UPDATE: July 14, 2008

PLEASE TESTIFY IF YOU CAN–– MAUI, JULY 16, WED.

This Wednesday, July 16 at 5 pm, we will convene at the Mayor Hannibal Tavares Community Center in Pukalani for the Maui Governor’s Advisory Committee meeting.

            As guests and Maui reef defenders we will have the opportunity to inform DLNR Director Laura Thielen of Maui’s will, on Maui reef fish for the aquarium trade.

            The extraction has never been regulated and remains unlimited in the number of collectors and the number of fish collected. We now seek a 10-year recovery period with no aquarium collecting (no “ornamental” reef fish sold) from Maui reefs, with another meeting in 2018 to reassess Maui reef health and the will of Maui’s people.

            Below is an attachment with the agenda for this meeting. 

Please NOTE: Director Thielen “will speak on the issues of Aquarium fishing, creating bag limits, establishing Fish Replacement Areas (FRA’s), creating no take herbivore list…”

The “bag limits” recently drafted by Kona DAR and the aquarium trade call for a daily limit of 5 yellow tangs per collector—on yellow tangs over 5 inches--with no limits on the ohua, or juvenile yellow tangs. This false limit is to discourage one group of “fishermen” from catching brood tangs for food, while supporting the aquarium trade in continuing extraction for aquarium hobbyists on the mainland, in Europe and Asia. They can legally take all the juvenile yellow tangs and are trying their best to do so.

Our own Kumu Ed Lindsay advises: “It’s time to stop! Let the ohua come back.”

Hawaii supplies 80% of all aquarium fish for the USA. A juvenile yellow tang retailing at $40-50 on the mainland, leaves $3 in Hawaii, along with empty reefs.

Please tell Director Thielen that neither Kona DAR nor the aquarium trade should make rules for Maui reefs. It’s time for Maui rule on Maui reefs. 

Please remind Director Thielen that Maui is the only island in Hawaii with no gill nets, and that we are now seeing recruitment of yellow tangs. The aquarium trade on Maui grosses about $28,000 per year, but with recovering reef populations, we must have recovery protection in place now. Otherwise, we’re all working hard to make Maui reefs an efficient production machine for the aquarium collectors. NOW IS THE TIME FOR REEF RECOVERY ON MAUI. 

Please remind Director Thielen that a reef system has 2 parts: habitat and fish. We have rules and laws against coral and rock harvesting, but NO RULES on the other half of the system. Nearly all reefs on Maui are dying. 

Last month’s report from Kona DAR concedes failure of the FRA system, in which many reef fish species are gone (“showing a decline of 100%) or vanishing quickly from Puako and Honaunau.

Please support Maui DAR efforts on a no-take herbivore list, including yellow tangs, manini and parrot fish.

Finally, please assure Director Thielen that aquarium collecting is immoral to many people. These fish are not used for food but for short-term decoration—“ornamental.” A key speaker for the industry on the mainland, estimates that 2% survive the 2nd year of captivity—when they could be working for Maui reefs and people for 40 years. 

Please forward this email and recruit your networks. Please sign up on arrival to testify—briefly state your name, place of residence, connection to Maui reefs and support for the 10-year recovery period. Bring the kids and have them speak!

This may be a rare opportunity to show Director Thielen and the Lingle Administration how Maui stands on this troubling issue.

For those who cannot attend, please make your position known at: dlnr@hawaii.gov

UPDATE: July 2008
1) DLNR got its mandate/mission statement in 1956 to manage fisheries for optimal return on commerce, recreation and subsistence.

 2) A reef was then defined as coral habitat, including “live rock,” the porous substrate harvested along with coral to supply the aquarium industry.

 4) After coral & live rock extraction denuded many Hawaii reefs, the State Legislature passed laws prohibiting those practices.

 5) A REEF IS NOW DEFINED as a balanced system, in which the coral/live rock habitat is dependent on the “ornamental” fish living there, and vice versa. Healthy coral reef without fish will soon die from algae suffocation and parasites.

 6) We have no laws or rules on the number of aquarium fish collectors or on the number of fish they collect.

 7) We do have a rigorous defense of the aquarium industry spearheaded in Kona, striving for “the best-managed fishery in the country” (Bill Walsh—Kona DAR).

8) DLNR/DAR cannot act outside its mandate/mission statement. DLNR does, however, resist bag limits on “aquarium” fish extraction. Concurrent Resolution 17 in the Hawaii legislature called for a “limit” on aquarium fishing, though “bag limits” were conspicuously deleted.

9) Maui Tomorrow, the Maui Sierra Club (Hawaii Chapter pending), Greenpeace International & the Maui Governor’s Advisory Council resolve to stop aquarium collecting.  

10) Senate Bill 3225 HD2 passed the Hawaii Senate unanimously in the 2008 legislative session—25-0, to limit the aquarium industry. The bill was squashed in the House by Rep. Ken Ito, Kane’ohe, who blocked the bill from public hearing.

11) How many fisheries are in Hawaii? What is a fishery? When were these fisheries established?

12) Emerging economic and environmental issues are different than they were in 1956. An arbitrary category set up years ago is now hurting the tourism industry—the economic engine that drives Hawaii.

13) 10-12,000  or more “ornamental” reef fish leave Hawaii every day. Many die in transit or soon after. They are not food; they become a short-term decoration—“ornamental.” A yellow tang lives 2-4 years in a well-kept tank; 40-45 years on a reef, working to keep the reef healthy. Hawaii reefs are now in peril, unbalanced between coral habitat and fish. Surgeonfish—yellow tangs are 60% of the aquarium catch—eat algae. Others, like cleaner wrasse, eat parasites.

14) We have laws to keep our coral and live rock in place, but no protection for the other half of the system.

15) Kona DAR is now the most ardent proponent/defender of the aquarium industry, in accordance with DLNR’s mandate and mission statement to enhance fisheries, with no safeguard for the complete reef system.

Kona DAR continues to "manage" Hawaii reefs in the best interests of aquarium extraction. Although within the purview of its mandate/mission statement, as written in 1956, Kona DAR, as led by Bill Walsh, does a great disservice to hundreds of conservationists across Hawaii and the USA who have spent years and money to mitigate aquarium-extraction damage. 

The latest DAR recommendation is to limit the yellow tang catch to 5 fish per day—on fish over 5”—with NO LIMIT on ohua, the juveniles most profitable to the aquarium catchers. These are the fish that leave $3 in Hawaii on their way to a very short life after a $45 retail sale on the mainland—or in Europe or Asia. 

This recommendation resulted from dialogue between Kona DAR (Bill Walsh) and his constituents, the aquarium collectors. The Kona aquarium collectors and Kona DAR are “concerned” that Chinese and Filipino fishermen are catching the large brood tangs to eat, selling them for 50 cents a pound—as if that’s not enough money, or maybe it’s money going to the wrong crowd. Again, we see no protection and NO LIMIT on the small reef fish that once lit up the Gold Coast of Kona—because a select few would rather have the dollars and remain above regulation.

Your Action Requested Now
Please email DLNR Director Laura Thielen dlnr@hawaii.gov. Let her know that neither Bill Walsh nor the aquarium trade can speak for Hawaii reefs. Let her know that Maui, Oahu and Kauai want to be free of aquarium extraction now.

Friday, May 9, 2008 

Public Service Announcements, news coverage and testimony resulted in Hawaii Senate Concurrent resolution SCR17 SD1  urging the Department of Land and Natural Resources to develop and enforce ornamental reef fish collection limits, and establish fish replenishment areas for Maui and Oahu. It’s not enough.

We press forward with the campaign and give media exposure to the dire consequences of unlimited ornamental fish collecting.