Mark Release Recapture Studies

On June 2, 2023, we learned that despite our lawsuit in environmental court, the multi-agency partnership Birds, Not Mosquitoes (BNM) had already rushed ahead and released lab-infected mosquitoes on East Maui. According to BNM, “Small-scale pilot releases of Wolbachia-incompatible male mosquitoes started in mid-May after the Finding of No Significant Impact for the East Maui Environmental Assessment.” The specific locations, times, and details of these releases have not been disclosed.
 
What we do know is that in 2022, the Department of Land and Natural Resources improperly segmented these initial releases, called “mark release recapture” (MRR) studies, from the overall project by filing an exemption notice. This means the studies are exempt from the environmental assessment, and no public information is available. Not only do we not know where, when, or how the releases are happening, but we don’t even know what type of mosquito is being transported, where the mosquitoes are being transported from, or whether or not the mosquitoes are being tested for pathogens prior to transport.
 
The exemption notice does offer the tax map keys for the potential release locations. We’ve mapped those sites here, highlighted in blue. These are the locations where the MRR mosquito releases may be taking place.

Note: Project Location (2) 1-2-010:001: Haleakala National Park (per the Exemption Notice) is not a valid tax map key location. Based on our research, the likely actual location is (2) 1-6-010:001: Haleakala National Park.