A 1st Circuit Court judge has reaffirmed a state plan to save Hawaiian honeycreepers by managing mosquito populations.
Judge John Tonaki approved what’s known as an Incompatible Insect Technique (IIT), which would focus on reducing avian malaria that has led to the rapid decline of Native Hawaiian birds in East Maui. The IIT has been used in other areas to control mosquito populations.
It would take advantage of a strain of the Wolbachia bacteria found in mosquitoes that leads to infertile eggs. The plan would require the release of male mosquitoes with that bacteria into the environment.
“IIT is the most effective and safe technique available for controlling mosquito populations and has been used successfully around the world, as our experts testified during the hearings last summer,” said state Department of Land and Natural Resources Chair Dawn Chang in a statement.
Mosquitoes can transmit avian malaria to birds and have been known to devastate honeycreeper populations in Hawaiʻi.
Last year the state Board of Land and Natural Resources said this technique would cause no significant impact on the environment. The board approved the Final Environmental Assessment to move the project along and issued a Finding of No Significant Impact to the DLNR and the National Park Service.
That approval was challenged by a lawsuit, and it eventually led to Tonaki’s order.
