Are marine national monuments established under the Antiquities Act legal? And should Congress compensate fishers – even potential fishers – for loss of access to monument waters? Those were two the questions posed to the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council … Continued
A decade ago, Daniel Pauly, one of the leading scientists in the field of fisheries management, coined a term: Fishing down the food web. This describes what happens when the large marine predators are overfished and their numbers decline, while … Continued
Whales, Dolphins Unprotected from Fishers: The Government Accountability Office has found that the National Marine Fisheries Service has failed to take protective measures for 14 marine mammal populations that, by law, it is required to protect. Among them are Hawai`i … Continued
The annual Variance Report, published by the state Department of Budget and Finance, is a rich mine of information on the operation of Hawai`i government agencies. Here are a few tidbits: Average number of business days the Department of Taxation … Continued
As with most other state agencies, the Department of Land and Natural Resources is facing straitened circumstances as Hawai`i attempts to deal with forecasts of crashing revenues. From an authorized spending level of roughly $111.6 million for the current fiscal … Continued
Seal Rehab at Keahole? On October 20, the state Natural Energy Laboratory Hawai`i Authority’s board of directors gave preliminary approval to a proposal by The Marine Mammal Center (TMMC) of Sausalito, California, to construct an endangered Hawaiian monk seal (Monachus … Continued
Once again, the City and County of Honolulu is in a pickle over the continued operation of the Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill, O`ahu’s only municipal solid waste facility. The city’s special use permit from the state Land Use Commission, which … Continued
Land Board Extends Deadlines to Complete Timber Mill It’s been about a decade since the state Board of Land and Natural Resources issued a timber land license to Tradewinds Forest Products, LLC, to log a portion of the state’s Waiakea … Continued
Days before the departure of the Big Island administration of Mayor Harry Kim, the Hawai`i County Planning Department released draft guidelines for monitoring water quality in West Hawai`i. The “Revised Monitoring Protocol Guidelines” would, if adopted, establish more uniform reporting … Continued
Virgin Paper Chase: Once again, the Department of Accounting and General Services is seeking an exemption from the requirement that it purchase paper with recycled content for printing state checks. According to the exemption request that state Controller Russell Saito … Continued