Hawaii Official Seeks Disclosure of Marine Permits

Hawaii Official Seeks Disclosure of Marine Permits

   
April 2007 - The head of the State 
of Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, DLNR, has 
proposed a 45 day public review process for all permits to 
conduct activities in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine 
National Monument. 
Chair of the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources 
Peter Young 
In a letter to the state's Office of Information Practices, 
DLNR Chair Peter Young has requested assistance to help him 
assure "the greatest possible transparency and openness in the 
issuance of permits" for activities in monument waters. 
Environmental groups as well as some fishing and Native 
Hawaiian groups are delighted with the move that they say is 
an attempt to bring an irregular permitting process shrouded 
in secrecy into the light of public scrutiny. 
"This is wonderful news!" said Dr. Stephanie Fried, a senior 
scientist with Environmental Defense who is based
 in Honolulu. 
"The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands permitting process has been 
shrouded in secrecy and backroom deals between federal 
authorities for decades. Until Peter Young took charge, there 
was a total absence of sunshine or public input on these 
permits." 
"We warmly welcome Chairman Young's efforts to lift the veil 
of secrecy from the DLNR," said hula teacher Vicky Holt 
Takamine, of the 'Ilio'ulaokalani Coalition, a native Hawaiian 
organization. 
"Our cultural resources must be protected and openness and 
transparency are at the core of these efforts," Takamine said. 
"It is of the utmost importance that decision-making about 
activities there is transparent, with full opportunity for 
communities to comment." 
Reef fish in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands 
Since it was proclaimed by President George W. Bush in June 
2006, the new monument has been cooperatively managed by three 
co-trustees - the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration, the Department of the Interior's 
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the State of Hawaii. The 
DLNR is the state's lead management agency for the monument. 
Permits are required for research, education, conservation and 
management, native Hawaiian practices and non-extractive 
special ocean uses. The commercial and recreational harvest of 
precious coral, crustaceans and coral reef species is 
prohibited in monument waters and commercial fishing will be 
phased out over a five-year period from last June. Oil, gas 
and mineral exploration and extraction are not allowed. 
In 2005, Young environment newsured that language requiring public input 
was part of the rules governing the state's Northwestern 
Hawaiian Islands refuge. The refuge covers state waters three 
miles out from the shores of the 10 islands and atolls in the 
1,400 mile long island chain. 
The monument covers the nearly 140,000 square miles of federal 
waters, the Hawaiian Island Reservation established by 
President Theodore Roosevelt in 1909, the Hawaiian Islands 
National Wildlife Refuge, and the Midway Atoll National 
Wildlife Refuge. 
The two federal co-trustee agencies have never provided an 
opportunity for public input on Northwestern Hawaiian Islands 
permits. 
Marti Townsend of KAHEA-the Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance 
said, "We greatly appreciate Peter Young's commitment to 
release the maximum amount of material possible to the public, 
including so-called 'pre-decisional' documents and full 
comments of state permit reviewers. It is only with the 
release of this material that public scrutiny will be able to 
help DLNR enforce the 'do no harm' standard now required by 
state law." 
In a background document provided to environment news, environmental groups 
say they are concerned that permits were issued in what they 
call "a piecemeal manner" throughout 2006 for 340 people for 
380 activities in the monument. 
Only one permit was made public during the 2006 season, the 
groups complain. Staff at the DLNR's Division of Aquatic 
Resources "refused to release the other 24 permits until a 
complaint was filed with the Office of Information Practices."
 Researchers aboard the NOAA research vessel Hi'ialakai allowed 
a wet lab aboard to become a "bacterial cesspool" according to 
a report by a NOAA scientist obtained by environment news and circulated to 
the Board of Land and Natural Resources, a state agency. 
The NOAA research vessel Hi'ialakai heads out of Honolulu for 
the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument.
 The groups object that there has been "no real-time or 
post-season assessment of impacts" of permittees or of 
cumulative impacts of combined activities over the 2006 season 
reported to state or federal authorities. 
In addition, they say there is a "significant increase" in the 
number of permit applications to 36 for 2007. 
"In my lifetime I have witnessed severe declines in fish 
populations and the health of coral reefs, and decades of 
ineffective attempts by the DLNR to enact and enforce the 
necessary laws, regulations needed to protect and restore our 
marine environment," said Dave Raney, a Sierra Club volunteer.
 "Under Peter Young's leadership, however, the DLNR has at last 
begun to tackle long-standing, and contentious issues. He has 
shown vision, courage and personal convictions in the face of 
strong, misguided, and intimidating opposition," said Raney. 
But not everyone is a fan of Young's attempt to enable a 
public review process. Young is up for a re-confirmation 
hearing on April 11 before the state Senate Committee on 
Water, Land, Agriculture and Hawaiian Affairs, and a petition 
is being circulated asking that his confirmation be denied. 
The petition, which has attracted some 7,000 signatures, will 
be submitted to the committee, and signatories are being asked 
to testify against Young at the hearing. Some of those who 
signed the petition are fishermen who object to the no 
commercial fishing policy in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands 
Marine National Monument. 
Kitty Simons, head of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery 
Management Council, a federal advisory body, says she supports 
a protected area in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, but 
does not believe that commercial fishing should be excluded. 
Young's supporters will also be out in force at the 
re-confirmation hearing. 
A poll conducted by the Ocean Conservancy published July 18, 
2006, found that 70 percent of the 2,014 people polled said 
they supported the establishment of a monument which is closed 
to commercial fishing. Only six percent were opposed. 
The no-fishing rules were established after over 30 federal 
and state hearings and more than 100 public meetings that 
produced some 114,000 written pieces of testimony in support 
of the strongest possible protections for the Northwestern 
Hawaiian Islands. 

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