CHAPTER 3 THE STATE OP HAWAZZ AND ZTS PZSHERT RESOURCES Thi.s chapter turns away from the discussion on the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act MFCMA! and national mandates f or the management of U. S. f ishery resources the political factors--to environmental factors related to Hawaii's fishery resources. The discussion is centered on the state'8 unique geologic features and the pr pbl em of being atypi cal both in terms af its geomorphol ogy and the makeup of its fishery resources. The policies set in motion by the MFCMAand the Department of Commerce do not readily fit the uniqueness of insular f isheries great diversity and small populations of individual species! nor the fact that Hawaii's principal coastal fisheries are tunas. The Hawaiian archipelago spans an amazing l400 miles, and is slightly under 2,400 air miles f rom California, the nearest state. Besides its geographical isolation, Hawaii' s coastal fishery resources are unlike those found along the continental coasts of the United States. Perhaps most impor- tant to the present study is the discovery by the S-year re- s+arch program on the resources of the Northwestern Hawaiian NRHX! that, in addition to being tightly inter-re- »«d through their food web, the habitat of many species of 69 marine fauna encompasses the entire archipelago.l This provides some basis for the argument that the Hawaiian islands are indeed a single marine ecosystem and that manage- ment of Hawaii's fisheries should be based on the total eco- system, rather than on a species approach or on artif icial pol itical boundaries. The Geology of the Hawaiian Archipelago While Hawaii is known largely for its world-renowned Waikiki Beach and the eight "high' islands,2 these constitute less than one-third of the Hawaiian archipelago see Figure 3.1! . The islands are located near the center of the Pacif ic Ocean between approximately 19 and 29 degrees North latitude and 155 and 179 degrees West longitude. There is clear relation of the age of the islands to their geologic state with the oldest the NWHE! at the northwestern end and the youngest the island of Hawaii! at the southeastern end. Richard Grigg and Karen Tanoue, eds., Vol. 1 Honolulu- Vniversity of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program, 1984!; also, Richard Grigg and Rose T, Pfund, eds. g Honolulu: University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program, 1980! . 'High' islands are the eight islands at the southwestern «d of the Hawaiian archipelago, which have topographic differentiation ranging f r~ rolling hills of several hundred «et to mountains which rise more than 12,000 feet. above sea evel t "low' islands are nearly flat and rise only a few feet ~bove sea level. The NWHI are low islands. 70 Figure 3.1. The Hawaiian Archipelago3 3 Source: Adapted from Department of Land and Natural Resources, Honol ul u: State of Hawaii, 1979!, p. 5. 71 The several dozen "islands" beyond the last inhabited island of Kauai<4 most of which are no more than coral atolls, add only about nine square miles including Midway Islands! to the 6,435 square mile area of the inhabited high Hawaiian Islands.5 The great length of the archipelago places the northernmost islands, Kure and Midway, within the temperate rather than the tropical zone, but research has shown that the unity of the Hawaiian oceanic ecosystem is not divided by "high-low" morphological di f ferences or latitudinal zones. Although the windswept low islands are not hospitable to the establishment of human habitation, for hundreds of years they have been the habitat of sea birds which now number about 14 million!, sea turtles, and indigenous Hawaiian monk seals. Even before laws and regulations limited access to the NWHX, the remoteness of the islands and lack of naturally available life support necessities for humans i.e., edible vegetation, water, etc.! preserved them as possibly the most pristine natural laboratory in the world. Longer than the "Inhabited" is defined here as an established community which has permanent residents and formal political and socio-economic institutions. Although two islands of the ~HI, Midway and Tern, are inhabited by human beings continuously, they are excluded by this definition because they are peopled by a small number of transients who reside there for short periods of time. 5 Jean M. Grace, Honolulu< University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Progr j974! p. 145. 72 Galapagos, the NWHIhave been the natural repository of unique Hawaiian endemic genetic strains.6 Political Boundaries of the State The political boundaries of the state of Hawaii encompass the entire Hawaiian archipelago, with the exception of Midway Islands which are under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Navy. There are four county sub-divisions: The County of Hawaii composedof the island of Hawaii The County of Maui composed of the islands of Maui, Molokai, Lanai, and Kahoolawe Can uninhabited island used for target practice by the U.S. Navy! The County of Kauai composed of the islands of Rauai and Niihau The City and County of Honolulu composedof the island of Oahu and the NWHI, excluding Midway Islands The NWHI have been a part of the National Wildlife Refuge System since 1909. As such, with the exception of the state-awned Rute Island, they are under the jurisdiction of the federal government< hence, the City and County of Honolulu has made no serious attempt to exercise political control over this region. The NWHI are a federal enclave contained within the bounds of the state. Hawaii's Claias Beyond the Territorial Sea The mid-Pacific location of the Hawaiian Islands has been simultaneously a boon and a bane--a boon because of its 6 From time to time, since the mid-l800s, human incursions have had devastating effects on wildlife in the NWHIrefuge, e~ g.i the introduction of rabbits to Laysan Island decimated t~e wildlife on the island; an on-going problem is the intro- duction of rats which prey on bird eggs on Midway Islands. 73 near ideal geographical location and a bane because of its historic attractiveness to the maritime powers af the world. As a weak kingdom, the protection sought by and granted to the Hawaiian monarchs by the United States allowed the Hawaiian Islands to survive in the anarchical international arena. But the "protection,' was motivated by the desire af the United States to acquire the islands as a strategic necessity. Now, nearly 100 years af ter annexation and almost 30 years af ter statehood, the morality of the American takeover is being questioned. Recent Pederal-state Boundary Disputes Specific to the present discussion is the dispute centered on the boundaries of the NWHI. Federal j urisdiction was established in the 1909 Executive Order 1019, when the NWHI was designated the Hawaiian Islands Reservation. In 3,967 and 1971, the federal government designated 204,935 acres of the NWHI as a "Research Natural Area," and prohibited "disruptive uses, encroachment or development" in the area. Although the designation of a 'research natural area" has not been disputed by the state, it questioned the area's boundaries in 1973. In response to an inquiry from the Department of the Interior, the state defined the boundary of the research natural area as being "only the f ast lands, lying above the upper reaches of the wash of waves or 74 the upper line of debris left by the wash of waves. "7 The emerged or fast lands, using the state's definition, total 1,765 acres. Present federal claims include 302,171 acres of submerged lands and the fast lands as well, or a total of 303,936 acres which includes the lagoon waters and submerged lands of Pearl and Hermes Reef, French Frigate Shoals, Maro Reef, and Laysan Island.8 However, while the USPWS' final management plan for the NWHI denies the state permission ta establish a facility on Tern Island, the agency will allow the state to use the island to transfer fishers for emergency medical airlift to Hanolulu. The boundary issue has become a paint of contention primarily because of its effect on the authority of the state over its submerged lands and internal and coastal waters. In a detailed study of the conflict over baundaries and jurisdiction between Hawaii and the federal government, Dennis Yamase concludes that 'there exists a historical pattern of federal acquiescence to territorial and later state control and management of the islands' internal waters. The recent about-face of the federal government as to the boundaries of the refuge cannat erase this history."> Dennis Yamase, "State-Federal Jurisdictional Conflict over the Internal Waters and Submerged Lands of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, ' 4 982!: 16o-161. Also, Yamase provides the boundary designation proposed by the Dept. of the Interior in Assistant Secretary ~eed's letter to Governor Burns in note 107 on p. 162. 8 Ibid-. p. 142, see note 8. Ibi d,, p. 180. 75 Yamase asserts that the "critical legal question in the jurisdictional dispute centers on the intended scope of the boundaries of the wildlife reservation established under Executive Order 1019."1o Although Yamase notes that the NWHX wildlife refuge was administered by the state until the 1950's, he is in error because a 1960 memorandum from A,V. Tunison, Acting Director of the USEWS, to wayne Collins, State Director of Agriculture and Conservation, conf irms state management of the refuge until at least 1960 and provides the first inkling of the change in federal position. The memorandumstated that "the State of Hawaii has no right ta administer or manage the ref uge or to interfere with activities being conducted thereon by the United States.