Expansion of Pacific marine sanctuary is consistent with Hawaiian practice

Ola aku la ka ‘aina kaha, ua pua ka lehua i kai.

(Life has come to the kaha lands, for the lehua blooms are seen at sea.)

"Lehua" is a reference to the deep-sea fishermen of Kekaha, North Kona.

Kekaha is my home on Hawaii island and my family, descendants of subsistence fishermen, continue to supplement our table with fish caught in the waters that our ancestors fished for hundreds of years.

The ‘olelo no’eau, or Hawaiian saying, above draws our attention to the Hawaiian inclination of connectivity.

Lehua blossoms are a metaphor for the fishermen of the kaha lands; the seasonal bloom of lehua coincides with the traditional lifting of the kapu on aku fishing.

The kapu was the regulatory system that maintained a sustainable yield of desired resources. Observations were made, conclusions drawn about conditions, and precautionary management actions were taken.

Our ancestors harvested from the waters around Hawaii with efficiency using these sophisticated management techniques — and our ocean resources thrived because of it.

The people of old understood that rigorously managed fisheries benefited fish and fishers alike. The proposed expansion of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument (PRIMNM) is consistent with this Hawaiian practice.

Like the connectivity between the aku, lehua and fishermen, there are strong and poetic connections between the deep-sea waters of the PRIMNM and our nearshore island waters.

Ocean currents, migrating marine mammals and birds, and our history and voyaging canoes link us to these distant and uninhabited islands and atolls. In recent times, commercial fishermen, calling Honolulu their homeport, have become connecting factors as well.

These geographies, and their waters, abundant with wildlife, help maintain the productivity of Hawaii’s ocean ecosystem and are a vital link in ensuring the health of the broader central Pacific.

Today in Kekaha, lineal descendants, applied scientists, old and new community members, are working on place-based, adaptive management of our nearshore fishery. We have learned that protected marine areas can benefit ecosystems and replenish resources adjacent to protected areas.

The same applies to expanding the monument area from its current 50 miles to the 200-nautical-mile U.S. exclusive economic zone. Protecting this area ensures long-term viability of our resources, including fish species with commercial value.

If President Barack Obama fully protects the PRIMNM, commercial fishers can replace the less than 5 percent of U.S. tuna catch from this region in neighboring geographies, which are already active fishing grounds.

Even with the expansion of the PRIMNM, 94 percent of the exclusive economic zone area in the Pacific covered by the South Pacific Tuna Fishery would remain open for business to U.S. commercial fishers.

The U.S. has more fishing opportunities than any other country fishing in the region — and yet, other Pacific Island presidents have already led the way in establishing large-scale marine reserves to ensure the ability to feed families, secure ocean livelihoods and perpetuate culture.

President Obama should join our Pacific neighbors in this effort.

The PRIMNM expansion presents an opportunity to include a memorial to the Hui Panala’au, the more than 130 young men from Hawaii who were sent on a colonizing mission to Howland, Baker and Jarvis by the federal government from 1935-1942.

Three of the young men died during their missions; three of them are still alive today, and all are deserving of the honorable recognition suggested by a descendant, Noelle Kahanu, at a Honolulu town hall meeting last month.

The people of old left lessons for us: a rigorous management system ensures the long-term viability of our resources.

Let us seize this opportunity to rise to the standards of those set by our ancestors not long ago.