Coastal News Today | HI - 10-Year Battle of Sea Urchins vs Invasive Seaweed coastalnewstoday.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from coastalnewstoday.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
DNLR/
DAR)
The first hatchery-raised sea urchins outplanted in Kāneʻohe Bay are 10-years-old, and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit (
DAR) are celebrating the milestone anniversary. The sea urchin hatchery, funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (
NOAA) and
DAR, successfully transplanted the first cohort in January 2011 and has since released 600,000 sea urchins across the state.
Project staff raise the sea urchins until they’re large enough to be released into the wild. (Photo credit:
DNLR/
DAR)
These sea urchins have proven to be incredibly successful at controlling invasive seaweed, a major priority for coral conservation in Hawaiʻi. To date, the sea urchin biocontrol project has treated more than 227 acres of reef in Kāneʻohe Bay, and has recently expanded to the Waikīkī Marine Life Conservation District to control invasive algae.
Waikīkī-Diamond Head Shoreline Will Close To Fishing For One Year
Honolulu – The Waikīkī-Diamond Head Shoreline Fisheries Management Area (SFMA), O‘ahu, will be closed to fishing for one year, from Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, 2021.
The SFMA encompasses the nearshore waters between the ‘Ewa wall of the Waikīkī War Memorial Natatorium and the Diamond Head Lighthouse, from the high-water mark on shore to a minimum seaward distance of 500 yards, or to the edge of the fringing reef if one occurs beyond 500 yards. The area is closed to fishing during odd-numbered years.
Fishing is not allowed at any time in the adjacent Waikīkī Marine Life Conservation District (MLCD), which extends from the ‘Ewa wall of the Natatorium to the Kapahulu groin (jetty).