What Did Ancient Hawaiians Know That We Donʻt?
New York Times - March 23, 2012
Centuries ago, Hawaiians caught three times more fish annually than scientists generally consider to be sustainable in modern times — and maintained this level of harvest for more than 400 years, researchers report in a new study in the journal Fish and Fisheries.
The findings could be instructive for agencies that enforce fishing limits in overfished waters around the globe.
Native Hawaiians caught about 50 percent more fish than modern fleets catch today in both Hawaii and the Florida Keys, the two largest reef ecosystems in the United States, said a co-author of the study, Loren McClenachan, a fisheries researcher at Colby College in Waterville, Me.
Hawaiians harvested about 15 metric tons of fish per square kilometer of reef annually from 1400 to 1800, the study found. That’s five times the median harvest in island nations worldwide today.
Dr. McClenachan and her co-author, John Kittinger, a researcher at the Center for Ocean Solutions in Monterey, Calif., drew on a variety of historical records and a method called catch reconstruction to estimate historical harvests in the Hawaiian Islands and the Florida Keys.
The Hawaiians used many techniques similar to those employed today, like temporary or permanent bans from fishing in certain areas, restrictions on certain species and gear, and catch limits. But they enforced the rules strictly; breaking them could mean corporal punishment or even death....
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Comments
Although I found this article insulting..it had a lot to say about the 'Anglo-Saxons' contentions on their thoughts on the environment. One that they themselves to call their own. It is sad. I have a living ancient culture that is still in practice in the Hawaiian Islands. It would be nice to see outsiders--not think of us as dead and gone from their consciousness.
Hawaiians had to adjust to the Anglo's and their guns over the past 200 years. And often they would leave their 'guns' and things all over the land and near by shores which, in fact, did a lot of contamination in our environment. Sustainable terms and things are different systems of thought. Soil Sludge near the Hawaiian shores are their descriptions and expressions. That is not Hawaiian values.
The problem in this article are the weave of history (dead) and contemporary (lab) ideas as their incident of source point. The Hawaiian 'usage' falls of the cliff or carved out like a dickie from a tiki! And stemming from their ground expressions of high technology it is employed. The incident means net-catch leaving out the preparations before and after relationships between human communities and generations of observing of nature. I have heard these words, and read these exact words used to describe ancient practices as if the Anglos were present in their observation of ancient Hawaiian. This seems more like a career goal by way of observation for employment within a federal, or state job position. Always speaking from sin and guns, these are nasty commentaries "corporal punishment or even death..." which is similar to what's happening in the world at their war front.
Tell me people what does catching a fish for the table dinner got to do with water boarding and instant death? And the outerlier of the entire scope, I don't understand the need to always conquer another nation for it's natural resources. When in fact, the use as has large shorelines of their own!