From Waimea Bay to the northern tip of Sharks Cove, the North Shore Marine Sanctuary is a conservation district. It is illegal to collect shells, hunt, spearfish, harass the marine life or even touch a turtle. Because of this, life has flourished here. It wasn’t always the case. From our very beginnings, we have been at the forefront of conservation on the island, particularly the creation of the North Shore Marine Sanctuary. Here are some of our reports from that process:

Save Sharks Cove

March 1999
North Shore Neighborhood Board Monthly Meeting

My point at this meeting was to expose the total lack of marine life protection on the North Shore. Of the 50 miles of coastline we have, literally not one inch is protected. As a dive operation we believe it is our highest priority to change that, and it was with that message I spoke to the Board. The reality is that on the entire island of Oahu, roughly three miles of coastline is protected. This is fairly typical throughout the state and it is a broader goal of ours to expose that, so that changes are made. As a result primarily from our statement a State Senator (Bunda) and his aid got directly involved in a new push to compel the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) to open up rules changes, which could prohibit the taking of marine life at Sharks Cove. Indeed they did and the wheels began to turn.

Save Sharks Cove Cleanup

July 24th, 1999
Sharks Cove, North Shore Oahu

With the big neighborhood board meeting in three days, a Sharks Cove Cleanup was in order, although we clean up the cove almost daily in summer. Direct Action to us means removing fishing line when we see it. Unfortunately there is no lack of discarded fishing line at Sharks Cove. Three teams of 4-5 divers conducted one dive each on this day and unwrapped line from approximately 100 coral heads. This line as we very well know ends up wrapping around other marine life such as turtles, dolphins, and anything else that swims. We also removed a large outboard motor, which had been dumped.

Save Shark's Cove Task Force Meeting

September 8th, 1999
Waimea Valley, North Shore Oahu

Being the type of person who likes to get things done this meeting was less than satisfying. It was pretty much limited to what our charge was and the time frame of all things involved and I was beginning to think I was becoming part of the system I resent for its ineffectiveness. The crux of it was that there would be a planned five meetings over five months and after that we as a task force would make recommendations regarding any rules changes to the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR). From that a series of processes would occur that would likely take another year and a half. Our goal was to not only change the rules for the better but to expand the conservation area (MLCD) to more than triple its current size. Although we didn't accomplish much in my eyes there was some opportunity to meet our adversaries and find some common ground, so this was good. The agenda had been set for the next meeting and my hope was that this would allow for more productive movement.

Save Shark's Cove Task Force Meeting

October 13th, 1999
Waimea Valley, North Shore Oahu

Into this meeting I went with articles showing the problems in California and globally due to lack of marine protection. I also handed out our proposal to eliminate spearing, fishing, and netting in the MLCD and expand the area to over triple its current size while enveloping Waimea Bay. The meeting however was more about things we had no say in and I expressed my dissatisfaction more than once. I also urged that we move with more speed in order to prevent failure in our charge to address the issues of rules changes.

Save Shark's Cove Task Force Meeting

November 10th, 1999
Waimea Valley, North Shore Oahu

So here we were at the third of five scheduled meetings with virtually nothing accomplished in regards to the rules changes we were meant to decide on. Would this be the meeting to change that? Indeed it was. Finally we were going to talk about the issues. First was netting. Everybody agreed as I had hoped, that netting had no place in a so called "conservation district" and we agreed that it should be banned. Second was spear fishing and once again we all agreed that this also had no place in the area. We voted to ban it. Third, and most certainly the biggest question mark, was pole and line fishing. Everybody knowing the amount of turtles we had already saved from discarded fishing line definitely had an impact and only one real opponent made his objection. His reason was valid that many retired and otherwise low-income people use that area to subsidize their dinner plates. After just having witnessed thousands of fish removed from a Waimea Bay netter I was sympathetic to his statement. But the bottom line was that the North Shore had not one marine sanctuary and every inch of coastline was currently available for fishing. Based on this reality I felt we must set this one small area aside, for the future. In our plan to ban fishing however we proposed that the boundaries be changed slightly so that fishing could continue in one area of Shark's Cove but not within the MLCD itself. That way they would at least have one area left to fish while keeping the rules in the MLCD strict and easier to enforce. This proposition seemed to be unanimously accepted as reasonable but decision on this issue was delayed for further debate. Progress had been made and the next meeting we were to discuss expansion of the MLCD- this I was looking forward to.

Save Shark's Cove Update

August 2001

The task force meetings concluded in early 2000. The end result was that the recommendations ultimately handed to the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) was a Deep Ecology initiated proposal. If adopted it will be a considerable step in the right direction. If being the key word. The proposal must stand the test of public hearings which always brings out so-called fishermen who think conservation means less than 1% is too much. Bottom line, we are going to get the North Shore of Oahu protected. We owe that much to all the marine life who have so blessed us in all the time we have been here.