This article is so poorly written and so full of half-truths, exaggerations and misrepresentations, that I don't know where to begin. The weirdest thing of all is that it is written by the owner of Snorkel Bob's - an individual who basically commercialized the "cattle car" approach to dumping as many tourists onto Hawaii's reefs as possible.
Probably one of the greatest misrepresentations is that he states that Hawaii does not have ornamental marine collection regulations, or licenses, when it fact it does. Additionally, he cherry picks factoids and statistics from all over the world if he feels they will support his story - regardless of the fact that the data he is quoting has nothing to do with Hawaii. The reality is that Hawaii is a very heavily protected State with large sections of coastline protected or reserved - and greater amounts being added regularly.
Do you remember hearing of "French Frigate Shoals" off the coast of Hawaii? It's the world's LARGEST protected marine reserve - over 140,000 square miles that include 70% of the United States shallow water reefs. It is larger than Australia's Great Barrier Reef. That's right; and once you add in other Hawaii reserves and the Florida Keys, the vast majority of United States reefs are protected reserves - with NO fishing, NO collection allowed.
The saddest thing about this group is that they should not feel they have to lie or exaggerate to advance their environmental agenda. Reefers are probably the one group most open to protection for the world's reefs. However like commercial fisheries or (dare I say) divers and snorkelers, we believe in the idea of conservation and sustainable use.
