Aloha!

Flying into Honolulu - the peaks in the back ground are the Big Island and the one in front might be Maui.


View of Honolulu from the top of Diamond Head Mountain. I was surprised at what a big city Honolulu is.



I arrived in Honolulu on Saturday evening. I'm here for a field trip as part of a course in marine conservation biology at the Duke marine lab. I'm just a few months away from earning a Master of Coastal Environmental Management from Duke. Yesterday was our first full day here. Our day began with a presentation from Dave Johnston, a marine mammal researcher at NOAA. One thing he talked about was interaction of tourists with spinner dolphins in shallow bays around the islands. Tourists like to swim with the dolphins, however they do not realize that they are disturbing the dolphins during the time when they are resting. Spinner dolphins spend a lot of energy hunting off shore at night and come into the bays during the day to rest where they can find safety from predators. Some tour companies say that they let the dolphins choose whether to swim with tourists and that they let the dolphins leave if they want to. Dave said that what people don't understand is that the dolphins may choose to leave the area, but they may be forced to relocate to an area that leaves them more vulnerable to predators, such as sharks. Also, the dolphins may not get the rest they need if they are constantly having their rest disturbed day after day, and they may not have the energy they need to hunt at night.
After talking to Dave we all hiked up Diamond Head Mountain. The congested trail gave us a taste of how many tourists visit the islands. From the top we saw an amazing view of the mountains covered in scrubby vegetation, shallow coral reefs, and the open ocean. We could also see first hand some of the impacts of humans on the environment. The skyscrapers of Honolulu rise up near the shore, neighborhoods spread up the mountainsides, and surfers, snorkelers, tour boats, and cruise ships dot the shallow reefs off shore. Dave hiked up with us and got a lot of us very excited when he pointed to a white spot in the water that he said was a whale getting ready to breach. I started taking video - one of my life goals was about to be realized. Then, up pops the 'whale', which turned out to be a submarine that takes tourists down to see the coral reefs. We were all very disappointed!
Our afternoon snorkeling trip made up for any disappointment from the botched whale sighting. We got to see sea turtles!!! I was just swimming around looking at all the brightly colored reef fish when I see a sea turtle glide by...followed by another very excited classmate!

Today we got to talk to native Hawaiians Leimana and Bob DaMate about their views on marine conservation in Hawaii and how they are working to integrate native Hawaiian values and practices into western-style ocean management. It was very interesting to talk to them and get their perspective. One thing that surprised us was that they were very upset that President Bush designated the Northwest Hawaiian Islands as a Marine National Monument last summer. Before I came to Hawaii everyone I talked to in the marine conservation community seemed to be very excited that such a huge area was going to be protected from fishing and other harmful uses. But, Hawaiians, both native and non-native, don't seem too happy about it. Leimana and Bob were upset that no one asked native Hawaiians how they thought the NWHI should be managed. They also expressed that many native Hawaiians who have been using the NWHI for cultural practices for hundreds of years do not want to be kept out and do not want to have to apply for a permit to use the resources there. From their perspective, they've been using and managing the marine resources sustainably for roughly 2000 years and they don't like westerners telling them they can't use the NWHI without even asking them how they think the area should be managed.
I can't imagine the native Hawaiians' frustration at watching their land and resources be taken over and be so poorly managed by westerners. Bob and Leimana told us how they grew up on Oahu, but then moved to the Big Island after seeing their home overrun with development and degraded by poor management practices. The native Hawaiians use a management unit called Ahuapa'a. Essentially, an Ahuapa'a is an entire watershed, from the mountains all the way the reefs and out to the deep sea. They understand that it is all connected - what happens in the mountains affects what happens in the deep sea and vice versa. Traditionally, they managed the entire watershed together. However, western management attempts to manage each thing separately, without recognizing the interconnectedness of all parts of the ecosystem. Whereas the western approach to management has failed over and over, at least in the US, the native Hawaiians managed their resources sustainably for nearly 2000 years using the Ahuapa'a system. Leimana and Bob told us within the last two years native Hawaiians have been successful at getting the current 'western-style' management to incorporate traditional Hawaiian practices. Hawaiians, who until recently were still very bitter about the western take-over of Hawaii, have finally begun to open up and share their knowledge with westerners, and westerners have also begun to ask the native Hawaiians about their cultural knowledge of ocean resources. Leimana and Bob hope that the two cultures can work together to protect Hawaii's valuable resources and unique ecosystems.