Welcome this is Martina Wing live from Hawaii. I can see that I'm
live. I have already my first viewer, Tara is always here from Mexico. Thank you so much.
Welcome it's Wednesday 11 o'clock, my name is Martina Wing. I'm
go live from Hawaii at this time of the week. I talk about the manta rays.
I'm a manta ray advocate. I love these creatures. I've been with them for
20 years. I always like to inform folks that are interested in this animal or
coming to Kona to swim with the manta rays to tell them what's going on out here.
I hope you enjoyed the beginning with the movie and it's always
my introduction to get you into the mood to be in Hawaii with me. We
will talk today about the manta rays. A quick introduction where I live
and what I do. Tara let me know about sound and if there is a problem, let me know.
Leave a comment anyway if there's anything. Julia is here from Germany. I'm going
international again. I love this. Where do I live? I live on the Big
Island of Hawaii. This is the map and then I live in Kailua-Kona.
This is the airport and that's Keauhou. I understand that this map is mirrored now but
I have to print it out correctly. I used to be on the phone. Now I'm on a Mac.
I'll upgrade this soon. I wanted you to know where I
live in Kailua Kona. Here I've been very involved
in the manta industry for about 20 years as a professional underwater
photographer. I have been at the dive sites forever and have several thousand dives
with the mantas. I'm very passionate and knowledgeable and like to share that
with everybody. Now today is a Facebook Live that is about rule making. The
State of Hawaii is coming in to regulate the tourism industry that's connected to
viewing mantas here along the coastline. I've really been waiting for this to happen
for a long, long time. This Facebook Live is about some history
telling and what happened last weekend as a manta ray got badly injured. I want to
show you.. San Francisco, Frank is here. Hello Frank!
I'll tell you about a little history if you've never heard about it
and it's a problem out here. Then I do want to show you the draft rules
today because when I go to town and I talk to
folks/locals they always say I never know what's going on. Many people like to be
informed but pretty much only the operators in town are. I'm also
connected although I'm not a boat operator. I know a lot what's going on behind
the scenes and I feel everybody should know about what's happening and what's
coming down the pipe for the operators and for the consumer. I actually think
that good things are happening. What I really want you to
do today is give me a like or give me a following because if you want to stay
connected to this, then you will be informed if you follow us with Manta Ray Advocates
here on Facebook. I definitely want you to help me out with that so I
can keep people informed and share the information.
Amsterdam, I like it. I like it. We're international. We are
always international every week. Especially with my accent from Germany
but I am in Hawaii and I have lived here a long time and I love it. I hope you
can come here one day as well. To dive into this I do want to tell
a story of what happened last weekend. Sunday night one of the manta rays got
badly injured and about eight months ago another manta got badly injured.
What I actually mean is that the manta was driven over by a boat. It's
always a concern out here that mantas are basking on the surface and just
hanging out. When boats come into the bay they're in danger because when
boats don't have a lookout. I want you to be ready, I have
some pictures here. It's not that cruel but it's a little bit cruel. I do
want you to understand that it's really serious for the animals here along the
coastline and what's happening. Too many people out there. I'm going to share
the screen real quick and I'm trying to get to the pictures. Let me just show you.
No that's the wrong picture. I'm not very savvy on this here. This is
what it looks like when a manta ray gets driven over. You can see right here the
cuts from the propeller this is from Vicky Ray about eight
months ago. We have another picture of Vicki Ray right
here. Then last weekend I got the email at 11 o'clock
that night. This is fresh, this is from Sunday night. A manta ray was basking on
the surface and there has been actually TV coverage on this. I will give you the
link in the description. KHON2 went into this. What
happened here is the Manta Ray was at five o'clock still healthy and then at seven
o'clock it had this damage to its back. This is pretty cruel but that's the
truth here. We are in a state with these animals where they are just not
safe anymore. Let me go back to my my Facebook
Live.
The situation is really serious for the animals, they're getting chopped up at
this point. We maybe even lost Lefty two years ago because of an incident like
this. Boats are coming in too fast into this cove.
Unfortunately today you can sign up for this activity and you end up with 20
boats out here. Four hundred people. You make really four hundred new friends while
you're in the water enjoying these animals. The State of Hawaii is coming in with
proposed rules to reduce the numbers and all kinds of things. Let me see, Zach made a
comment. Yes, yes. For me I want people to enjoy
the manta rays. I want people to see the manta rays but I also want to make sure
that they are safe and unfortunately this industry has grown so much. Let me
dive into the history a little bit. In 1991 one boat a week went once a week to the
site and it was in Keauhou, down south. Of course that is definitely
sustainable. One boat it's not very much impact, if you stay in passive interaction. This
is totally fine. Then since 1991 all the way to pretty much 2012 it was a
healthy growth and both were benefiting. I think the manta rays
benefit too. They get an easy meal. Passive interaction let them do their
thing around the lights. Then in 2012 it kind of went downhill. Since then
it's going downhill and it has really sped up quite a bit since
2015. In 2012 the first boat came in and
what was introduced as hull lighting and the fragmentation. Fragmentation is
when you don't have one viewing area anymore, you have multiple viewing areas. You as a
consumer can go there and then if one manta ray is in the bay and there are several
areas where you can have lights where the manta rays can feed you maybe don't
even see the manta ray. Plus you paid a lot of money to do this.
Fragmentation is really a problem. Hull lighting is a big problem, too.
Hull lighting means you attract a manta rays to an area or to your boat
actually where the light is installed inside the hull and you concentrate
plankton there. For 30 years we train the animals to come to the light, it's
a safe place and now they actually run into the propellers and into the ladders
because the light is right by the hardware of the boat. Really big deal.
What else was introduced? There was a release of permits. DLNR had
to release permits I think that was in 2015. It was very counterproductive to get
more and more people to the sites. More snorkel boats especially and they jumped
on the chance to be on the manta train.The gravy train to show people this
amazing adventure and don't get me wrong I want people to enjoy this but
everything needs to be sustainable. More permits were released,
fragmentation, hull lighting. What else? With that we had
overcrowding. Voluntary standards were created in 2013. We had
quite a few people. What does this mean? There was a working group of people that
came together every Tuesday for 3 months. A really good document, a six-page document
was created on how to do the manta ray dive safely for everybody involved.
People actually left the room. There were probably 20 to 30 people all the
time that were working together. These were the operators and people that
actually make a living off this. People left the room and said it's all voluntary. This is a
gentleman agreement? I really don't care. I'm not a gentleman. I want to
run my business and I don't really care about you over there and you over there.
Then all these things happened since 2012 and now we're today in the place where
51companies offer the manta
experience to consumers and to the people coming to us. I am really sorry
I don't answer any comments right now because I'm really trying to concentrate to
get to the point of the draft rules, so you know about it. Thanks for
making comments but I'll get back to this later on. It's multitasking and it's
really hard for me. That's the history since 2012 and things are not
going well. In 2014 the legislation said to the DLNR (that's the
Department of Land and Natural Resources) you have to do something about it.
2015 they came in. A very nice lady started to work with us at community meetings
back and forth. How can we do this so it's to create a win-win for everybody. Then last year in April, 2 years later,
the first set of draft rules were presented. There was a meeting and it was said on April
1st. I remember the day April 1st. We're going to do this, and it should be finished by April
30th, the draft rules should be brought to the Attorney General.
Then the process starts and 11 months process from drafting, then submitting of the
drafting to actually implementing is 11 months. Let's make it a year.
Unfortunately a few days after April 1st this particular lady, our key person at
the DLNR for us, quit, gone. This delayed everything again. Now we are
in 2018 and the draft rules was done again and came out on Monday. Sunday night
Eli Ray that's the manta ray that got badly injured. That's was Sunday night. Monday
night, well Monday afternoon we got the email about the draft rules and I'm going to get
to this right now. Then Monday night it was on KHON2
TV coverage. I'm going to put the link into the description later
I will also give you the document that I'm going to show you now so if
you want to look at this a little bit more. I want to get to this right
now. Let's see how I get to do this. I have to go to share my screen and then I
have to show you this. By the way this is the the summary of the draft rules.
Then there is another one. This is how it looks like if you look at the actual
ruling the administrative rule. I'm going to explain that real quick.
The administrative rules mean the Department of Land and Natural Resources
has I don't know 300 rules, and we live under this. If
anything happens to land and ocean and resources it has to be regulated.
This draft rule is 36 pages. I'm not going to go into this, I'm going to go
into the other one, the summary. This gives you an idea that it's quite a
process to get somewhere. This is what I want to zoom into a little bit.
Here you can see what's going to happen. These are the proposed rule changes.
I'm going to go fast through this with a little commentary. What's going to
happen or what we hope that's going to happen is there still now a phase that the
manta rays, well actually a phase where people can make comments. You can make comments too
and if you look at this a little bit closer when I put it into the comment
section you can actually have an email address where you can send your comments.
There will be public hearings and there will also be the land board that has to
approve everything. Through the process we still have time to do things
and you can leave your commentary if you want this to happen. I'm
going go to this pink/purple block. The first thing that's going to happen is
no more anchoring inside the boundaries. There will be a certain
area around Keauhou and Garden Eel Cove (the airport location) which is from
4 p.m. to 4 a.m. dedicated to the manta ray viewing areas and no anchoring.
We're going to eliminate really trashing the reef which has happened many times.
I have other Facebook Lives if you want to dive into this where I show
really awful footage and I told you about these problems. Then every
operator and the 51 that are applying for it will probably get a permit but
there's actually a exclusion that you have to do business since 2015 more
than once a week for the Manta activity. There will be a permit required.
Then live boating is only when you drive to the site and you exit the site.
It's ingress and egress. Then of course of an emergency. The live boating will be
eliminated. This is a really big deal because this is so dangerous out there.
I've been driven over at the site several times and it's to me
mind-boggling how a captain even thinks that in the slightest amount of their
thinking is like "how can this be safe"? To be in the dark on the ocean and then
have your propellers running and you don't have your eyes behind you.
You're on the boat by yourself and then you drive around. Anyway it
will be eliminated to only driving in and out. That's a really big one. Next
one is prohibit subsurface vessel lighting, right here. That means no more
hull lighting. The animals will be safe and much, much safer from now on. They
cannot be attracted to the boats anymore and then get injured. There are some non-
motorized vessels. There is one Kayak company that I know of, they
have to have lights on it. Yes, it has to be a real rule. People come out
there and in total darkness we cannot even see them. Then this is
another biggie for me, this is called to confine manta activities to designated
campfire areas. Campfire is one viewing area and we have one viewing
area that everybody has to come to one place and it's kind of a campfire method.
It's the best way for everybody to see them, to keep everybody safe and there's so
many pluses to this. No more all over the place and spreading out in areas.
Now in Keauhou, Kaukalaelae this is the official name. Keauhou is
not allowed to do scuba tours. The next one is moorings, this means how
the boat will be tied up because as you know what nobody can anchor anymore. The
moorings have to be used. We used to do daisy chaining so two boats on one
mooring. This is as far as I know not allowed anymore and then it is
first come, first served. There will be a two and a half hour limit per use.
This definitely cuts down on a lot of things. If you don't have a boat to park
on the mooring you can't go and do the activity. If you're too late, well too bad,
right? Then next one is some people have an
issue with this but I'm actually a big supporter of this. Participant to
guide ratio will not exceed six to one. When you think of safety and how you
feel about this going on a spectacular experience seeing big
animals in the ocean at night and you know you can have one guide and
he/she only has to take care of six people. This is
definitely the safest way to go. I am still trying to figure out if it's
only for divers but I hope it is also for snorkelers. I want you to
imagine right now people have up to , I think it's already too many when you have ten
or twelve on a snorkel board. This is a kind of a board that people keep control and have
to keep the people together. We have groups that have up to 25 people on a
long, long board and sometimes only one or two people to take care of these guests.
This ratio of 1 to 6 I totally support this and everybody, every operator
here has to change their the method of operation. That's just the
way it is. It doesn't work anymore the way it's going right now.
Believe it or not there used to be fishing where people have been observed on
the Manta activity where the captain was so bored and did some
fishing while the people are in the water and a fishing line was right there.
Unbelievable to me, but it had to go into the rules. Then people have to stay
and the boats have to stay at the site while the activities going on. You
cannot leave the zone while there are people in the water. I think that's also
really good rule. It's going to be hard to implement because if you have people
maybe it's a small family or small group, a small family or people get cold and want to
go home well they have to stay sit at the site longer until actually everybody's
out of the water. That's fine with me. We have to do much better as
the humans. We know how much better we have to do better
and it's just fine. This was the rules that are proposed but there's
a little bit more than I want to show you. It's called an ORMA will be created.
That means an ocean recreation management area, again it's for Keauhou
and Garden Eel Cove, the airport location only. Then everything else if you go
there at other times of the day you have normal rules. This
is an interesting one, Operators have to pay for a permit and the permit will be a
hundred dollars per month. If you run a boat operation for the mantas you have
$1,200 in permits per year. I think that's nothing because one customer pays for it per
month and that money will be actually used for maintenance repair and
a manta ray observation program, a supplemental enforcement education
outreach administrative. I think that is money well spent. I hope
it's all going to come to fruition. Still though people can make comments and
maybe some stuff will be moved around. I'm totally for this.
I'm very close to someone who is working
on these papers and there're a few more other things that I hope. I will comment
on and because there's one of the concerns
we have certain areas established and then a boat operator that doesn't get a
manta permit is going to be outside that certain area and sets up another
manta area or at least he is attracting with lights and the animals away
from the actual activity site. The question is "How big of an area should be
around this ORMA that people cannot even do this? There's some discussions about
this. I think you should not have the ability to do that at all. I think we
should really be strong and that only permitted boats with permits should do
the manta activity. I think we came a long way since 2012
where we went downhill and where we are today.
I'm going to look at some comments real quick, if that's okay with
you.
Yes, Megan those numbers are 400
people in the water. Yes.When you come here during the busy times, during
Thanksgiving or on the high times 4th of July and everybody's in town. 400
people is easy and then because right now operators are
stacking up as some go early,
some people come at the normal time and some people come late. There's always
boats going out and it's so many people in the water and yes it's dark.
It's pretty dark out there. Now Heather says she will watch it later.
Heather I want to say I saw your comment and if you have any comments now
and have any questions please ask away. We can also do it in the comment
section I don't want to make this Facebook Live too long but this
Facebook this live is about educating as many people as I can about
what's happening, what's coming and you will find in the description the KHON2
coverage from this week where you see more footage of this animal
being propped. Pretty sad. I think it will survive but it's such an
unnecessary situation that we are in.
I hope you enjoyed this Facebook Live, it was very much on a
serious side but I always like to keep it happy and light but not today.
I'm hopeful that things are moving along. A little downer I do have to
say at the end again. I'm repeating this. It takes about 11 months after this
draft rule is submitted to the Attorney General so we still have one year to go
to make the mantas world safer. I sure hope we get there as fast as possible,
not many more hurdles. Until then give me a like, give me a share if
this is something that really interests you click on follow us instead of just
liking us, when you follow us you will be notified
when I go live and when I do other stuff. Also we'll keep you posted on what's
going on here is with the manta rays in Kona Hawaii. Thank you so much
for listening. I talk to you later as I'm back next week and I think I'm going to
do a special on Lefty. Lefty is a manta ray we have seen for a long, long time from
1979 to 2016. A very special manta and with that, talk to you later. Bye, bye.
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