Top ocean resource officials under Gov. Josh Green have quietly scrapped the state’s ambitious yet vaguely defined “30×30” marine conservation goal.

Hawaii became a national leader in 2016 when Gov. David Ige announced the state’s commitment to effectively manage at least 30% of the islands’ nearshore waters by 2030, coinciding with the international target of protecting 30% of the planet in the same time frame.

But Dawn Chang, Green’s controversial pick to lead the Department of Land and Natural Resources, said in a Jan. 30 letter that the Division of Aquatic Resources has listened to the community and is “adjusting accordingly” by ditching the “30×30” slogan as the stated target.

“We have heard from numerous fishers and experienced first-hand that the ’30×30′ language adds a lot of confusion about the initiative and is counterproductive in terms of having open dialogue about issues and solutions for reaching our desired goals for nearshore waters,” she said.

The change aims to make the new safeguards being developed for Hawaii’s imperiled marine life more community-driven, Chang said.

But it remains to be seen what measurable goals would replace 30×30 in the state’s Holomua Marine Initiative now that it’s been removed. It also remains unclear whether the change, which was not widely publicized by DLNR, reflects broader public sentiment across Hawaii beyond the state’s vocal fishing community, which pressed in recent months for the removal.

Fishers showed up en masse late last year at a trio of lively, DLNR-organized public meetings on Maui, the pilot island for Holomua. Many feared that the initiative would entirely ban fishing across 30% of the state’s waters. In reality, it would have kept those waters open to fishing but with new regulations such as gear and bag limits, according to top DAR officials.

Read the full article about the rollback of the “30×30” marine conservation goal by Marcel Honore at Honolulu Civil Beat.