HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0099.003 2014-2016Communication 99 Opposed
David Dart
COUNTY CLERK
COUNTY OF HAWAII
RECEIVED/
Time /• 50Af By
Date 12 /7/ /S
What we have heard is called advocacy science. This is bought science, the same tactic the
tobacco and oil industry use to promote their point of view. They misdirect by using outdated
studies and studies done in other parts of the world and use a lot of estimates and guesses.
The statement "2/3rds of Hawaii's reef are dominated by algae" need to be examined for what
it really means. It's not some major disease about to kill all life, in fact it supports life. 50% of
the algae is turf algae growing not on the coral but other open spaces like a bare rock. Turf
algae is one of the favorite foods of yellow tang and kole. Our beautiful reefs in West Hawaii
are essentially free of the bad algae that has hurt other islands.
I see Puako/Pauoa the herbivores are down 90%, coral cover down 35%, algae cover up 38%
in Puako and up a whopping 322% at Pauoa. It is announced like the AQ fishery is to blame.
Most of that area has been closed to AQ collection for over 20 years in a MPA and the rest
protected from AQ take for the last 15 years by being in an FRA. Understand this is a shore
side problem and nothing to do with AQ collecting. It makes for an attention grabbing headline
that if not examined leads people to false conclusions.
As far as biomass taken off the reef goes, other extraction methods take over 2.8 times more
than the AQ fishery.
It is very flawed economic logic to state that the industry promotes dead loss so replacement
fish can be sold for more profit. The exact opposite is true. From a purely economic
standpoint it makes no sense to pay for freight, packaging equipment and all the workers if the
fish are just dyeing. Customers would soon be disillusioned and drop out of the industry if it
was a fact. How many times would you go back and buy a product if it proved to be faulty over
and over? Just as your iphone has little resemblance to your bag phone of 20 years ago,
aquarium systems have similarly evolved making salt water aquariums easy to manage.
When talking about dead fish in shipping I would point out they use a qualifier "Hawaii
shipments may be lower". They are admitting they are not using data from Hawaii and it's
probably the same old information from a third world country they like to parade around.
The charge that 3% of the fish I catch die on my boat before I get them to a local buyer is utter
nonsense. It is a very rare occurrence if we ever see a dead fish in our fish hold. I swear to
this on the spirit of my mother.
These advocate scientists are trying to sell you, the CC some very flawed and misdirected
science. Don't buy into it. Mahalo
Comm. No. _ ( l • 3
Ref. To: PI W ETCH`-'
of. Date FEB 17 2015