Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument | Page 2

January 8, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

King of Laysan

Kauō (Laysan Island) is the second largest land mass in the NWHI (1,015 acres) just behind Sand Island at Midway Atoll. It is about 1 mile wide and 1-1/2 miles long and roughly rectangular in shape (shaped like a poi board).

Laysan Island is a member of the Hawaiian archipelago situated 790 sea miles to the northwest of Honolulu, latitude 25” 2’ 14” N, longitude 170” 44’ 06” W.

The island has a maximum elevation of about 30 feet. A fringing reef surrounds the island protecting its shores from violent wave action. (Baldwin)

Kauō (egg) describes both the shape of this island and, perhaps, the abundant seabirds that nest here. The island also previously harbored five Hawaiian endemic land birds, of which two, the endangered Laysan finch and the endangered Laysan duck, still survive. (PMNM Management Plan)

In the Main Hawaiian Islands, sugar‐cane farming proved to be a crop that could be grown profitably under the severe conditions imposed upon plants grown on the lands which were available for cultivation. (HSPA 1947) A century after Captain James Cook’s arrival in Hawaiʻi, sugar plantations started to dominate the landscape.

“After the experiment station of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association was started in 1895, analysis of soils and fertilizers became one of its major functions. On the basis of the chemical analyses. fertilizers were prescribed, and when necessary specially compounded to suit the requirements of each plantation.”

From 1890 two local fertilizer companies started: The North Pacific Phosphate and Fertilizer Company (when first organized in 1890 by George N Wilcox and later called the Pacific Guano and Fertilizer Company); and The Hawaiian Fertilizer Company (started by Amos F Cooke). (Kuykendall)

This leads us to Maximilian “Max” Joseph August Schlemmer (April 13, 1856 – June 13, 1935). Max was born in the French province of Alsace Lorraine to German parents. In 1871, as the Prussian army crossed the French border, Max set sail for New York.

After traveling on whaling ships for several years, in 1885, he settled in Hawaii. He lived and worked on Kauai at a sugar mill and applied his mechanical skills to a small railroad system for transporting material at the mill.

Max later got a job with the North Pacific Phosphate and Fertilizer Company which extracted nitrate from the guano obtained from islands where birds nested in large numbers, particularly Laysan Island.

In his early years in Hawaii, he gained “squatter’s rights” to Laysan Island. Later he established his home on this tiny, distant, and isolated island. (Unger)

Max lived and worked on the island intermittently from 1893-1915. He became known as the “King of Laysan Island.” As the company he worked for began to turn elsewhere for fertilizer, he took full charge of the mining of guano on Laysan.

Japanese pirates began visiting this island and neighboring Lisianski Island to kill the birds for their skins, which brought a hefty profit. Max also tried to use the birds for profit, but all his attempts failed. (Smithsonian)

The island’s easy access and large number of seabirds made it a base for traders of guano (bird droppings used as fertilizer) and feather harvesters in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

In addition, approximately two million seabirds nest here, including boobies, frigatebirds, terns, shearwaters, noddies, and the world’s second-largest black-footed and Laysan albatross colonies. (PMNM Management Plan)

Laysan has a large saltwater lagoon occupying about one-fifth of the island’s central depression. It is well vegetated (except for its sand dunes) and contains a hyper-saline lake, which is one of only five natural lakes in the State of Hawai‘i. (PMNM)

In February of 1909, President Theodore Roosevelt declared Laysan and the other islands in the Hawaiian archipelago to be the Hawaiian Islands Bird Reservation, thus hoping to stop the destruction of the feathered inhabitants. However, bird pirating continued.

“The Hawaiian Islands Reservation was established by Executive order in 1909 to serve as a refuge and breeding place for the millions of sea birds and waders that from time immemorial have resorted there yearly to raise their young or to rest while migrating.”

In 1909 a party of feather hunters landed on Laysan, one of the twelve islands comprising the reservation, and killed more than 200,000 birds, notably albatrosses, for millinery (women’s hats – feathers for hats were popular at the time) purposes.”

“Through the prompt cooperation of the Secretary of the Treasury, the revenue cutter Thetis, under the command of Capt. W. V. E. Jacobs, was dispatched to the island and returned to Honolulu in January, 1910, with 23 poachers and their booty, consisting of the plumage of more than a quarter of a million birds.” (Expedition to Laysan, 1911)

Max introduced rabbits to the isolated island as a potential source of food, and as amusement for his children while he was overseeing guano extraction activities. (PMNM) (Max married a daughter of German immigrants, who bore three children. After she died, he married her 16-year-old sister, who bore fourteen more children (17 children total.))

By 1918 the rabbits had eaten nearly everything on the island and only a few hundred rabbits remained. Over the course of 20 years the rabbits wiped out 26 species of plants and the once abundant Laysan Millerbird, which became extinct around this time. By 1923 Laysan had become a wasteland. (PMNM)

Schlemmer was indicted for poaching of bird feathers, and other dealings with Japanese feather hunters; he did not return to the island. (Lots of information here is from Alchetron, Unger and Papahānaumokuākea MNM.)

A lot of good work by many people eliminated pests, rats, rabbits, and weeds, and restored native vegetation. As a result, finch and duck populations are increasing. Folks at the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument say Laysan is the poster child for restorative island efforts, is considered one of the “crown jewels” of the NWHI.

Access is limited in Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, including Laysan – rather than having people come to the place, here is a link that helps to bring the place to the people:

https://www.google.com/maps/@25.7731755,-171.7407481,3a,75y,336.77h,81.86t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s48tjtFdMGKDiUKc_IOKPYg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu

February 3, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

For the Birds

“The spread of civilization and the utilization of wild lands, added to the destruction of animals for food, adornment, clothing, and sport, threaten the very existence of many species of native birds and mammals.”

“The necessity of regulating the killing of game was perceived early in our colonial history, and even the need of caring for our insectivorous birds found recognition about 1850.”

“Only in comparatively recent years, however, has the importance been recognized of protecting the large class of birds which, although they do not destroy insects or other creatures inimical to agricultural interests, are nevertheless worthy of preservation because of their beauty, grace, and harmlessness.”

“If such birds add nothing to our material wealth, they beautify the world and greatly increase the joy of living.”

“Though by no means the first to recognize the importance of protecting its wild life, the United States has taken a leading place among the nations of the world in this respect”

“One of the most efficient of the conservation measures adopted by the Government is the setting apart here and there of islands and sterile tracts of land, worthless for other purposes, upon which our native wild birds and mammals may live and perpetuate their kind for the pleasure and profit of our own and future generations.” (Yearbook of the US Dept of Agriculture, 1911)

“The National bird reservations under the care of the Department of Agriculture already number 51 and play a very important part in the preservation of our wild game and birds.”

“One of the most unique and interesting of these is the Hawaiian Islands Bird Reservation in the mid-Pacific, which, at certain seasons of the year, harbors millions of sea fowls that repair thither to establish rookeries and rear their young.”

“The following is the executive order setting apart this refuge:”

Executive Order No. 1019. It is hereby ordered that the following islets and reefs, namely: Cure Island, Pearl and Hermes Reef, Lysianski or Pell Island, Laysan Island, Mary Reef, Dowsetts Reef, Gardiner Island, Two Brothers Reef, French Frigate Shoal, Necker Island, Frost Shoal and Bird Island …”

“… situated in the Pacific Ocean at and near the extreme western extension of the Hawaiian Archipelago between latitudes 23° and 29° north, and longitudes 160° and 180° west from Greenwich, and located within the area segregated by the broken lines …”

“… are hereby reserved and set apart, subject to valid existing rights, for the use of the Department of Agriculture as a preserve and breeding ground for native birds.”

“It is unlawful for any person to hunt, trap, capture, wilfully disturb, or kill any bird of any kind whatever, or take the eggs of such birds within the limits of this reservation except under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed from time to time by the Secretary of Agriculture.”

“Warning is expressly given to all persons not to commit any of the acts herein enumerated and which are prohibited by law. This reservation to be known as the Hawaiian Islands Reservation.” Signed by Teddy Roosevelt, February 3, 1909.

The names have changed, a bit, but the place remains the same.

“This refuge consists of a dozen or more islands, reefs, and shoals that stretch westward from the archipelago proper for a distance of upwards of 1,500 miles toward Japan. The average distance between them is something like 100 miles.”

“Some of them, like Necker, Bird Island, and French Frigate Shoal, are masses of volcanic rock thrust up out of the ocean and so steep and rugged as generally to be inaccessible to anything without wings.”

“Others are little more than diminutive sand spits, snatched from the grasp of ocean by the aid of coral animals. Still others are larger, and a few, like Laysan, being covered with sandy soil, are clothed with a more or less flourishing growth of shrubs, vines, and grasses.” (Yearbook of the US Dept of Agriculture, 1911)

“As the islands are part of our National possessions and have been set apart as a bird reserve, the care and the protection of their avian inhabitants would seem clearly to devolve upon the Federal Government. It is true that their remoteness and inaccessibility render it difficult to guard them properly.”

“An effort, however, will be made to secure from Congress sufficient funds to provide for the services of a warden for Laysan and for an assistant. It is hoped also to secure a small power boat of adequate size to enable trips to be made between Laysan and the other islands and Honolulu.”

“These measures, if supplemented by an occasional visit from one of the Government cutters during the height of the breeding season, will insure the continued safety of the nesting colonies. From a variety of causes sea birds are being reduced in numbers almost everywhere, chiefly as the result of plumage hunting and of the growing scarcity of breeding sites.”

“Hence these island bird colonies, one of the wonders of the world, will become of increasing importance with each succeeding year. They should be regarded as a National heritage, and the birds be adequately protected, not only for the sake of our own citizens, but for those of other countries whose people go down to the sea in ships.”

“Otherwise these birds will suffer the fate that overtook those on Marcus Island, also one of our possessions, where, as reported by Bryan, in six years a colony of albatrosses almost as large as that of Laysan was reduced to less than a score of birds through the unchecked activities of feather hunters.” (Yearbook of the US Dept of Agriculture, 1911)

Unlike all other islands and atolls in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, Kure Atoll is the only land area owned by the state of Hawaiʻi – all of the other Northwestern Islands are owned by the US government.

While I was at DLNR, we created Refuge rules that established “a marine refuge in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands for the long-term conservation and protection of the unique coral reef ecosystems and the related marine resources and species, to ensure their conservation and natural character for present and future generations.“

This started a process where several others followed with similar protective measures. The BLNR unanimously adopted the State’s Refuge rules, President George W Bush declared it a Marine National Monument and UNESCO designated it a World Heritage Site.

To me, this action reflects the responsibility we share to provide future generations a chance to see what it looks like in a place in the world where you don’t take something.

One of the issues about the rules, and in protecting the place, relates to access. Due to the sensitivity of the area, permits are limited – so, rather than taking the people to the place, there are tools now in place to bring the place to the people.

June 9, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Gledstanes

Mokupāpapa (literally, flat island) is the name given to Kure Atoll by officials of the Hawaiian Kingdom in the 19th century. (Papahānaumokuākea) It is approximately 1,200-miles northwestward of Honolulu and 56-miles west of Midway Islands. The International Date Line lies approximately 100-miles to the west.

Kure Atoll is the most northwestern island in the Hawaiian chain and occupies a singular position at the “Darwin Point:” the northern extent of coral reef development, beyond which coral growth cannot keep pace with the rate of geological subsidence. Kure’s coral is still growing slightly faster than the island is subsiding.

“The Island in Lat. 28 degrees 23’ N and Long. 178 degrees 30’ W … is about three miles in circumference. It is composed of broken coral and shells and is covered near the shore with low bushes. In the season it abounds with sea birds and at times there is a considerable number of hair seals (monk seals.)”

“There is always an abundance of fish and in a great variety. The highest part of the island is not more than ten feet above the level of the sea. The only fresh water is what drains through the sand after the heavy rains. From the specimens of dead shells lying about the beach, there appears to be a great variety of shells.” (Captain Brown, Hawaiian Gazette, September 21, 1886)

Kure Atoll was found in 1823 by Captain Benjamin Morrell, Jr. of the schooner Tartar, who claimed Kure to have an abundance of sea turtles and sea elephants. In 1827, the Russian ship Moller, under Captain Stanikowitch re-discovered the atoll; he named it “Cure Island” to honor a Russian navigator. (cordell-org) It is more generally known as ‘Kure’ today.

Hawai‘i’s whaling era began in 1819 when two New England ships became the first whaling ships to arrive in the Hawaiian Islands. At that time, whale products were in high demand; whale oil was used for heating, lamps and in industrial machinery; whale bone was used in corsets, skirt hoops, umbrellas and buggy whips.

Rich whaling waters were discovered near Japan and soon hundreds of ships headed for the area. The central location of the Hawaiian Islands between America and Japan brought many whaling ships to the Islands. Whalers needed food and the islands supplied this need from its fertile lands.

One such ship, the British whaler Gledstanes, under the command of Captain JR Brown, was crossing these waters and just before midnight on June 9, 1837, the Gledstanes struck the reef on Kure Atoll (only one of the crew was lost, he having jumped overboard in a state of intoxication.)

The Captain and rest of the crew launched three ships’ boats and made landfall on ‘Ocean Island’ (now known as Green Island.) The following day, crew returned to the vessel and, after cutting away the masts, were able to salvage some provisions. The next day the wreck broke apart in the heavy surf. (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, January 29, 1838)

The crew established a makeshift camp on the island and passed their time picking up pieces of the wreckage that had been washed over the reef and into the lagoon with the intention of constructing a vessel from the salvage.

After assembling axes and adzes, necessary for building the craft, from whale spades and augers and chisels from lances, using the salvaged material, the keel of a 38-foot boat was laid two weeks after the loss of Gledstanes.

Within several months, the vessel was completed and determined to be seaworthy; it was named ‘Deliverance.’ Captain Brown and eight others set sail for the Main Hawaiian Islands, while the rest of the crew remained on the island.

While en route, Deliverance encountered the American ship Timoleon, who supplied them with much needed provisions. Deliverance arrived at Honolulu sometime in November, 1837, while the remaining crew on the island was rescued several months later.

Researchers discovered evidence of the Gledstanes wreckage in 2008. The site consists of mainly large heavy artifacts scattered over a 200-foot section of the reef at depths ranging from 6 to 20-feet.

Artifacts include four large anchors, what appear to be two cannons, a try pot (a cauldron for rendering whale oil,) a pile of anchor chain, approximately 50-pig iron ballast bars and copper fasteners of various sizes.

Some of the artifacts are extremely eroded, suggesting that they are affected by scouring due to wave and current activities. The distribution of the site suggests that the vessel hit the fringing reef and broke up, leaving artifacts resting on the reef top and cuts in the reef.

Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument is administered jointly by three co-trustees – the Department of Commerce, Department of the Interior and the State of Hawaiʻi – and is one of the largest marine conservation areas in the world, encompassing nearly 140,000-square miles of the Pacific Ocean. (Lots of information and images here are from a summary on the Monument website.)

June 1, 2022 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Size Matters

In expanse, Honolulu is the “largest” city in the world. Whoa … let’s take a look at what this means.

Downtown Honolulu used to be known as Kou, a district roughly encompassing the area from Nuʻuanu Avenue to Alakea Street and from Hotel Street to Queen Street (which, then, was the edge of the waterfront) – essentially the heart of the present downtown.

Honolulu Harbor, known as Kuloloia, was entered by the first foreigner, Captain William Brown of the English ship Jackall, in 1794. He named the harbor Fair Haven (some other foreign captains referred to it as Brown’s Harbor.)

The name Honolulu (with numerous variations in spelling) soon came into use. In the 1800s, the City of Honolulu was the area near the harbor which is now referred to as downtown Honolulu.

Today, some of us simply call it “Town.”

OK, so what really makes up the present day City & County of Honolulu … and how big is it?

In expanse, Honolulu is the “largest” city in the world. We know it includes the island of Oʻahu; but that’s not all. Let’s take a look at how and what makes up Honolulu – to get there, though, we first need to wade through some political and legal mumbo jumbo.

The State Constitution states that the area of the State includes the land, reefs and archipelagic waters:
“Hawaiʻi Constitution; Article XV – State Boundaries; Section 1. The State of Hawaiʻi shall consist of all the islands, together with their appurtenant reefs and territorial and archipelagic waters, included in the Territory of Hawaiʻi on the date of enactment of the Admission Act, except the atoll known as Palmyra Island, together with its appurtenant reefs and territorial waters; but this State shall not be deemed to include the Midway Islands, Johnston Island, Sand Island (offshore from Johnston Island) or Kingman Reef, together with their appurtenant reefs and territorial waters.”

The Constitution also gives the legislature the authority to create Counties and other political subdivisions: “Article VIII – Local Government Creation; Section 1. The legislature shall create counties, and may create other political subdivisions within the State, and provide for the government thereof. Each political subdivision shall have and exercise such powers as shall be conferred under general laws.”

State law (Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes) says the archipelagic waters and smaller islands are included when describing districts: Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes – §4-3 Districts include archipelagic waters, etc. Each of the districts includes archipelagic waters and smaller islands adjacent thereto. (Archipelagic means an expanse of water with many scattered islands. (Lee))

So, before we see what “Honolulu” really is, let’s look at the make-up of the State.

Hawaiʻi is geographically an archipelago. It consists of eight main islands, plus a chain of islands extending 1,100-miles to the northwest. Johnston Atoll (Kalama), Palmyra Island and Kingman Reef to the south of Hawaiʻi were part of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, but the Admission Act excluded these from the geographical boundaries of the State of Hawaiʻi. (Van Dyke)

The Main Hawaiian Island group consists of the following islands: Hawaiʻi, Maui, Oʻahu, Kauaʻi, Molokai, Lānaʻi, Niʻihau, Kahoʻolawe, Molokini, Lehua and, Kaʻula.

Papahānaumokuākea (Northwestern Hawaiian Islands) consists of all islands, atolls, reefs and shoals in the Hawaiian Archipelago northwest of Kauaʻi and Niʻihau. All islands, atolls, reefs and shoals in the Hawaiian Archipelago, except for the Midway Islands, are included in the State of Hawaiʻi under the Admission Act, the State Constitution and the Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes.

Nine larger islands, or island groups, in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are: Nihoa, Necker Island, French Frigate Shoals, Gardner Pinnacles, Maro Reef, Laysan Island, Lisianski Island, Pearl and Hermes Atoll, and Kure Atoll (southeast to northwest.)

Many of these islands, or groups of islands, actually consist of many islets; for example, French Frigate Shoals contains 13 specific islets. The nine major islands, or groups of islands, range in size from Maro Reef with less than one acre to Laysan Island with 913 acres.

OK, some more political and legal mumbo jumbo. The origin of county government within the American context is found in the Organic Act (June 14, 1900) which created the Territory of Hawaiʻi and which gave it the authority to establish municipalities.

The Territorial Legislature made a first attempt at creation of the four counties in 1903 (Act 31;) however, in 1904, the Territorial Supreme Court voided that effort on procedural grounds. The Legislature’s second attempt in 1905, “The County Act” (Act 39,) was successful, though it required an override of a veto by the Territorial Governor. (Konishi)

The City and County of Honolulu consists of the island of Oʻahu, all other islands not included in any other county and adjacent waters thereto. (Legislative Reference Bureau) Essentially, this means the City and County of Honolulu (“Honolulu”) covers all of Oʻahu (and its surrounding islets) plus the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (except Midway.)

As an example of the expansive size of the archipelago, if you put the Big Island on Washington DC, Kure Atoll would be in Bismarck North Dakota. San Francisco to New York is 2,800 to 2,900 miles; the entire Hawaiʻi chain stretches over 1,500 miles – more than halfway across the continent. (Much of that is “Honolulu.”)

While Hawaiʻi is the world’s most-isolated, populated-place, we are about: 2,500-miles from the US mainland, Samoa & Alaska; 4,000-miles from Tokyo, New Zealand & Guam, and 5,000-miles from Australia, the Philippines & Korea. We sometimes overlook the size of our largest City, Honolulu.

There are some things that get in the way of determining the actual “area” of Honolulu. In part, there is disagreement on the status of the archipelagic waters (and whether it is appropriate to include these in the “area” of Honolulu) – especially in the marine expanse between Kure and Kauaʻi.

The international community has recognized the special links between coastal peoples and their adjacent waters repeatedly, and the 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone and the expanded 12-nautical-mile territorial sea are premised upon these links. (Van Dyke)

Some have suggested the linkage of “historic waters” (in and around the islands, including the connecting channels in between.) The linkages are clearer within the Main Hawaiian Islands, maybe not so much to the northwest. If not in overall area (land and connecting water,) Honolulu is clearly the largest city in expanse from Kure to Oʻahu.

March 19, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

French Frigate Shoals (Kānemilohaʻi)

Is it just me, or can others see an eerie similarity between Lānaʻi and French Frigate Shoals?

Here’s another interesting quirk between them – each is 18-miles long. (Can you hear the Twilight Zone theme, too?)

French Frigate Shoals was my first experience in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) (now the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.)

After a 3½ plane ride, we landed on Tern Island (it looks like an aircraft carrier in the reef – it’s just off to the left at the top of the image.)

French Frigate Shoals is the first atoll to the northwest of the main Hawaiian Islands and is also the midpoint of the archipelago (about 490-miles WNW of Oʻahu) and the largest coral reef area in Hawai‘i.

According to the Monument Management Plan, this low, flat area is called Kānemilohaʻi (flat, sand island) is where Pele is said to have left one of her older brothers, Kānemiloha‘i, as a guardian during her first journey to Hawai‘i from Kahiki (Tahiti.)

Pele continued down the archipelago until finally settling in Kīlauea, Hawai‘i Island, where she is said to reside today.

“Shoal of the French Frigates” was rediscovered (and named by reference) on November 6, 1786 when two French frigates, the Astrolabe and the Boussole, narrowly averted running into the reef.

French Frigate Shoals is the largest atoll in the chain, taking the form of an 18-mile long crescent. It is estimated to be 12.3 million years old.

Tern Island (approximately 30-acres) in the atoll is the site of a Fish & Wildlife Service field station, which occupies a former U.S. Coast Guard Long-Range Aids to Navigation (LORAN) station that closed in 1979.

Within the NWHI, French Frigate Shoals is the center of diversity for corals (more than 41 species, including the genus Acropora, which is all but absent elsewhere in Hawai‘i) and reef fishes (178 species).

A relatively deep (80 to 100 feet) coral reef at this atoll has been recently discovered to function as a spawning site for Ulua (the giant trevally); a rare discovery of spawning sites for top predators.

The lagoon is also unusual in that it contains two exposed volcanic pinnacles representing the last vestiges of the high island from which the atoll was derived, as well as nine low, sandy islets. The sand islets are small, shift position, and disappear and reappear.

The largest pinnacle, La Perouse Pinnacle, is a rock outcrop in the center of the atoll; it’s reportedly the oldest and most remote volcanic rock in the Hawaiian chain.

These islets provide important habitat for the world’s largest breeding colony of the endangered Hawaiian monk seal.

The atoll’s sandy islets also provide nesting sites for 90 percent of the threatened green turtle population breeding in the Hawaiian Archipelago.

On a tour around Tern Island we saw monk seals and turtles resting on the sandy shore, as well markings in the sand of a turtle who laid her eggs the night before.

And lots of birds … mostly terns —> Tern Island.

On that trip, we were unexpectedly greeted by Jean-Michel Cousteau; he was on the island during his filming of “Voyage to Kure.”