A United Kingdom-based research project that took samples from Big Island reefs has been terminated after a state board found the scientists failed to hold sufficient public outreach about the project.
The British Geological Survey submitted an application to the Board of Land and Natural Resources earlier this year seeking a special activity permit to be allowed to extract fossilized reef cores — 4.2-cubic-meter samples of several stacked layers of dead coral — from sites in state waters around Hawaii Island in order to study the long-term effects of climate change over the course of the past 500,000 years.
Those sites included one in Kawaihae Harbor — as well as two other alternate sites nearby — one off of Kailua-Kona, and one outside Hilo Bay.
Those were not the only sites of interest, however. BGS marine geoscientist David McInroy told the board Friday the project had 21 target sites, the majority of which were located in federal waters. He said the project’s vessel — the MMA Valour — already has been at work at the federal sites over the last several weeks.
If the BLNR approved BGS’ request, McInroy said the state sites would provide insight into “a very unique time interval” of the last 500,000 years of changing climate. He said BGS has conducted similar studies at reefs around the Pacific, including Tahiti and the Great Barrier Reef, but the presence of Hawaii’s active volcanoes could provide details unavailable at other sites.
“Hawaii has a very unique subsidence history with the volcano building up and the island sinking down,” McInroy said. “We want to look at these corals and reconstruct that sea level change and see how the corals responded. … And we can use that geological history to hopefully inform what might happen to our current corals, how resilient are they, and how much protection do they need. The strapline for our program is ‘exploring the past to inform the future.’”
He added that, without state approval to visit the sites in state waters, BGS has no choice but to end the project early without those samples.
“We would have an incomplete picture,” McInroy said. “The record of climate change and environmental change that we hope to get here in Hawaii would be just incomplete. We would miss the first time interval that these reefs represent. … We would learn something, but we wouldn’t learn the entire history we would want to.”
The project will indeed have to go without those samples, however, after the BLNR was critical of how the project failed to engage with island residents.
McInroy said that the permitting process through the U.S. State Department offered no instructions indicating a need to conduct public outreach for activities in federal waters — to the consternation of residents who witnessed an unfamiliar foreign vessel anchored offshore without any further context.
“One of the things that set the community off is that the vessel showed up one day, without notice, and just sat there, and nobody had any idea as to what it was doing,” said Charles Young, member of the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Aha Moku Advisory Committee. “Even though it was in federal water, that’s not important — it’s sitting out in front of our communities … having no idea what business it was conducting.”
Waikoloa resident Mike Nakachi testified in a similar vein, saying that he and other residents were disturbed when a bright light appeared on the ocean for several weeks in September.
“We are practitioners who go out on the water on a quite regular basis,” Nakachi said. “And you’re drilling. And we can hear you drilling.”
Nakachi said he believes the federal permitting process has failed the BLNR, BGS and the Big Island community in general by not requiring closer communication between all parties involved.
Young agreed, saying that even though BGS was not required to seek public feedback for research in federal waters, that very lack of requirement itself erodes public trust in the federal permitting process.
“On the surface, I don’t see anything wrong with the merits of what (BGS) is intending to do,” Young said. “It’s not like I’m against the project, it’s just difficult to accept the process that led up to it.”
McInroy said that BGS was unable to engage members of the public before beginning the state permitting process due to a tight time schedule: Because of the onset of the humpback whale migratory season, the project would not be able to continue beyond Oct. 31.
“In the end, we decided that, by going through the permitting process, the right contacts would emerge,” McInroy said. “We did do our best to reach out when we were made aware of the best contacts to get a hold of.”
But with less than three weeks before the Oct. 31 deadline, Young said BGS probably does not have enough time to conduct sufficient public outreach and also complete its studies in state waters.
Young added that the Kumulipo — the Hawaiian creation chant chronicling the creation of the universe — names coral as the first life form to be created, thereby ascribing to the reefs a spiritual significance to Hawaiians. Because of this, he said, extracting coral is a sensitive subject that should have been thoroughly explained to the Hawaiian community before any action was taken.
The board voted 6-0 — with one member abstaining — to deny BGS’ permit, although not without a certain reluctance. Oahu board member Aimee Barnes said the whole situation is “a loss all around.”
“We’re losing out on important climate science, and we’re losing out on the community’s ability to engage in this process,” Barnes said.
“Some of this is on DLNR,” said BLNR Chair Dawn Chang, noting that McInroy’s request came to the DLNR months ago, but the department took longer than anticipated to process it and bring it to the appropriate bodies. “So, we do take some responsibility for the lateness. … We could have done a better job about giving the applicant more information.”
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.