Place-based Monitoring & Reporting

Place-based Monitoring & Reporting

HIMARC supports place-based monitoring and reporting that fosters community-led marine conservation. We recognize that resource management succeeds only when communities trust, accept, and own the science. By co-producing research directly with community partners, we ensure our analyses are grounded in local observations and shared goals.

Throughout this process, HIMARC acknowledges that the data collection, research, and management that occurs within our work is performed on land belonging to Kānaka Maoli native to the islands of Hawai‘i. We celebrate multiple ways of knowing and work together with our partners to weave together our research with other ways of knowing, including but not limited to: traditional ecological knowledge, community-based monitoring, Western science, and fisher-based monitoring.

Some of our projects:

Kaʻūpūlehu Fisheries Management Plan

The Kaʻūpūlehu Fisheries Management Area (FMA) represents a landmark co-management initiative between the State of Hawaiʻi’s Division of Aquatic Resources (DAR), The Nature Conservancy, and Hui Kahuwai, a community-led non-profit dedicated to the long-term stewardship of West Hawaiʻi’s nearshore marine resources. In developing this framework, HIMARC facilitated data synthesis and integration across partners, bridging the place-based, generational knowledge with state agency guidance and empirical data collected from both agencies and the community. HIMARC’s unified approach provided the analytical baseline needed to design comprehensive, socially equitable subsistence fishing rules following the area’s historic ten-year “Try Wait” rest period. By integrating these diverse datasets, the resulting management plan introduces gear restrictions, rotational closures, and species-specific harvest limits designed to ensure long-term ecosystem resilience.

For more information and to view the current draft Fisheries Management Plan, please visit: www.trywait.info

Access Management in the Pūpūkea Marine Life Conservation District

In response to local observations of overtourism-fueled ecosystem decline by community leaders and the stewardship non-profit Mālama Pūpūkea Waimea (MPW), the Hawai‘i State Legislature mandated a biological carrying capacity study for the Pūpūkea Marine Life Conservation District. The objective was to define empirical thresholds regarding how much tourism the area could support before suffering long-term damage. Serving as an Academic Partner, HIMARC provided data science and analytical support for the Act 31 Carrying Capacity Study, which was finalized and returned to the legislature in 2025. Our role focused on translating complex datasets into structured insights, establishing the baseline needed to evaluate how humans impact one of Oʻahu’s most heavily visited areas.

HIMARC is now actively building upon this alongside our core project partners: the State of Hawaiʻi’s Division of Aquatic Resources (DAR) and Mālama Pūpūkea Waimea (MPW), including helping design future monitoring strategies with multiple data providers to ensure data-driven, adaptive management for the conservation district.

We recognize that the space of indigenous data, data sharing, and co-production is evolving and we are committed to contributing to advancements in this area – doing so with transparency, respect and reciprocity.