Column: Climate change damaging fish stocks

We all recognize that the COVID-19 pandemic has had widespread and severe impacts on Hawaii. One of the effects from job losses and economic insecurity has been increased fishing pressure on nearshore reefs. The virus has been a sudden shock, but more serious problems will come with the slow-moving disaster of climate change.

In the current crisis, supply chains have been disrupted but the food we import is still available. Climate change, in the shape of extreme weather events, is going to damage food production worldwide. The state has for several years promoted greater self-sufficiency in agriculture. This must extend to protection of fish stocks. The fishing pressure at present will be even greater when prices rise and there is real food scarcity.

Climate change is a double threat to marine environments with warming and acidification. Hawaii experienced severe coral bleaching in 2014-15 from warm water. Corals are now attempting to recover but bleaching episodes will inevitably recur. Acidification of ocean water from absorbed carbon dioxide severely challenges the metabolism of numerous species, including tropical corals. Ultimately, controlling climate change must be a global effort, but local and individual efforts to resist and adapt to its worst effects cannot be ignored.

Breeding stocks of nearshore reef fishes must be preserved for reefs to survive. The reefs off Waikiki are nearly devoid of fishes and are wastelands of algae and disintegrating dead coral. Problematic as is their introduction, marine protected areas (MPAs), with effective enforcement, are the best way to preserve and increase fish populations. There have been no MPAs, with protection levels of “no impact” or “no take,” established in the main Hawaiian Islands since 1988, with the exception of the tiny Wai‘opae Tidepools Marine Life Conservation District in 2003.

Half-hearted partial measures have failed. It is clear from fish counts at the Kahekili Herbivore Fisheries Management Area that large parrot- and surgeonfishes have not recovered even after 11 years, and most likely are being poached. Statewide bag and size limits are not respected and are impossible to enforce.

Until more marine protected areas are created, there are several steps that the state Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR) can take that will support reef resilience. The first is greater use of technology to monitor fishing activity and deter poaching. A second is to ban fishing with scuba, which has been done by most tropical oceanic nations. A third and related protection is to stop the commercial sale of reef fish.

Had the state been more proactive in the 1970s and ’80s in setting aside protected areas, our oceans would be in much better condition and fish stocks healthier. Putting off needed protections will only make it more difficult to preserve marine ecosystems as climate change intensifies.

Email your concerns to blnr.testimony@hawaii.gov and ask for greater protections for our reefs with the three approaches mentioned above. Also, in this election year, ask candidates what specific protections they support and when they were last in the ocean. Vote for swimmers.

Diane Shepherd, D.V.M., is a veterinarian in Kihei, Maui.