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What's killing the reefs and diminishing our fish?
#1
I Recently took a trip to the kona side to do a little fishing and snorkeling. The ocean was calm and the wind was down which usually makes for good fishing. Unfortunately we saw very little fish in the murky ocean water and we caught only two rock fish between the four of us. We saw no hermit crabs, sea slugs, or yellow tang, all of which use to be very common in these places we visited.
So I have to ask here on PWeb, seriously what is happening to our coral reefs in Hawaii?
Where have all the reef fish gone, why?
What causes the fish kills like the ones we see in kapoho?

Pretty sure there is no one reason for these noticeable reef changes so hoping for a wide range of opinions or answers.

I found a couple articles that were interesting.
http://www.cnbc.com/2015/07/18/hawaiis-c...ching.html

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/...ral-reefs/

http://www.hawaiibusiness.com/whats-hawa...ent-worth/





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#2
"Unfortunately we saw very little fish in the murky ocean water"

Not surprising.
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#3
The answer will likely be people.
Assume the best and ask questions.

Punaweb moderator
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#4
we caught only two rock fish between the four of us.

Two less right there.

“There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.”
-Joseph Brodsky
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves
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#5
quote:
Originally posted by dakine

CO2 = fossil fuels = greed = republicans

You just had to make it political.
Not enough republicans in this state for greed, the democrats hoard everything for themselves.

David

Ninole Resident
Please visit vacation.ninolehawaii.com
Ninole Resident
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#6
This is not just a "local" issue, coral reefs are dying all over the planet. I don't know how this could be a surprise to anyone, scientists and divers have been sounding the alarm for months, if not years. Well over a third of the Great Barrier reef is dead already, Jarvis Island in the Pacific Remote Island Marine National Monument has had virtually all of its corals die and this last El Nino seems to have been the tipping point for coral reef health.
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#7
The great barrier reef is in the middle of a large die off right now. This does seem to be a global problem as others have mentioned.
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#8
Here is an article that helps explains the difficulty in protecting reefs around the world or here in Hawaii. Amazing to me that One out of every five fish caught today is caught illegally.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/21/magazi....html?_r=0

Wonder if some of our island reefs could be watched or protected like this (via satellite)?


This article helps explain a popular way these fish are being caught along our reefs. Pretty sure that Hawaii has aloud this type of fishing for aquariums for decades now, hope I am wrong though.

http://www.fishchannel.com/fish-magazine...-fish.aspx


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#9
Some of the leading work on coral reef survival is taking place in Hawaii:

In one set of experiments planned for the super-coral project, corals from Kaneohe Bay will be raised under the sorts of conditions marine creatures can expect to confront later this century. Some colonies will be bathed in warm water, others in water that’s been acidified, and still others in water that’s both warm and acidified. Those which do best will then be bred with one another, to see if the resulting offspring can do even better.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/0...nd-forests

If you continue reading the article the writer also interviews a breeder of chestnut trees, which died out early in the 1900's due to a fungus. It's a story similar to what is happening to the ohia here in Hawaii. Warning to anti GMO readers: the solution to their survival might include minor genetic modification.

“There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.”
-Joseph Brodsky
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves
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#10
Sorry to get a little off topic here. I am of the opinion that, if we can get the bribe money out of politics as a nation, many of the problems we have will be fixed.
Overturn Citizens United. Make public financing of political campaigns. Make ALL political donations illegal. Make it illegal to accept political donations. Make the penalty jail time and fines for both sides, the politician and the person trying to bribe them. The government would supply each legitimate candidate the same amount of money. When it's gone, you are done spending on your campaign. Limit the amount of time before an election campaign could begin, by when the feds dole out the money.
This would end the open market we have today, where you can walk down the isle and choose your politician to buy on the open market.

End PACS, Super Pacs, lobbyists.

And that would end corporations from giving huge amounts of money to buy influence to, say, continue to poison drinking water by fracking in the US. The oil companies could not keep bribing politicians to deny global warming. Those of you that are anti gun, no more could the NRA bribe politicians. And on and on. This step would end a trend that is a bigger danger to our country than isis, terrorism, etc, etc.

And, yes, maybe we could end the destruction of coral reefs, the pollution of the ocean, etc etc, as our leaders would no longer be showered in dirty money to deny these problems exist.

Not so many politicians would get into office to get rich, as the corporations and people that are making them rich could no longer legally do that. Maybe a Koch brother or two (or fill in your own corrupt wealthy bribemaster) in prison would show we mean bussiness.

Take the big money out of politics, so we can make decisions based on what is good for the country, the people, and our planet, and not make these decisions based on filling up our bank account.

On a personal note, our son in laws old chocolate lab, that has been living with us for about a year, had to be put down yesterday. She was 13 years old. He moved to Oahu to work, and could not take Koa with him, so we volunteered to take her in. She was a wonderful old girl and never caused any problems for us. She'd greet us when we came home, follow us all around our property, bark when a stranger came by, get really excited when our little grand daughter came over. I found out that Koa would visit our really great neighbors once or twice a day, as they would see her, and give her a dog biscuit or two, which kept her coming back.

We miss you Koa. Rest in peace.





Jon in Keaau/HPP
Jon in Keaau/HPP
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