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survivorship, because if we release them too small then they get eaten up... a lot of them <br /> don't do as well... so the grow up phase is important, so this station was useful in the past, <br /> that's what we plan on doing. In this...as we engage stakeholders one of the concerns <br /> that came up with stock enhancement was the genetics of the fish we are using, as well <br /> as disease of the fish that we're releasing, so we have worked on the genetic study <br /> partners at Hawaii Pacific University looking at Ama Ama genetics. The findings of that <br /> were that the Ama Ama throughout the State of Hawaii is pretty much one population. <br /> But at the same time if we were to proceed with breeding mullet or paying somebody to <br /> breed mullet for us,the goal would be to source the brood stock from the place you would <br /> release, in this case it would be Wailoa...the mommies and daddies from there basically. <br /> On top of that we have secured Federal earmarked funds... to do Wailoa habitat <br /> restoration and here we are trying to take a two-prong approach, one is we're trying to <br /> put more fish in there, and by the same time we are trying to improve the habitat. So <br /> that habitat improvement consists of removing invasives and the focus is removing <br /> California grass...California grass is problematic to the ecology. Many people believe it <br /> sucks up nutrient silica that is very important for the limu that the mullet like to eat... that <br /> limu that the mullet fisherman use for bait, if you guys are familiar with their style. It's a <br /> diatom that they need silica to grow, and the California grass takes a lot of silica to grow, <br /> so we're thinking that by removing that California grass it will grow more of this limu food <br /> to grow that the mullet like to eat. In addition, it'll create more sun and create more <br /> space for the fish themselves. The California grass is also problematic for our partners <br /> and State Park, because they drift down, partners for DOBOR it goes all the way to the <br /> harbor... it's a big problem this California grass. When it starts coming down the river... a <br /> lot of the DLNR agency mobilize and they try to take care of it before it gets out into the <br /> bay... So, there are many problems with California grass. So, when we remove California <br /> grass. We hope to plant native species such as Akahakai, Aiai and Hala. Those are plants <br /> that provide good habitat forthe mullet, especiallythose plants Aiai in particular is a plant <br /> that has been documented in photos from that place. So, we are trying to kind of restore <br /> it back to what it was...What we think what it was... Yeah, in addition to that restoration <br /> we hope to...we going try to asses and figure out if it is appropriate cultural styles of <br /> improving habitat like umu (?) or putting out stacks of rocks to create habitat for other <br /> species potential for the Aholehole construction. There are some of them down by <br /> Richardson in that little pond... there's some umu? in it, it's interesting, we'd like to <br /> explore that... by the people down there, if they could help us out... So, that's like habitat <br /> restoration... stock enhancement. The next thing I would like to touch on is stakeholder <br /> engagement and we've been trying to up our game. Stake holders for the past couple of <br /> years, a year and a half about we started this fish working group which Bob is on and <br /> among other fisherman we meet monthly to discuss fish issues and fish concerns... I <br /> 24 <br />