Keawakapu Reef Report

[Lisianski]

They have finally posted the federal investigation report online:

http://hawaii.gov/dlnr/dar/pdf/keawakapu.pdf

I'd be very interested in hearing what other folks think about the report, what is in it, what isn't in it that should be, what questions are left to be answered, any ideas why it wasn't more complete, etc.

My initial impressions. There does not appear to be a whole lot to it and there wasn't all that much in it that I didn't already know.

It read like "choppy" writing - which usually means there was more there to begin with. It seems heavily edited.

Two things that I was looking for that was not included in the report: where are all the other blocks - or rather what configuration are most of them in. These things were supposed to be in large piles - not spread out. I'd like to know if they screwed up the rest of the deployment as well. (This project is reputed to have cost over $500,000.

On page 4 of the report it says: The dive teams could not determine if damage was caused by the drifting of modules or the positioning of the barge with the information that was provided. They still don't know "why" this happened. That seems hard to believe. The last phrase is the most interesting though - "with the information provided". That is obviously code for "DAR/DLNR isn't talking" - nobody wants to admit any liability.

The one last item that caught my eye is on page 6 - where they say that the "currently deployed blocks were outside the Army Corps permitting area." That means that in addition to any violations of state law that occured, they also violated federal law as well. Wonder why nobody's talking?

Lastly - DLNR allocated $44,651.40 to produce this 17 pg. report (well to be honest it was a 7 pg. report with 9 pages of pictures.) Frankly - that's a lot of money for 8 pages and some blurry pictures.

(Halemano - they should have hired you to take the pics.)

There is a map on pg. 10 - showing generally where the modules ended up. This might be more interesting than it appears at first glance. Compare it to the artificial reef area that is shown on DAR's website - particularly point "D." That looks like the corner of the darker purple area on the upper right corner of the map pg. 10 of the report.

http://hawaii.gov/dlnr/dar/pubs/ARKeawakapu.pdf

If I'm reading this right - does that mean they missed the designated artificial reef area completely?

The public information meeting will be held in Kihei, Maui at Kamali‘i Elementary School Cafeteria 180 Ke Alii Alanui Street, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

 

[Shaka Doug]

The meeting is March 30th, not today as I first thought when I read this moments ago. I hpe a lot of people show up. I plan on being there (even though it's Taco Tuesday!).

I will have to read the full report. Thanks for posting this!

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Just some first impressions of the report:

2 dive teams, 14 dives in 3 days, over 100 COT's observed. That's ~4 unique/different/new COT's observed by each team on each dive. That's a lot of COT's.

​

They claim the top of the main reef, the extension of the main reef and the patch reef all have the same top depth (~50') with the sand ~70' deep. There is significant difference in depth of tops with the top of the patch reef and the sand at least 20 feet deeper than they say (from my memory of dives to the cage).

Cage in the sand behind/below blocks on reef​

The detailed map (Fig 2) supposedly shows the SE corner of the Keawakapu Artificial Reef Area in the top left corner (NW?), when it should be the NW corner of the ARA shown in the bottom right corner of the map (SE?).

 

[Lisianski]

What is a COT?

Did you see the story about DAR's administrator?

Polhemus' ouster as state Aquatics Resources administrator questioned | honoluluadvertiser.com | The Honolulu Advertiser

Happened around the same time as the report came out.

Just some first impressions of the report:

2 dive teams, 14 dives in 3 days, over 100 COT's observed. That's ~4 unique/different/new COT's observed by each team on each dive. That's a lot of COT's.


The detailed map (Fig 2) supposedly shows the SE corner of the Keawakapu Artificial Reef Area in the top left corner (NW?), when it should be the NW corner of the ARA shown in the bottom right corner of the map (SE?).

 

[Shaka Doug]

COT is Crown of Thorns sea star. They are greenish purple, usually have between 15 and 20 arms with sharp venomous spikes all over them. They are OK in small numbers but 100 in that area could devastate the patch reefs in no time. (Personally I really doubt they saw that many there. They are not common in the nearby reefs. Could be a ploy to blame reef devastation on the sea star, not the block droppers!)They are aggressive reef foragers and they have the ability to extend their stomachs outside of their body. By doing this they can effectively cover a much larger coral than they could reasonably eat using traditional chewing methods. The stomach covers the coral, the digestive fluids go to work and when they have consumed all of the coral polyps they suck back in the stomach then they move on and leave a dead coral skeleton behind. They are good at what they do but like I said, we don't see many around here. I would estimate I see ONE every three to five dives at most.

 

[Shaka Doug]

I just read the report and comments about Polhemus. It is my opinion that we are screwed by pretty much our entire goverment from the bottom to the top. I hope you are all voting next election day. We need new blood all across the board. Make a statement if anything people!! If you don't do something who will?

Oh yeah, and PLEASE ATTEND next Tuesdays meeting in Kihei so they have an audience!! Many of these meetings have less than ten people show up and they become a ridiculous dog and pony show with no real consequences. Show them we are paying attention!! Otherwise I think you can kiss this paradise goodbye because they are stripping it away faster and faster everyday!

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

OK, I finally made the dive; previously had a windy kayak attempt (w/buddy) abort back to Ulua a few weekends ago. This was a not as windy afternoon surface swim. I was occasionally focusing on looking for COT's, but only maybe 10% of the time; I saw none.

Well, my memory was wrong about the depth of the sand; it is ~70' deep at the cage and patch reef.
The top of the main reef is ~40' deep and the shallowest z-block on the main reef is ~46' deep.
The top of the extension reef is ~50' deep and the top of the patch reef is ~55' deep (below).



A strobe camera carrying 6', 180 lb diver wearing vest, 100AL and
Gara 2000's pulled easily right through this jungle gym formation.

​

 

[Shaka Doug]

on my way to the meeting. Anyone else gonna show up?

 

[Shaka Doug]

About 50 concerned citizens made the effort to show up for this meeting tonight. About a dozen had the nerve to speak up. Lucky for me they let me speak even after the allotted time had expired. Thank you Maury! (Look on the bright side it's better than NONE out of 143,574* people - Maui's 2008 population.)

*Google - public data

Hmm, it's late, I'm bored....Let's do some math... 50/143,574 = .034825% of the population! WOW! Scary! Can you say AINOKEA? (A local term similar to one used in the Caribbean: "Not My Job Man!")

I'm wondering, "When is Maui going to stand up for ourselves?" HELLO-OOOO! Is there anybody out there? And here on SB it just gets looked over too. Oh I get it...everyone is worried about what wetsuit to wear or who's boat might have ticked someone off. Those are the real issues, sorry to burden you Ohana. Please go back to your regularly scheduled soap opera. Sorry but this makes me mad!

Not sure when the next meeting is but they told us they have a lot more work to do before this is over then they want to have another public meeting. I say it's been 4 months already. Get the damn blocks off the reef!

PS: One of the testifiers had his dress shirt on inside out. I'm trying to figure out if he was wearing it inside out on purpose to make a statement or was he just that frazzled by the 'reef damage dog and pony show' that he didn't notice?? Someone else made a bold loud statement that they should have put a diver in the water then he walked out of the meeting and disappeared. We'll have to do better than this if we are going to convince them of anything. We can't be showing up all disheveled. They should know we are on top of our game and paying attention to what they are doing. In chess it's called "Check". In other matters it's called being better than your opponent. It helps us win. If we don't win the reef loses.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Wish I could have been there; my flight back from the mainland did not land until 11:25 PM.

Other than everyone agreeing there was significant damage to the reef, what "real" discussion happened? What did you have to say? What did DLNR/DAR have to say (if anything)? Were there any non-disheveled speakers with a valid message (other than you)?