In this issue:

-Message from the President of SOS

-International Year of the Reef (IYOR)

- STEWARDSHIP by Rob Sanford

- Hanalei Water Quality Monitoring Project

- New Board and Officers of Save Our Seas

Message from the President

Aloha friends,

SOS headquarters on Kauai has been buzzing with activity as we prepare for the Second Annual International Clean Oceans Conference at the Princeville Hotel June 13-15, 1997. SOS members are being offered discounts for the full conference program and dinner banquet with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. To take advantage, please renew your memberships for 1997. A membership renewal form can be found in this newsletter.

In 1996, your contributions supported the middle school coral reef monitoring program, OCEAN PULSE, which was highlighted in the Cousteau Society¼s Dolphin Log as a model for youth involvement in protecting the future of coral reefs.

SOS also sponsored three coral reef monitoring workshops for community members in 1996. As a result, over 150 concerned citizens have participated in our ongoing coral reef surveys at Koloa, Kapaa, Anini, and Haena.

In addition to producing a dozen ocean-related films which aired on public access TV, SOS volunteers published our quarterly newsletter and maintained an award-winning website at http://planet-hawaii.com/sos/ Considering that no one at SOS receives any compensation and everything is done on a volunteer basis, it is amazing that we have accomplished so much with so little monetary resources. Save Our Seas is truly a work of love for the ocean. Our greatest resource is you, our members.

A very special mahalo to these members for their generous support in 1996: Outrigger Hotels, Ho¼ike Community Access Television, Miki Kaipaka, Dr. Brian Tissot, Dr. James Maragos, Mr. Jay Furfaro, Don Heacock, Rob Culbertson, Geoff Noble, Mark Hubbard, Benjy and Terri Garfinkel, Phil and Robin Kay, Osoryla Salzberg, and anyone else I failed to mention (you know who you are). Thank you for caring about the oceans!

We need volunteers to help with the Clean Oceans conference, so please let us know if you can help.

Teresa S. Tico

Please kokua and volunteer for the Clean Oceans Conference 97 or other SOS projects. Call (800) 767-4101, fax 826-7770, or email Save Our Seas, today.

Mahalo, Teri Tico,

President Save Our Seas

IYOR is the acronym for the 1997 International Year of the Reef, a global effort by marine scientists, environmental activists, concerned students, non-profit organizations, corporations, and government agencies to focus attention on the crisis confronting coral reefs in every part of the world.

These treasured Rainforests of the Sea are one of the oldest ecosystems on the planet, and among the most imperiled. Deforestation, cyanide fishing, coral mining, dynamiting, coastal development, and pesticides in run-off are only a few of the irreparable human impacts on coral reefs.

As a direct result of IYOR, an international program called the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (and Reef Check) is underway and will conduct the first surveys of the earth¼s estimated 400,000 sq. miles of coal reefs. Save Our Seas is an active participant in IYOR and launched our first coral reef surveying program in 1995 enlisting the help of UH-Hilo, Kapa¼a High School, and Kula High & Intermediate students. Last year, SOS undertook the ambitious project of surveying Kauai¼s coral reefs. Thanks to the efforts of dozens of community volunteers, surveys of Kauai¼s reefs are well underway. If you would like to help, call 1-800-SOS-4101.

Governor Cayetano, who plans to attend the Save Our Seas Clean Oceans 97 Conference, proclaimed 1997 the Year of the Reef in Hawaii to coincide with the International Year of the Reef celebration.

We are committed to manage, monitor and protect one of Hawaii¼s most treasured natural resources. By proclaiming 1997 the Year of the Reef in Hawaii I hope to bring greater public awareness and concern to ensure that our coral reefs remain stable and healthy for future generations to enjoy.

The Proclamation reminds us that 34% of the fish living in Hawaii¼s coral reefs are found nowhere else on earth and Hawaii's tidal coastline of 1,052 miles is one of only two states harboring extensive coral reefs inhabited by a vast array of marine life.

Alan M. Friedlander of the U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, conducted extensive surveys of Hanalei Bay from 1991 to 1995. He will talk about habitat resources and recreational fish populations at Hanalei Bay.

Dr. Richard Grigg (UH-Oceanography) will present a lecture on his studies of Anini Reef. Dr. James Maragos (UH East West Center) and Dr. Cindy Hunter (UH Botany) will talk about Hawaiian and Nearby Coral Reefs and video monitoring.

A resident of the Philippines and prolific scientific writer, Dr. John McManus will present a lecture entitled The Status of Reefs of the World.

Many other speakers and programs are scheduled. Check our website for a complete schedule. Volunteers are needed for the conference and silent auction. Please notify us if you can help.

Did you know that it takes all of the water of a planet like Earth that is 70% water to produce a usable drinking water supply of just 1% of that 70% to support a mammal like a human that is 98% water?* Unfortunately, there are not many readily accessible planets floating around our galaxy and beyond that meet these percentage requirements for sustaining our lives. So, we had better not "mess this one up."

But we need not worry about saving the Earth or saving the oceans ó they will take care of themselves in their own evolutionary ways as always, in time. Our concern should be saving ourselves. And if we want to save ourselves, each of us had better do our part to preserve the ability of the Earth and oceans to sustain us.

Fortunately, it's easy enough to save the planet we are already on and to save ourselves in the process. There are a minutia of simple things we can do to save the Earth and oceans, but we don't need lists. We only need one thing ó and we already have the capacity for it inside of each of us. From this one thing, all else will follow. The one thing we each need to activate is a singular principle called "stewardship".

What is the stewardship principle? At worst, stewardship is enlightened self-interest. At best, stewardship is the respect and gratitude, the reverence for the Divine, the sacred, the infinite life force in all things in and around us. Stewardship is the principle of responsible caretaking based on the premise that we do not own the resources we enjoy. Rather, we are merely managers of resources entrusted to us for future generations. Stewardship is embodied in the saying: We do not inherit the land from our parents; we borrow it from our children and they from theirs.

The doctrine is not new. The Iroquois expressed stewardship in the Great Law of their Confederacy this way: In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations. Go back even earlier and the Bible tells us that in the beginning God took man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend it and keep it. (Genesis 2:15)

If you embrace the stewardship principle, you will have ignited the built-in guidance to do those things (and not do others) that will naturally save the land and save our seas. You will naturally realize, for example, when faced with a choice of products or solutions that the irresponsible use of a chemical fertilizer, fungicide, pesticide, herbicide ends in genocide, however inadvertently. The stewardship principle says that you will understand that, yes, you may instantly kill an insect with chemicals, but that you will first stop and consider the ultimate impact of that decision. Does it mean that you will slowly kill your body and those of your children one cell at a time due to known carcinogens in the product? Does it mean that you will add to the pollutants of the watershed that flow into the ocean in levels that will eventually no longer support sea and human life on earth? Stewardship says that you stop short-term and think long-term, that you exercise integrity to the principle of caretaking in any moment of choice.

Try on this principle of stewardship in all your relationships, including those with yourself, your family, friends, business associates, and, of course, your environment. Start small in your own circle of influence, your own backyard, with the relationships that you can touch directly. As more individuals just like you take responsibility for personal stewardship of your immediate surroundings, the positive effect will ripple through our families, neighborhoods, communities, regions, continents, hemispheres, and the entire blue planet. Become an example of stewardship to others so that they can better practice the principle themselves and pass the precept on to the next seven generations and more yet to come "to tend and keep" this unique and spectacular 70% water planet, our own Garden of Eden in the desert of space, this place we call Earth, beautifully covered in blue.

*Source: USDA; EPA; American Water Works Association

© 1997 TitleWaves Publishing

President - Teresa Tico

Vice President - Harold Spear III, MD

Secretary - Connie Copenhaver, Ph.D.

Treasurer - Rob Sanford

Executive Director - Carl Stepath

Ms. Teresa Tico, lawyer and windsurfer;

Mr. Steve Oberg CPA, surfer extraordinaire;

Harold Spear III, MD, physician and waterman;

Mr. Nick Baran, businessman and world sailor;

Ms. Linda Bail, dive master and marine expert;

Mr. Carl Stepath, businessman, sailor, and educator;

Brian Tissot Ph.D., Associate Professor, Marine Science UH-Hilo