Snail v. Snail v. Rat: The enemy of my enemy is my friend. That may be a concise description of the findings of two University of Hawai`i researchers into the predation of black rats on two species of invasive snails, … Continued
“I don’t think we’re licked yet,” said one of the more optimistic presenters at this year’s Hawai`i Conservation Conference. But while he and several other speakers insisted that it’s not too late to try to protect Hawai`i’s natural resources from … Continued
In the three years since total allowable catch limits, or TACs, were first set for seven species of highly prized bottomfish around the Main Hawaiian Islands, the annual quotas have steadily grown. From 178,000 pounds the first year, it has … Continued
For Kitty Simonds, executive director of the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council, what happened on Saturday, July 25, must have felt like a palace coup. At the tail end of a four-day meeting of the council in Kona, Simonds had … Continued
For the first time, the Hawai`i longline fleet is operating under catch limits for its most lucrative haul – bigeye tuna – throughout virtually the entire area it fishes. Yet the trade group representing the 125 or so longline vessels … Continued
With the deadline for the governor’s vetoes of measures passed by the Legislature this year having come and gone, we can finally report on the bills described in our July issue whose fate was unsettled when we went to press … Continued
Geothermal Wells to be Plugged: It’s been two decades since they were drilled, but at long last, two geothermal wells in the Big Island district of Puna are going to be plugged. One of them, the 6500-foot-deep SOH-4 well, is an … Continued
Headlines on recent stories about the Hawai`i akepa, an endangered forest bird, have been alarming. Last July, Science, the magazine of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, reported in online editions that researchers were exploring the “startling decline of a … Continued
The Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawai`i was Ground Zero for ocean-thermal energy conversion (OTEC) experiments for most of the first two decades of its life. In fact, OTEC development was one of the main reasons – if not the reason – for … Continued
More than 30 years after the state Constitution was amended to require the protection of agricultural land, the state Land Use Commission has designated the first official Important Agricultural Lands. Once a land is protected with this label, any decision … Continued