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Description:
Project Manager:
Ivor Williams
Project Years:
2015
2016
2017
2018
Project Summary:
The Kahekili Herbivore Fisheries Management Area (KHFMA) was established to reverse downward trends in coral reef condition and to test the effectiveness of herbivore management as means to promote coral reef resilience. Surveys conducted by the NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Program and Maui Division of Aquatic Resources (DAR) inside the KHFMA demonstrate that herbivore biomass has more than doubled, and crustose coralline algae cover has increased from 2% to~15% since closure. However, due in part to coral mortality at KHFMA following the 2015 MHI bleaching event, it remains difficult to have certainty about the likely eventual impacts of protection on coral assemblages in the KHFMA. Therefore, the project will support continued co-monitoring of the KHFMA at reduced level of intensity. At the same time, we will extend survey work to explore scope fur using photogrammetry to quantify process of coral growth and survival (e.g. rates of recruitment into small size classes, survivorship and growth of juvenile and larger corals).The KHFMA has local and international significance and direct relevance to potential management strategies in Hawaii and beyond (additional herbivore closures and/or through herbivore size and bag limits). Sufficient herbivory is widely understood to be an essential component of reef resilience, and is one of the few such aspects of resilience that can be managed. State of Hawaii and its partners are currently exploring scope for expanding herbivore protection, potentially through a network of herbivore managed areas, with the explicit goal of managing for expected repeated coral bleaching and mortality events in coming decades. Continued collaborative work at KHFMA has great potential to have significant impacts on coral reef management across much of the state.
Expected Outcome:
Project will generate results on changes to fish and benthos inside KHFMA, while it is still rapidly changing. By expanding monitoring to adjacent areas inside the West Maui priority watershed, project will generate compatible data on reef habitats for which there is currently very little information – and will therefore provide a baseline for Maui Ridge2Reef (R2R) and other managers to assess future change in reef condition from watershed restoration projects in the priority area.Regarding the KHFMA, this project will therefore: (i) provide information that DAR needs to properly understand effectiveness of herbivore management at KHFMA; (ii) provide information that DAR needs to make the case for proactive management at Kahekili and elsewhere, and to help build their credibility generally; (iii) critically, assess resilience of reefs within the KHFMA – where herbivores are well managed, and therefore where there is a diverse herbivore assemblage that includes large scraping and excavating parrotfishes – in comparison to other reefs in the region.Hawaii was an early adopter of protecting herbivores to promote coral reef resilience. Hawaii has also been proactive in identifying management responses to the 2015 bleaching event, including development of the 30-for-30 initiative, which is likely to lead to efforts to establish several new herbivore management areas in the state -at areas with scope for herbivore recovery and where there are or have been well developed reef areas.We have built strong working links with Maui DAR and the 30-for-30 spatial planning process. This project will continue to provide biological information on a mature herbivore management area, including recovery trends there and in comparison to unprotected reefs elsewhere in Maui and beyond.
Project Locations:
Jursdiction Priority Sites:
- Ka‘anapali-Kahekili (Maui)
Project Category:
Fishing
Project Type:
Closed
Project Status:
Completed
Associated Products:
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