HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0862.062 2008-2010 Murashige, Laura
From: Jim Elder [elderaway @gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, July 18, 2010 5:47 AM
To: counciltestimony @co.hawaii.hi.us
Subject: trop diving
To whom it may concern,
I am writing on behalf of the resolution to ban trop diving once again. These same
people were able to have 35% of the coastline closed in 2000 and now they want it all!
Why? Why are we always being singled out? there are plenty of fish on the outer reefs that
I dive on! I will take anyone out there and show them! If we are going to close diving for
aquarium fish then why not just close off the whole ocean around Hawaii and leave ALL the
fish alone. I am sure this would cause a near riot!
I find that the people making the biggest hoo has about all of this don't even dive! they
are just going along with what they erroneously heard from another person who has never
even been out there and checked out what they are talking about. I have a family to
support and have been at this for 20 years. some years there are less fish than others.
the whole breeding process is cyclic. it is the normal way for the ocean to do this. this
past year was superb! many juvenile yellow tangs were in abundance. there is no shortage
of fish; whoever came up with that is way off base. Actually, they are lying to put it
bluntly.
for years I have pushed for just 4 things. 1. Limit the no. of divers. why are we still
handing out permits? what happened to the 2005 cutoff period? Lets bring that to a vote
and get rid of all these new guys. there only needs to be about 20 divers. 2. Put a limit
on the weekly catch.personally, 5 -600 is plenty for yellow tangs. the fewer available, the
higher the price! its very simple. 3.close down the summer months when they are breeding
and the females are full of eggs! Why take them or chase them around from may- august?
Simply close off the season with all months without the letter R in them. fisheries do
this all over the world! 4. No more boats with 200' of net and 4 divers! there is no
skill in that! I dive alone! these guys show up in Kohala with the boat full of divers and
think they are skilled because they rape the reef all day doing 5 tanks. They take 1000
yellows a day; everyday. They run huge nets and just clean out the whole area. this is
just wrong! and if there are some fish that seem to be getting scarce, then by all means
put a ban on them!
there is no good reason to put a lot of people out of work during these rough times.
there are a lot of jobs associated with the industry; not just the divers. if you start
looking into it, you will find quite a few spinoff jobs that keep the whole tropical fish
industry moving.
Responsible stewardship of the ocean is all that is needed. do those 4 things I mentioned
and this trade can roll on indefintely. We cannot be overrun by hysterical and often bored
people with no backup of facts. facts don't lie. There are still plenty of fish!!
thank you, James Elder 91 Puako Bch. Rd. Kamuela 96743 443 -7801 882 -7654
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