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The recent letter about the need to protect Hawaii’s reef parrotfish is based on good research and very well written (“Protecting reefs starts with saving key fish,” Star-Advertiser, Feb. 25). On the same topic is an Island Voices column entitled “Living ‘lawnmowers’ keep reefs healthy” (Star-Advertiser, Nov. 22, 2020). It was written by Mark Hixon, professor of marine biology at the University of Hawaii-Manoa. In the article, he wrote that each parrotfish produces up to 1,000 pounds of sand each year while scraping seaweed off coral reefs. Hixon challenged us to think of this fact when we visit our sand-depleted beaches and go home to eat a parrotfish.
Hixon concludes, “Avoid eating herbivores — especially uhu — there are plenty of other tasty fish.”
The governor and the Department of Land and Natural Resources need to wake up and immediately limit or stop the taking of parrotfish and other scrapers from Hawaii’s reef waters to restore our beaches and save beachfront homes!
Robert Rodman
Downtown Honolulu
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