Ocean Policy Task Force Public Meeting / At first, Hawaii folks were incredulous. How could the Islands possibly be excluded from a presidential initiative aimed at saving the oceans?

“Have you forgotten that Hawaii is one big fishery?” wrote Marjorie Bonar of the Maui Coastal Land Trust on a Web site accepting comments on the national proposal. “Are we off the radar? Our issues with conservation and limits to curb over-fishing and destruction of species is of huge importance. Hawaii belongs at the table.”

But the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force, charged with fulfilling President Barack Obama’s June 12 directive to create a national, ecosystem-based policy to protect, manage and restore America’s oceans, coasts and Great Lakes, had not set a place for Hawaii.

It had scheduled “listening sessions” in Alaska, San Francisco and Rhode Island, but not one in the Western or Central Pacific, which comprise 41 percent of America’s Exclusive Economic Zone–an area extending out 200 nautical miles from coastal states.

And then the public pressure began to mount.

“I understand the Taskforce has not scheduled Hawaii as a venue for discussion,” wrote Anita Manning of Oahu in an online comment. “We are the largest body of water on the planet; our state has to be involved in anything ocean. We have facilities like East-West Center, Univ of Hawaii, Bishop Museum, & Oceanic Institute that provide expertise. AND we have plenty of Ocean to get upclose & personal with (unlike say NY or DC!). Oh & we even have seaFOOD to enjoy while talking about oceans. Try come! Aloha.”

“Since I see ‘Whitehouse’ here, you know the man who lives there is from Hawaii, that state in the middle of the Pacific Ocean,” wrote Mike Moran of Maui. “Isn’t it appropriate as a venue for this task force? We do have concerns about fishing and creatures who live in the ocean, and WESPAC [Western Pacific Regional Fisheries Council] does not speak for us.”

“I am alarmed that the listening sessions do not appear to include Hawaii,” wrote former Wespac member Rick Gaffney, a Big Island sport fisherman. “Given the size of our fishery, the GAO [General Accounting Office] investigation of WESPAC, the many conflicts in our waters, Hawaii should be included on the Task Force’s itinerary.”

Elected representatives from Guam also weighed in, as did officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Now, the Task Force has relented, and scheduled a meeting for Sept. 29 at the Neal Blaisdell Center with the help of the local chapter of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The news wasn’t even official before groups advocating such a policy began populating a Facebook page urging folks to participate in the session and help shape “a single, unifying conservation mandate” for the oceans.

It’s likely to be an intense session, replete with discussions on Native Hawaiian submerged land rights, fisheries mismanagement, aquaculture, ocean energy production, marine recreation, military activities and other thorny issues that Hawaii has grappled with for decades.

Read Honolulu Weekly’s conversation with author and ocean activist David Helvarg, who plans to testify at the task force meeting in this week’s Q&A.

OPTF Public Mtg Press Conference; Part 1 of 2; Anchorage Alaska, Aug. 21 2009

Part 2 of 2