March
31, 2008
AQUARIUM
BILL DRAWS BROAD SUPPORT FROM ACROSS THE NATION
The Snorkel
Bob Foundation along with the Ko’olaupoko Hawaii Civic
Club, Maui Kupuna, the Maui Mayor’s Office, House Representatives
from Oahu and Maui districts, KAHEA, the Conservation Council
of Hawaii and other distinguished conservationists held a press
conference at the State Capitol in a continuing effort to bring
ravishing reef extraction to the light of day in Hawaii—to
put the aquarium bill on the air.
The aquarium campaign seeks to regulate massive extraction from Hawaii reefs
for the first time ever—no limitations have ever been set on the number
of fish taken or the number of collectors taking them.
The “reported” catch is 1-2 million, thought the Division of Aquatic
Resources (DAR) head administrator estimates the true catch at 2-5 times higher–at
2-10 million fish disappearing annually from Hawaii's reefs.
Snorkel Bob Foundation Executive Director Robert Wintner described the situation
as appalling and pathetic—and certainly dramatic. “We don’t
think the take is 10 million, though the collectors—and especially the
big-money traders—have pounced on that high end number as impossible,
as unscientific and emotional. I’ll admit that we’re very excited
at the momentum we’ve gained so quickly, but we’re no less scientific
than these strip-mining, self-serving interests who have already emptied many
reefs. We’re happy to focus on a median range as the actual take—say
5-6 million fish annually, which gives the collectors the benefit of the doubt
on DAR’s estimate. It gives the reefs no benefit at all, or the State
of Hawaii, who gets no tax revenue from poaching or smuggling.”
The Problem
High demand for yellow tangs and Hawaiian cleaner wrasses, coupled with unlimited
collecting, is leaving a wasteland of empty and algae ridden reefs. Tangs are
herbivores. They control algae on coral reefs. They comprise most of the take.
A yellow tang may live 45 years on a reef, or 3 years in a home aquarium under
perfect conditions. When a single species is targeted, the consequences may
be irreversible. “While over 100 species of fish are collected in Hawaii,
just seven of those species comprise 90% of the harvest (Wood 2001: Tissot
1999). “Yellow tangs alone account for 72% of the total harvest (Tissot
1999).
Status
Testimony supporting the aquarium bill was 3-1 over opposition in the first
hearing before Senate Water & Land. Opposition came from collectors and
exporters. Out of state testimony from Murray, Utah cited, "if we don't
stop this bill, next year, yellow tangs may wholesale at $100 each." This
disregard for Hawaii reefs energized supporters on the 2nd hearing, where testimony
favoring the bill ran 30-1 (thirty to one) over opposition.
The Hawaii State Senate passed the bill unanimously 25-0.
The bill was not scheduled for hearing on its first referral in the House—squashed
by Rep Ken Ito, Kane’ohe, Chair. Rep Ito’s motivation here is unclear,
though he may have feared the assertions that the aquarium bill would be a
first step at eliminating fishing rights in Hawaii. The aquarium collectors
have been filmed many times trashing coral, and witnessed many times wrenching
coral heads free in shallow water to capture the little fish hiding beneath.
One primary witness is Jerry Kaluhiwa, whose family has fished Kane’ohe
bay for 200 years. He tried to assure Rep Ito that the aquarium collectors
are not lawai (fishermen) and run contrary to Hawaiian culture.
The campaign is achieving great momentum. We are recently advised by Hawaiian
supporters of our cause: Akua will guide us when we are humble and do things
in a pono way, so ho`omanauanui, and lokahi and pono…and you will be
blessed.
To add your organization’s name to our list of supporters,
get current updates, and view Public Service Announcements (PSAs) and press,
go to http://savehawaiianreefs.org/
PRESS
RELEASE
July 11, 2006
PSA Calls For Reef Recovery
HAWAII— The Snorkel Bob Foundation’s PSA supporting
gillnet controls will air statewide this month in conjunction with hearings by
the Department of Land and Natural Resources. Kupuna Ed Lindsey said, "The
fish
come first. The reefs are in critical need of protection."
The PSA shows the ravages of gillnets-monofilament fishing nets with
weights on the bottom and buoys on top, indiscriminate in catch
and detrimental to reefs.
DLNR's proposed gillnet rules would ban gill nets entirely from Maui Island,
as well as ban them from dusk till dawn throughout Hawaii. Significant damage
occurs from nets left overnight, an illegal practice in violation of the four-hour
soak time with a two-hour check, but one that has been extremely difficult
to monitor.
Gillnets
would be prohibited on Oahu west of Pearl Harbor Channel, Kailua Bay
and Kaneohe Bay.
Invisible underwater to humans and fish, gill nets are cheap and expendable,
often discarded in the sea to continue as "curtains of death" in a
cycle of killing, sinking and floating. The PSA urges public comment to be faxed
to the Department of Aquatic Resources by August 8th at (808) 587-7115, supporting
DLNR's proposed gillnet rules.
Snorkel Bob Foundation Director Robert Wintner said "This is a critical
issue to Hawaii reefs and their prospects for survival. It will be one of the
most important rule changes in our time. Gillnets are not part of Hawaiian culture-their
use is popular with a minority few whose plea is sustenance, when they actually
deprive the vast majority of sustenance through traditional fishing practices.
Gillnets take everything. Gillnets leave nothing for tomorrow or anyone else.
Gillnets kill reefs."
The Snorkel Bob Foundation is a 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to
reef defense. Recent projects include sponsoring the "Hawaii Reef Etiquette PSA” by
Ziggy Livnat for Hawaii visitors. Snorkel gear donations include Texas Woman’s
University coral bleaching research in the Bahamas, the Kihei Fishpond Revitalization,
the Kauai Children's Discovery Museum, and six South Pacific nations attempting
to salvage their reefs through the Peace Corps.
To preview the Reef Defense PSA, go to http://snorkelbob.com/sbfoundation_gillnet_PSA.htm.
For a copy of the PSA, call Joan Lloyd at (808) 269-0102.
New Sea Turtle Documentary Film Shows to Packed Audiences
Across Hawai’i
FOREST KNOLLS, CA — The nonprofit Sea Turtle Restoration
Project has released
the new documentary, Last Journey for the Leatherback? by the Emmy
award-winning documentary filmmaker Stan Minasian (dir. The Last Days of the Dolphins?,
The
Free Willy Story: Keiko's Journey Home). Last Journey for the
Leatherback? will show Thursday, February 10th, at the Aloha Theater,
Big Island, Hawai’i,
6:30 pm. All seats are $10 with proceeds to go to the Sea Turtle Restoration
Project and the '05 Hawksbill Dawn Patrol. Last Journey for the Leatherback? will
show with Hawksbill Babies at Makena which shows the most endangered
turtles in the Pacific struggling to endure here on Maui. The films will
be presented
by the Snorkel Bob Foundation with special guest appearances by Kimokeo Kapahulehua,
Kihei Kupuna descended from generations of honu Aumakua forebears, and by
Snorkel Bob, Himself.
Last Journey for the Leatherback? has shown to packed audiences
at the Maui Arts
and Cultural Center and the Kauai Arts & Cultural Center, including 550 students
on Kauai Friday, February 4th.
“
Sea turtles are really symbolic of what’s happening to the oceans
as a whole. As go sea turtles, so go, will go, the ocean,” explains Dr.
Earle, a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, in the stunning natural duotone
opening sequence of the film as dozens of newly hatched leatherback sea turtles
crawl to the water under
the moonlight.
Scientists predict that the giant Pacific leatherback sea turtle, which has
survived unchanged for over 100 million years, could vanish in the next 5
to 30 years,
if current threats from wasteful industrial longline fishing are not curtailed.
The female nesting population of leatherback sea turtles in the Pacific Ocean
has collapsed by 95 per cent in the past 20 years.
The leatherback is the largest sea turtle, measuring nine feet from head
to tail with the largest ever recorded tipping the scales at 2,000 lbs.
Last Journey for the Leatherback? is a hard hitting documentary
that combines science, activism and rare footage of endangered sea turtles,
to tell
the gripping
story of sea turtles, the new icon of the ocean environmental movement. Sea
turtles are quickly reaching the status of dolphins and whales and conservationists
are
becoming increasingly alarmed and active in their fight to save these gentle
giants, and to stop the wide-spread impacts on the world’s ocean ecosystems.
After the premiere Last Journey for the Leatherback? will move to
the festival circuit and eventual broadcast on the Caribbean Broadcast Union,
Link TV (US,
DirectTV and Dish Network, and PBS (US),
Learning to Sea (WINNER, Hawaii Ocean Film Festival '04) is Ziggy
Livnat’s
film on Red Sea and Caribbean reefs. This engaging event will raise funds to
help get Ziggy Livnat’s new reef etiquette short film on incoming flights.
For more information visit http://www.seaturtles.org/ or http://www.savetheleatherback.com/
Article
from The Maui News
December 26, 2004
Turtle
films to raise money for dawn patrol
MAUI,
HAWAII–A film of baby hawksbill turtles making
their way out of the sand at Big Beach this summer will be
part of "Turtlerama," an evening of three films and lectures
to raise money for the 2005 Hawksbill Dawn Patrol on Maui
and for the international Sea Turtle Restoration Project.
The
event will be held at 7 p.m. Jan. 18 at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center's
McCoy Studio Theater.
The films document sea turtles from the hawksbill hatchlings, almost
small enough to fit in a tablespoon, to the largest, the 9-foot-long,
2,000 pound Pacific leatherback turtle.
Robert "Snorkel Bob"
Wintner and the Snorkel Bob Foundation are sponsors of "Turtlerama," and
Wintner and a friend shot "Hawksbill Babies at Makena Beach."
He calls
it "our little home movie, Maui style. We literally came upon this
nest as it began to hatch in the middle of the day, and we happened
to have a video camera fully charged with a new cassette.
"
The result
is an extremely rare look at the most endangered turtles in the Pacific
Ocean making their bid for survival."
The
other films will be "Last Journey for the Leatherback," which was released
early this month for satellite television by the Sea Turtle Restoration
Project of Forest Knolls, Calif.; and "Learning to Sea," which is about
Red Sea and Caribbean reefs.
There
will be guest appearances by Kimokeo Kapahulehua, a Kihei kupuna
descended from generations of honu aumakua forebears, and by Wintner.
The
evening will conclude with a question-and-answer session with Peter
Fugazzotto, communications director of the Sea Turtle Restoration Project.
The
Snorkel Bob Foundation is dedicated to marine habitat and species defense
against whaling, illegal fin fish harvesting and incidental kill of
marine species.
Wintner
says he contacted the Sea Turtle Restoration Project for assistance
when he was working to get a restaurant chain to remove swordfish from
its menu.
Swordfish
are caught by long liners, and long-line hooks are said to be the biggest
threat to the Pacific leatherback.
According
to the Sea Turtle Restoration Project, the breeding population of Pacific
leatherback females has crashed to one-twentieth of its size just two
decades ago.
Oceanographer
Sylvia Earle is host of the leatherback film.
Hawksbills
are the most endangered of the sea turtles found in Hawaii. A hawksbill
named Orion laid five nests on Big and Little Beaches this year.
The
Hawaii Wildlife Fund sponsors a Dawn Patrol of volunteers who check
beaches for nests and undertake projects to assist the turtles.
The
patrol covered three beaches in 2004 and hopes to recruit enough volunteers
to check 10 beaches in 2005.
The
third film was shot by Ziggy Livnat, who is seeking support from airlines
flying into Hawaii to show a five-minute video on reef etiquette for
visitors.
Seats
to Turtlerama are $10. The doors open at 6:30 p.m.
Call
242-SHOW (7469) for tickets.
Article
from The Maui News
October 8, 2004
Fishpond
restoration gets gift as start of job nears
Snorkel
Bob equipment donation also will be available to whale agency
| |
|
Kimokeo Kapahulehua
(left), president of Ao'ao O Na Loko I'a O Maui, the Association
of Fishponds of Maui, thanks Robert Wintner, executive director
of the Snorkel Bob Foundation of Hawaii, for his contribution
of $5,700 in Snorkel Bob brand gear.
|
| |
MAUI,
HAWAII–Snorkel Bob Foundation of Hawaii donated $5,700
worth of snorkel gear to `Ao `ao O Nä Loko
I’a O Maui, the
Association of the Fishponds of Maui, which is a state permit away
from beginning restoration work on the ancient Ko'ie'ie fishpond. “This generous gift from the Snorkel Bob Foundation will help us monitor
water quality, marine life, invasive seaweed and coral,” said Kimokeo
Kapahulehua, president of the association.
The
gift of 50 sets of snorkel gear–which includes snorkels, masks and
fins-will come in handy when the restoration work begins, said Kimokeo
Kapahulehua, president of the fishpond board. The equipment will be
used to monitor water quality, marine life, invasive seaweed and coral
at the Ko'ie'ie fishpond, and for supervised youth recreation within
the pond, he said in a news statement.
The snorkel gear also will be available for use by the Hawaiian Islands
Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, which is next door and houses
the offices of the nonprofit fishponds association, said Joylynn Oliveira,
vice president of the board.
The Kö`ie`ie fishpond, believed to have been built more than 500 years
ago, is the best preserved pond along the South Maui coastline and was
traditionally reserved for use by the alii, Oliveira said.
The
fishpond association is one state permit away from being able to begin
work, Oliveira said in a telephone interview Tuesday. The last of the
permits–issued by the county, state and federal governments–involves
the group's lease with the state for the fishpond area.
Most fishponds are in remote areas with private accesses, "whereas
our fishpond is in the heart of Kihei," said Oliveira. The hitch in
obtaining the last of the permits with the Board of Land and Natural
Resources involves leasing "something in the water" while working with
the traditional Hawaiian ahupuaa land-division concept, which extends
into the ocean, she said.
The fishpond board is hopeful the item will be on the DLNR meeting
at the end of the month.
Once the final permit is obtained, the fishpond group will use a $140,000
Hawaii Tourism Authority grant to hire experts to work on the fishpond
wall, removing rocks and replacing them one by one, said Oliveira.
The
fishpond restorers will rely on volunteers, working in crews of 20
to 30 people, she said. Larger crews would create too much silt in
the pond.
Loko
I'a, a Molokai fishpond restoring group led by Walter Ritte, has been
hired to train fishpond restoration workers, Oliveira said.They will
be looking for the niho, or foundation stones, then restacking and
interlocking the rocks. The walls will be built at an angle to dissipate
the energy of the pounding waves, she said.
The
work will take about a year.
"We
want to take our time to make sure the wall is done right," she said.
"We also want to make it an educational experience for our volunteers."
The
goal is to "revitalize the fishpond wall" by "kind of restoring (it)
to what it once looked" like, Oliveira said, adding that the ocean
and landscape have changed since the pond was built hundreds of years
ago.
In addition
to the HTA grant, the fishpond group has a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Foundation
grant of $49,000 to help control erosion in the area, which in turn
will help restore reefs and repopulate sea life, she said.
The
group needs another $200,000 to complete the restoration work and to
continue the education programs, she said.
The
restoration work is in keeping with the philosophy of Snorkel Bob's.
“Our objective is clear. We see the fishpond as a dynamic component in
the revitalization of Maui’s magic,” said Robert Wintner,
executive director of the Snorkel Bob Foundation. “We have good reason
to believe that the fishpond is becoming a thriving nursery for many
fish species and
we need to collect additional data on that theory.”
The
Snorkel Bob Foundation has contributed 25 sets of Snorkel Bob Brand
gear for kids and 25 sets for adults. Each youth set includes
a Li’l Mo or Li’l
Mo Betta mask, Li’l Bubba dry snorkel and fins. Adult sets
include fins, Seamo and Seamo Betta masks, and Ultima Bubba dry snorkels.
Wintner hopes that fishpond volunteers, especially children,
will make a clear connection between protecting this area and helping
to replenish
reef
and game fish in nearby waters.
Snorkel Bob's is the only gear manufacturer in Hawaii that designs and
engineers its own high-tech equipment, he said.
____________________________________________________________________
PRESS
RELEASE
July 2, 2004
OCEAN KEIKIS
 KAPAA, HAWAII–Snorkel
Bob is putting kids in the ocean again with a $3,600 donation of masks,
fins and snorkels
to the Kauai Children's Discovery Museum. KCDM official Frank Reilly said, "The
kids love this, and their snorkeling is great because of the quality gear.
They ask more questions now and pay more attention. So they're learning
more
than they
ever have."
KCDM appealed
to the Snorkel Bob Foundation on noting the woeful lack of reef experience
by Hawaii's kids, most often because of limited
funds for good snorkel
gear. Foundation Director Robert Wintner said, "Reef defense is critical.
Without the kids out there seeing and learning what is uniquely theirs to
safeguard, we have little hope of preserving what's left." The
donation of 30 sets of highest quality masks, fins and snorkels to the
Summer Keiki Camp and Ocean Club internships was designated as a tool
for teaching
reef defense. Stipulated in the donation was that none of the gear ever
be used in harming marine species or habitat in any way for any reason.
The Reef Defender Program debuted at Sacred Hearts School on Maui last
month
with a rousing response from 22 students who then proceeded to get snorkel
gear for the day to assess and record data on various reefs. The Reef
Defender Program will be available to schools on all islands in the fall. |
