[Coral-List] coral-reef fishes, COVID-19, and Hawaii

[Charles Birkeland]

As the COVID-19 struck, tourism, a primary business for Hawaii, shut down.
DAR (Division of Aquatic Resources, State if Hawaii) and HIMB (Hawaii
Institute of Marine Biology), set out to monitor how the sudden withdrawal
of tourists would affect the nearshore marine life. At DAR, Tom Ogawa,
Brian Neilson, and Russell Sparks surveyed fishing activity and movements
of mobile species. A group from HIMB, led by Ku’ulei Rogers, monitored the
state of corals and the movements of reef fishes in Hanauma Bay.

Tom Ogawa observed that fishing activity increased both on shore and from
boats. But while fishing increased, Tom and others at DAR also observed
bonefish, chubs, goatfish, and surgeonfish congregated closer to shore,
monk seals and sea turtles hauled out on beaches where people used to be
common, and spinner dolphins and black-tip sharks came closer into places
they were not seen frequently before.  I believe Ku’ulei and her colleagues
also observed reef-fishes coming inshore.  Therefore, shores of Hawaii seem
to have a carrying capacity of tourists, beyond which, the behavior of
marine life is affected.  Although this is just changing behavior and
distribution and not removing marine life, the changes in behaviors and
distributions may affect ecosystem processes. Russell Sparks suggested that
the rebuilding of tourism might be a process slow enough to allow
monitoring of the changes in behaviors and distributions to perhaps
determine the level of the carrying capacity.

With the shutting down of tourism, there has been a very low market price
and retail demand for fishes. Therefore, Matt Ramsey and Tom Ogawa believe
the increase in fishing activities is for subsistence, providing food for
family and friends, perhaps especially for elderly and for those in ill
health. Tom documented that fishing activity increased on all islands
except Moloka’i which was already mainly for subsistence even before the
coronavirus. What Matt reported reflects the aloha spirit in Hawaii. A
FaceBook page “Hawaii Fishers Feeding Families was created where people can
post their catch during COVID and share how the catch was going towards
feeding families and friends. It is a public page where anyone can check it
out. It is not set up by any one specific organization or backed or funded
by any group. There are a lot of heartwarming stories showcasing the
importance of fishing and maintaining good fisheries. Some elderly and
unemployed can’t get food, and some of these recipients have shared their
stories.”

Perhaps a long-term outcome of this lockdown for COVID-19 may be an
emphasis on local food production for food security. Kirsten Leong from
NOAA reported that Food Banks had 1-2 contracts with local farmers before
the COVID-19. There are now 14 local contracts. In the past, the state had
always focused on agriculture. Fishing was not mentioned in relation to
food security. Agriculture delivers more slowly than fishing in terms of
the timeliness in providing food in unexpected events.


I learned all this at a SAFE meeting (Scientists and Fishers Exchange).
This is a regular meeting sponsored by NOAA and DAR that began 11 years ago
to bring scientists and fishers from all islands together to have friendly
discussions on issues of sustainability, restrictions, and policies. It was
assumed that scientists and fishers often considered each other
adversaries, so the first SAFE meetings were with fancy lunches with
tablecloths and silverware in luxurious hotel dining rooms to put everyone
in a happy mood. As the ice melted, the meetings moved to a NOAA meeting
room with choices of catered box lunches. Now we are down to staying on our
respective islands and no free lunches; but there was still a good turnout
with Google meeting. I believe this is because we all agree that these
events for communication between fishers and scientists are very productive
and worthwhile.

Charles Birkeland