If there is one community that has managed to truly live off the land, as it has for generations, it is Niihau. Now, its inhabitants of Native Hawaiian ancestry are finding their way of life threatened by outside overfishing and are pleading for regulatory help. The initial, prompt responses by state lawmakers and natural resources officials are heartening indeed — and, together with enforcement and awareness, will be needed to help return balance to the ecosystem.

About 100 people live on the privately owned "Forbidden Island," as it’s become known since Eliza Sinclair bought it in 1864 for $10,000 from King Kamehameha IV. The residents are Native Hawaiians — Hawaiian is the official language there — and they live a subsistence lifestyle: The island has no modern amenities such as electricity, grocery stores, paved roads or running water; residents rely on water catchment. Visitors are allowed onto the island by invitation only.

This self-sufficient population is wholly dependent on the island’s natural resources; what they can catch and grow are what they eat. So when it comes to the drastic depletion of a vital resource such as fish for food, it is an issue of survival.

"It (overfishing) has got to stop. It has to stop," said Leiana Robinson, whose husband, Bruce, a Sinclair family descendant, owns the island. "If we don’t do something about it, then we won’t exist." The Robinsons and several other Niihau residents made a rare visit to Oahu Wednesday to plead for help, an indication of how dire the situation has become.

In an encouraging response, William Aila, state Land and Natural Resources director, said his agency is working on a series of rules to strike a balance to provide protection for Niihau, such as regulations on bag limits, equipment bans and penalties. That should take six to eight months.

Meanwhile, in the next legislative session, state lawmakers will propose a no-fishing zone around Niihau for outsiders — perhaps stretching out three miles from the shoreline — and to reserve nearshore fishing solely to Niihau’s people.

For more than a quarter-century, island residents have noticed a decline of nearshore fish, and outsiders also take opihi on the shoreline, said Bruce Robinson. The island now is battling added problems caused by outsiders’ overfishing and commercial tour boats sailing nearby.

Indeed, an Internet search shows a number of pleasure trips from Kauai — which is within 20 miles of Niihau — that advertise fishing and diving excursions that expose the marine life to all comers. "Whether you are a fisherman, spearfisherman, scuba diver, or snorkeler, you will return speechless," one site enthuses. "The abundance of marine life and crystal clear waters off Niihau make it a spearfisherman’s paradise!"

But the mystique of Niihau and its long-nurtured pristine environment underscore an abiding respect for nature’s bounty and the Native Hawaiian culture. Fishing had long been systematically done to maintain balance in the ecosystem and sustainability for islanders. Now, that is being threatened.

"Over the years, we’ve been able to hold the line at Niihau," said Bruce Robinson, who choked back tears Wednesday. "It’s the last culture left in Hawaii."

If there is to be continued self-sustainability, the people of Niihau will need help from government. Not in the form of 21st-century handouts or subsidies or technology or the like, but in a very basic form: the blessed privilege to be left alone. Simply, relief will be in rules that preserve a natural habitat and ecosystem as it’s been for centuries, so to help the people of Niihau help themselves.