A new proposal to allow the Hawai‘i longline fishery to pursue tuna year-round will backfire because it bars fishing in tuna-rich areas, the head of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council said yesterday.
A draft biological opinion from the National Marine Fisheries Service proposes that Hawai‘i-based long lining be banned from Jan. 15 to June 15 every year, in an area south of Hawai‘i covering 1.9 million square miles.
Fisheries service officials will receive comment on the draft biological opinion on which the proposal is based, at a public hearing at 2 p.m. Tuesday during a meeting of the council at the Ala Moana Hotel from noon to 6 p.m.
The problem, Kitty Simonds of the Fishery Management Council said yesterday, is that foreign longliners will still be allowed in the "closed" tuna productive areas, while Hawai‘i fishermen will be forced into less productive waters where they will use more hooks and snag more turtles.
Protection of endangered turtles and other species has been the goal of interim long-line restrictions imposed by U. S. District Judge David Ezra in response to lawsuits from environmental groups.
Ezra last August allowed limited swordfish harvesting by longliners under observer monitoring and is scheduled to close the entire fishery on a seasonal basis from Thursday until May 31.
Ezra’s order remains in place until the National Marine Fisheries Service comes up with an acceptable environmental impact statement.
Simonds, executive director of the council, said the rule will reduce local supply of tuna for Hawai‘i and increase the amount imported from fisheries where fewer protections for sea turtles are in place.
"As a result, this federal action would contradict the intent of the Endangered Species Act by reducing rather than improving the survivability and recovery of sea turtle populations," she said.
