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Dr. Gina McGuire <br />PO Box 247 <br />Mountain View HI 96771 <br />(808-896-6253) <br />gina.mcguire@dri.edu <br />Aloha nui, <br />I would like to provide testimony in regard to the proposed Special Management Area permit <br />(PL-SMA-2024-000063) for development of the Kaimu Cove LLC 5-lot subdivision. <br />I am providing expertise in my capacity as specialist in the intersections of coastal and <br />community health in H(focus of my PhD <br />specifically) from both ecological and cultural lens. I provide this expertise as an individual, un- <br />connected to an organization. I have worked as an ethnographer and GIS analyst for cultural <br />assessments and as a research ecologist here in for the last five years and am a lifelong <br />resident of Puna, . This proposal is not in alignment with several county and state <br />policies and is not in the best interest of community and ecological heatlh. <br /> <br />Proximity to Critical Coastal Nursery <br />Over the last four years my research team has conducted limu and marine invertebrate surveys <br />below). This site is documented within ancestral knowledge and our collected oral histories as a <br />critical site for cultural practices and lifeways as well as a biodiversity hotspot for many marine <br />organisms cherished by the Kalapana communities. I cannot understate the importance of this <br />site: as the only low-lying coastal access point for both the Hawaiian communities of Kalapana <br />(Kaim unique geologic features. This <br />tidepool system is unique in that it currently only has native limu (seaweed) species documented <br />(current documented number is 44 known native species) including several extremely rare <br />endemic limu species (ex. Boodleopsis hawaiiensis). It is a nursery location for many native fish, <br />both ecologically and culturally valued including moi (Polydactylus sexfilis) and <br />(Kuhlia spp.). <br /> <br />development-based contaminants. This refugia of native species is currently protected from <br />wastewater and storm water runoff effects that come from development due to the un-developed <br />areas that currently buffer it. This proposed development would significantly increase the <br />stressors to this system in the forms of runoff (unavoidable when impervious surfaces are <br />created) and wastewater inputs from five single family homes are added (more detailed below). <br /> <br />