• Critical habitat is essential to the endangered Hawaiian monk seal’s survival – without the land and sea seals depend on to live, they will go extinct.
• You can still go to the beach, fish, gather, swim, surf, snorkel, dive, boat, and do all of the things you do now in critical habitat – designation will not restrict public access.
• The main effect of critical habitat is to require greater review of federally funded or permitted projects to minimize harm to the habitat. The ESA is a federal law – it makes sense to prohibit federal actions from harming or destroying critical habitat for endangered species.
• Protecting monk seal critical habitat is good for the seals, good for our marine resources, and good for everyone who depends on and enjoys the ocean in Hawai‘i.

Miyoko Sakashita is Oceans Director with the Center for Biological Diversity. Koalani Kaulukukui is President of KAHEA: The Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance and serves on the Board of Directors of the Conservation Council for Hawai‘i.

“New habitat protections could be a lifeline for endangered monk seals, protecting Hawaii’s clean beaches and coastal waters,” said Miyoko Sakashita, oceans director at the Center. 

Studies have shown that endangered wildlife with habitat protections are twice as likely to be recovering as those without. The proposed rule expands the current critical habitat area for the Hawaiian monk seal in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands to include deeper waters. It also designates new areas on all of the main Hawaiian Islands: Ni'ihau, Kaua'i, O'ahu, Moloka'i, Lāna'i, Kaho'olawe, Maui and Hawaii. Areas protected would include coastal land up to five meters inland and waters out to 500 meters in depth, with certain exclusions.

“The hearings are an opportunity to speak up in favor of protecting our beaches and reefs not only for monk seals, but also for Hawaii’s paddlers, fishers, surfers and all people of these islands,” said Marti Townsend of KAHEA: The Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance. 
The hearings are as follows:

The National Marine Fisheries Service is also accepting written public comments on the proposal until Aug. 31, 2011 (www.regulations.gov#0648-BA81).

For more information see Save Our Hawaiian Monk Seal (http://on.fb.me/mwHgmT).

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The Center for Biological Diversity is a nonprofit conservation organization with more than 320,000 members and online activists dedicated to protecting endangered species and wild places. www.biologicaldiversity.org

KAHEA is a community-based organization working to improve the quality of life for Hawai’i’s people and future generations through the revitalization and protection of Hawai’i’s unique natural and cultural resources. We advocate for the proper stewardship of our resources and for social responsibility by promoting multicultural understanding and environmental justice. www.kahea.org

“New habitat protections could be a lifeline for endangered monk seals, protecting Hawaii’s clean beaches and coastal waters,” said Miyoko Sakashita, oceans director at the Center.

Studies have shown that endangered wildlife with habitat protections are twice as likely to begin recovery as those without. The proposed rule expands the current critical habitat area for the Hawaiian monk seal in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands to include deeper waters. It also designates new areas on all of the main Hawaiian Islands: Ni’ihau, Kaua’i, O’ahu, Moloka’i, Lāna’i, Kaho’olawe, Maui and Hawaii. Areas protected would include coastal land up to five meters inland and waters out to 500 meters in depth, with certain exclusions.

“The hearings are an opportunity to speak up in favor of protecting our beaches and reefs not only for monk seals, but also for Hawaii’s paddlers, fishers, surfers and all people of these islands,” said Marti Townsend of KAHEA: The Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance.

Oahu
Thursday, August 11 5:30pm-8:00pm)
McCoy Pavilion at Ala Moana Park
1201 Ala Moana Blvd.

Hawaii
Monday, August 15 (5:30pm-8:00pm)
Mokupapapa Discovery Center
308 Kamehameha Ave., 109

Tuesday, August 16 (6:30pm-9:00pm)
Kahakai Elementary School 
76-147 Royal Poinciana Drive

Maui
Tuesday, August 9 (5:30pm-8:00pm)
Kihei Community Center
303 E. Lipoa St.

Molokai
Monday, August 8 (5:30pm-8:00pm)
Mitchell Pauole Center
90 Ainoa Street

Kauai
Wednesday, August 10 (5:00pm-9pm)
Kauai War Memorial Convention Hall
4191 Hardy St., Exhibit Hall B

Late in the day on December 23rd, the final version of the Monument management plan was quietly published on the Papahānaumokuākea website.  No press release. No email to the list serv.  Just a quick post on the eve of the Eve of Christmas, which just happened to get picked up in a google alert days later.

Given all the eco-mojo the Bush Administration has tried to squish out of this “blue asterisk,” you would expect a mighty deal be made of finally finishing the management plan two years later.  The fact that the release was so secretive has gotta make you wonder what’s actually in it.

On their website, James Connaugton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality is quoted as saying:

“When President Bush first designated the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in June 2006, his goal was to move beyond just thinking about conservation to carefully managing this important area.”

Yikes! What does the federal government mean exactly when it says “move beyond” conservation?

Well, from what we see in the plan it means:

• no limit on military activities affecting Monument resources (not even a discussion of what it would take to abide by the proclamation and “minimize and mitigate” half-pound pieces of fiery shrapnel hitting Nihoa).
• no ban on bioprospecting, which is the taking of public trust resources for exploitation and profit by corporations, academic institutions, and private individuals.
• no limit on the number of people that can access and/or take from this “no take” reserve.
• no assessment of the cumulative risks and impacts of past and anticipated human activity in the Monument.
• no public advisory council, which has been key in forcing transparent & accountable decisionmaking.

Over 50% of the proposed 355 million-dollar budget is for government operations and research, while a mere 12% goes to reducing existing threats, like clean-up of marine debris and legacy military contamination. The plan also fails to allocate sufficient resources for Native Hawaiian involvement in Monument decision-making, and leaves decision-making to a closed-door Monument Management Board.

The plan essentially abandons the “precautionary principle,” which was a hallmark of the State’s visionary pre-monument protections that required biological, cultural and historic resource integrity be favored when the impacts of any proposed activity were uncertain.

So while the revised vision, mission, and goals now commit to conservation as the purpose of the Monument, you can see that the actions to implement this plan remain largely unimproved over the weak draft released earlier this Spring.

When the draft version of this plan was released, the National Wildlife Federation, the Center for Biological Diversity and more than a dozen other organizations–representing well over 5 million people–joined KAHEA in strongly criticizing the management plan.  Despite two years of advocacy, and thousands of public letters and comments calling for a stronger, more protective plan, it is apparent that our united call for a true pu‘uhonua didn’t fit with the federal government’s vision for the future of “conservation” in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

So, here’s our take – a quote for the papers  – on the federal government’s attempt to “move beyond” conservation:

“This is conservation on paper, but not in practice. They have reshuffled the goals to say ‘full conservation’ but their proposed actions speak louder than their words. They are exempting increased military exercises proposed for this extremely delicate ocean habitat from management. They are proposing increased tourism, new construction, and extractive research without adequate public oversight and Native Hawaiian consultation,” said Marti Townsend, Program Director of KAHEA: The Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance.

To learn more about this issue, including a detailed review of the draft plan, visit our website at: www.kahea.org