Federal review
of isle reef preserve
causes worry

Some fear the action
is politically motivated

---

By Jean Christensen
Associated Press

Environmentalists are on edge over the Bush administration's review of a Hawaiian coral reef reserve created during former President Clinton's final month in office.

A spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed yesterday the Department of Commerce has begun a legal review of the reserve, but said such studies are standard procedure for a new presidential administration.

"They're not specifically targeting Hawaiian Islands," said the Maryland-based spokeswoman, Stephanie Balian. "It's part of a review process for a lot of programs."

NOAA is part of the Commerce Department.

In December, Clinton set aside 84 million acres of ocean around the 10 mostly uninhabited islets and atolls extending 1,200 miles northwest of the main Hawaiian chain, creating the largest U.S. nature preserve.

The new Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve is home to more than 70 percent of the United States' coral reefs, as well as endangered Hawaiian monk seals, sea turtles, birds and other marine species.

Cha Smith of the Native Hawaiian environmental group Kahea said she believes there is more behind the review.

"We have it on good authority within Commerce that there is specific focus on this," she said. "This impetus to review this thing and to weaken it is politically motivated."

Smith said it is the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council that wants Clinton's executive order overturned or weakened. The council is the policy-making organization for the management of fisheries around Hawaii, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, and other U.S. possessions in the Pacific.

"WESPAC has misrepresented and grossly overstated the impact of the (executive order) on the existing bottomfishery, on Hawaii's economy and on the consumer," a news release from Kahea said.

"The legal review ... undertaken by the Department of Commerce may have been influenced by WESPAC's misleading claims."

To the contrary, said WESPAC fishery program officer Mark Mitsuyasu, "We're on the record as supporting the reserve and going through the sanctuary designation process.

"We just raise questions with regard to the conservation measures that are in the (order)," Mitsuyasu said.