Who benefits, who profits?
by Rob Parsons
 |
 |
 |
The
average Hawaii citizen has to go to great lengths to influence the
outcome of big business proposals, especially when those seeking
permits and approvals hold expectations of multi-million dollar
returns. So it was that I found myself on a sunrise flight to Honolulu,
ready to ask the State Board of Land and Natural Resources to rule on
the side of reason and against a big-bucks scheme.
For a decade,
Hawaii has given a push to the ocean aquaculture industry, bolstered
with research, funding and legislation that enables state waters to be
leased for private "fish farms"—a distinction unique among all 23
states bordering the ocean. Two ocean aquaculture businesses currently
operate in Hawaii: Kona Blue Water Farms off the Keahole-Kona airport,
raising amberjack branded as "Kona Kampachi," and Hukilau Foods, a
Grove Farm subsidiary cultivating moi in cages two miles off Ewa Beach.
On
this Friday morning, the BLNR would hear a request to permit a third
facility, Hawaii Oceanic Technology's (HOT) ambitious, high-tech plan
to raise 6,000 tons of ahi (skipjack and bigeye tuna) in 12 untethered,
submerged Oceanspheres three miles off the Big Island's Kohala Coast.
The projected output is four times the amount of ahi consumed yearly in
all of Hawaii. HOT expects 90 percent of its finished product to be
flown to markets in Japan and the Mainland.
HOT's CEO Bill
Spencer, a self-described "serial entrepreneur," is also President of
the Hawaii Venture Capital Association. "We want Hawaii to be the
Silicon Valley of open ocean aquaculture," Spencer told the board. With
a growing human population and rapidly declining fish stocks in the
world's oceans from industrial over-fishing, there is a great need for
more aquaculture, said Spencer.
Scientists think we need to
double the $20 billion worldwide industry in the next 20 years, Spencer
said, adding, "This is more pressing than global warming."
But
the lack of data on the immense 165' x 165' Oceanspheres—to be
self-propelled through an Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC)
system—drew concerns from Board members and testifiers alike.
Life
of the Land's Henry Curtis, one of Hawaii's most eminent renewable
energy advocates, told the board about his experience evaluating OTEC
systems. "Frankly," said Curtis, "I can't make head or tails of this
technology. How can you describe the impacts if it is theoretical and
has not been discussed?"
Board member Sam Gon III of The Nature
Conservancy asked if there is a working prototype of the Oceansphere.
Spencer replied that similar technology is used by the oil industry and
the military.
Two testifiers revealed intricate details of the
complex ecosystem design of traditional Hawaiian coastal fishponds. To
mitigate disease, cleaner fish such as wrasses were brought in, said
cultural practioner Michael K. Lee, who held up a photocopied document
of a lease for a coastal loko I'a (fishpond) held by his great, great
grandfather. Lee emphasized that Hawaiians developed their systems over
the course of 2,500 years, through careful observation of nature and
its processes. "But this is a science fair project to them," chided Lee.
Kale
Gumapac related his experience restoring a Big Island fishpond built by
family member David Malo. "The technological understanding handed down
from our kupuna is amazing," said Gumapac. He said kaku (barracuda)
were placed in the pond to discourage theft and to cull out diseased
fish. Honu (turtles) were placed in the pond to eat one kind of limu
(seaweed) and to fertilize another variety that the fish ate. "But they
have not sought our advice on aquaculture," Gumapac said. "Whose
technology should we be using?"
Gumapac also produced a 1904
U.S. Supreme Court decision written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, stating
that Native Hawaiians have vested fishing rights. The ocean should not
be privatized for personal gain, said Gumapac. "These vested rights
still exist today."
In written testimony to the BLNR, UH
professor Dr. Neil Frazer stated: "Among scientists that do not have
financial ties to aquaculture there is now general agreement that a
sea-cage is a pathogen culture facility and that wild fish have
declined everywhere industrial sea-cage farming has taken hold. The
epidemiological reasons for this are clear: fish in cages are protected
from the macro-predators needed for disease control, but not from
pathogens.
"The important difference between sea cage culture
and terrestrial animal culture is that, in the ocean, animal wastes and
pathogens can travel for many miles to infect other animals, whereas on
land wastes fall to the ground."
Frazer also stated that tuna,
as top level predators, have high demands for fish oil and fish meal in
pelletized food, a practice that is depleting stocks of baitfish
(herring, menhaden, anchovies, etc.) across the world's oceans.
Land-based proteins like soy are not suitable, said Frazer, because the
digestive systems of tuna are not adapted to an herbivorous diet.
Big
Island residents and testifiers claimed HOT had not made good-faith
efforts to meet with the community and hear their concerns. Spencer
replied that their final Environmental Impact Statement was over 900
pages long, "with more than 500 pages of comments and responses."
"I would rather work with them than oppose them," testified Rocky Jensen, "but they didn't come to us."
When
my turn came, I shared with the Board that two existing aquaculture
operations pay a yearly total of $3,500 for their ocean leases. "What
portion of the $120 million in HOT's expected revenues would be paid to
the state for their exclusive 247-acre lease?" I asked.
Moreover,
as a beneficiary of Act 221 high tech credits, HOT would avoid paying
more revenues. Twenty-two jobs could be created, according to the EIS,
with half of those going to scuba divers and laborers.
The
Board's decision came around 3:30pm: a 4-1 vote to approve an
incremental approach to deploy three cages initially, then to report
back with their results before nine more net pens could be launched.
Gumapac and Lee stood and announced their intentions to file a
contested case hearing, and the meeting recessed, the audience spilling
outside like a collective exhale.
My route back to Honolulu
airport took me past the state Capitol, where nearly a thousand people
were gathered to protest the first Furlough Friday, as Hawaii's
children got an unfortunate day off to pay for budgetary shortfalls.
Influencing our decision-makers is seldom an easy task. But it's the
price we must pay to achieve an outcome we all can live with.