The Maui News

Five Maui County marine conservation projects were among 33 recipients of federal funding during fiscal year 2022 to achieve healthy ocean ecosystems through outreach, education, management and monitoring. 

The Federal Programs Office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Pacific Islands Regional Office provided a total of $8,294,694 in grants and cooperative agreements to programs in support of the NOAA Fisheries mission, including two on Molokai and three on Maui, according to a news release. 

Recipients of the federal awards included 22 national and international agencies and organizations from American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Hawaii, and the greater Pacific.

The Hawaii Marine Mammal Alliance received $78,715 for Hawaiian monk seal management support, field response, and outreach on Molokai, according to the Federal Programs Office 2022 report.

Hawaiian monk seals are facing many threats, including inappropriate interactions with and disturbances from people due to lack of public understanding and support, according to NOAA. 

With the grant, HMAR will be able to provide support for field response, escalated and directed surveys/response, and interventions and strandings of Hawaiian monk seals on Molokai. 

This project will include conducting field-based community outreach, public engagement, and hotline response; triage; dispatch; multi-agency coordination; and information collection, transfer, and reporting. 

The Ocean Foundation was granted $39,941 for a three-year proposal for Halawa, Molokai aimed at improving hawksbill turtle research at the “most important hawksbill nest beach in Hawaii,” according to the report. 

This three-year proposal seeks to improve research activities at Halawa during the 2022-2025 nesting seasons, with a focus on solidifying the project’s initial successes. 

The project will also initiate new, high-priority research activities, such as night monitoring to identify and count nesting females and post-hatching nest excavations to confirm nests, calculate hatching success, and maximize hatchling survival. 

These activities will generate “urgently needed demographic information on this data-deficient population that is critical to informing population assessments and identifying conservation actions to support population recovery,” the report said.  

Hawaii Wildlife Fund received $20,174 for the Hookipa Honu Watch project, which includes outreach, education, and monitoring of Maui’s popular basking turtle site: Hookipa Beach Park.

The county park is an important beach park on the north shore, both for human usage and for the threatened green sea turtle. 

This project seeks to increase the survival of the Hawaiian green sea turtles that bask and nest at Hookipa Beach Park by protecting them from human disturbance, while also educating the public about how they can help with this effort.

A grant of $40,000 was awarded to Maui Ocean Center Marine Institute for sea turtle management support, field response, and outreach on Maui. 

The Maui Ocean Center Marine Institute provides a comprehensive sea turtle conservation program, but with additional funding, the organization will continue to be able to respond to reports of sick, injured, distressed, or otherwise compromised sea turtles, the report said. 

Using the data obtained through stranding response, MOCMI aims to improve understanding of the issue within the community and reduce threats impacting sea turtles by establishing easily adaptable conservation initiatives and accessible environmental education. This project will allow MOCMI to increase sea turtle stranding response capabilities and expand community education and outreach effort, the report said. 

A $71,958 grant went to the Marine Mammal Center for building Hawaiian monk seal response and community engagement on Maui. 

Ke Kai Ola, the Marine Mammal Center’s Hawaiian monk seal hospital, provides long-term care and rehabilitation to monk seals and significant education and outreach about the seals to visitors and residents. 

In this project, the center will continue supporting its Hawaiian monk seal response and community engagement on Maui, as well as providing volunteer training and public communications. 

“With just over 1,500 individuals remaining, conservation efforts to protect and increase the population are critical to this species’ survival,” the report said.