Drop in black coral
puzzles experts

A panel wants divers to keep
harvesting with new restrictions

Hawaii divers can continue harvesting black coral while scientists study reasons for an apparent decline in new growth of the crop used to make jewelry, a federal fishing advisory group decided yesterday.

Under a proposal by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, divers would be allowed to take coral of at least 1-inch-diameter trunks or 4-foot-tall trees.

Those sizes would be an increase from the three-fourths-inch-diameter trunks or 3-foot-tall trees that have been allowed since 1997.

Though the new size limits might reduce the overall harvest of black coral, it will allow the collection to continue, said Robin Lee, a 30-year veteran of diving for black coral. The plan is better than a five-year moratorium on black coral harvesting that had been proposed by a Fishery Management Council committee, he said.

Though only four divers harvest black coral from the Auau Channel between Maui and Lanai, the 5,000 pounds a year of the precious coral that they bring up is the basis for an estimated $30 million-a-year industry.

The coral is harvested at depths of 150 to 250 feet, deeper than common recreational divers go, and harvesting it is a dangerous business, fraught with peril from the extreme dives, not to mention sharks.

Hawaii is the only state that harvests black coral, and the coral's quality is better than that from other countries, said Mitchell Major, an Arizona physician who makes several trips a year to Hawaii to dive commercially for the coral.

A representative of Maui Divers, one of the state's largest manufacturers and retailers of black coral jewelry, told council members yesterday that it sells about $15 million a year of black coral jewelry, which is about 20 percent of the company's total sales.

Frank Farm Jr., a member of the fishery council, said the compromise reached yesterday "involved give and take on both sides."

Scientists who study black coral are concerned about why there are fewer new coral colonies being established, what ill effects the invasive snowflake coral could have on the black coral and how the loss of older colonies might affect the reef, said University of Hawaii oceanographer Richard Grigg.

In addition to allowing continued harvest of black coral, the fishery council also called for:

>> Research into why there seems to be a decrease in new coral colonies.

>> Consideration of developing a state marine protected area for black coral in a portion of the Auau Channel.

>> Convening a workshop on black coral among divers, scientists, resource managers, enforcers and industry to discuss goals for research, education and protection.

Yesterday's fishery council action was preliminary and must be followed up with final action, probably at its meeting next spring.