Department of Land and Natural Resources - Division of Aquatic Resources and the Climate Change and Marine Disease Steering Committee

Hawaii's Climate Change and Marine Disease Local Action Strategy

2007

Department of Land and Natural Resources - Division of Aquatic Resources

Coral reef ecosystems are naturally dynamic and geologically resilient, but their ecosystem functions are being threatened worldwide by accelerated and novel environmental changes due to human activities. In 2002, the US Coral Reef Task Force (USCRTF) identified six management focus areas based on a prioritization of nationwide threats: coral reef fisheries, land-based pollution, lack of public awareness, recreational use, coral bleaching, and reef organism disease. The USCRTF requested that each United States jurisdiction develop three-year plans, or local action strategies (LAS), for each of the priority threats and tasked the federal members of USCRTF to work with the local jurisdictions on their development. This LAS marks the completion of Hawaii's LAS process. Final LAS exist for Coral Reef Fisheries Management, Land-Based Pollution Impacts to Reefs, Recreational Impacts to Reefs, and the Living Reef Program (Lack of Public Awareness LAS). In addition, Hawaii recognized alien species as a priority management area and created the Aquatic Invasive Species Management Plan. Copies of these LAS are available by request to DLNR DAR. The last two threats identified by the USCRTF, coral bleaching/climate change and disease, are both being addressed in this LAS. The threats are being combined into one LAS because there is some overlap in personnel, projects, and funding sources, but the combination does not imply a particular relationship between the two threats.

FY2006 CRCP Project ID 1352; Project Title: Coral Management Fellowship Extension/LAS Project Support; Principal Investigator: Dana Wusinich-Mendez