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Obama plans to create world's largest marine protected area off Hawaii

9 Comments
By KEVIN FREKING

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9 Comments
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President Obama building on the legacy of George W Bush. Shows that saving the planet is truly bipartisan.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

hey, thats true. people forget that W was very pro enviroment.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Recreational fishing will be allowed through a permit, as will be scientific research and the removal of fish and other resources for Native Hawaiian cultural practices.

Scientific research? Don't tell the whalers!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

"protect public lands and waters from climate change"

What! I thought Obama and the liberals were taking a pro-active stance on STOPPING climate change in spite of what Mother Nature wants...

-7 ( +0 / -7 )

Wonderful news!

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Wonderful news!

Not so much if you live in Hawaii and like to eat poke or sashimi. I think the only real effect this expansion will have on the average Hawaiian citizen, will be to make already expensive fish even more expensive.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Kuya

If you want to go on enjoying your poke and want your children's children to enjoy poke, then you should favor efforts at preservation.

Or do you not know that tuna fisheries are 90% depleted?

news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/05/0515_030515_fishdecline.html

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Or do you not know that tuna fisheries are 90% depleted?

Exactly. It's why aku and ahi prices have dramatically risen over the past several years. It just gets more and more expensive to have sashimi and poke during the New Year's holidays anymore.

I welcome more conservation.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The Hawaiian based long line tuna fleet operates under a quota system of 3500 metric tons of Big Eye tuna per year for the Western and Central Pacific zones. Due to larger than normal catches of larger than normal fish the fishery has reached its quota as of this August. So what ever is in the boat now is all there is for the rest of the year. The Hawaii based fleet accounts for less than 3% of the total catch in the region and is a prime example of how a sustainable fishery can be maintained. Every boat in the Hawaii fleet is monitored by satellite and fishery inspectors travel with the fleet to monitor catches and enforce regulations. Hawaii takes conservation of ocean resources very seriously because the overwhelming majority of fish eaten there are caught locally.

So now, until next year, the Hawaii based fleet is out of action yet the fleets from Japan, South Korea, China and Taiwan are unaffected. They continue to fish unabated to the tune of around 3,000,000 metric tons a year. Hawaii based boats use methods that target large adult fish, the Asian fleets use methods (purse-seine) that are in-discriminant and catch everything in their way.

The tuna stocks in Hawaiian waters are not depleted, and if the practices of the Hawaii based fleet were adopted by all the players they most likely never will be. If you are looking for a smoking gun for the depletion of world wide tuna stocks don't look at the Hawaii based fleet, it might be more meaningful to look a little closer to home, say Tsukiji or Noryangjin.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

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