In Waters off Northwestern Islands, Bottomfish Seem to Be in Good Shape

posted in: Fisheries, March 1994, Marine | 0

Starting in the late 1970s, Hawai’i’s fisheries came under increasing state and federal scrutiny.

In 1979, the state issued its first fisheries development plan, which prescribed an ambitious array of activities (some state, some federal, some private) intended to encourage greater exploitation of the state’s fisheries. Despite reservations concerning bottomfish, fishing in all areas (including bottomfish) increased rapidly following the report.

At the federal level, congressional approval of the Fishery Conservation and Management Act (better known as the Magnuson Act) in 1976 placed almost all fishing activity in the waters from the territorial sea (three nautical miles from shore) to 200 miles out under federal jurisdiction. (Tuna were originally excluded from federal management; since 1992, they have been included.) The Magnuson Act also established a system of regional fishery management councils, whose duties include preparing fishery management plans for each fishery1 within its geographical jurisdiction. Starting in the early 1980s, the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, with responsibility for fishery management in Hawai’i, American Samoa, Guam, and all other American flag islands in the Pacific, began preparing its own bottomfish management plan.

But in the area around the Main Hawaiian Islands, waters under federal jurisdiction contain little bottomfish habitat, with the notable exception of the Penguin Bank southwest of Moloka’i. In other words, almost all the bottomfish habitat lies within the three miles of shore and, as such, it falls under the state’s jurisdiction. So far as the Hawai’i bottomfish fishery is concerned, then, the area under WesPac’s jurisdiction is for all practical purposes – and since April 1993, for all official purposes, too – limited to the exclusive economic zone around the uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

Council Limits

The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council’s bottomfish management plan took effect in August 1986 and so far has been amended four times. The regulations restrict access to bottomfish in the far Northwestern islands and impose a moratorium on commercial fishing of groundfish (armorheads, alfonsin, and butterfish) in the area around the Hancock Seamount.2

At present, 37 vessels have permits from the regional council to fish in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, although not all permit holders are active. Federal waters in the NWHI are divided into two zones: the more easterly Mau zone, to the west of Ni’ihau (where 27 vessels are permitted to take bottomfish), and the more westerly Ho’omalu zone (eight authorized vessels), which extends to the westernmost limit of the exclusive economic zone. There is a cap on the number of permits to fish in the Ho’omalu zone. No similar limit on permits applies to the Mau zone, however.

Healthy Fish

Stocks of bottomfish in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands have not been exploited to the same extent as fish in the Main Hawaiian Islands. Fish caught off the leeward islands tend to be larger, with fewer immature fish in the catch. Although the catch-per-unit-effort in the northwestern islands has dropped somewhat since the first years of commercial fishing, it is still relatively high. All measures of spawning potential ratio suggest that the fish populations are in no danger of being overexploited at present fishing rates.

For all its robust health, the bottomfish fishery of the Northwestern Islands is probably not likely to be opened up to many more vessels. Because of the long distance that must be traveled between the time the fish are caught and the time they are delivered to the auction in Honolulu, the quality of fish can deteriorate. Fish caught in the Northwestern Islands generally do not fetch prices at auction as high as those caught off the Main Hawaiian Islands, while costs associated with vessel operation in the Northwestern Islands are higher.

1As defined in the act, the term “fishery” refers to “one or more stocks of fish which can be identified as a unit for purposes of conservation and management and which are identified on the basis of geographical, scientific, technical, recreational and economic characteristics” and “any fishing for such stocks.” In Hawai`i, four fisheries have been identified by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council: bottomfish and seamount groundfish; pelagic fish, including tuna; precious corals; and crustaceans (lobsters). At the moment, there is no activity in the coral or crustacean fishery.
2The armorhead stocks were practically wiped out by Japanese trawlers in the 1970s. Since the Magnuson Act became law, there has been little foreign fishing in the exclusive economic zone around Hawai`i. Armorhead stocks both in and out of the exclusive economic zone remain so low that it may take decades before stocks can recover to levels that will allow commercial fishing.

— Patricia Tummons

Volume 4, Number 9 March 1994

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