Aquarium bills would help ocean temperatures
Hawaii is in the midst of an unprecedented environmental catastrophe: the third ocean heat wave in six years is bleaching Hawaii’s corals and ocean temperatures are expected to remain high for the next two to three months. The last bleaching event resulted in significant coral death.
DLNR is urging the public to take actions to reduce human caused stressors on Hawaii’s corals. Among them is a request to food fishers to stop taking herbivores such as parrotfishes and surgeonfishes, which are critical to reef health and resiliency. Yet, ironically, DLNR continues to allow the commercial aquarium trade to take an unlimited number of surgeonfishes, species that include yellow tangs, paku ikui (Achilles tang), kole (yellow eye kole), umaumalei (orangespine unicornfish) and others. There are many other stressors to the coral reefs; global warming, coastal development, tourism, chemical runoff, plastics, the aquarium trade is a luxury we can’t afford.
DLNR, the governor and state legislators must act now, including joining Sen. Kai Kahele, who last session introduced a bill to phase out the environmentally destructive practice of taking reef animals for ornamental purposes, and Rep. Nicole Lowen, who has long supported bills that would restrict or eliminate collection of Hawaii’s wildlife for the mainland aquarium trade.
Christopher Dean
Hawi
Protesters could have appealed to Supreme Court
The opponents to the proposed Thirty Meter Telescope on Maunakea had an opportunity to petition the U.S Supreme Court to review last year’s Hawaii Supreme Court ruling. There was a 90-day deadline for a petition to be filed after entry of final judgment of the Hawaii Supreme Court ruling. The latter ruling upheld the TMT’s conservation district use permit, which allowed the project to start construction.
The 90-day clock to petition the US Supreme Court began in late December 2018. That deadline came and went, which I found surprising. I thought they were going to petition the United State’s highest court to review this case. Then I read an article a few months ago that stated why they decided not to litigate this further. As far as I understand, they felt the U.S. Supreme Court was stacked against indigenous peoples. Their petition wouldn’t be fairly reviewed by the court as a result.
I somewhat hoped they’d proceed with their U.S. Supreme Court petition on religious desecration grounds. This is one of the main issues brought up by the mauna protesters against this project. A conclusive decision on this matter would’ve put it to rest, but that won’t happen as the opponents decided to let their remaining legal options expire.
The TMT’s 10-year permitting process, which resulted in two contested case hearings, and years of litigation, speaks for itself. The courts upheld the TMT’s permitting, which could’ve been further litigated by protesters. However, they decided to let their legal options as far as invalidating the CDUP lapse, and illegally block Maunakea Access Road instead.
Aaron Stene
Kailua-Kona