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th <br />IWASHITA: Anchialine ponds. I’m asking if you can clarify what – so that a 6 grader <br />can understand what these -. <br />WALSH: What page are we looking at? <br />IWASHITA: The last sentence of the executive summary says, “Without development <br />of an anchialine protection management program, anchialine ponds will most likely disappear.” <br />Now when scientists say, I heard in the global warming study thing, one scientist was quoted to <br />say, well, when it’s “most likely”, that means more than 90 percent. I don’t know if you agree <br />with that, but that’s what’s sticking in my mind, “Most likely disappear within the next two <br />decades” – I mean, the hole in the ground is still going to be there; the water is still going to be <br />there – what does it mean it’s going to disappear? Or what do you think it means? <br />WALSH: There is a distinctive community – a biological community – that is <br />associated with those ponds. What sort of makes them unique is that there is fresh water that <br />comes into them, but they are also connected tidally, so it’s this kind of balance between the <br />ocean tidal effects and fresh water. So it’s not just a fresh water pond, and it’s not just a tide <br />pool. It’s this very different thing, and that’s why it has its own name: Anchialine. It’s a balance <br />and the salinity changes depending on the tide.And the community that develops in there – <br />there are some very distinct animals. One actually is being considered for a threatened or <br />endangered status is s small shrimp. There are very culturally important shrimp – Opaeula – <br />little red shrimp that was used for palu, for fishing, also, you know, for pupu kind of thing. <br />They’re only found in those anchialine ponds. And there are some algal species and such, so it <br />has a community that’s very distinctive. So when they say “they’ll disappear”, they are not <br />meaning that the ponds are going to dry up or just not be there, they mean that the definition of <br />an anchialine pond and the community, it won’t be that way any more. It’ll be overgrown by <br />algae that wouldn’t normally proliferate, because now the nutrient concentrations are higher, you <br />know, people introduce Guppies or something that changes it – . <br />IWASHITA: Carp? <br />WALSH: Carp, well, Carp is not going be happy but – you know, it just totally alters <br />what that pond community was like. And that’s what they meant by “disappear”. <br />IWASHITA: And the other thing is I don’t have any kind of picture about how – like in <br />the case of the 300 percent increase in the nitrogen in this one pond – how are they going to fix <br />it? <br />WALSH: Well, you know, essentially what they are indicating is that there are three <br />sources for the enrichment. They are saying they’re irrigation or urea-base fertilizer or waste <br />water. So that may not be the definitive answer; they are just sort of -, that was a suggestion. <br />But that would be the first course of action saying, well, okay, can we identify where this <br />nitrogen is coming from. If it is runoff from golf courses, well, okay, maybe better management <br />practices have to be instituted – rather than a silver standard, it has to be a gold standard. We are <br />kind of learning this as we go here. You institute a certain set of requirements and practices, and <br />if you see things are getting worse, well, then maybe you have to say let’s investigate whether <br />the practice is suitable or is of sufficient quality. So at this point, this is just kind of flagging that <br />there is a change that is occurring, that the monitoring is only adequate in one section, and <br />EXHIBIT C <br />14 <br /> <br />