Maui is suffering from too much development and too little infrastructure. It's no surprise that some of its reefs are shot!
When I was a student at UH, I worked for the project that tried to look at algae blooms vs injection well sites. I don't recall them coming to any definite conclusions when I was there, but there seemed to be a suspicous correlation.
friscuba:
It would be interesting to see how much collection actually goes on in Maui, as opposed to the other islands. Anyway, in Kona they've seen improvements in fish stocks since the creation of FRAs (fish replenishment areas) and everyone's relatively satisfied these days with the program they've set up.
There are a handful of guys on Maui, but from what I understand it's very minor compared with Oahu and Kona. DLNR keeps statistics on the number of permit holders and their reported catch, so you could probably find out if you asked.
The reason Kona gets so much attention is that tourist dive ops have complained about it, which hasn't really happened here. The Oahu aquarium industry is older than Kona's, but we tend to stay away from areas frequented by tourist boats and have avoided the user conflicts that the Kona guys are getting into. Oahu also doesn't produce the Big Island's massively unbalanced yellow tang harvests. Wiping out all the prettiest fish at somebody's favorite dive spot is not a good way to do business.
gilligan:
However, commercial aquarium fish collection accounts for approximately one million fish per year taken from the State's reefs with the Yellow Tang at the top of the list. IMHO the mortality rate is near 100% at the consumer level.
That figure sounds large, but remember that most fish targeted for aquariums are smaller and more abundant than our food fish species, so the total biomass caught is much lower and it's easier for them to recover from fishing pressure. IMO, if done properly, it's a very sustainable fishery. As a fish collector, I'm proud of the job I do and if I thought my actions were hurting the reef I'd stop doing it. I couldn't say the same for many of Hawaii's other commercial fisheries.
I wouldn't say yellow tangs have a 100% mortality. As long as you can feed them enough vegetable matter, they're very hardy fish. There are plenty of aquarists out there who can take care of them properly. The species is still overfished, though. There needs to be an export limit or something.
You can ask them for figures on collection and they will give you a breakdown by County but they will not give you any individuals figures such as the Maui Ocean Center. DLNR states that is confidential information. Imagine that, the taking of resources from the States (the peoples) waters is confidential!
Darn right it's confidential. Do you want me to be able to walk up to your boss and ask them what your paycheck was and how many hours you worked? I'm happy to tell the state how much I catch, especially if DLNR is able to use my catch reports to improve the state's resources. I don't need to give that info to some joe on the street who I've never met.
In any case, I think Maui Ocean Center's take is insignificant compared with other types of fishing. They only need to be able to stock their own tanks, unlike commercial fishermen who need to be constantly catching fish to survive.
