MPA's in Hawaii

[mems]

Aloha, the other night I went to a town hall type meeting on proposed no fish areas here in hawaii. The legislature wants to enact marine protection areas or mpa's here to help propogate more fish. I listened to the presentation then listened to the locals get pretty upset over the plan. They don't trust the DLNR, it seems hunting has been banned on Mauna Kea and an area was closed to bottomfishing off-shore. Promises were broken and public trust has been lost. I told the group that they should consider slot limits on targeted species, and that would help to develop a brood stock for that species. I told them that preserves are void of fisherman, and that right now we are we only ones enforcing their regulations. The northwest hawaiian islands are an example of this. I would like to see the fishing here improved and protected, but I think this can be done with better practices, not a ban on fishing. We will seee what happens. Mems.

[Darian]

Hi Don,.... Interesting that Hawaiian waters experience the same problems we have here. I guess it stands to reason that all of the commercial and conventional fisherman have had quite an impact over there.....

I agree with your position on complete fishing bans. It seems to me that without addressing environmental/habitat concerns, anything beyond that is temporary in nature and will eventually fail (maybe over the long haul....). I doubt whether an outright ban would be politically feasible here..... MPA's have been established but there're still enough places left to fish that we (non-commercial fisherman) have not been impacted, yet..... That being said, the commercial fisherman and some guides have been impacted by the closures and rising gas prices. It's gettin' tough to make a decent living for them.

Over the last 40 years, commercial fisherman have been squeezed and restructured out of business all along the west coast of the US.... While the guys that're left are more efficient, they're being squeezed, now..... I consider myself an environmentalist but I feel for the economic/legal/bad public relations hits these guys have taken over the years.

[mems]

Yeah Darian I agree, we all want more fish and we want to protect the environment while still having the opportunity to make a living. The commercial guys can't cut their own throats, they need to protect their fisheries or they will be out of business. I just don't think MPA's are the way to go. Education is the key, and programs that do work, slot limits should be introduced. What really needs to happen is and improvement and protection of habitat and that takes real commitment from all parties invloved. What is amamzing is how resilient nature is, but it takes time, and humans can help manage their resources better. We should learn form the hawaiian practices. They practiced the kapu system to protect their resources, but kapu didn't mean forever. The resources were protected for human consumption and survival. That would be a good lesson for our DLNR to learn.