GMAC 5.21.24 Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

RN: That’s right. PD: OK? We’re all pali over there too. But our pali and the fresh water is all come from underneath. I was there when they came with the first turtle study in the 80’s, ah, we protested the whole idea about Hawaiians not having the right to eat turtle. Ah, we lost, was at the state capitol in ’80-’82. Trying to stop that we had a right to eat. So, we lost that right and now right, living in Punaluu all my life and fishing there – the turtles unbalanced – the whole papa – there’s no more limu already cause the turtle ate it all. And if you went from I’d say Puna all the way through Volcano but all the way around to Kona – there’s no running rivers. So, the freshwater underneath - the cool temperature - cause it’s not open to the surface created this ecosystem of different limus… RN: Sure… PD: But all red limu is all related to each other. All the green is all related even though they look at different shapes – but they all come from one limu. So, the variety of fish and the fish you know all eat certain things on the reef – that’s their purpose – to keep the balance of the seaweed and some eat the coral. But that’s their function. So, when I watch the unbalance of lolo fish as diving all my life – see schools of fish disappear – cause no more kaukau. So, the turtle ate all the limu and they still doing it till today. So, we lost all of that – now right around the left side where we went to Hualalai to protest the fact that you cannot fish for 3 miles of in front of that hotel. Ah, ah, Five Seasons or Four Seasons up there. You cannot fish in front of the hotel – a mile and a half to the left – a mile and a half to the right – stop fishing because there’s no fish. Well, the resorts drilled a hundred wells mauka and all the fresh water being taken out for condos and golf courses – no more fresh water reaching the papa – so there’s no fish – but we fishermen got blamed… RN: That’s right. PD: …. for killing all the fish in front of that hotel. Not the fact that no more fresh water seeping out, you know, so, we always getting the flack – the fishermen – about how western man uses our shoreline and what they use it for – recreation – and not for our subsistence. OK? And so, the lucky part about your aumakua is there’s no beach where you going get one hotel. It’s gonna be where we live – where there’s gonna be hotels because we get the beach. But we suffered from the whole idea about no subsistence. Then we forced to go buy fish in the store and we can do subsistence. So there’s an unbalance, you know, and I don’t know if this Commission can make comments about why don’t you do study of how the population of turtles is eating all the seaweed – the limu – especially in places where there’s no rivers and the turtles that we used to catch – when I grew up – and ate them – we used to catch ‘em on the cliffs with the hook because they’ll come off the side of the cliff and bite the limu and go back down with the waves. But at the beach, itself, because they know we eat ‘em – they were smart enough to keep that distance away, see, so everything was balanced. But the unbalance of saying that one species is more protected than the other on an Island, you know, that’s not balanced. So, I don’t know what the comments from this Commission would be but it should be DLNR doing a study about the over impact of unbalancing the system by allowing the turtles to eat everything. I think the cowboys went through that with the sheep and the cattle… 28