Brooke Porter
Coral Triangle Conservancy
Dr. Brooke Porter is a specialist in the human dimensions of the fisheries and the marine environment. Her work explores tourism as a development and conservation strategy in lesser-developed regions, with emphasis on surf and adventure tourism. Dr. Porter is focused on developing simple and effective development and conservation strategies for coastal communities. She has worked in various capacities with NGOs, international aid agencies and educational institutions. Dr. Porter worked in Maui, Hawai’i for nine years serving as Conservation Director for Pacific Whale Foundation. She has worked on fisheries development projects in Eritrea with the United Nations. Dr. Porter has also worked in the industry as a naturalist aboard whale watching tours in both Hawai’i and New Zealand. She currently serves as a scientific adviser to The Coral Triangle Conservancy, a NGO that focuses on reef protection and restoration in the Philippines.
A remote archipelago, Hawai’i is home to one of the greatest percentage of endemic marine species. Hawai’i offers a plethora of sought after coastal and marine tourism experiences. The unique marine flora and fauna also make Hawai’i a major player in the international ornamental aquarium trade. For residents of Hawai’i, interactions with tourists and tourism activities are a part of everyday life. For some Hawai’i residents, the aquarium trade is a staple livelihood. This presentation is based on a sample of over 1,000 public testimonies given in regards to proposed legislation, HB873 HD1, aimed to establish “an aquatic life conservation program in the Division of Aquatic Resources to implement conservation measures, including limited entry areas and certification requirements, to regulate the collection of fish and other aquatic life for aquarium purposes.” Testimony analyses are often associated with a NIMBY (not in my backyard) syndrome. However, in this case, both those in favor of the bill and those opposed to the bill are essentially competing for the same resource, the ocean. Thus, the NIMBY construct, or in this case NIMO (not in my ocean), is not applicable. Nonetheless, this research explores common NIMBY themes including organizational distrust, access to information, risk aversion, localization of the issues, and emotional attachments. Public opinions are representative of the disagreement in the literature regarding the stability and health of populations of reef fishes in Hawai’i. The testimonies, have been thematically analyzed as qualitative data with emergent themes, including, tourism, environment as well as some NIMBY constructs. References to negative impacts to tourism and environment exceeded references to benefits of the industry. Data, including, but not limited to tourism arrivals, ornamental collection reports, economic profiles of sectors and employment data are used to contextualize the relationship, in particular the dissension, between the tourism and aquarium collection sectors. Tourism is an important economic sector for Hawai’i and among the major sectors, it is supports the largest number of jobs statewide. Thus, understanding inter-sector challenges, such as that between the tourism sector and the ornamental aquarium trade sector, are critical for the state.
