Professor, students share concerns about environmental and cultural issues
After an announcement in October relating to the future of aquarium collection in West Hawaii, students and faculty of BYU-Hawaii responded with mixed feelings.
Pua Kapa, a senior Hawaiian Studies major from the Big Island, Hawaii, said she could understand why aquarium collectors wanted to collect fish in Hawaii. “I am sure there is a lot of money in it. At least the species will be protected, and more people can see them.” However, Kapa said she would prefer the fish stay on the island.
Camille Condie, a senior marine biology major from Utah, said she was very upset about the decision. “I don’t think the problem is that they are taking fish. The real problem is I think they will take more than the species can handle.”
The Environmental Notice published on Oct. 8, 2022, announced the Circuit Court is upholding the Board of Land and Natural Resources’ default acceptance of a revised environmental impact statement (RFEIS) that may, in the future, allow the Board of Land and Natural Resources to consider issuing aquarium collection permits for fish collection in West Hawaii.
The Board’s initial vote was tied 3-to-3. They had 30 days to reconsider; however, during the following month, The Board did not meet again, so the vote stood as accepted due to the tied vote default acceptance.
As outlined in the RFEIS, the pet industry’s preferred action is asking the state to issue seven permits covering eight species of fish, Yellow tangs, Kole tangs, Orangespine unicornfish, Potter’s angelfish, Brown surgeonfish, Thompson’s surgeonfish, Black surgeonfish, and Bird wrasse.
Although the RFEIS pertaining only to West Hawaii has been accepted, the ban on aquarium collection remains, and no collection permits have been issued. There continue to be lawsuits and opposition to reopening the trade, and no additional actions have been taken to begin issuing permits.
Resource management – farm vs. captured fish
Brad Smith, an associate professor, teaching marine biology at BYUH, said working out exactly how he felt about this change was tough. “I’ll say this. There has been a very large push in the aquarium trade to rely on captive-bred fish. Personally, I am comfortable with permits being given to individuals to develop more captive-bred programs over wild fish harvesting.”
Condie said her concern is aquarium collectors will overharvest, and the permits allow too many fish to be taken. “I would really prefer if we could focus more on fish farming.” Or if collectors could take freshwater fish instead, she added. “There is plenty of pretty and colorful freshwater fish you can put in your tank. Let the tropical marine fish alone, please.”
Smith added, “I am not against resource management.” He continued, “I do recognize that a state of people has a right to adjudicate the use of their own resources.” ScienceDirect.com explains resource management as a way to manage and utilize natural resources such as land, water, and animals for both environmental sustainability and human consumption.
Kapa explained because Hawaiians rely on and use the resources of the ocean they are much more in tune with the land and water. However, she added, “It’s everyone’s responsibility to manage our resources. We have to work together.”
Stewards of the Earth
“This planet doesn’t belong to anyone,” Condie said. “God gave us this planet and told us to take care of it. We are only borrowing it and its resources.” Condie expressed that, as humans, people have a lot of power to drive animals to extinction. She said because of this power, humans need to care and take time to consider the effect of their actions.
Smith said, “One of the first commandments given to Adam and Eve in the garden was to tend. As disciples of Jesus Christ, we have a responsibility to advocate for good stewardship of our environmental resources.”
Kapa said “Environmentalism is inherent in the gospel. We have been commanded to care.” Kapa explained this doesn’t mean there isn't space for managing resources and using what people have been given, but it needs to be used responsibly and in a way that will continue the cycle of life.
Hawaiian perspective
Kapa said if the fish being collected were staying on the island, she would be okay if there was a proper balance. Kapa said, “In aquariums, the fish could be preserved and help educate people. But the natural ecosystem still needs the fish as well.”
“Water is the receptacle of life,” Kapa said. People should respect that by leaving the fish in their proper place, she continued. Kapa said the collected “fish leaving Hawaii defeats the purpose and meaning of sustaining life.” Kapa said everything has its role and meaning. Moving things out of their proper place will disrupt that purpose.
Kapa compared the individuals taking it upon themselves to remove fish from Hawaii to people inserting themselves into a stranger’s family argument. “Just leave things be,” she said. “Everything is on its own path, and we should just stop meddling.”
Hawaii’s isolation impacts the issue
Smith explained Hawaii’s marine environment is unique because of the island's isolation. “Hawaii is in the middle of the Pacific very distant from other islands.” Smith said this isolation changes how many fish are able to reach the island. “Our biodiversity is not as great as the rest of the Pacific.” Because of this lower biodiversity, Smith continued, people have to be careful with how they interact with the marine ecosystems.
Smith said even though there are similar fish in the rest of the Pacific, they are not as genetically similar in Hawaii as in other islands. Yellow tangs in Fiji and Papua New Guinea have very similar genetics because fish larvae can drift far in the water, moving from island to island easily. Smith explained this “stepping-stone pattern” of gene flow doesn’t happen for Hawaii, making the fish that do make it to Hawaii special.
Smith said some fish have become isolated here in Hawaii have become specialized and changed enough that they are no longer considered the same species. These new fish species are not found anywhere else in the world and are called endemic, Smith said.
However, even though these fish are found on other islands, Smith continued, it doesn’t mean people should take actions that would impact their numbers. “They all have value. They traveled a great distance to be here and to survive this long,” Smith said.
Other possible impacts
Smith said another aspect to consider in this decision is the state of the coral reefs. Smith explained the majority of the fish on the list for collection are herbivores eating algae in coral reefs. These reefs “are highly susceptible to climate change and ocean acidification,” Smith said.
Condie said “Our coral reef ecosystems are already really struggling. Why would we do anything to make it worse?” If these marine species die, they won’t appear again, she added.
The environmental impact statement done by the pet industry also says divers attempting to collect fish would be close to corals with the potential to damage the corals. The document also addresses some species of fish hid in corals and can only be effectively collected by breaking open the corals. However, it is illegal to damage corals and this is clearly prohibited in the aquarium collection permits.
Smith said another possible concern about harvesting fish is sometimes fish are collected in harmful ways. Smith explained previously there had been issues with people collecting fish while scuba diving. He said this makes it far too easy to catch fish.
Smith said other harmful practices include using chemicals like bleach or clove oil to stun the fish. “This has been shown to be harmful to corals, and there are also concerns about affects on other fish." Smith said it’s possible other fish could be exposed to the chemicals and those fish are now potentially dangerous to eat. Aquarium permits would not allow the use of these chemicals.
A topic brought up by both Smith and Condie was concerns about the high mortality rate of fish taken out of marine waters and shipped across the ocean. The impact statement says the total mortality of fish for the whole first year after capturing is 10-to-15 percent. However, this information contradicts a study by the World Wildlife Fund Philippines, which cites the mortality rate within the first year is 98 percent.
Timeline of this decision - A long history
1. Sept. 6 2017- Hawaii Supreme Court rules that the Department of Land and Natural Resources issuance of aquarium collection permits violates the Hawaii Environmental Policy Act
2. Jan. 5, 2018 - the Department of Land and Natural Resources announces that West Hawaii is closed to all aquarium collection
3. (2017-2020) - The Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council (PIJAC) is developing its Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for aquarium collection in West Hawaii.
4. May 23 2020 - The Board of Land and Natural Resources unanimously (7-0) rejects the EIS, thus upholding the ban on any collection.
5. (2020-2021) - PIJAC developing Revised Final Environmental Impact Statement (RFEIS).
6. May 26, 2021- The RFEIS is sent to The Board of Land and Natural Resources.
7. June 8, 2021- The RFEIS is published. The Board now has 30 days to accept or not accept the document.
8. June 25, 2021- With one Board member absent the vote on the RFEIS results in a tie of 3-3.
9. July 13, 2021- Lawsuit filed to challenge the tie vote and default acceptance of RFEIS.
10. Sept. 12, 2022- Final judgment filed; the court denied the motion.
11. Oct. 3, 2022- Letter with the final verdict sent to The Environmental Notice so they can publish the results in their next issue.
12. Oct. 8, 2022 - The court’s decision published in The Environmental Notice
(Information from documents published on Hawaii.gov)