Thirty Hawaiian lawmakers wrote President Obama urging him not to expand the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument by 8 percent, as conservationists have proposed, says Civil Beat.
The legislators argued that any expansion of the 140,000-square-mile protected area, which was originally designated by President Bush in 2007, would result in an estimated 8-percent drop in the number of tuna caught and a $6.83-million loss to the tuna industry. Seafood is often considered Hawaii’s biggest food crop, earning $87.5 million in 2011.
Conservationists, meanwhile, say the fishermen and the politicians representing them have drastically overstated the monetary impact.
“It’s just a false logic to suggest that a mobile fishery resource has to be fished in this particular location,” said David Henkin, staff attorney for Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law organization. “You’re talking about catching fish. You’re not cutting down trees. You’re not mining for gold.”
Conservationists also have pointed out that in recent years Hawaii’s longliners have filled their tuna quota so quickly that they have bought up quota rights from neighboring islands, including Guam. Expanding the monument size, they say, could theoretically slow their catch and pace how quickly tuna comes to market, keeping prices higher throughout the season.
Money aside, Hawaii’s fishing industry doesn’t appreciate the idea of more regulations. “The fact of the matter is that we continue to be squeezed out of traditional areas,” said Sean Martin, president of the Hawaii Longline Association.
The area in question is home to roughly 7,000 marine species, a quarter of which researchers believe exist nowhere else on earth.