Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 19, Number 3, 1 April 2002 — Reauthorization of humpback whale sanctuary [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Reauthorization of humpback whale sanctuary

The Committee on Land voted on March 5 to support state and federal reauthorization of the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale Nahonal Marine Sanctuary and Management Plan for another five years, Our action followed a presentation by sanctuary staff, Ms, Naomi Mcīntosh, acting director; Mr. Jeff Walters, DLNR, State CoDirector and Joylynn 01iveira, Hawaiian cultural specialist, The sanctuary was formally established in June 1997 for a period of five years, īts purpose is to protect the winter breeding, calving and nursing activities of the visiting humpback whale, and to increase their mrmbers through greater publie awareness, research and monitoring, While the annual budget of the Sanctuary, excluding research dollars, is $1,2 million per year, the annual oeean tour boat revenues generated through whale watching amounts to over $16,000,000. Another $140,000 in Federal research money is spent within the state, annually.

Prior to the sanctuary's creation, a series of public meetings and workshops addressed sanctuary boundaries, state and federal enforcement issues, management requirements and the exercise of Native Hawaiian traditional and customary fishing and gathering rights, The meetings resulted in the promulgation of regulations to protect humpback whales, with the following prohibitions: ♦ Approaching, or causing a vessel or other object to approach, within the sanctuary, by any means, within 100 yards of any humpback, except as authorized under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and Endangered Species Act; ♦ Operating any aircraft above the sanctuary within 1,000 feet of any humpback whale except when in any designated flight corridor for takeoff or landing from an airport or runway as authorized under the MMPA and the ESA; ♦ Taking any humpback whale in the sanctuary except as authorized under the MPA and the ESA;

♦ Possessing within the Sanctuary (regardless of where taken)) any living or dead humpback whale or part thereof taken in violation of the MMPA or the ESA. The Sanctuary's revised management plan, Draft 12/01, supports its revised vision statement: The sanctuary works collaboratively to sustain a safe and healthy habitat for the North Pacific stock of humpback whales (koholā), As a community of oeean stewards, the sanctuary strives to achieve a balanee of appropriate uses, inspired care-taking, enlightened understanding, and effective education to ensure the continued presence of the koholā for future generations, The sanctuary endeavors to do this with harmony, hope, respect, and aloha o ke kai (love of the sea), "Cultural Resources Enhaneement" is one of five action plans included in the revised management plan, īt is devised to facilitate Native Hawaiian uses of the sanctuary and to increase public understanding of Native Hawaiian prac-

tices and culture related to oeean use and conservation with a variety of education and research activities concerning Native Hawaiian uses, practices, and values customarily and traditionally exercised for subsistence, cultural, and religious purposes, Joylynn 01iveira, a Hawaiian eultural specialist, presented the eommittee with an excellent packet of educational materials, brochures and activity books with translations in Hawaiian and Samoan, One brochure, "The Cultural Significance of Whales in Hawai'i", beautifully done, provided me with historical information of whieh ī was not previously aware, ī am impressed by the ambitious goals of this Hawaiian Cultural Program and their achievem.en.ts, This is good work 1 OHA's support for state and federal reauthorization of the Hawaiian īslands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary and Management Plan for another five-year period now goes to the Board of Trustees for final approval, ■

[?]

Donald Cataluna 7rustee, Kaua'i and Ni'ihau