Vol. 13, #3, May 2004

 

The City Council has proposed Bill 19 to remove the Concession fees from the Bay Fund. Directors Micki Stash and Cindy Bond testified against the bill, but it was passed to keep it alive while an alternate sourse of $1 million be found. The Committee Chair realized it would be "stealing" money from the H.B. Fund.

City Budget Director Lui-Kwan has projected a surplus of $877,559 in the HBNP Fund for FY05 (excluding the Concession Fees of $1,135,800). If there is a surplus, it is because monies have not been used for the HBEP (which is still owed $200,000 for 2003), needed repairs, staffing, and long-awaited revisions to the Video. The City also wants to use part of the Concession Fees to repay the HBNP Fund to pay a $3 million awarded by the Court because the City had previously diverted funds from the Bay.
The Budget Director has proposed a meeting with the Friends to discuss the unmet needs of the Bay, for Alan Hong request for staff and other items has been turned down. Even if the City fulfills the current needs of the Bay, the loss of the

Concession Fees could bring about a deficit in the HBNP Fund in a few years. Available resources will decrease as the "surplus" is used up and will be faster if the City does approve some of the requests.

The following are future projections:

Year-2006; Fees-$3,460K; Award-$500K; Surplus from 2005-$877K; Costs-$4,532M
Year-2007; Fees-$3,460K; Award-$500K; Surplus from 2006-$306K; Costs-$4,532M
Year-2008; Fees-$3,460K; Award-$500K; Surplus from '07-$(265K); Costs-$4,532M
Year-2009; Surplus from 2008-($837K)

The underlined numbers indicate the deficits, which will only increase!

The Bill is not yet passed. There will be another hearing, probably May 20. Please contact your Council Member and ask him or her to vote AGAINST Bill 19. We need every member's help with this.

A final reminder, you can now pay your 2004 dues via snail-mail or electronic-mail and a credit card, see our new Website: www.friendsofhanaumabay.org or .com.

The symbol(s) following your name on the mailing label indicates if you paid your dues for 2004 (*), if you haven't and paid in 2003 (?), if you haven't paid for at least two years ($), if you have a membership via the Education Program (^), and if you are a special person to the FOHB ('). Our goal, obviously, is to have everyone on our mailing list a star (*) player!

A new feature is that the Board has decided that we will now have yearly dues rather than annual dues! More later.

The Bay and Kalani Hwy quarterly cleanup did occur on Saturday, April 24, 2004, which was associated with Earth Day. Only two FOHB members were of the 38 who helped! Fortunately, a lot of the fishermen did!

Over the last 10 years of almost daily snorkels at the Bay, I've seen very little actual predation. Now I know it happens because, hey, carnivores didn't get that classification because they like veggies. I know that Jacks eat fish and that lots of other critters also enjoy the occasional bit of sashimi. You can imagine with this kind of track record (err, snorkeling record) my surprise last week on two back-to-back days I saw an octopus duke it out with an eel.

The first encounter occurred when I spied a good sized (six and seven/eigths on the Winnik scale!) octopus moving along the rubble adjacent to the entrance to Sandman's Patch. As I followed him he moved into a large puka (hole) at the base of the coral ledge.

Suddenly the area literally exploded into a mass of writhing legs and ink that the octopus defensively discharged at the moray who had grabbed him. Within 5-seconds it was all over and as the ink dissipated, moved along by the current, I saw the octopus, apparently exhausted, slowly moving away sans one of his legs.

The I spied a Whitemouth Moray moving in the other direction chomping on his trophy appendage. The very next day in almost the same spot, I spied a smaller octopus (four and three/forths on my scale) who, while attempting to move into another puka was ambushed by a Yellowmargin Moray. The octopus pulled for all he was worth and, once again, after the ink cleared, I saw him exit "stage left" minus a leg.

The Moray remained in the puka mouthing his prize. Boy, was he 'pumped!' He was pulling serious amounts of water through his gills and clearly in an aggressive state. I exited the scene lest I become a follow-on subject of his aggression. One-legged Larry is NOT my idea of a good nickname! Now, according to my readings, this is not an unusual occurrence and the leg will eventually grow back.

In the mean time, the encounters "beg" an interesting question: Should we continue to refer to these critters as octo-pus even though they now only have seven legs?

Aloha, as always, Biped Winnik

We now have a Friends Business Card that has a stunning aerial view of the Bay on it along with the Website Address, our logo, our address and the first part of our Mission Statement. They are available at the Information Desk at the Bay

In addition to giving information about the Friends and the Bay itself, we are now doing some fund raising from the Website. The first item offered is "The Hanauma Bay Slideshow and Screensaver CD" produced by Larry Winnik. It includes 154 high quality photos taken a the Bay. Photos include Butterflyfish, Surgeonfish, Goatfish, Eels, Tangs, Wrasses and many others. It also contains numerous close-ups of Octopus, Turtles and even the rare Hawaiian Seahorse. For each CD sold $6.45 is donated to the Friends. You can view a sample of the CD from the Website by going to the homepage and clicking on the blue box advertising it in the lower right hand corner or you can go directly to the page by entering friendsofhanaumabay.org/winnik.html.

Right now we are testing some other items that will be for sale later this year. All items will have photos of the marine life of the Bay on them, so people can enjoy and remember the Bay even when they are not there. Look for items such as posters, post cards, coasters, T-shirts, calendars and more. If you have an outstanding and extra clear photo that you would like to be considered for this program, please contact me at bryn@bwkc.com.


We are getting a good amount of traffic on our Website, as it is already listed on Page 1 of Google for the search term "Hanauma Bay."

If you have any suggestions for the Website please let me know via e-mail.

Bryn Kaufman, FOHB Webmaster

Two members of the FOHB Board judged the Project Entries at the recent Hawaii State Science and Engineering Fair and decided that two projects were worthy of an award. A third Board Member handed out the awards at the Awards Ceremony so that the Friends were recognized.

In the Senor Research "Fish Mucus: Inhibitory Effects on Marine and Non-Marine Bacteria" by Genevieve Pang and Taryn Takahashi by Baldwin H.S. made them worthy of a $50 check for each plus the book "Hanauma Bay" by John Randall. In the Junior Research "Is It Possible to Get Sunburn While Submerged in Water?" by Nicole Asuncion by Waiakea Intermediate School was awarded $50 plus the same book.

On Friday, March 26, over 100 people gathered at the Elks Lodge for HBEP's Annual Volunteer Appreciation Banquet. The Volunteers and guests were entertained by the sounds of Wicky Wacky Woo, as well as beautiful hula performed by HBEP Education Assistant Mahealani Kaneshiro.

One of the highlights of the evening was the presentation of annual service certificates and pins from the Education Program, plus over 50 Volunteers also received the President's Volunteer Service Award for their donation of over 100 hours of service during the last calendar year. Bob Kern and Willie Ching were recognized for reaching 5-years and each Volunteer who has achieved five or more years with the program received a certificate of thanks from City Councilman Charles Djou.

Thanks also to the many individuals and businesses who donated door prizes and made this annual celebration such a success.

Jennifer Barrett, Volunteers Coordinator.

5/6/04 "Palua: Paradise of the Pacific" PBS documentary
5/13/04 "Where Have All the Fishes Gone?" Mary Picket, Waikiki Aquarium
5/20/04 "Empty Oceans, Empty Nets" PBS Documentary.
5/28/04 "Managing the Northwest Hawaiian Islands as a Marine Protected Area" Linda Paul, Executive Director, Hawaii Audibon Society Pacific Fisheries Council.
6/3/04 "Killer Whales: Wolves of the Sea" National Geographic documentary, 1993.
6/10/04 "Where Have All the Fishes Gone?" Mary Pickett, Waikiki Aquarium.
6/17/04 "Ocean Wilds: Creatures of the Coral" PBS Documentary on Coral Spawning
6/24/04 "The New Hawaii Pacific Research Center for Marine Biomedicine" dr. Bob Bidigare, UH Professor of Oceanography

Remember all talks/FILMS are in the Bay Education THEATER on Thursdays at 6:30 pm.
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NANAMOANA is published bimonthly by the Friends of Hanauma Bay,
100 Hanauma Bay Road, Honolulu, HI 96825
Roy Gritter, Editor.