Recently Imperiled, A Slice of Paradise Is Saved

Coalition helps win unprecedented marine refuge in Hawaiian state waters

Posted: 07-Oct-2005; Updated: 26-Jul-2007

The world’s 1,300 remaining Hawaiian monk seals now have a better chance at survival. The new reserve will preserve lobsters, their key food source. PHOTO: Minden Pictures.

Northwest of the Hawaiian island of Kaua`i, we’ve just won a fierce tug-of-war over an isolated and biologically rich archipelago. At 84 million acres, stretching across 1,200 miles, the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve is America’s largest marine protected area: habitat for millions of seabirds and endangered species, centrally important to Native Hawaiian cultural identity.

But there remained a crucial missing piece. The shallow state-governed waters rimming the many islands within the reserve had never been protected, though they shelter most of the ancient corals and the richest biodiversity in the archipelago. The latest struggle was over that fragile ecosystem.

On one side stood the Western Pacific Regional Fishing Management Council (Wespac), sixteen people who oversee federal fishing policies in the region. Among its members are large-scale fishermen, including at least one who has been convicted of illegal fishing in the very waters he is dutybound to protect. On the other side was the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands hui (or network) of local fishers, Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners, divers, scientists, the `Ïlio`ulaokalani Coalition; Kahea: The Hawaiian Environmental Alliance and Environmental Defense.

Our staff provided research on the environmental and economic benefits of protecting near-shore ecosystems, and gave local organizations grants and access to our Action Network; that support gave people “an opportunity to be well-informed in their public comments,” said Cha Smith, Kahea’s executive director.

We accompanied Native Hawaiians to Washington, where “our connections to the White House and Hill became their connections,” says our scientist Dr. Stephanie Fried. Over five years, the hui brought citizens to more than 30 hearings, submitted 100,000 messages by letter, email and fax, and testified to state and federal officials. “This is what democracy looks like,” says Fried.

The battle was urgent. Until a 1999 lawsuit by Earthjustice, a handful of vessels, allied with Wespac, had been decimating the shallow-water lobsters — at times catching 500% of the limit. The destruction of that food supply jeopardized the world’s last Hawaiian monk seals, now numbering just 1,300. Though we persuaded the Clinton White House to issue an executive order permanently closing the lobster fishery in federal waters, Wespac was pressing the state to restart lobster and bottomfish fishing in its waters.

Instead, moved by what Smith calls “our chorus of unified voices,” the state banned fishing in all its waters within the reserve: 1,000 square miles. It also requires anyone seeking a permit for activities there to prove they will do no harm. The plan now awaits Gov. Lingle’s signature.

We’re also working to extend those stringent protections: Within days of our state victory, Rep. Case (D-HI) introduced a bill to expand the state bans and do-no-harm provisions into federal waters. That legislation is vital, as some Federal officials are now trying to weaken federal protections, reopen permanently closed areas and increase commercial fishing.

Environmental Defense and its partners urge national policymakers to follow Hawaii’s lead. As Peter Young, chairman of the state’s Department of Land and Natural Resources, said: “We heard loud and clear from the public that the Northwest Hawaiian Islands are a special place worthy of the highest levels of protection.”

From the July-August 2005 Solutions [PDF] newsletter. Read more newsletters.