“We’re not happy,” Lisa Spain told the room after casting the deciding vote to approve an amended Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) that would allow the state’s largest wind farm to kill 160 more endangered bats than the 60 it was … Continued
At the state Endangered Species Recovery Committee (ESRC) meeting last month, members debated the best way to mitigate the effects wind farms have on endangered Hawaiian hoary bats, which are being killed at a rate much higher than expected when … Continued
Kawailoa Wind, LLC is near the end of a four-year effort to amend its Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) so that it allows the additional take of endangered Hawaiian hoary bats. In the course of that effort, it also became clear … Continued
On July 25, the state Endangered Species Recovery Committee ap- proved an amended Habitat Conservation Plan for Auwahi Wind Energy, LLC’s 24-megawatt wind farm at Ulupalakua Ranch on Maui. If the plan also receives approval from the Board of Land … Continued
Did it fall short, or go too far? The National Marine Fisheries Service’s recently completed biological opinion (BiOp) for the Hawai‘i swordfish longline fishery would allow individual vessels to hook more endangered loggerhead and leather back sea turtles in a … Continued
One of the terms and conditions in the shallow-set fishery BiOp requires NMFS to conduct a workshop with fishermen, observers, relevant experts and NMFS’ Protected Resources Division staff to “determine whether there are more effective methods for removing more fishing … Continued
At its March meeting, the council threatened to complain to NOAA brass that Mike Tosatto, director of NMFS’ Pacific Islands Regional Office (PIRO), might not be the best man for the job if his office did not complete by the … Continued
Kekaha Violations: A federal judge has found that the state Agribusiness Development Corporation has been violating the Clean Water Act for years, as the century-old drainage system it owns discharges millions of gallons a day into the Pacific Ocean along … Continued
A recent rapid assessment of 83 marine species from throughout the Pacific found that sharks — including the threatened oceanic whitetip — sea cucumbers, urchins and clams are highly vulnerable to expected climate change effects over the next few decades. … Continued
Marti Townsend, director of the Sierra Club’s Hawai‘i Chapter, asked the audience crammed into a state capitol conference room last month to imagine a world in which fossil fuel companies in the 1980s took the warnings of its scientists about … Continued