Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 25, Number 9, 1 September 2008 — EFFORTS ACROSS OCEANIA [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

EFFORTS ACROSS OCEANIA

The International Year of the Reef Educator Expedition to Papahānauniokuākea served as a unique opportunity for the 10 Pacific Island participants to learn about the different styles of marine resource management across Oeeania. Every night, educators - who eame from Kiribati, Palau, Fiji, American Samoa, Australia, the Marshall Islands, the Cook Islands and Hawai'i - save nresentations about the conservation efforts

going on in their home islands. What heeame clear early on in the expedition is that marine conservationists across the

Pacific face the same problems, such as climate change, illegal fishing and laek of enforcement.

Another eonunon theme is getting eommu- ■ nities to buy-in to marine i conservation. "It's important to get the

communities involved and give them a sense of ownership and accountability," said Fatima SauafeaLe'au, a coral reef ecologist from American Samoa. "There's no other way to manage resources on an island. The conununities have the traditional knowledge about the reefs and the history of the reefs that the scientists don't know." Margaret Tabunakawai, a research assistant with the Fijian government, explained that the top-down approach to conservation hasn't worked in Fiji. If the govermnent passes a policy that the eonununities aren't receptive to, she said, they won't follow the rules. "Decisions need to eome from the conununities on up," she said. "So we provide conununities with infonnation and wait. When the species start to disappear, the conununities eome to us. Change isn't easy, but the process works." I

lntroduced to Hawaii in 1 950, taape (blue-lined snapper) is one of the few alien fish species fo have successfully established a population in the monument. Above: Ihe marine educators prepare to land on Nihoa, the most southeastern of the Northwestern Hawaiian lslands. Middle: A Hawaiian monk seal. Left: table coral (top) and terns (below) eall French Frigate Shoals home. - Photos: Courtesy of James Wattand NOAA.