Midway tourism proposal unveiled
The draft plan is part of a pact among state and federal agencies
Six months after President Bush created the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument by proclamation, the huge protected area does not yet have its promised Hawaiian name, a draft plan of how it will be run, or new money to fund it.
But all those things are expected next year, officials said yesterday at a state Capitol ceremony marking the cooperative agreement among the monument's three co-trustees: the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
And as soon as next year, limited numbers of ecotourists may be able to visit Midway Atoll, the only part of the remote, 140,000-square-mile monument that is expected to be accessible without a scientific or cultural permit.
The draft visitor plan posted yesterday on the Fish & Wildlife Web site projected that as many as 30 overnight visitors at a time might be accommodated on Midway Island during 2007 and up to 50 at a time in 2008.
Projected costs per person would be $2,000 for round-trip airfare, about $170 daily for lodging and meals, plus additional fees for bicycle, golf cart and snorkel gear rentals. The main attractions include watching wildlife, including sea birds and marine life, and the historical structures connected with the Battle of Midway National Memorial.
The visitor plan calls for no recreational fishing at Midway and has strict guidelines for the conduct of visitors to protect the animals and environment. There has been no venue for overnight visitors to Midway Atoll since 2002.
Gov. Linda Lingle, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez yesterday signed the agreement, which the governor called "historic." It establishes a Monument Management Board composed of representatives of the co-trustee agencies, plus representation from the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs, she said.
Lingle said the guiding principal for the monument managers will be to "err on the side of resource protection."
"There is truly no monument like this anywhere on the planet," Gutierrez said. "Its vastness is matched only by its diversity of life."
The region, stretching northwest of the main Hawaiian islands for 1,200 miles, is home to the majority of endangered Hawaiian monk seals and is the major nesting ground for threatened green sea turtles. Millions of seabirds are the prominent "land" animal, and an estimated 7,000 species of marine life, many unique in the world, live there.
"Today, we are ensuring that the monument is not just a line on a map," Kempthorne said. "It is a conservation area that will be managed cooperatively, using the best available science, while preserving cultural ties dating back thousands of years between native Hawaiians and their sacred lands and waters."
