Hump day
Starting next week and continuing through the end of the month, the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary will hold public scoping meetings that allows members of the community to offer feedback on plans to expand the sanctuary’s protection to include other species and submerged cultural resources.
As part of the management plan review process–a process that is required by Congress every five years–the meetings allow for the public to weigh in on the sanctuary management plan, which outlines regulations, designates marine zoning and sets priorities and performance guidelines for resource protection and research.
However, this time, the management plan review process will focus on determining whether the sanctuary should expand its scope to protect and conserve, in addition to humpback whales, other living marine resources and submerged cultural and historic resources.
“The difference with this [management plan review] is this one is more than just a report card,” says Allen Tom, Pacific Islands regional director for the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. “We are now going to not just look at humpback whales and their habitat–we’re going to look at basically other issues in our marine environment, in the sanctuary, that we may want to incorporate in our sanctuary management scheme.”
If the public shows substantial concern over those other issues–including the status of additional marine creatures, like other whales and dolphins, Hawaiian monk seals, sea turtles and federally protected coral species–the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which runs the sanctuary, will consider expanding the sanctuary’s role.
The scoping meetings will also provide a forum for community members to comment on other matters, such as water quality, acoustic impacts, ship regulations and lack of enforcement.
“It’s a long process,” Tom said, noting that the review takes approximately four years. “But it’s specifically made that way for public input–we don’t want to overlook anything, nor do we want to create something that hasn’t really been vetted.”
Go to [hawaiihumpbackwhale.noaa.gov] for more information
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