2018-09-24 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes

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Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – September 24, 2018 SB: I don’t know if we have an answer for that one. Yeah, I don’t know if one is a higher of level of transport than the other I don’t – if there is an answer, I’m not sure of it. TL: How in your own – and I’m not trying to have you pin anything down but you know there’s twelve miles between Laupahoehoe and Kalopa, for example – how would that happen in your mind? SB: One line of thought is that it was a significant Kona storm that brought wind out of the south. You know, the bigger question is, you know, we have that outbreak in North Kohala and that’s forty miles from the nearest known source of Luku Ohia either in Holualoa or at Waipunalei. We do know that six – well, the area in North Kohala was flown in April of 2017 and no sign of it whatsoever, and then it was flown on the first of September in 2017 and that was when we first detected it there. TL: Oh... SB: Looking back at the weather patterns back several months in late January of 2017 there was a three days of very significant Kona winds blowing on the Kona side of the Island bringing right up the coast – so is that potentially how it got there, I mean, in North Kohala you have significant wind events everyday – but that’s typically trade winds blowing in the other direction so there’s – and I keep talking about the different research that’s going on – one of the things that’s happening is, plant pathologists who have access to genetics labs are looking at samples of both Huli Ohia and Luku Ohia from different populations and they can identify genetic variations even within the species so that might help us understand the patterns of movement if what’s in North Kohala is the same as the stuff in Kona, then we have some indication that perhaps that’s where it came from – but it’s hard to know. How did it move forty miles all at once? And Maui is another 40 miles so that’s a big concern for us. TL: So you can actually measure a – like through DNA or I don’t know if it’s DNA but the genetics of one plant to another? SB: One wood sample to another, yeah, and the DNA of the fungus, yes. Search me how – but smarter people than us guys can figure that out. TL: Interesting... Yeah, Nani was telling me about her flight – she was distressed by what she saw. SB: And, yes, I’m sorry – I don’t mean to interrupt – but I’ll add to that and say the flying that we do we see vast areas where we see no sign of it whatsoever and that’s heartening. We do see that and, so, what we need to try to do 19