Up to 60 Kaua’i fishermen and other concerned residents at a public meeting told state Department of Land and Natural Resources officials to dump a plan to ban commercial and recreational use of gill nets statewide. The Kaua’i meeting Tuesday
Up to 60 Kaua’i fishermen and other concerned residents at a public meeting told state Department of Land and Natural Resources officials to dump a plan to ban commercial and recreational use of gill nets statewide.
The Kaua’i meeting Tuesday evening at the Wilcox Elementary School cafeteria was another in a series of statewide meetings on the proposed ban, suggested as a way to help restore dwindling fish populations in nearshore waters.
DLNR officials said the proposal is only that, a proposal, and it is only being considered as a way to halt a steady decline in nearshore fish population.
“It was a fiasco,” Allan Nagao, a commercial gill-net fisherman from Hanama’ulu, said of the DLNR meeting.
“The time people were allowed to talk was limited, and with everybody giving comment, there was not a good review (of the proposal).”
But Peter Young, chairman of the state Board of Land and Natural Resources, said the meeting was an informational meeting, not a public hearing.
“We hold a public meeting because we wanted to get feedback from the people. These aren’t public hearings,” Young said.
“The distinction is that we are holding these public meetings before there is a formal draft rule, and we are looking for input to devise a rule.”
Young also said “there will be a Land Board (BLNR) meeting to address proposed rules first, and then it will go out to public hearings, and the community will have a chance to talk about specific rules.”
Deborah Ward, a DLNR public information officer, said, there are “no proposed rule amendments at this time, and the meetings were intended to generate public discussion on the proposals and various options.”
But Nagao contends the state agency was passing “misinformation to the public” about the dangers gill nets pose to nearshore fish populations in Hawai’i.
Nagao said the gill nets “will not take every fish as they claim,” and are selective in what they take from the sea.
The nets are intended to catch a variety of fish, but large fish will “bounce off it,” and little fish will swim through the small net squares, Nagao said.
He said in the old days when he and his father fished, fishermen used gill nets that dropped to depths of 50 feet, snagging great quantities of fish.
Today, Nagao uses nets that are only seven feet deep and are dropped to the ocean’s floor. Many fish are not caught because they simply “swim over” the top of the net, Nagao said.
As a way to help with the recovery of nearshore fish, state officials should register all fishermen before rules like the proposed ban are adopted, Nagao said.
This way, government officials can determine who is taking what and in what proportions, he said.
At Tuesday’s meeting, the majority of the fishermen felt the ban would “adversely impact their livelihood and lifestyle,” Nagao said.
Some supported the ban, citing the large numbers of fish that could be taken without such a prohibition in place, Nagao said.
Others also voiced support because they felt the ban would prevent net damage to coral reefs, Nagao said. Nagao said the reefs are damaged by tourists who walk on them, and by those wearing suntan lotion.
Nagao also said it was his belief DLNR officials are proposing the ban because of huge takes by gill-net or lay-net fishermen on O’ahu.
“They lay a half-mile net to a mile-long net, and they go deeper,” Nagao said. “They have bigger boats and technology.”
Nagao said he doesn’t use sophisticated equipment to find fish, relying instead on five decades of fishing experience to help him do that job.
Like other gill-net fishermen on Kaua’i, Nagao said he physically hauls the nets with catches back in to the boat.
Nagao said the fishing methods used by O’ahu gill-net fishermen have created problems, through the proposal of the ban, on Kaua’i’s small commercial gill-net industry.
Kaua’i’s industry consists of about five or so gill-net fishermen, Nagao said.
As a way to better regulate gill-net use and to help protect fish stock, DLNR officials should set a 3,000-foot limit on gill nets, Nagao said.
Nagao said that even if the ban is put in place, his business would not suffer. He said he can remain in business by using alternate fishing methods.
Some of the key features of the proposed revisions of the DLNR rules are:
- The ban would not apply to throw nets, cast nets, ‘opelu or akule nets, aquarium fishery fence nets, lobster nets, lobster traps or fish traps;
- In some cases, the nets can be used for cultural purposes;
- Lay nets must be monitored, and be removed after a certain period;
- Threatened or endangered marine species trapped in nets must be removed immediately;
- Lay nets must be individually registered by the owner, or tagged;
- Marker buoys must be visible from the surface, and two must be attached to each end of a net;
- Fishermen can fish with only one lay net per day, and may only use the net once a day.
State Rep. Ezra Kanoho, who has taken heat from fishermen for his support of legislation designed to help depleted fish stocks recover, said such legislation will be introduced again during the session of the state Legislature that opened yesterday, Wednesday, Jan. 21.
Kanoho, D-Lihu’e-Koloa, chair of the House Water, Land Use & Hawaiian Affairs Committee, said the marine reserves network bill, which did not pass last year but will be revived this session, is designed to address nearshore depletion of fish stocks in the ocean.
The bill will focus on a community-based management approach, encouraging communities to recognize that depletion is a problem and to come up with potential solutions, he said.
Many fishermen opposed the bill last year, fearing bans on all fishing in certain areas of the state would be implemented if the bill became law.
Staff Writer Lester Chang may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) or mailto:lchang@pulitzer.net.
