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A FISH STORY:  COMMUNITY MAY CONTROL SHORE RESOURCES

By BOBBY COMMAND  of   West Hawaii Today

Kona is on the brink of becoming the first community in a state surrounded by the sea to gain local control of its offshore resources.

The West Hawaii Regional Fishery Management Area, the result of nearly a quarter century of alternating conflict and dialogue between ocean users, will be discussed at 6:40 p.m. Wednesday at Kealakahe High School cafeteria.

Act 306 of the 1998 Legislature establishes the regional fishery management area from the northern tip of the Big Island, down the west side to South Point in Ka'u.'ne act, written by ocean advocate and former Big Island state Rep. David Tarnas, requires the state Department of Land and Natural Resources to:

- Designate a minimum of 30 percent of the coast as replenishment areas where tropical fish collecting is prohibited (See the right Establish a day-use mooring buoy system along the coast and designate high use areas where no anchoring will be allowed;

- Establish portions of the fish replenishment areas as reserves where no fishing will be allowed; and Designate areas where gill nets as set nets will be prohibited. The law and its rules are to be reviewed every Five years.  A management council made up of various stockholders was established  by the DLNR to come up with specific recommendations for the management plan.

The council recently put the finishing touches on the nine fish replenishment areas, places that extend from shore to 100 fathoms and where collection of fish for aquarium purposes is prohibited.  Those nine areas will be revealed at Wednesday's meeting. The first of its kind council, led by Bill Walsh, appointed by the Division of Aquatic Resources (DAR) as West Hawaii's marine biologist, was assembled with the idea of getting as many stockholders to share their expertise in formulating a comprehensive management plan for the Kona Coast.

Walsh said two important aspects of the act are its establishment of the entire West Hawaii coast as a fishery management area and its community-based control in the council.  Ma management area designation takes care of a major step when the community desires controls on resources.  Typically, a management area would first have to be created by the Legislature, and that would be followed by a phase called rule making which sets down specific guidelines.

But the management area designation eliminates the whole first part of the process.  "'This is a short-cut to management activities, "Walsh said. As important, Walsh said, is that the community now is driving the management...People can identify a problem, bring it to the council and then propose things to the DAR," he said.  "They're on the water, so they should know what is needed."

Rick Gaffney, a long-time ocean advocate and a member of the council, said it's essential for the community to have a substantial role in the manag ement of its offshore resources.  The beauty of the council is that it's the eyes and ears of the community," Gaffney said.  "it can act a lot quicker than a bureaucracy locked up in an air-conditioned building in Honolulu.  Admittedly, collectors have stayed clear of the process - some say they're outnumbered so die deck is stacked against them.  But others contend collectors are over represented on the council (four out of 20) because there are fewer than 50 collectors while the council represents thousands of users.

Gaffney said the collectors, as well as anyone else who can represent a group of users, should participate to protect their rights.  But he adds the goal is not to cut off rights, but to manage resources so they may be available for all. Gaffney and Walsh also stressed the management area is not being created out of some knee-jerk reaction to a perceived problem, but was crafted carefully after a quarter century of often-heatcd debate.

Gaffney says Kona dinner cruise operator Capt.  Beans asked him in the mid 1970s to pursue the formation of a marine life conservation district at the Old Kona Airport in response to a growing concern about abuses by collectors.  Walsh said the issue flared up every 10 years or so when concerns were raised about the clash between dive boat operators and collectors.  The current management plan, he said, represents the most recent grassroots effort by the community.

"People would gather, but nothing would change," Walsh said.  "So it forced the community to figure it out for themselves when they didn't get an institutional solution.  "Gaffney has participated nearly every step of the way including the precursor to Act 306, the West Hawaii Reef Fish Working Group, and adds he does not believe work prior to the enactment of Act 306 was in vain.

"This was a long, arduous process," Gaffney said.  "I disagree that nothing came out of the working group; it, along with everything else before, set up a base for Act 306 to be successful. "Gaffney also said Act 306 represents a continued moderate approach to an issue that was fast becoming contentious, especially when the Lost Fish Coalition began lobbying for a total collecting ban.

"We knew we were never going to get a total ban, and it wasn't justified anyway," Gaffney said.  "Reef fish collecting is commercial fishing, and like any other commercial fishing, there's room for it, if it's properly managed."

Added to the existing marine life conservation districts and fisheries management areas along the coast, about 50 miles of coastline will be placed off limits to aquarium fish collectors. 'The ban would extend to a depth of 600 feet.

According to the bill, the primary purposes of the replenishment areas are to manage fishery activity to assure sustainability, enhance near shore resources and minimize conflicts in the coastal areas.

Proposed for protection arc:- North Kohala Fisheries  Management Area, from Malae Point to the North Koliala-South Kobala District line, a distance of about d= miles;- Puako-Anachoomalu FMA, from the southern end of Puako Bay and Puako Reef FMA to the southern side of Anaehoomalu Bay, about five miles;   Kaupulehu FMA, from the northern boundary of Kaupulehu ahupuaa to die southern end of Kukio Bay, about rive miles; - Kaloko-Honokoliau FMA, from Wawahiwaa Point to the southern boundary of the national park, about two miles; . Kailua-Keauhou FMA, from the southern boundary of Kailua Bay to the northern boundary of the Keauhou FMA, about five miles; - Red Hill FMA, from Nunue Point to Keawekaheka Point, about 2.5 miles; - Napoopoo-Honaunau FMA, from the southern boundary of Kealakekua Bay marine life conservation district, or Manini Point, to the southern boundary of Puuhonua 0 Honaunau, or Kihie, about five miles; o Hookena FMA, from Loa Point in the north to Kauloa Point in the south, about six miles; and - Miloli'i FMA, from Makahiki Point to Kakio Point, a distance of about five miles.

IN DEFENSE OF A PRIORITY, AND SEEKING RECOGNITION

By JODY BRIGHT    President     Hawaii Conservation Assn.

In regard to your May 6, editorial piece "A question of public ' priorities," I would like to offer the following for your consideration. In order to get the West Hawaii , , " -Regional Fishery Management Area and corresponding council system pushed through the legislative process, out of the state regulated West Hawaii Reef Fish Working Group, into the Department of Land and Natural Resources, past Division of Aquatic Resources, back to the Board of Land and Natural Resources and out to public hearing - the supporters of the initiative had compete with the supporters of the various issues that you outline - the public school systems' abysmal performance, the size of state government vs.; available funds and lack of efficiency or adequacy of corresponding services vices, very entrenched politicians, funding concerns for' ' social services such as mental health, poverty food stamps, teen pregnancy !. and child abuse - on and on.

We had to compete against these issues for attention every single day of the legislative session, and against incredible odds, we succeeded in getting attention focused on our "chosen" issue.  The editors- of West Hawaii Today should try flying back and forth to Honolulu, sometimes three times a week, during the legislative session to attend hearings in various committees and see just exactly how much respect a "fish issue" receives by the vast majority of our elected officials.  Zilch .

It was a big surprise to find out that most legislators only know fish as something that is either fresh or frozen at the local grocery store.  "Do . we . really have a problem with our fish?" we heard.  "But they are only fish," we were told.  "We have so much problems with our schools like our teen pregnancy rate.

Why wouldn't you use the success of small groups of citizenry who were able to achieve results as examples for the groups who are continually getting bogged down by the excuses and excuses of the system, use the success as examples for reason to stay in the game, go the distance, never say die?  'Why wouldn't you use the achievements of the underdog to reinforce the efforts of those still in battle? @' The truth of the matter is that the Department of Land and Natural Resources did not want to act on the recommendations of the majority of members in the Reef Fish working Group, for a number of 'Vorki our poverty  and our r poor roads; the reason unions won't let us downsize the state pay, roll, in fact we have to come up with a pay raise.  How do you expect I us to rind money for fish with so many real problems?"

Entrenched politicians?  Yes, we found some.  But we also found a few that were willing to stand, up @; for our issue.  David Tarnas, Paul Warren and Malama Solomon all played politics with each other and their constituents to get something'. done for us.; Still, the majority of -from members of the House come at  Oahu. Every committee t  reef fish legislation passed through had Big Island representatives in minority.  These guys had to face the I same problem of justifying a fish bill.

The facts are that some very committed people refused to let the myriad of excuses thrown at them over a number of years allow the I excusers to cover up our issue and bog it down with all of the other traditional" ways.  I would like to kindly suggest that your editorial, in an effort to deflect criticism and project it back upon those I see from whom it came well and truly missed the boat.

-In your position of reporter of truth and educator of the public, it appears that you missed a golden opportunity to showcase how the little people of your. community can go -up against entre nched i politicians, Shortage of state funds,competition for funding - by very needy social services such as education' mental illness, teen pregnancy, welfare etc. etc. - and, achieve success by playing within the system as it was designed and intended to function.

Frustrated, many of the members of the working group demanded, and received an audience with the chairman . where we received even more bureaucratic double speak and open- ended promises as resolution to our issue.  Further, the notion of Aquatic Resources fed our issue as to its own political attempts to pry rule making authority out of the bands of the Legislature and into the hands of its staff.  When we attended and participated in cornmittee hearings, the majority of the committee members were from other islands, and saw our requests as being too expensive and/or unnecessary a use of limited funds' So all of the issues that you point out to be needy of the public's attention are getting plenty of attention, in fact most of the attention.  How, then did a handful of concerned citizens support become a mass of concerned citizens.

Well, how that happened would have made a good series of news stories.  And the other groups struggling in an uphill battle against a bloated government could have learned from it.  But it is old news now.

Oh, but there is one consideration that you might want to mull over a little bit, just for future reference.  The Lost Fish Coalition the Hawaii Conservation Association spent thousands and thousands of dollars advertising the issue in your paper over the course of the past couple of years.  If the citizenry is left with no option for ?eating the press needed to bring issues to public focus other than buying advertising space, then a good place to look for new items might be within the pages of your own newspaper. "do nothing' legislation - so that support an initiative in a manner money could be spent in all of the effective enough to pass legislation.