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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023_12_20 GMAC Minutes Game Management Advisory Commission County of Hawai’i Minutes – Final Draft Meeting Date: December 19, 2023 Time: 9:00 am to 11:00 pm Place: Zoom and In-Person 25 Aupuni Ctr., Ste. #1501, Hilo HI 1. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL: District 1 - Robert Duerr, excused. District 2 – Vacant District 3 – Rhon Leomana Turalde, Present, in person District 4 – Brian Ley – Present, in person District 5 - Abraham Antonio, Present, in person District 6 – Austin Griffey, Excused District 7 – Natalie Reynolds, Excused District 8 – Cortney Okumura – Present via Zoom District 9 – Justin Ackerman – Present via Zoom Quorum Established with 5 in attendance. STAFF: Sylvia Wan, Deputy Attorney, Corporation Counsel – in person Barbara Kossow, Administrative Specialist – via Zoom AA: Good morning and welcome to December 19, 2023 last meeting of 2023 of GMAC meeting called to order at 9:03 am – moving on to Vice Chair Leomana Turalde to do… AA: Leomana, housekeeping. LT: Aloha everyone, good morning, hope you guys are having an amazing day. Just to go over the housekeeping – please make sure all your cell phones are turned off or on silent mode to all of us attending here in person – please remember to speak into the microphone wherever they may be on the table – we got a couple. Speak loud so that way your statements can be recorded. Under the Sunshine Law GMAC may remove any person who willfully disrupts a meeting – to prevent or compromise the conduct of the meeting. All persons appearing before GMAC is reminded to conduct themselves in a courteous manner – for testimonies please be – if it’s in person – please fill out the public statement registration form on the table right over here and for people on Zoom – if you would like to testify on an agenda – please provide your name and identify which agenda you would like to testify. For the questions from the public on Zoom – you can put the questions in a Chat – just remember the Chat isn’t a recorded thing so if you guys want to bring up notes or any other questions publically recorded you guys got to talk out loud. For those in person, please write your questions on a statement form on the table. Mahalos. 1 AA: Call to order – roll call. District – 1, Robert Duerr absent. District – 2, vacant. District – 3, Leomana. LT: E’o. AA: District – 4, Brian Ley. BL: Here. AA: District – 5, Abraham Antonio, Chair, here. District – 6, Austin Griffey, absent. District – 7, Natalie Reynolds, absent. District – 8, Cortney Okumura? CO: Present. AA: And District – 9, Justin Ackerman. JA: Here. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: AA: Right on, so we get five – three, present, and two via Zoom – we make quorum. The approval of minutes being deferred – we’re back on two months of meetings now but secretary still working hard on it. 3. STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS: AA: Statements from the public on agenda items? Any statements from the public? SW: Ah, Chair, there’s none at the moment. 4. NOMINATION FOR CHAIR AND VICE CHAIR: AA: None. At this time we’ll go to number 4 – nomination for Chair and Vice Chair. Any suggestions from the Commission of anybody who wants to be Chair and Vice Chair? LT: I like it the way it is. Leomana, District – 3, I kinda like it the way it is. I don’t know… OK, well… Thank you. SW: Deputy Corporation Counsel Sylvia Wan. I’m sorry but cannot. AA: Thank you, thank you for your support Leomana and Brian and Justin and Cortney and Natalie just text me she couldn’t make it. But thanks for the support of the Commission to having me as Chair, um, but sorry due to rules and regulations that I love to break I can no longer stay as the Chair, um, as far as my recommendation for Chair and Vice Chair – I would support Austin 2 Griffey but he’s not here at the time – as the Vice Chair I would support, or actually is there anybody that would be Vice Chair? SW: So, um, best form, Chair Antonio, would be to make a motion. So, you would need to move to nominate a particular person. AA: OK, or just not nominate anybody yet. Ah, so, my suggestion would be Cortney Okamura as Vice Chair, so I’ll leave it up to you guys for the rest to make a nomination and make a motion and all that but that’s my recommendations. LT: Leomana, District – 3, I second that recommendation. SW: Wait, you’ve got to make a motion. Cause he decides to break the Robert’s Rules and not even make a motion. LT: Oh, no, I was just saying I second that, I wasn’t… SW: Oh. OK. OK. OK. LT: ….as my discussion… SW: Would you like to make a motion? LT: To nominate her? SW: To do a nomination… LT: Ah… Can we do that? SW: Yes. ACTION ITEM: LT: Should I do that? Leomana, District – 3, I’d like to make a motion to nominate Cortney Okamura and the Vice Chair and Austin as the Chair. SW: So, Cortney, what do you say to that nomination? CO: Ah, I accept the nomination. SW: Now is there a second to the motion? BL: District – 4, I second that motion. SW: OK. Do you, I understand that Austin is not here, but did you get a chance to speak to Austin prior to the meeting? 3 AA: I talked to him a couple months ago about it. SW: And was he in favor of the idea? AA: Ah, he was in favor of the idea but with him not being here I’m not really – things have changed within the last few months. SW: OK. Well, if it doesn’t work, we can do another nomination in-between. But I’ll take it as he accepted the nomination, or he would accept the nomination at this point even though he’s not here. Just based on his communication with you. AA: So, if he does not accept it then I still hold Chairmanship next month as well? SW: No, it would mean that whoever the Vice Chair is would be the Chair for that meeting until we figure out who our Chair is. Got that? AA: Yes. SW: All right, so the motion was to nominate Austin Griffey as Chair and Cortney Okumura as Vice Chair. It has been seconded – it is now open for discussion. AA: Any other discussion on this matter? Any other ideas on this matter? LT: Ah, Leomana, I think – when I look at the Commission I think that it’s – that the Chair needs to know people – like how you – you got more connections than all of us – even Austin – he might know more numbers than I do, um, you know, I just moved back to Big Island four years ago and you guys have been here solid the last 20, so, with Austin I know he has… AA: Forty-five… LT: Forty-five, you know, however long. Well, like the connections and the numbers that you guys have and the right-of-ways and access to all the people is, is to me the most important for this Commission. Like how you can call all the heads of DLNR, or the hunters and all of them already. I’m still learning who they are and so to me it’s like if Austin has their numbers, and he knows them on a personal basis – that’s probably the best thing for all of us cause if I have a concern I can just bring it up to him or you and you call them instead of, you know, it’s just – if I look at the community we benefit that way overall. SW: Deputy Corporation Counsel Sylvia Wan. As far as it is getting contacts for individuals from different departments, I may be able to assist. LT: Um-hum. SW: And that, I mean, obviously if you know them you have a relationship going prior – that’s obviously has value. But I’m just – I don’t want to have anybody be scared like oh, I don’t know all these people. 4 LT: Oh, yeah, um-hum. SW: So, I’m just letting you know I can help. Any other comments, or discussion? AA: Not seeing any, Abraham, District – 5, just to go off what Leomana was saying – you guys know I’ve been here for five years now and when I came in I was just a hunter just like anyone of you guys, and I didn’t really know anything coming in this thing, I knew maybe Ian Cole – that’s about it, but going through this whole process and being the Chair and just being in this Commission itself, as much as you put into it you going get out of it, right? Like – I like recently just this year I met Kim Kozuma – she’s awesome, you know, I didn’t know she lives like the next street down from me, right, so? KK: It’s a small \[unclear\]. AA: Yeah, Big Island small world, right, that’s, you know, that term says very strong, as far everybody else, you know, I just – the question comes from anybody – from the public – from the Commission and I going do my due work to, you know, research it and whatever – I was put into this position and I put everything that I pretty much could have in this position – like the whole time should just getting everything - like I was told recently that, oh, if you going quit then, I mean, not quit but once your term is up then I going resign is like, oh, you shouldn’t do that because, again, you going, as much as you put in is as much going get back. Like me and Brian, ah, we fought for hunter check-in stations to, you know, the lower Puna area that we got. And that branched out to many other areas throughout the Island that hunters was complaining about hunter check-in stations that wasn’t there that’s now there. That’s part of – because of this Commission, right, 2021 we fought – we supported legislation and we got like 3 bills passed that year – there’s no other Commission that, I think, that really supported bills that went through and actually became laws and came like active resolutions, we got that game, I mean, the shooting, the shooting working group thing that’s still active, right? Justin Ackerman pretty much and Cortney taking head of that, you know, coming up within the next year and see what the status is that, um, you know, Leomana was, you know, in support of that legislative season a couple years ago, so, you guys, don’t feel bad or whatever because I’m leaving, you know, you guys got to put in you guys’ due work just like I did and know these people and know every, kinda like every aspect. And I like see – I kinda set up the ending of the year for you guys to keep moving forward like we got this working group – the west side – east side thing – going on, um, \[unclear\] with that DAR coming in, you know, so I pretty much set you guys up to keep this Commission going through the future and, you know, I can possibly come back in two years – we’ll see how everything goes, right? So, I know Sylvia going scold me… SW: We don’t want your… AA: ….right now probably for just rambling on but that’s pretty much… SW: I was very close… AA: I met a lot of people like I met, you know, Sylvia – she’s, we was butting horns in the beginning but, we kinda found one happy medium. Met Brian Ogawa is here today – talked to him a few times – Brian Ogawa, met, you know, Barbara, Barbara been working us for the last – working 5 with me for the last 3 years, I think. Great, so… Just all this connections is just making with people and, make it work. SW: Ok. AA: OK, we’re voting for Austin as Chair and Cortney as Vice Chair. So, roll call vote, District l- 1, absent. District – 2, vacant. District – 3, Leomana? LT: Aye. AA: District – 4, Brian. BL: Aye. AA: District – 5, aye, Abraham. District – 6, absent. District – 7, absent. District – 8, Cortney? CO: Aye. AA: Nine, Justin? JA: Aye. SW: Five ayes… AA: Five ayes, vote passes. Ah, thank you Austin, hoping you will take the lead on that. Thank you, Cortney for stepping up. ?: Thank you. AA: Um, if, try to reach out to him I guess or reach out to, um, Sylvia and Barbara and see if you can work on next month’s agenda, um, let me know, I can probably assist you as well. SW: Yeah, so, Deputy Corporation Counsel Sylvia Wan – I’ll just note for Cortney – I’m gonna reach out to you and Austin in-between this month and next month’s meeting so that we can set up a training so I can train you guys up on how to be a Chair and Vice Chair and then hopefully we can get that done prior to the next meeting. CO: I appreciate it. Thanks so much, Sylvia. AA: Ah, number 5, acknowledgement – moving over to Barbara Kossow. 5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: Chair Abraham Antonio, term expires 12/31/23 BK: My pleasure. On behalf of Mayor Mitch Roth, we present you Abraham Antonio, Sr. with a certificate of appreciation for your distinguished service as Chair of the Game Management Advisory Commission awarded here today…Mahalo! 6 \[Unclear off mic\] 6. COMMISSIONER REPORT BY DISTRICT: AA: Thank you very much, thank you Mayor. Thank you, Barbara. Thank you staff, um, Commissioner Report by District. District – 1, absent. District – 2, vacant. District – 3, Leomana? LT: Aloha, Leomana, District l- 3, a short report today, um, first I wanted to talk about the water treatment plant in Keaukaha that’s leaking, um, right now if you look down Bayfront because of the waves they have all of the fire hydrants uncapped and they’re leaking all of that water – that water’s being backed up all the way from District – 3 right across from Puhi Bay, um, it’s the same plant so I just wanted to cover that. So outside of that right now – sorry – all the rain coming in, um, three different baseball parks in District – 3, have a lot of pig diggings – it’s just, you know, the mud is thick and the worms are out so the pigs dig up all the baseball parks, um, one is in the back of Panaewa and two is up in Waiakea. And, um, not a big problem just the kids cannot play in the outfields because just all the \[unclear\] cannot run through all the mud, ah, so I don’t, I think, ah, maybe by next month I’ll probably have an idea if I wanted to do something about this – maybe – I don’t know whose attention I gotta get to protect the baseball parks and the fields from the pigs, but that’s just my main concern cause all of our kids are back in sports, um, and so I’m kinda paying attention to the baseball parks and the pigs right now. Um, other than that – nothing to report. Mahalo. SW: Ah, Deputy Corporation Counsel Sylvia Wan – as far as the baseball parks – it depends on who owns the baseball park but if it’s a county baseball park then it would be Parks & Rec. LT: OK… AA: Send one email to Maurice Messina and she has the contact – I think she can help you out with that. Abraham, District – 5, other than that – didn’t you have some kind of lady or something that you was gonna bring in, um, for the… LT: Oh. ?: Wastewater… LT: Yeah. Leomana, District – 3, - that was the NASA girl from UH – she has $300 million dollars of her own money to invest in the rebuilding of the wastewater treatment facility in Keaukaha. I was waiting for her to get back to after her presentation to the Hawaiian Homes Commission last month, and I never hear from her yet, but if anybody knows about her, you guys can reach out too, I don’t know how on her list, but, she never \[unclear\]. AA: OK. District – 4, Brian Ley? BL: Brian, District – 4. Seems to be an uptick in the pig issues \[unclear\] the phone calls I’ve been getting the last couple weeks and as far as Mauna Kea – I’ve seen 3 separate cat traps and one live cat in the Palila Critical Habitat area so the trapping thing seems to be – I’m not sure what’s going on but there’s a – seems to be a lot of evidence this year on feral cats up on Mauna Kea. That’s it for me. Thank you. 7 AA: Thank you. LT: Oh, Leomana, District – 3. Did the bird guys get the truck stolen up there? Cause the bird guys got the truck stolen last week on the mountain someplace. BL: \[Unclear\] LT: OK, ah, that’s - I just wanted to ask that. AA: Ah, District – 5, Abraham, um, nothing really to report just, you know, when go hunt last weekend and just the trash just keeps building up, ah, District – 6, absent. District – 7, absent. District – 8, Cortney? CO: Everyone and Abraham thanks so much for your service and leadership, um, a definitely well- deserved acknowledgement, um, we really appreciate you. And you’ll be missed but I hope you’ll still be coming to the meetings and guiding us along. I actually don’t have anything to report from my district this month. But I just wanted to say thank you. AA: Thank you. Ah, District – 9, Justin? JA: Good morning, ah, once again, Abraham thanks for everything you’ve done for GMAC and I know you’ll continue to do hopefully behind the scenes helping us all along the way. Um, only thing for District – 9, is still working to get in contact with the gentleman who is proposing the archery range in Waikoloa Village. He’s meeting a lot of resistance from the Waikoloa Village Association, um, once I finally get a hold of him, hopefully he and I can sit down and chat about what he’s done to push that forward and just to see how it’s going and where his road blocks are in the attempt to get that through. I know some local community members in support went to a meeting and they weren’t allowed to talk recently, ah, so I’m gonna see if he’s linked up with Cindy Evans who lives up there as well and his Councilwoman, so, ah, we’ll see. And that’s all I’ve got for District – 9. AA: Thanks, Justin. SW: Well, just a moment – Joshua Pang in the Chat - I’m writing it out for you. LT: Oh, that’s Pang-Ching. What’s up Pang-Ching? SW: Yeah. He’s in the meeting, ah, general… LT: \[Unclear\] SW: Sorry, I hope you can read my messy handwriting, Chair. AA: OK, so Joshua Pang came in with a comment – to address the predator control and trapping on Mauna Kea and other hunting areas – stop during general game bird season. So as long as there’s game birds – hunters up there – I guess they close up all the traps. 8 BL: Yeah, they set the trap up but like I said they shouldn’t have rebounded that quick. AA: Well, last I knew they had 800 traps around that mountain somewhere. BL: Yeah, he said \[unclear\]. AA: OK. Moving on to section 7 – presentation, section a - Alan Nakagawa, Hawaii County’s GMAC’s representative on the Feral Ungulate Taskforce Committee. Morning Alan… 7. PRESENTATION: a. Alan Nakagawa, Hawai’i County’s GMAC’s representative on the Feral Ungulate Task Force Committee. AN: Good Morning. How much time do I have? \[Unclear\] just kinda put something together and just sent it. SW: Yeah, just a moment. It’s because one is the presentation computer, and one is the meeting control computer. Just a second. AN: Sorry for that – I just sent the PowerPoint in late this morning. Well, maybe, while she’s getting that up, let me just introduce myself real, real briefly and then, ah, yeah, I got a couple of questions so that I know what I need to go over, you know, in this presentation so my name’s Alan Nakagawa, I live in Kamuela, I’ve lived on the Big Island my whole life and I hunted practically my whole life, so I had a real strong interest in this, I don’t know how many of you are familiar with, HCR 17 that was presented by David Tarnas, Representative. Is anyone not familiar with that – do I need to go over that real briefly? AA: Ah, real briefly just to get everybody up. \[Unclear\] Abraham, District – 5. AN: OK. So Representative Tarnas presented a resolution because of all the phone calls, I guess that he was getting about traffic accidents involving our game animals: pig, goat and sheep – mainly goats. It seems like the discussion within the Task Force to develop a plan that centers around goats and mainly, mainly on the west side. So, his resolution talks about the hazards on the roadways, uncontrolled population of feral goats in both public and private lands, their impact on the environment, their, um, the need to have public resources we use to mitigate that and all of these issues that came about and, you know, to the phone calls and discussions that he had and he wants to see a collaborative effort, um, to effectively manage the ungulates – mainly, sheep, goats and pigs that are causing these accidents on the highway. So that’s where the task force came from – it came from that resolution. So there are a number of people on the Task Force and actually it’s the next slide already – kinda went over that real briefly - yeah, so, what you see there and you can go to all those bullets there – those are the – that’s the recommended members for the Task Force, um, so, I representing GMAC, um, and basically \[unclear\] the hunters. So you can see there’s a wide range of people who are on this Task Force and honestly not all of them are aware or possibly then support hunting – so it’s just one voice in this committee, um, when we look at the kids of expertise they’re looking at – in the next bullet – click it one more time, yeah, so what they’re looking at is people who are able to look at 9 feral populations and manage them and also people who have experience in mitigating hazards on our highways and that’s why you see Department of Transportation is involved in this – the Police Department is involved in this – people interested in biodiversity and the environment so we have people who are working with invasive species, for example, um, Board of Agriculture, um, and so on, OK, so it’s a wide range of people, um, so on the next slide – first meeting we had was in February. It took a while to get started – \[unclear\] six months we actually had a meeting – somewhere around there, um, but at the first meeting you can see there’s a whole list of people there – some people from DOFAW, some names that you guys are probably familiar with like Kanalu, who’s our game biologist I guess on the west side, um, ah, Steve Bergfeld who’s a manager over here for DLNR. And then some other people from even private landowners like Parker Ranch. OK. The hard thing was we spent the whole first meeting just introducing everybody. The second meeting we had to re-introduce everybody again because a whole bunch of different faces showed up – right now – I don ‘t know exactly who’s all the players in this Task Force. But, I guess, if the name appeared once in the Task Force – they had provided some input into it, um, so at that first meeting we reviewed HCR 17 so everyone was on the same page. We selected a chairperson – Jason Omick from DLNR, um, he scheduled the next meeting, um, which was – I don’t when that meeting was – I don’t have the date, um… SW: Now… nd AN: The third meeting was on the 22, OK, that’s the most recent one and that’s actually where we started, I think we started getting some ideas down, OK? And that’s when Jason passed out that one paper that you have – the one that says Feral Ungulate Management Plan for West Hawaii. SW: Do we have the full name of that person – Jason who? AN: Jason Omick. SW: OK. Thank you. The chair. AN: Yes. It was, um, and he’s from DLNR so it was Jason Omick and Kanalu Sproat that – Kanalu actually, I guess, presented the ideas that are in here and, um, I not sure where this sits right now because, um, and I had some concerns with it because it was presented at the meeting but was also the same time – I don’t know if you guys remember but there was an article in the newspaper that talked about this and it was like – in the paper it sounded like this is what we’re doing already. And then, we get this – that I’m think, oh, we still discussing this document. So, um, basically, I think this is where we’re working – this is my thinking – I probably have to clarify this but my thinking is this is our draft working copy right now – this is what we’re working with – so I provided feedback to Jason and the committee or the Task Force, um, based upon some discussions I had with other hunters and some ideas off the top of my list \[unclear\]. OK? So I’d like to go over those topics real briefly and if you have any input on any of this I can add that to my comments that I sent in to DLNR. Um, I remember, this, this is coming from DLNR – it’s not coming from the invasive species people, it’s not coming from UH or the other players, um, this is coming from DLNR. And so, um, then I remember when – what the status is of the Game Management Plan yet in the hunting areas, I guess it’s same as it was \[unclear\]. No change. So, I don’t know if this is gonna change it or not and then, you know, there’s also all that other rule changes \[unclear\], so, it’s confusing so anyway maybe I can just go through this I think line by line – I think I did it on there so \[unclear\] the next slide. So, when we look at – these are the 10 comments that I have made, um, basically made – might be worded differently but these are – I tried to make it a little more concise, um, so within that document we turn to I think the second page – I have a different copy from you, but, they talk about the population estimates – hunting regulations – watershed protection. So there’s a section there within that plan and when I, when I looked at that, um, several things popped out. 1) Population data that they had – the estimates on the population, um, on that document states that in 2018 there are approximately 1900 goats, 2020 two thousand, 2021 twenty-one fifty, and the same in 2022. So, they’re claiming that the population is stable but talk to any hunter who’s hunted in these areas – I’ve hunted there regularly, you know, I’m there almost every single day during the hunting season and I know in the last five years the population has been reduced quite a bit and if you compare that to 20 years ago – the difference is remarkable. It, and, I don’t think their numbers are right, I just cannot see the numbers being right, um, so what they saying is now – because it’s stable they want to knock the population down, so, by increasing and I don’t know how they come up with the increases but when I do the numbers in my head and on paper it’s an eradication program. So, it’s not a sustainable hunting program – so it’s not game management anymore. They’re moving away from that. So that’s my concern, um, as far as the population is concerned, um, hunting regulations they want to turn Puuanahulu into a muzzle loader hunting area, at least as muzzle loader season like Puuwaawaa. And, um, I think the bow hunters need to make a stand there because that’s the only archery \[unclear\] area that we have on the Island. That’s the only one, um, people say, oh, Kaohe, but Kaohe you can go with muzzle loaders. Um, and I think you can even do it with hand guns, I not sure on that one. I know muzzle loaders you can, um, and, of course, they eradicating in there too at the same time, so, um, Puuanahulu has to be like main thing is the archery area for the Island, for the state. Um, they want to increase hunting pressure by increasing the number of days, ah, to me that doesn’t necessarily make sense, um, they need to start looking at what is the carrying capacity and there’s a push \[unclear\] carrying capacity no one can come up with the number. They never could and I don’t think they ever will cause no one’s gonna \[unclear\] out there. Um, so, \[unclear\] hunting pressure in the areas is gonna drive the animals out to the highways so they need to do something different. Um, so the next slide – I probably just glossed over a couple others but these are the main comments. \[Unclear\] OK. Currently they say that they have 1.3 million acres of land. I don’t know if the numbers are accurate or what, but I take it that it is, um, so out of that 1.3 million acres they said 1 million is private land, I guess either Bishop or Parker Ranch – the big landowners, ah, PTA… Um, the big landowners in the area that we concerned about – the stretch of highway from PTA or Hawaiian Homes, I guess, in a little bit into Hawaiian Homes – all the way down Daniel K – we looking at PTA lands, and a little bit of Parker Ranch – lands – coming out on the other way to Waimea, um, so that other 300,000 acres is managed by the state, I guess. So, you know, they asking for two and half positions to assist them with this Task Force – the issues within this Task Force. I just think they need to look at their personnel and how they’re being used – are they being used effectively, um, does this fall within the realm of their responsibilities cause game management is already their responsibility within the state plans, um, so what’s gonna change if they add one or two other people – new positions, it means too costly so I just think they need to justify it a little bit better. OK. The next section was on damage to agriculture – commercial and residential properties, um, so, ah, what are the areas that are getting damaged by, um, mainly goats, again, I guess, ah, they claim to be agricultural land, um, and landscaping, um, so, along the area of concern – and that’s my problem is they, they taking the problem that the Task Force is assigned with and they expanding it to everywhere on the Island and maybe that’s OK down the road but if there are issues but there’s no landscaping along that area from Hawaiian Homes down Daniel K all the 11 way down to the highway – the old highway to Kona – there’s no landscaping there – so I don’t know what they’re talking about as far as landscaping. There’s no real agriculture in that area too – livestock, you know, cause PTA – state land – there’s nothing there. Only when you get down to Waikoloa on the bottom side you going see some Ag land down there – but even there – \[unclear\] do false grazing – cattle’s there and \[unclear\]. And that’s all gonna be developed, I guess, eventually. OK. So maybe landscaping in that area, um, so it’s not a big problem, um, we have a farm – my family has a farm – we don’t have problems with sheep and goat or if we do we eat them. That’s our solution, yeah, I mean honestly that’s what we do. Um, the big problem for us on our farm is Nene. We can’t do anything about Nene. They just wiped out a whole field of Chinese cabbage so if their kimchi price goes up – blame the Nene. That’s what’s happening. \[Unclear\] we plant the field times. Imagine the cost of that, so, we aren’t harvesting any Chinese cabbage for the next 3 or 4 weeks. None at all. And that’s only the tip of the problem because the Nene are starting to nest there and so now what’s gonna happen. It’s a nesting \[unclear\]. So, you know, there needs to be other solutions where they can relocate animals whether it’s native or non-native, um, they need to relocate them to more remote areas. There’s always gonna be conflict, I mean, you know, I work with, um, they, ah, with NOAA for a little while and they were talking about relocating monk seals to the main island, right, and I thinking but why would you do that. Monk seals say that I’d rather live up there where there’s no humans but bring ‘em here for what? For the tourists? For the tourists to see them. So, we need to relocate these animals somewhere, ah, so that we can avoid conflict. They talked about trapping programs too. Trap animals and I don’t know whether to \[unclear\] or destroy them or whatever, OK? But it’s a big problem, I guess, let’s see – rules and highways. One of the things that they wanted to do – that I agreed with is they need to keep the vegetation down along the roadsides – so they talked about this ten-years zero vegetation zone. Um, I think that’s a good idea – that’s probably within the responsibility of County and State road crews that go out and mow all the time, um, I know there was some issue with use of Roundup but they use it all over in Puuwaawaa. You see the big \[unclear\] that’s all Roundup that’s not guys pulling the weeds out or going out with weed eaters – they’re using Roundup, um, sorry, I don’t know, I got issue – there’s issue with Roundup but, ah, there’s ways that they can do it, you know, without chemicals, um, but, you know, even if you do that and you reduce the fire risk, you reduce some of the road hazards you still gonna get a few animals that want to cross the road. I mean, they’re gonna see the green grass on the side of the road – they’re gonna cross it. Um, they talked about replacing rumble strips because it collects water and the animals come out to drink water after the rain. Um, yeah, that happens, but, ah, I don’t know how you going get the state or – I don’t know who owns the highway – Daniel K is state highway? Yeah. So, the state would have to come up with the money to cover the little grooves and they want to put bumps out instead. Maybe down the road on the new highway but I don’t know who they’re gonna do it on the old highway and then the fencing was the other one. They talk about fencing, I guess, both sides of the highway all the way down from Hawaiian Homes all the way down. So you look on the mauka side – the Mauna Kea side you going get one, two, three fence lines so you keep the hunting area and then another fence line on the other side – very high costs – it’s gonna take years to do – years of maintenance – never gonna end, um, they want to build bridges, I guess, so that animals can either cross or – so I don’t know – it’s a big undertaking – they get millions and talk about millions and millions of dollars for fencing and, you know, all you need is one smart goat that’ll climb over the fence and that’s it \[unclear\] so, in conclusion I asked or I made a few recommendations because I don’t want to just be shooting down their ideas and telling them this isn’t gonna work or, cause every solution has flaws no matter what so, I told them we cannot be waiting two or three years for funding to be approved and then for construction to be completed – in the meantime cars 12 are hitting the animals and, you know, it’s usually tourists, so, of course, it’s a big deal in Hawaii if the tourists are getting injured, um, so, what are the quick solutions? So, um, the plan has too many high cost solutions that only the politicians can bless – we cannot, so some of the ideas I told them that we should pursue right away ‘cause these are things that are, I think simple, more cost effective and timing – I think those are the three things we need to look at so we asked them to – or I asked them to increase signage on the roadways, I mean, I drove the highway today and honestly I didn’t even notice any signs. I know there’s one somewhere. One on this side and one up more this way, I think. I, I saw ‘em before. I didn’t see ‘em today. Was actually I was looking for animals, OK. Um, reduce speed limits in high incident areas. We know where the animals are getting hit. I can identify – that’s why I don’t hit the animals ‘cause I know where they’re getting hit. Tourists don’t know that. So, target those areas, um, increase too their water resources away from the roadsides. Why are the animals coming to the road – ‘cause they want to eat, ‘cause they want to drink so take that away and put it somewhere else, OK? So in addition to the ten years zero vegetation zone have some areas where the animals can get more food and water, um, the ten years zero vegetation \[unclear\] is a real good idea but also in addition to that, um, I think if they want to increase hunting pressure that’s where they need to increase the pressure – not the whole hunting area cause it’s just gonna drive animals out cause if you hunt the perimeters somehow and I don’t know how they’re gonna do it – it’s up to them – they’re the experts but I think you create a corridor next to the highways where people can hunt either on a daily basis it’ll be OK cause the animals can run into sanctuary central in the \[unclear\]. And that’s where they should be. That’s where the food’s gonna be so the animals don’t get pushed through – that’s where they can breed and repopulate and sustain the hunting within that area. Um, and they gotta work with large landowners. I don’t know how they’re gonna do that – how are they gonna – there’s no control over that. We cannot set bag limits or anything, I mean, they trapping already. I know, um, Parker Ranch trapped over 2,000 goats already on their lands and what they did with them I don’t know. So, I don’t know. If anyone has any, um, ideas to add to this, oh, one thing I didn’t go over is – they should use those LED lights – you know that big LED signs that they have – the \[unclear\] panel and it’s portable – cause it’s seasonable when the rains come the animals move away from the highway. Today no, no accident \[unclear\] and I didn’t see any animals on that road. I drove all the way over and I didn’t see any. So, you know, the Task Force is already working \[unclear\]. We just have to talk about it and it’ll get done, OK. So anyway, the last thing \[unclear\] on the slide is my contact. If you have questions or whatever, I don’t know, \[unclear\] but you can contact \[unclear\] or you can call or text or whatever, um, and I’ll be sure to have your comments relayed over to the Task Force and the chairman of the committee – Jason. That’s basically where we’re at but, you know, there is one big concern is this Task Force disappears June 30 of next year. And \[unclear\] this was supposed to submit the plan already, I think the plan is due already, if I read that, um, resolution correctly on the last page, I don’t know if you have the resolution – it says “task force will be dissolved June 30, 2024.” And right above that – this is the last page of HCR 17 – “task force is requested to submit a report of its findings and recommendations including proposed legislation to the legislature no later than 20 days prior to the convening of the regular session 2024. So the sooner \[unclear\]. It’s only five months away so \[unclear\]. Yeah, so I don’t know if it’s gonna get done. AA: Ah, any questions or comments from the Commission. BL: Brian, District – 4. Ah, I don’t think we talked about it before but we brought up the same thing like we mentioned, you know, give food and water and \[unclear\] did anybody talk about 13 controlled fire burns scheduling the fountain grass areas cause you and I both know that when you have a controlled burn the goats move into that area and eat the new grass down – that, you know, it would benefit everybody. AN: That’s one way to create the food source. BL: Yeah, create a food source which they’re supposed to do anyway but a lot of that we have \[unclear\] required to have good habitat for the game animals \[unclear\] fire risk – I know Waikoloa – I’ve got some friends that live down there and that’s one of their huge issues. AN: Yeah. BL: Why aren’t we doing controlled burns, like I repeatedly pound the table about on the, I’m sure you noticed it where they had that burn several years ago on Daniel K. When they first had the burn the goats and the sheep came in – they kept all the fountain grass down and the native bushes came back. Now we’ve got a stretch that used to be nothing but fountain grass – native vegetation – and I don’t know why the state doesn’t look at that and say, we can use these animals on multiple reasons and bring back native wildlife, plants and reduce the fire risk ‘cause now we’ve got green bushes instead of dry fountain grass \[unclear\]. It cleared a lot of things, like you said, food and water away from the road. AN: Yeah, I think DLNR has like stoopies to do that. BL: Well, every time we mention that they cry bloody murder about controlled burns ‘cause they had one get away and they… AN: Yeah, I think that’s… BL: They’d rather watch the Island burn down risk kind of a fire on their terms. AN: That’s a good point to add. AA: Thanks, Brian. AN: Thanks. LT: Leomana, District – 3. Just wanted to mahalo for that, a lot of information I didn’t know like Puuanahulu being the only archery area on the Island – archery only. I think – I got sponsored for archery a couple of years ago. I think that it’s super important that we have a space – archery only – and so, ah, thank you for letting me know that but other than that is there any kind of incentive that we can provide community hunters – just regular hunters – to hunt these areas. I know growing up – I dream – I could just pop my bow off the back of my truck and just, you know, right on the side of the road, yeah, it’s oh… But that kind of stuff is illegal so, ah, I guess my question is how – what can I do to provide some sort of incentive to community members to just hunt these areas already ‘cause, I mean, that’s the fastest way in my opinion, right, just if I give – if I can get the OK for people to just hey, pull over, shoot right there with your bow or something. So… 14 AA: Abraham, District – 5. That would kinda be an idea it’s but, you know, it’s just like – ‘cause people do that already – a couple of ‘em got busted, right, just shooting off the side of the road because, like you said, it’s illegal but there’s some kind of rule change that that could but you gotta pull over like \[unclear\] depends what part of the road, right? LT: Yeah. AA: ‘Cause some places get run over spots but… AN: What PTA does \[unclear\] parking \[unclear\] hunting days. And you can only park in those areas so the areas are mowed – the fire hazard, they’re shared gates that we get a combination for and then we can park in there, and you have to make a reservation to park in there or, or, yeah, a reservation and then you have to sign in. AA: I think he’s going more towards like maybe if the state would, you know, part of their DOCARE officers or maybe even like I think in some places on the mainland where you get animals like in the area that, you know, once you see ‘em ‘cause you come by today and they have nothing but on your way home you going see like 50. AN: Maybe… AA: Yeah, maybe, I just throwing the numbers out there. Where you can just pull over like what they do pretty much at the airports, right, when the birds come in then they shoot off flags to scare ‘em off the road so I think that’s kind… LT: Yeah, something like, you know, ‘cause I guess the power – to me when I’m thinking about the commission it’s like next meeting I can do something – like make a motion to pass, you know, like can we write a letter to DLNR allowing and just put more pressure on them, you know, allow hunting off the sides of the roads maybe a hundred meters cause you gotta pull – maybe a bow not going shoot 150 meters so 150 meters in you can shoot with bow, um, but whatever I can use, um, this Commission to write a letter of support or, you know, something instant where I can kinda nag them about like – nah, the hunters should be able to hunt during when they drop bombs cause that’s when the animals run over, you know, something like that. AA: At this time I’d like to bring in \[sounds like fire tablet\]. She has a comment – just please state your name before speaking – Nani Pogline on Zoom go ahead. NP: Nani Pogline. Aloha everybody. Thank you GMAC Commissioners and thank you Alan Nakagawa for all of your comments and I just wanted to say that according to HB 1872, which was one in the legislature, um, everything you shared this morning is in accordance with this bill, um, game animals and game birds provide a sustainable food source that merits high quality habitat with sufficient food, water and refuge to support viable populations sufficient for hunting. So I thank you for all that you shared and I sure wish the state also would recognize this bill a little more. Thank you very much and thank you Abraham for all your hard work. You’re awesome. You are so great, thank you so much. OK. That’s it. Thank you, bye. AA: Thanks, Nani. Ah, Kim Kozuma you have a comment? 15 KK: OK. Hey, there, yeah, no, um, I actually, it’s actually gonna be several comments – I hope it doesn’t take up too much time but it has to do with Alan’s coverage of the, oh, hang on, let me start my video. Um, there we go, it’s back on again. OK. Sorry about that. Yeah, um, I was kind of \[unclear\] and told to be on that committee as well. Ah, Regina was, I guess kind of taking it over and then she moved to Maui with the Lahaina fires and I guess I kinda slipped into her position, I guess, that’s vice chair, so I don’t understand Omick and me or whatever, ah, but I was taking notes along Alan’s presentation and, um, there are several things that came up and if it would be OK if I just kinda comment on several of those? AA: Sure. KK: OK. So, I guess the first thing, yes, I agree with Alan – the question that I also had was how did they do the methodology of the population estimates and how accurate and verifiable are they? I don’t know and that, that question wasn’t really answered, um, I don’t know who’s doing the population studies there, um, I kinda was concerned when you look at the numbers but I’m curious what the methodology was – does it need to be updated – is it truly reflective of what other people are seeing out there like Alan’s saying. So that’s one thing, um, the second thing was as far as archery – Mark just informed me that the Waikele Forest Reserve is open for archery – there’s some goats there – but it’s I guess mainly for pigs – so there is archery there as well as dog and knife so if we’re wrong on that, you know, feel free to correct. AA: Abraham, District – 5. Yeah, so Waikele is archery. I think there’s – Mark is right – there’s kinda goats more up in the upper elevations like behind Fern Forest and… KK: Yeah. AA: ….and I think maybe down Kalapana get that one real small herd. Other than that – all the lower Puna areas is all, um, archery, dog, knife kind of deal. No… KK: OK. Yeah. AA: Yeah. KK: So I just wanted to point that out, again, I don’t know but Mark was over here telling me there’s a couple other places – just as an aside, um, I guess the other issue when I was attending this meetings was, again, we need to know what is the carrying capacity for these different areas and the point that I was trying to make with this Commission is, yes, it does feel to me to be DLNR driven when the mandate seemed to be more community-driven with BISC \[sp?\] and all the other groups in there and DLNR put together a nice report, however, it seemed to have only addressed DLNR’s goals and my impression was that DLNR will take care of DLNR and not do anything about anybody else because that’s not their mission. And that was a little bit frustrating and so I basically suggested that along that corridor where the problems are, um, taking representatives from each of the land holders there: Parker Ranch, PTA, and Hawaiian Homes and together have those group of people work on solutions to deal with the car strikes and be together in on the same page, because if people are doing different things and somebody’s not doing anything you’re just gonna move those animals around and there needs to be a more cohesive panel and, um, ah, DLNR said that’s not our jurisdiction and I’m like well you guys kinda play a role too and are part of the land owner so I think we needed like a 16 standing committee just so that we can all get together and say Hawaiian Homelands what’s your mission, what are your issues, what can we do to help to reduce the strike. What do you see? Ah, PTA, what do you see? What resources do you have? How can we mitigate all this? Um, and that I think kind of went over people’s heads, again, that’s just my impression, um, the other thing too was – let’s see here, yeah, so we need to have unified plans – just have a standing group of people that are working on it continuously. Um, with the Nene, um, another comment I got from Mark is, yeah, you’re right, there’s always going to be conflict with that and I don’t know how much acreage you have. I know that I was told that because of Nene being protected – that – I mean, it’s a really sticky thing. Supposedly DLNR’s supposed to help mitigate some of the protected species or maybe Wildlife Services, if it’s federal. Um, to help mitigate the problems with the Nene, either with relocation, um, which is huge and then also if it’s a smaller property, ah, NRCS and other agencies might be able to help with putting up some netting to try and prevent them from coming in. That’s really expensive, especially if you have thousands of acres. If it’s maybe a 10-acre – then perhaps those agencies can help, um, those landowners with that besides, um, relocation. So those are some other resources, um, the concern that we have from the HGOA aspect was relocation of species, particularly pigs because of the diseases that they carry, um, HGOA is really, really worried about especially swine brucellosis and pseudo rabies. Um, there has been an uptick in a number of hunting dogs that were affected this past year. I’ve gotten calls from at least 5 different veterinarians about dogs dying with pseudo rabies, um, as well as spillover of brucellosis into other species such as horses and people. So we need to be really, really careful about where we relocate these animals and it’s my understanding that, I think, DLNR says you cannot transport feral animals without a permit or something like that. Um, with sheep and goats, again, it belongs to the people that are on the property – if private citizens are receiving these animals from, say, a round-up or a cull – then there’s a disease called Scrapie – which is the sheep and goat version of mad cow and, um, the State of Hawaii would mandate that once those animals leave their farm of birth then they need to have USDA identification and HGOA can help with that, um, unless they’re going straight to slaughter. Um, and then, oh, yeah, the other mitigation was – I think this problem was so vast that we need to look at – I don’t think there’s one fix all – I think we have to implement all of these things, um, I do know that with the fencing, ah, yeah, it is expensive but there’s fencing already there, um, and on those stretches – if we could just close the gap at the bottom that would greatly help because it would prevent those animals from getting to those ruts on the rumble strips, um, the animals can then graze up to keep the grass down, um, and that’s where the land – it depends on where you put the fence, um, for private landowners, um, Hawaiian Homelands, um, granted it’s a perimeter – I think if we’re able to work with the Feds and the State, um, the biggest thing with the fencing – yes, you have to maintain it but if it’s done correctly, um, you can keep deer out, I mean, this is what they do – OK – not to bring the mainland, but they had problems along the inter-states with deer and deer can jump really high – like really high, um, and it would kill lots of people on these inter-states, um, and so they – a lot of the states put up – with federal funding – deer fencing, which has been pretty effective. The only thing is if we do that - these animals migrate back and forth – so if you stop them from migrating that’s gonna create a whole ‘nother ball of wax. Um, and this is where having the animal passages come in – yes, it will cost money but does it have to be fancy and expensive? No, it could be something as simple as a culvert under the highway where the animals can go back and forth. You could put gates on either side to manage their migrations. One thing that’s bad about a fence all the way – if fire management is not being – if we have another brush fire like we did with that big Parker Ranch fire, you’re gonna see all these dead burnt up animals 17 alongside the fence and that’s not something that anybody wants to see. So, at least if we have corridors where the animals are used to going anyway, we can at least manage it. Um, but… AA: \[Unclear\] KK: Yeah, so that’s it. So those are the suggestions that I was gonna bring up to the task force. AA: OK. Thanks. Um, we can move this subject on to next month’s meeting… KK: OK. th AA: Running out of time so you can come back again, next month’s meeting, going be January 16. Alan, thank you very much for coming. Thanks for your report, we’ll discuss this again probably next month, and then we’ll get back to you. Ah, if anybody else from the Commission or the public wanna email Alan or text or call his contact was up on the screen for a while. So, thanks Alan, thanks everybody else for your comments and questions. Ah, moving on to presentation b. Troy Saikihara, Aquatic Biologist, Division of Aquatic Resources, DLNR, State of Hawaii – “Division of Aquatic Resources (DAR) 2023 Updates. Last month we had DOFAW – this month we have DAR. So go ahead, Troy. b. Troy S. Saikihara, Aquatic Biologist, Division of Aquatic Resources, DLNR, State of Hawai’i: “Division of Aquatic Resources (DAR) 2023 Updates.” TS: All right, aloha, Chair Abraham, aloha Commissioners. LT: Aloha… TS: Yeah, first off, mahalo, Abraham for all your service, um, been, you know, enjoyed working with you for the past few years, um, so again, mahalo. Ah, let me share my screen. Can you guys see that? AA: Yeah. TS: OK. All right, so, I’ll try to be brief but I’m just gonna be – kinda presenting - it’s gonna be kind of a hodge-podge of things that we’ve been doing, especially, at least for our East Hawaii DAR Office, um, ah, but to kinda just, organize it a little more – give it a little bit more structure, I’m gonna be going over four main topics, first it’s gonna be some rule making initiatives that we took on this year, and then second will be some ecological monitoring and biological sampling projects that our Hilo office has been conducting. Also, some outreach in education efforts and then lastly future initiatives for the coming years. Ah, so the first administrative rule that actually took effect this year was the lay net rule amendments, ah, so this was approved by the governor and was, ah, went into effect this year, ah, so this new administrative rule requires all lay net users to acquire an annual lay net permit and this can be acquired online – we have online applications or fishers can come into our offices to get assistance for the application based on public testimony when we went out for public hearing, um, the leadership decided that there’s – they waived the fee – so there’s no fee for residents or active duty military for this annual permit, however, they did maintain the $25.00 annual fee for non-residents. And that’s mainly going towards just kind of overhead administrative costs to run this licensing or permit 18 program. Ah, the next one is an ocean stewardship user fee, so this administrative rule was approved by the Board of Land and Natural Resources just this past Friday but it’s not in effect yet – it’s not official yet until it, we acquire the Governor’s approval and signature, then it needs to be filed by the Lt. Governor’s Office and then 10 days after that it goes into effect. So this administrative rule requires a $1.00 collection fee by operators of commercial vessels, water craft or any water sports equipment, and, people that have a commercial operator permit or commercial use permit and this fee is gonna be required from each passenger or customer served and the revenues from this fee is going to be entering a DAR special fund and the special funds are gonna be mainly used to maintain day-use moorings and expansion of the day-use moorings around the state, also to support community stewardship,and grants and out-reach activities, also coral reef restoration projects that DAR has and also to hopefully establish some coastal water quality monitoring programs. And, of course, as I mentioned – education and out- reach activities. Ah, the next one is kind of a big one, it’s kinda of, well, it was in the media and, kind of buzzing through the community the past few years, but this one is the statewide size and bag limits amendments and also new rules for \[unclear\] fish. So, again, this one was approved by the Land Board this past Friday, again, it needs to get Governor’s approval and signature, but this rule basically will increase the minimum size for Manini from 5 inches to 6 inches, it’s gonna establish a new minimum length for Kole of 5 inches, so it’s currently we don’t have any minimum size for Kole or bag limits, it’s also gonna establish a new non-commercial bag limit of four Kala per person per day and it also establishes new restrictions on the commercial harvest and sale of Kala. This is gonna include commercial fishers need to obtain a $100 annual Commercial Kala Fishing Permit, it’s also gonna set a commercial annual catch limit of ACL for Kala of 50,000 pounds per year. And requires commercial Kala dealers who sell Kala to register with DLNR as commercial Kala dealers. It also increases the minimum length for large bodied Uhu species, from 12 to 14 inches – so that’s like the Red Lip and the Spectacled Uhu. It establishes a minimum length of 10 inches for all other Uhu species – the smaller bodied species. It also establishes a new non-commercial bag limit of 2 Uhu per person per day – so this is similar to the Maui rules that are in effect. It also establishes restrictions on the commercial harvest and sale of Uhu, including another commercial Uhu, I mean, another $100 annual commercial permit specifically for Uhu, just like the Kala. And it prohibits the commercial harvest of any Uhu species other than Uhu Palukoloka and Uhu Ele Ele – that’s the Red Lip species. And it also sets a commercial annual catch limit of 30,000 pounds per year and again it requires commercial breeding dealers who sell Uhu to register with DLNR as a commercial Uhu dealer. Ah, this rule also extends the current close season of May through August for Papai Koaloha – that’s the Kona Crab – so it’s gonna be extended to May to September now, but it also now allows the take of the female Kona Crab, which is currently restricted, but it’s gonna open up take of females. OK, so that was it for administrative rules. Ah so I’m gonna be shifting over to some ecological monitoring and sampling that our East Hawaii office does. So the first one is an Estuaries Cast Net sampling project that we’ve been doing for over 10 years now and this is actually funded through the Dingle-Johnson Sportfish Restoration Program – so this is kinda like aquatic or fishing counterpart to the Pittman-Robinson funds, so this project, um, we’re aiming to investigate the functional role of Hawaiian estuaries as they function as habitat for juvenile sport fish, also to investigate species composition, recruitment patterns when the juveniles and larvae come in to the estuary and also seasonal patterns across the years. We have 12 monitoring sites across 4 islands: Hawaii Island, Maui, Oahu, and Kauai. We have three sites on this Island in Hilo Bay, Kiholo and Pelekane. So we basically use a cast net, we target fish, count, measure, ID, and release everything, ah, we also take water quality measurements while we’re doing this so we get a better idea of how to characterize these habitats. So far, we’ve 19 recorded 82 species, ah, just on Hawaii Island. Ah, we have over 100 species statewide that we’ve recorded in estuaries. The most abundant species that we come across time and time again is the - what we call the Kanda mullet, which is actually an invasive, introduced species of mullet, so it competes with actually the native mullet, um, another shocking stat is - that people don’t realize is that about roughly 50% of our fishes that we record in our nets are in estuaries are introduced species. So, we’re nearly half in, you know, non-native species in our estuaries that were at least recorded in our samples and then the most abundant native species that we’ve been recording, Aholehole and ‘Iao across our sites. Ah, this is kinda just showing a visual of the – kinda of the species composition that we see at least on the 3 sites on this Island. Um, again you see in the green here is the invasive Kanda, so you can see at Pelekane on Kawaihae, you know, it’s a highly impacted estuary but you can see the dominant – how dominant that species is over there, even here in Bay Front, you know, it’s pretty common. Another common one is the Oama especially during the summer months and then then the ‘Iao here \[unclear\] Kiholo. Um, aside from cast net sampling we’re also exploring different, newer technology, um, which is baited remote underwater video survey – so it’s basically two cameras, like a stereo system set up, angled inwards and it’s kind of two cameras simultaneously filming underwater – like in the same area – or same frame, video frame – and we use a special software called CGIS where we can actually get really precise measurements of fish in the footage so we get it down to a millimeter, um, accuracy and we can identify species, and species count. So, we get similar data from – of this video – as we do with the cast nets but this allows us to record and monitor areas where we cannot cast net like areas where there’s a lot of branches or rocks where the nets get stuck so we can actually expand our surveys by using this technology. Ah, we’re also exploring the use of what we call Environmental DNA or EDNA, so this is actually a technology that actually originated from criminal forensics, ah, but it's being widely used across a lot of different fields now, um, and it’s rapidly growing but basically what we do is, you know, we collect water samples – it feeds through this tube here and it goes through a pump and the water filters – catches on a filter and then we save that filter and any type of genetic material that’s floating in the water we can analyze for different species that may have been in or, or, you know, and present in that habitat. So, it’s a really unique, um, very useful method, of course there are some limitations to this, but it really enhances the data and information that we can get, um, and it compliments what we do with the cast net and the video surveys. Ah, we’re also doing some anchialine habitat surveys in the new Kapoho coastline after the lava flow. So anchialine pools are basically just brackish pools that are in land – they’re land locked and then that’s where you find the Opae ula – I think a lot of people are familiar with the small red shrimp – people like to keep in jars, but we’ve been hiking out to that new lava field to survey the new coastline for these new habitats, ah, this is – we’ve also been using a drone to kind of get into deeper parts of the lava field where we can’t hike out to yet to kinda just rapidly do some reconnaissance to see if there’s new habitats forming, this is kind of a 3-D rendering of the drone imagery that we’re getting – so this is actually one mile in – we haven’t actually gotten to this yet – but we can actually monitor these and survey these pools remotely with our drone and we can get 3-D renderings from the images we get. And we can actually make spatial measurements from these 3-D models and characterize the habitat and locate these habitats before we can actually, you know, get out there. This is a map of the Kapoho coastline – the new one – so the orange dots there you see – those are the old anchialine pools that got covered from the lava flow – so we had over about roughly 80 anchialine pools prior to the lava flow. The yellow light here is the old coastline and then, of course, the new coastline. The green X’s here are all the new anchialine pools that we recorded and mapped out so far – so roughly 80 pools lost in 2018 – we’ve recorded roughly 70 new pools, there’s the cool thing is 20 that there’s a lot of these endemic shrimps in there that made it out there and there’s – they recruited into these habitats naturally – there’s these unidentified microbial communities that we’ve never seen before that we’ve seen – we’ve recorded out there so we’re still trying to figure out what that is, ah, and again, fortunately we don’t have any invasive species inhabiting these pools yet so it’s a kind of a cool thing to see it naturally re-set and have these new pristine habitats forming so we wanna kind of keep a good handle on this. Ah, OK, lastly, um, we’ve been establishing an East Hawaii Marine Monitoring Program, so much of our work up until now has been, you know, coastal in-land estuaries, you know, anchialine pools but we just recently started a marine monitoring program in East Hawaii where we’re doing fish and visual surveys of fish and \[unclear\] habitats or as the bottom habitat via scuba surveys, ah, we conducted a little over 70 surveys so far that they \[unclear\] Paukaa, Hilo Bay, Puhi Bay, Lalakea, and Waiuli in Keaukaha, ah, we recorded 90 species of fish so far, um, the most common species is Kole – we got big ones, small ones and everything in between. Different types of habitats have been coming across – mainly bolder habitats along the Hamakua coastlines – sperm grew - habitats, ah, like on blond reefs like outside of the break wall which is like ridges of coral separated by patches of sand and also shallow aggregate reefs like in Keaukaha. OK. Moving on to education and out-reach – we had, I mean, we have a – I’m sure some of you know John Kahiapo – he’s our Education Specialist – but he does a ton of outreach during the year but these are just kinda 3 main points I wanna highlight. First is a Kilo Kano Workshop – so I mentioned earlier the invasive Kanda the invasive mullet – we had a group that – or a workshop that was hosted by Kua’aina Ulu ‘Auamo, we had fish pond practitioners come in from Oahu, Maui, Molokai, around Hilo, Big Island, to kind of learn more about the Kanda species because it’s kinda dominating a lot of Hawaiian fish ponds and it’s becoming a nuisance so we participated in that, show people how we ID the species, how we differentiate the two species, and then how we catch them and how we sample and how we measure them. So, it was a really good workshop but we want to try and spread awareness of this invasive mullet. Some of our staff was participating at the Waiuli Ocean Festival this past Saturday, and they hosted the Holoholo Keiki Fishing Tournament over there – I think they had over 70 kids, keiki, fishing and then, again, John Kahiapo is our DAR Education Specialist, but he’s conducting fishing education training classes for fishing violators – so this comes down from actually the environmental court – it’s a court mandate that people that, have fishing violations – that they go through a fishing education class as part of their, I guess, punishment or participant. OK, quickly, future initiatives that we’re aiming for – one is the Pua ‘ama Production in Hilo. Pua ’ama is like the juvenile striped mullet – the native ‘ama’ama species. So, we’re collaborating with some groups in Keaukaha to hopefully get this up and running again and we’re gonna use our Wailoa fishing station which is close to the Ironworks to start rearing and hopefully releasing some ‘ama’ama, also we wanted to do some estuary habitat restoration work in Hilo, particularly in Waiakea Pond. I’m sure many of you have noticed the California grass overtaking a lot of portions of the pond, so we want to remove the grass and hopefully cultivate and out-plant some native sedges in these areas to kind of prevent that from happening again. And we also want to – we’re pursuing funding for that but also to conduct some and host some invasive fishing tournaments in Hilo. We had one in 2020, a tilopia fishing tournament in Wailoa so we want to try to do that again but kind of expand it, um, a little bit more, um, so we’re currently pursuing some funding to take on these future initiatives. And that’s it – I know that was quick – a lot of things but again if there’s any questions or if you guys want more details on any of these – anything that I covered, by all means feel free to contact me, either email or phone or I can take any questions right now. Thank you. 21 AA: Are there any questions from the Commissioners for Troy. LT: Leomana, District – 3. First I just wanted to say thank you Troy for all of that information. My family holds the lease for the old zoo in Keaukaha for Onikahakaha Beach and we have four acres of fish pond – so that anyone of those Pua ‘ama Projects where you guys are trying to find habitat to raise these fish,the pond we have is 3 ½ acres and this past year I’ve been clearing this pond out because it’s the only open pond habitat available for fish to migrate in and out on the whole coast. So, if you guys are looking for a place – that would be a good place to start down in Keaukaha. I don’t know if you guys have any other people you’re working with but if you have any information on how I can contact you about that and how I can be involved in that – I’d appreciate that. TS: Yeah, mahalo, yeah, for sure. Um, we’ve been in communication with the Kumuola Marine Education Center of Kamehameha Schools, they have good stuff there also the UH Hilo PACRC – they will do the spawning and hatching of the mullet and then we would do the grow-out of the fry at our Wailoa Station and then when they get to a bigger size we tag them then we can release them. But the idea is to support like the stocking – kinda restocking of some fish pond in Keaukaha. Also, in Waiakea Pond, where people go – like to go, you know, fishing for mullet. LT: OK. Yeah. TS: But it’s kind of a collaborative initiative right now that we’re looking at. But, yeah, definitely, yeah, we can keep in communication on this effort. LT: Yeah, thank you. AA: Abraham, District – 5. Troy so the rule change for the commercial vessels – that’s just commercial – that’s not like for private individuals that like take their jet ski out and then gotta pay that extra dollar fee and stuff? TS: Yeah, those are only for commercial operators that take out customers on their – it’s like basically commercial operators or business owners that, you know, take out like eco-tours or, people that have clients that they’re serving and then they collect the fee from their customers. AA: Right. TS: Yeah. But, yeah, that’s not – it doesn’t apply to personal, you know, vessel users or operators. AA: And that class that Uncle John put on – is that just for people that get in trouble or is that for public as well – like can you sign up for it as a member of the public or that’s just…? TS: I believe, well the one I mentioned is actually mainly for, I guess, violators but… AA: Yeah. TS: ….by all means, you know, there’s other classes and, John does a lot of outreach and education, and he does fishing classes for school groups and things like that. So aside from like those fishing 22 education classes – training for the violators – there’s a lot of further opportunities to have training or education through John. AA: OK. Right on. TS: Yeah. LT: Aloha, Leomana, District – 3. Sorry I got one more question going back to the lay nets. Two years ago my Dad got his lay nets taken by a couple of the DLNR officers and to his understanding he falls under the native Hawaiian native gathering rights from Article 12, section 7 of the Hawaii State Constitution and I just wanted to ask – is there someone in your office that can come and give us a better understanding of what the rules are, I guess, because I don’t know what the rules are for gathering rights and lay nets and stuff but my Dad had his net taken and we’re just kind of confused about the lay net rules and I guess all the gathering rules, and what’s – like what do you guys have jurisdiction over versus not. TS: Do you know what their reasoning was – why they confiscated the nets or? LT: I think the reason is he, the nets were unattended but my Dad is in a wheel chair so if you go down Keaukaha by Dad is Uncle Keoni he’s at Onikahakai \[sic\] every day and we grew up fishing Four Miles and we lay net at Four Miles my whole life, but two years ago, I guess, just because the whole COVID thing – that was where we ran into that issue where, oh, I thought we were covered under native gathering rights but he still got his net taken and a fine. I did register the nets last so… TS: OK. OK. Yeah, that’s a – I know that’s kind of tricky one. Unfortunately, I don’t have any answers for you right now, but I can try to follow-up to our legal staff to kind of get a more accurate, you know, response. LT: OK. Right on, yeah, thank you. You know, the kupuna they just kind of need to be told what’s the rules, I guess. TS: Yeah, I totally understand, yeah. LT: Mahalo. AA: Any other questions or comments – not seeing any – moving on. Thanks, Troy. Good working with you as well. Thanks for answering your phone. Had to build out that \[unclear\], right? TS: Yeah, mahalo. Happy Holidays. AA: You, too, man. SW: Deputy Corporation Counsel Sylvia Wan – I’ll just note for the record – we have lost quorum so anything that requires a vote or action of the Board will not be allowed. Presentations is fine, but, yeah. 23 8. FOURTH QUARTER REPORT: rd AA: Fourth quarter report is up right now. Um, our 3 quarter report was supposed to be signed and looked over by us already. Ah, but, we’re still waiting for Natalie, at this time, um, Justin – you mind doing the… SW: No. AA: What? SW: ‘Cause you guys have to vote for that on the signing too – if you got to table it… AA: Yeah. Lucky, Justin. LT: It’s coming down the pipe. 9. ANNOUNCEMENTS: a. Reminder to commissioners regarding open PIGs. AA: Well, I not going be Chair anymore so – no need worry – not coming from me. Ah, announcements – reminder that the Commissioners regarding the PIGs. SW: Oh, yeah, OK. Do you want to do it, or do you want me to do it? AA: Ah, you can do it. SW: OK, so, Deputy Corporation Counsel Sylvia Wan, I’m hoping this is complete – this is me reviewing our last agendas as well as the minutes of my notes. I might be missing some, but this is my understanding of the open PIGs right now. Currently we have an open PIG to investigate the extent of effects of mass feeding of feral animals and potential solutions. The Chairperson for that permitted inter-action group is Leomana. We also have an open PIG for… AA: Abraham, District – 5. Leomana, I think that your core people is Brian and Robert Duerr, right? LT: Yeah, um… SW: And also Natalie, but I’m not 100% on that. AA: I know Robert and Brian was in on that. So just reach out to them and work with them on that. SW: Ah, next one is regulations affecting Keauhou Bay and logistical issues and potential solutions. That Chair was Natalie Reynolds and I thought it was also supposed to be Austin with her on that one. AA: I think Austin and Teresa Nakama and I not sure… 24 SW: I’m not 100% on that but I know the Chair’s supposed to be Natalie. Ah, next we have the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Program – game management – sorry, restoration, yeah, Game Management Program for FY 2017-2021. Ah there are two permitted inter-action groups split up by East Side Being District 1, District 3, District 4, District 5 and West Side being District 6, District 7, District 8, and District 9. So those are still active and pending and then, we have still open Austin Griffey is to draft a letter regarding GMAC’s advice regarding lobster rd regulations to be drafted to DLNR Aquatics. The 3 quarterly report for GMAC is supposed to be drafted by Natalie Reynolds and last we’ve got a letter regarding GMAC’s opposition to fencing in the Pia Forrest Reserve. AA: Piha… P-I-H-A… SW: Pihi, OK, I wrote that down wrong. AA: And the south Kulani, I mean, south boundary buffer zone. SW: Yes, and so that letter was supposed to be drafted by Abraham and Robert Duerr. AA: Yeah. SW: OK. So that’s my list. If there’s anything that you know that is still pending and hasn’t been resolved, please let Barbara and I know, this is the list that I’ve come up with so far. Um, yes, please work on your reports. LT: Mahalo. AA: Yeah, so that’s the end of 2023 reports that needs to get, I mean, put in your guys’ hands but that’s what needs to get wrapped up for 2023, ah, for future agendas we can add that on. b. Next meeting will be on January 16, 2024, at 9:00 am to 11:00 am at the 25 Aupuni Street, Puna Conference Room, #1501, Hilo, HI 96720 ADJOURNMENT (11:00 AM): AA: Next meeting January 16, 2024, at 9:00 am. Same place, same time. Meeting adjourned at 10:39 am? Respectfully submitted by, Barbara Kossow Secretary 25