View Point

Saturday, May 30, 1998

Gutting funds for
aquaculture program
was shortsighted

By C. Richard Fassler

THE good news about the state's Aquaculture Development Program (ADP) is that we didn't lose all of our positions. Because of HB 3625, with the governor's signature, we're headed for the Department of Agriculture.

The terrible news is that four positions were taken away from ADP, three of them crucial to the effectiveness of the program.

The four were economic development specialist, aquaculture specialist, information specialist and clerk-typist. The persons in these positions (myself included) represent more than 40 years' experience in aquaculture.

In other words, the world's foremost program for encouraging aquaculture development has been gutted.

ADP will now consist of a manager, a marketing specialist and veterinarian, none of whom are charged with attracting new business to the islands.

It is difficult to understand how this happened, given the enormous promise of our aquaculture industry, the very strong public support from all sectors of the state over the past four months and the governor's enthusiasm for marine biotechnology.

Going into the final days of the session, we thought ADP would survive intact. But the Senate Ways and Means Committee took away the positions.

Incredibly, at a time when the state is desperately looking for economic development opportunities, of the 40-some "warm body" jobs eliminated from the budget, roughly 10 percent came from our program.

To give you an idea of the loss, consider this:

Our aquaculture specialist, Dr. Leonard Young, is a biologist who has worked for ADP for the past 11 years. His expertise is in the introduction of exotic species, open-ocean mariculture and research. Most importantly, Young is a computer "genius," who has introduced our office staff and many farmers in our industry to the computer age. Instead of taking a job in the private sector for twice the pay, he chose to serve the state and our program.

Yara Lamadrid-Rose, our information specialist, is an encyclopedia of knowledge about how to grow various species for aquaculture, where to grow them, who is growing them, etc. She is generally the first point-of-contact for beginning farmers.

I have been bringing new aquaculture firms to this state for the past 22 years, and assisting existing firms with business planning, financing, etc. Since I speak six languages fluently, I have been particularly effective in dealing with overseas visitors.

Within the past year, I have brought companies to Hawaii that will invest close to $2 million. I have more than 50 publications on all aspects of aquaculture to my credit.

I have provided an annual tour of our farms for the past 16 years which, of course, will be terminated. Since a large part of my job recently was restoring Hawaiian fishponds, we'll see this most worthy effort grind to a halt.

HOW much money will be saved by our departure? Absolutely nothing, as we will be bumping other state employees or moving into vacant positions, and maintaining our current salary levels. I suspect it will take some time before we are effective at our new jobs. And the people we "bump" will be displacing other knowledgeable people, and so forth.

What happened? We can only guess that the decision was "political" -- in other words, the merits of our program or, indeed, our personal performances, were not taken into consideration.

Needless to say, there's something terribly wrong with a system that allows experienced, knowledgeable and highly devoted public servants to get booted out of their field of expertise for zero cost-savings.

The situation is so incredibly absurd that we can only shake our heads and try not to think about it too much. No wonder Hawaii is going to hell in a barrel.

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C. Richard Fassler is the economic development specialist
in the state's Aquaculture Development Program.