Council Loses an Advisor: Robin Baird, one of the leading experts on false killer whales in waters around Hawai`i, has resigned from the Protected Species Advisory Committee of the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council (Wespac). Baird resigned effective January 31. The … Continued
Humpback Delisting Petition: A newly formed association claiming to represent Hawai`i fishermen wants to remove the North Pacific population of humpback whales from the federal list of endangered species.The group, calling itself Hawai`i Fishermen’s Alliance for Conservation and Tradition, Inc. (HFACT), … Continued
Undocumented Birds: There’s a new bird on Maui, and it arrived without any by-your-leave from the state. The golden pheasant (Chrysolophus pictus) was probably brought into the state sometime in the early 1990s and is now breeding in Waikamoi Preserve, managed … Continued
Sailing On: “Ahoy rrrr ye mateys! The Queen’s Treasure be sailin again!” read the June 28 message to followers of Queen’s Treasure’s Facebook page. For about the last year and a half, Ka`anapali Tours, LLC (KTL), which owns the 65-foot luxury catamaran, has been fighting … Continued
Kaua`i Springs to Get High Court Hearing: The Hawai`i Supreme Court will hear the appeal of a Kaua`i water bottler from an Intermediate Court of Appeals decision last spring. The lower court had ruled on April 30 that the Kaua`i County … Continued
False Killer Whale Recovery Plan: The beginning of this month was the deadline to submit information to the National Marine Fisheries Service on a recovery plan for the endangered insular stock of Hawaiian false killer whales. On October 2, the day … Continued
Sounding Off: On December 13, the National Marine Fisheries Service authorized “the most environmentally destructive of the alternatives the Navy analyzed for training and testing in the HSTT [Hawai`i-Southern California Training and Testing] Study Area during the period December 26, 2013, … Continued