2014-10-27 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes

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Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes —October 27, 2014 situation. So I'm not naming the colonel at all, I'm happy that he's willing to work with us and we will work... Chair Lodge: On that— he indicated today that they are going to establish a game management plan and process up at PTA. You know we seem to see if they do it, you know, they're having a guy they're coming on... T. Sylvester: Did they give you a time frame for that because as Willie-Joe says in 2 years they're gone and then is this something that's gonna be picked up cause I've heard this for 10 years now at PTA. Chair Lodge: Well, you know, Tony I can't... Their new guy is gonna start January, he said this biologist is going to be here. D. Yoshina: And just for clarification purposes — my understanding is that they— this eradication started with the 2010 biological opinion from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that said that they would clear Pohakuloa of all ungulates. And so, you know, I'm not an apologist for the colonel but seems like he inherited this so, you know, I guess I'm just asking that we try and be fair about all this. If in 2010 the commander at that time received the notice and then between 2010 and 2014 they tried —they were working towards the so called solution, we gotta remember all those things as we go forward. Chair Lodge: Yeah, the only thing I have to say, if we can I'd like to give the floor to Lisa from here. What troubles me about that 2010 decision is why they didn't do it in 2010 instead of waiting till its 1,200 animals...That's... T. Sylvester: Well that's what I'm saying. Why was it even closed to hunting then for four years if there was an active management plan to keep the numbers down or eventually thin `em out to zero — fine — but why let the numbers build up like that. And then say 300 animals and shoot 1,200. 1 have a hard time living with that because if I told you I'm gonna buy a cow from you and I take ten — I mean — that's — they're putting the commander in a spot. They do aerial surveys — I have a person that told us exactly the amount of ungulates in PTA. Exactly, they flew over and counted almost every animal in there and it was 1,600 animals. And now I hear they shot 1,274. So this is accurate counts from the people that are actually doing the count and the shoots at the time — so — if I'm a little upset about it—that's the reason why. The commander was led to believe there was only 300 animals and they're lying to the commander and this is our Fish and Wildlife or the biological Peter Pushat [?] or whatever his name is in there — is telling the —feeding the commander— I think there's something definitely broken in the system that have to be doing that. Just tell the truth and do what you gotta do. 24