LIHU‘E — Only five people attended last week’s Department of Land and Natural Resources’ second informational meeting regarding possible regulations for certain marine species, none of whom were avid fishers. This was a significant drop from the nearly 40 fishers
LIHU‘E — Only five people attended last week’s Department of Land and Natural Resources’ second informational meeting regarding possible regulations for certain marine species, none of whom were avid fishers.
This was a significant drop from the nearly 40 fishers that participated in the last discussion held in February.
Of Friday’s attendees, including Don Heacock, aquatic biologist for DLNR’s Aquatics Division on Kaua‘i, and videographer Richard Zelkovsky, each community member expressed concerns over the rapid depletion of shoreline resources.
“We have no choice, we have to do this,” Heacock said, adding that he was able to collect information from fishers prior to the meeting and received countless phone calls and letters from across the island.
Suggestions he received included banning spear fishing at night and spear fishing using SCUBA, prohibiting the sale of reef fish, increasing fish size limitations, implementing reasonable bag limits and discontinuing the use of nets or traps.
“Many people felt reef fish should not be harvested at all,” Heacock said.
Certain near shore species, especially parrotfish (uhu), goatfish (weke) and jacks (ulua/papio), are declining at unsustainable rates due to both commercial and recreational fishing.
Attendees suggested the possibility of implementing mandatory recreational marine fishing licenses, being that Hawai‘i, unlike many other coastal states, does not require them.
However, Hawai‘i has kept track of commercial catch and effort data since the early 1900s, according to the Hawai‘i Marine Recreational Fishing Survey.
While approximately 16 percent of commercial fishers actually fish near shore, according to last week’s presentation, Heacock says there is no way to tell how many individuals are recreationally fishing without licenses.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reportedly conducts a telephone survey every five years where an estimated number of fishers and hunters is recorded. The last survey posted on their Web site was held in 1995, where about 260,000 individuals recreationally fished that year in Hawai‘i, over half of which were residents.
The number of residents fishing 14 years ago, “far outnumber” the some 3,500 licensed commercial fishers, the survey reported.
Regardless, Heacock said it is an inevitable fact that “the fish are dying faster than they are being born,” and something has to be done to help protect and preserve Hawai‘i’s natural ecosystems.
“The communities are really the ones that have the most to gain and the most to lose,” he said, suggesting that conservation efforts will likely have to start with the individual communities, as the state continues to recover from budget deficits.
“Fish could be thriving, but we haven’t managed it,” Heacock said. “We have to reinstall conservation ethics … we’ve lost that.”
The ancient Hawaiian kapu system was used to regulate fishing in the 1700s and 1800s where specific areas were restricted, as well as certain species of fish prohibited from fishing, in order to help maintain the environmental balance.
The next step Heacock plans to take is creating a “draft letter” of the recommendations he has received over the past few months, though he adds that a community-based management system would be highly beneficial, especially if involvement occurred sooner rather than later.
For more information, contact DAR offices at 274-3344.
• Coco Zickos, business and environmental writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 251) or czickos@kauaipubco.com
