tough questions. It was a raw perspective and as Tanaka said several times he’s not “sugar coating” anything and instead wanted to present the “grim reality.” From “Marine Protected Areas” vs. “Fisheries Management Areas,” monk seals, turtles, local management strategies here on Maui and statewide, recreational fishing licenses and so forth...Tanaka answered all questions that came his way.


Conservation can be a sensitive subject. Pointing fingers gets us nowhere. We all have to work for the good of the reef, Tanaka emphasized. One way to protect our oceans is having the right resource enforcement numbers on hand at all times. 
Program these two numbers in your phone RIGHT NOW: DOCARE & the police non-emergency police line for Maui:
Maui DOCARE office: (808) 873- 3990
Maui Police non-emergency line: (808) 244-6400

Grab the Division of Aquatic Resources’ fishing regulations booklet (available at all DAR offices and online at the DAR website) and learn the rules. Download the “Making a Difference Action Guide”  which provides guidelines on how to respond to various issues including fishing violations, and has a chart listing the DOCARE, DAR & police nonemergency numbers for each island, among many other things.

If you report a suspected illegal fishing method make sure you have all the correct information. Report what exactly someone is doing illegally. Also, get a description of the car make, model, license plate and description of the people.

Darrell encouraged people to attend the upcoming workshop in Lahaina on June 23rd (5:30 -7:30 pm at the Kaunoa West Maui Senior Center) sponsored by DOCARE and Makai Watch partners.

Tanaka and fellow fishermen found a way to utilize their passion and skills to give back to the community. What a great example for us all to do our part no matter how big or small!
 ***

A few references to explore:


Saturday, June 11, 2011

The Future of Honu Management

There is a lot of buzz going around about an upcoming meeting on Oahu, a Fishers Forum on "The Future of Honu Management" which is part of a larger meeting of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council.

Here is the flier and a link to it online:


One can imagine there will be a variety of perspectives surrounding this issue. Here is one, and we'd like to invite others via the comment section.

The following is from the email listserv CTURTLE* by Peter Bennett (author of numerous books and publications on turtles and the website Turtle Trax, www.turtles.org), and is posted here with his permission:
Date: Tue, 07 Jun 2011 14:54:32 -0400
From: Peter Bennett <honu@turtles.org>

I'm copying this to everyone who has written us in the past few days about this issue, or has been copied in correspondence.

Sylvia [WPRFMC] did ask permission to use our images. Under our copyright policy, she didn't have to and we appreciated the courtesy. We reserve the right to disallow usage that we feel is detrimental to the honu, but we don't believe that this qualifies.

I disagree that the poster supports hunting. It does leave no doubt that harvesting will be considered as an option, but that is not support.

There is no question that the recovery of the honu has been a spectacular success. They have become so plentiful that, regardless of the truth, it is easy to see why people conclude that some reefs have reached carrying capacity.

In our area [West Maui] the honu have begun feeding throughout the day. We count fewer honu resting on the reef, and our snorkel/dive surveys have found that the foragers are competing for a diminishing supply of food. It is tempting to reason that this is happening throughout the Islands, thus explaining at least in part the increase of reports of daytime foraging along the shorelines.

Discussion of a harvest is therefore inevitable. Even those opposed to a cull should support a forum such as this one. If there are solid reasons why a hunt should not be approved, then there shouldn't be fear of an open and honest debate. WesPac is providing an opportunity to put forward and explain these reasons. In fact, opponents of hunt should welcome the chance to demonstrate why such a thing is unacceptable.

Our own philosophy on this matter--which sometimes surprises people--is expressed in The Book of Honu (p. 125):

Our affection for the honu means that of course we don't want to see them hunted. If, however, their numbers have recovered to the point where a regulated harvest would not threaten the overall population, then we find it hard to oppose. Our objections would be strictly emotional, not scientific. We'd insist that such a hunt be strictly controlled and that safeguards be put in place to prevent hunting in areas where human contact has acclimated the turtles. If these conditions met, we wouldn't like the idea, but we'd be forced to accept it.

Thanks to all of you who thought our opinion was important enough to bring this to our attention.


Thoughts? Post them in the comments.


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Thursday, June 9, 2011

Kids color herbivores for World Oceans Day!

We were at the Maui Ocean Center yesterday for the World Oceans Day celebration along with many other local NGOs and agencies, and had the coloring pages on hand for the Herbivore Coloring Contest. By a wonderful coincidence our table was situated right in front of the Surgeonfishes exhibit, which gave us the opportunity to show kids the actual fishes they were coloring and teach about them. Kids then posed with their drawings AND the fishes (after getting parental permission of course).



Check out the full album of photos of kids and their artwork!

Thanks to the Maui Ocean Center for hosting the event, and to Monika Mira for putting together the contest in support of the Kahekili Herbivore Fisheries Management Area and the Kaanapali Makai Watch program!

Happy World Oceans Day!

Aloha, friends of Kahekili!

We hope you had a great World Oceans Day! Clinton Edwards (left) and I celebrated with our first dive back on the reef for our summer field season. Enjoying the beauty and diversity of our reef and following around a school of herbivores is a great way to celebrate the oceans, huh? We hope your celebration was just as fun and hope you did some great coloring, too. Clint and I will be working on experiments out on the reef over the next few months, along with Levi Lewis, Jackie Tran, and others. We'll continue our on-going work on herbivores and algae inside KHFMA and look forward to updating you on what experiments are in the water through Maui Ocean Bloggers.

And since celebrating and honoring our oceans doesn't have to be limited to June 8 every year, let's get back in the water!