{"id":9047,"date":"2016-07-01T18:19:42","date_gmt":"2016-07-01T18:19:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.environment-hawaii.org\/?p=9047"},"modified":"2021-03-25T23:10:51","modified_gmt":"2021-03-25T23:10:51","slug":"proponents-argue-nwhi-monument-expansion-would-protect-sea-bed-cultural-resources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/?p=9047","title":{"rendered":"Proponents Argue NWHI Monument Expansion\u00a0Would Protect Sea Bed, Cultural Resources"},"content":{"rendered":"

The debate over the proposed expansion of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument has so far focused mainly on potential impacts to Hawai`i\u2019s longline fishery. But at last month\u2019s meeting of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Ecosystem Reserve Advisory Council, William Aila reminded the council, \u201cIt\u2019s not only about fishing. It\u2019s about sea bed mining, protecting maritime cultural resources of the Midway battle, Hawaiian cultural resources \u2026 the birds, fish, winds, cloud and rain.\u201d  Aila is one of the several native Hawaiians who earlier this year wrote President Barack Obama seeking greater protections for federal waters in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI).<\/p>\n

\u2018No Recovery, Ever\u2019<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

A \u201cprime crust zone\u201d spans a large swath of the sea floor in the NWHI, monument research specialist Daniel Wagner reported at the council\u2019s May meeting. And in that crust, he said, are commercially valuable manganese, copper, zinc, cobalt and titanium.<\/p>\n

The sea floor is increasingly being prospected by the mining industry, he told the council. \u201cSome areas are protected. Most are going to be explored,\u201d he said. While most of that exploration so far has taken place in international waters, he\u2019s convinced that deep-sea mining in U.S. waters is something that \u201cprobably will happen in my lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Any mining in U.S. waters would have to clear the approval process overseen by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, itself a division of the Department of Commerce. Should mining ever occur in the NWHI, some have suggested that it would devastate the rich biological communities that Wagner and other researchers have discovered during recent research cruises.<\/p>\n

In more than two dozen unmanned, deep-sea submersible dives done in the NWHI in the past two years \u2014 six of them in the expansion area \u2014 researchers found high-density biological communities \u201cin almost every place we looked,\u201d Wagner said. Not only did the submersibles find the much-publicized \u201cghost\u201d octopus (likely a new species), the world\u2019s oldest living marine organism (a 4,000-plus-year-old black coral), and the world\u2019s largest sponge, Wagner said they also discovered the largest known marine community, spanning more than ten miles.<\/p>\n

<\/b>\u201cAt these depths, we don’t just have new species, we have remarkable new species,\u201d he said. And the sea floor teems with so much life, he added, that there were times when the submersible operators couldn\u2019t land the rover.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt had to hover,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A high-density community of deep-sea corals and sponges at a depth of 2,000 meters (that\u2019s more than a mile deep!) surveyed during the expedition. Credit: NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2015 Hohonu Moana<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While most of the dives were done inside the monument, Wagner noted that all the seamounts in the NWHI EEZ likely have high-density biological communities. One seamount recently discovered peaked within 100 meters of the surface, while others were as tall as Mauna Kea (nearly 14,000 feet from sea level to summit) and the island of O`ahu, he said.<\/p>\n

University of Hawai`i Fisheries Ecology Research Lab director Alan Friedlander told Environment Hawai`i<\/i> that the NWHI may not have particularly rich manganese deposits, but its seamount peaks do have crusts of cobalt, an element used in electronics and computers. \u201cYou can imagine lopping off the top of these seamounts \u2026 There will be no recovery, ever,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Expansion of the monument would protect approximately 110 additional seamounts from the effects of deep sea mining, according to a white paper issued last month by the grassroots group Expand Papahanaumokuakea.<\/p>\n

\u2018Collateral Damage\u2019<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

In addition to protecting deep-water habitats, proponents of the expansion hope to reduce the Hawai`i longline fleet\u2019s bycatch. Seabirds, turtles, marine mammals, and other species are \u201ccollateral damage\u201d in the longline fishery, Friedlander said. In 2014, the fishery interacted with dozens of Black-footed and Laysan albatross in federal waters around the NWHI, and between 2009 and 2014, federal fishery observers documented two takes of endangered false killer whales there, according to NOAA maps. The fishery also catches and releases several thousand sharks of various species in the region annually. With an expanded monument, \u201cthose species will be afforded protection,\u201d Friedlander claims.<\/p>\n

\"Laysan<\/a>
Laysan and black-footed albatrosses behind a Hawaii longline vessel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Opponents, however, argue that the fishery is not jeopardizing any incidentally incidentally caught species. Western Pacific Fishery Management Council staffer Eric Kingma said at last month\u2019s council meeting that 85 percent of the sharks caught are blue sharks, which, he argued, are not vulnerable to over-exploitation (this despite the fact that they are considered \u201cnear threatened\u201d by the International Union for Conservation of Nature). Kingma added that the Hawai`i longline fishery is a model for effective seabird bycatch mitigation. \u201cThe way you protect seabirds is have other fleets adopt Hawai\u2019i\u2019s practices,\u201d he said. (It should be noted, however, that litigation related to the fishery\u2019s take of seabirds and endangered sea turtles is ongoing.)<\/p>\n

The extent of bycatch impacts aside, expansion proponents have argued for the preservation of all NWHI resources in their natural state. Alia told the council that native Hawaiians consider natural and cultural resources to be one and the same. What\u2019s more, the white paper states, the Hawaiian cultural practices of voyaging and wayfinding rely on biological signs, including the presence of marine life and birds. It adds that with the increase in the number of traditional Hawaiian voyaging canoes, the ocean surrounding the NWHI is a \u201ccritical training ground\u201d for navigators.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Teresa Dawson<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Volume 27, Number 1 July 2016<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The debate over the proposed expansion of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument has so far focused mainly on potential impacts to Hawai`i’s longline fishery. But at last month’s meeting of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Ecosystem Reserve Advisory Council, William Aila … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[403],"tags":[3],"class_list":["post-9047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-july-2016","tag-teresa-dawson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}