Injection well work draws attention
The Maui County Department of Environmental Management has issued a call for bids to clean all 18 of its injection wells across the county. Department Director Cheryl Okuma said the cleansing project is routine maintenance to ensure that the wells, which funnel treated wastewater up to 200 feet underground, do not break and result in sewage spills into the ocean. But whenever the county plans to do something with its injection wells, it attracts the attention of local environmental watchdog groups.

Wastewater Injection Wells May Be Polluting Our Ocean
And the County wants to build more

Ka'anapali Makai Watch "Talk Story" meeting
All community members who would like to help shape the development of and get involved with the newly-established Kaanapali Makai Watch program are invited to join us for a “talk story” meeting to learn about what's going on and what's planned, and to provide their input. The meeting will be held from 6-8 pm on Wednesday, June 30th, at the Lahaina Civic Center.

The Ma'alaea Small Boat Harbor Project is being re-evaluated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the State of Hawai'i Department of Land and Natural Resources - Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation. Over the past forty years, ongoing planning efforts have sought to address navigational safety issues and substandard facilities within Ma'alaea Harbor. Throughout this process, concerns over potential impacts to adjacent surf breaks, coral reefs, and sensitive marine species have been raised by community members and environmental groups. As a result of these concerns, project development has been repeatedly delayed.

Councilors consider restrictions on injection wells
County Council members on April 28 heard proposals that would require Environmental Management Dept. to recycle more wastewater and sample more water for contamination before rehabilitating existing injection wells.

Thumbs Down on Appeal Of SMA Exemption for Kahului Injection Wells
The Maui Planning Commission has upheld the decision of former Planning Director Jeff Hunt that the county did not need to obtain a major Special Management Area permit before drilling two new injection wells to receive treated effluent from the Kahului sewage treatment plant.
The appeal had been brought by the DIRE Coalition (Don’t Inject – Redirect). On April 27, the commission heard arguments from DIRE and the county before voting 5 to 1 to reject the appeal.

Injection wells permit exemption upheld
The Maui Planning Commission voted 5-1 to uphold Planning Director Jeff Hunt's determination that the Division of Wastewater Management is exempt from having to obtain a special management area permit to build two replacement injection wells at the Kahului wastewater treatment plant. The sole dissenting vote came from Commissioner Warren Shibuya, and the five votes in favor were cast by Commissioners Kent Hiranaga, Jack Freitas, Orlando Tagorda, Ward Mardfin and Lori Sablas. Commission Chairman Jonathan Starr did not cast a vote.

Advisory body: Delay opening of Ahihi-Kinau Natural Area Reserve
Fish, turtles and birds have returned since it was closed to people two years ago, but the shutdown is set to expire at the end of July. An advisory group is recommending that the closure be extended until state wildlife officials can complete a master plan for the area.
The Division of Forestry and Wildlife held a meeting to gather public testimony on the proposal, and the Natural Area Reserve Commission is expected to review the recommendation for continued closure at a meeting May 5 in Honolulu. If the commission endorses the idea, it would then go before the Board of Land and Natural Resources for a decision in June.

Maui could lose tsunami preparedness program
A message from Jonathan Starr, Maui Planning Commission

Friends of reefs getting online home
Coral reef-loving advocacy groups and government agencies are collaborating to simplify ocean monitoring programs in an effort to increase the participation of Maui's "citizen scientists.

DLNR Public Hearings on Proposed Changes to Bottomfish Administrative Rules
Following are the Maui County meeting and hearing dates and locations:
March 18, Lana‘i -- Lana‘i High School and Elementary School; 555 Fraser Avenue
March 22, Maui -- Maui Waena Elementary School; 795 Onehe‘e St.; Kahului
March 23, Moloka‘i -- Mitchell Pau‘ole Center; 90 ‘Ainoa Street; Kaunakakai

More Fish in the Sea- An Ocean Awareness Festival
Saturday, April 3 – 9am - 2pm

Humpback Whale Sanctuary Seeks Advisors
NOAA's Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary is seeking to fill eight primary seats and eight alternate seats on its advisory council. The council represents the public's interests in sanctuary matters and provides advice to the sanctuary superintendent and state co-manager. Additionally, the HIHWNMS will be one of the first sanctuaries in the country to recruit a youth member seat to participate on the advisory council.
Applications are due by Jan. 31, 2010. To receive an application kit or for further information, please contact council coordinator Joe Paulin via e-mail at Joseph.Paulin@noaa.gov, by phone at 808-397-2651, ext. 257, or visit the sanctuary website at: http://hawaiihumpbackwhale.noaa.gov.

ACTION ALERT
Help Stop the Hawai'i Swordfish Fishery Expansion
Sea Turtles and Whales under Threat from Longline Hooks

Maui harbor plans pared as ships leave
The departure of two NCL America cruise ships from Hawaii waters this year has led the state to significantly scale back plans for improvements to Kahului Harbor on Maui. With the Pride of Aloha and Pride of Hawaii no longer in operation locally, harbor officials say there is no longer a pressing demand for a new breakwater, cruise terminal and ferry and barge slip on the west side of the harbor basin. No one is complaining. The departure of the two cruise ships is freeing up acres of space and reducing traffic in the state's most cramped and overcrowded commercial port.

Mutiny for the Bounty
Humans can't live under water, so we tend to overlook the fact that most life on this planet exists not on land but in the oceans. Half the world's population lives within fifty miles of a coastline; going to the beach is the number-one outdoor recreational activity for Americans. Homo sapiens could not survive without oceans, but you wouldn't know it from how we have been treating them.

Herbivore Enhancement Area to strengthen reef
At a Fish Identification Network event at Kakekili Beach in Ka'anapali in October, "finnies" learned that what they were seeing in their fish counts was evidence of how fish diversity suffers when invasive algal species take the place of endemic species in a coral reef.
"The alien algae problem can be a symptom and a cause of reef degradation," explains Darla White, a marine biologist who works with community groups to develop volunteer monitoring protocols derived from Department of Aquatic Resources (DAR) data sets.
"An Herbivore Enhancement Area (HEA) is not going to work for every reef," she explains. The health of the reef differs from site to site for different reasons." However, in some areas, enhancing the herbivore population can curtail the growth of invasive algal and restore the health of the reef, she said.

Reef woes, injuries tied to fish feeding
Until only recently, it was not uncommon for snorkelers or scuba divers to bring a can of Easy Cheese, pizza crust or peas with them on an underwater adventure. The fish would come in swarms to eat out of the swimmers' hands. But after decades of hand-feeding fish, environmentalists and charter operators said something went wrong: The fish became habituated or addicted to getting the food. Sometimes the fish were so well fed that they refused to graze off of the reefs' natural algae and seaweed.

At Waihe'e beach, healing begins at the bottom of the food chain
The Waihe'e Limu Restoration Project is the story of a dedicated Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) inspiring her community to restore a reef she came to know through the stories of her tutu wahine. Not a native of Maui herself, Barrows raised her children at Waihe'e Beach and saw what happens to the herbivorous fish population when a major food source-limu-becomes scarce. Opportunistic fish in the food chain, including sharks, fill the niche that the herbivores once occupied.

The Drowning of Hawaii
Warmer waters. Melting ice caps. Disappearing glaciers. They are all expected to raise ocean levels by 39 inches in the next century, forever reshaping Hawaii. That's using the projection of one meter, or 39 inches, of sea level rise, a figure many scientists and planners who have reviewed global climate change predictions say is likely for Hawaii.

Superferry ordered to do environmental assessment
The Hawai'i Supreme Court this afternoon ruled that the state should have conducted an environmental study on its improvements to island harbors for the Hawaii Superferry operation scheduled to start next week. The decision is a major legal setback for the Superferry, but Superferry lawyers were not immediately available for comment as to whether the operations will start as scheduled on Tuesday.

Hawaii wants study on cruise industry impact
Two state agencies are looking to hire a consultant to conduct a comprehensive study of the impact of the cruise industry on Hawai'i. The Hawai'i Tourism Authority and the Department of Transportation will pay for the study, working in collaboration with the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, and the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Sound Effects Activists say sonar kills whales
On March 16, Marsha Green, founder of the Ocean Mammal Institute and the International Ocean Noise Coalition, led a protest in Kahului against what she calls the Navy's "lawlessness." Her flyers display beached whales bathed in blood. Any arguments questioning the lethality of active sonar lost their credibility in March 2000, she says, when 17 beaked whales in the Bahamas beached themselves and died after being exposed to 150 to 160 decibel sonar.