Posted on: Friday, March 16, 2001
Effects of fishing ban may be felt soon
By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer
Within a few days, consumers may start seeing the effects of a 75-day ban on Hawai'i-based longline fishing, as the last of the longline boats at sea return to port with their catches.
But an attorney for two environmental organizations, whose efforts to protect endangered turtles led to the ban, said longliners are not the only fishing boats supplying Hawai'i.
"We have had fresh ahi (yellowfin tuna) for a long, long time, caught by many commercial fishermen who fish by other methods, and they bring in ahi every day," said Paul Achitoff, attorney for the Center for Marine Conservation and Turtle Island Restoration Network.
Longline fishermen from other countries can continue to fish, Achitoff said, "and I presume they can deliver their catch to Hawai'i."
Sylvia Spalding, spokeswoman for the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, said the differences in the market may be hard to detect immediately as retailers substitute foreign-caught fish for the fish caught by Hawai'i boats in their markets.
The ban, intended to protect endangered turtles until the National Marine Fisheries Service comes up with a long-term protection plan, went into effect at midnight Wednesday.
State Sen. Rod Tam (D-Nu'uanu, Sand Island, and Downtown), said yesterday the federal government should pay the costs of regulations shutting down Hawai'i's longline fishing industry.
Tam urged U. S. District Judge David Ezra to delay his 75-day ban on longline fishing.
Tam said he will ask Gov. Ben Cayetano to direct state Attorney General Earl Anzai to intervene in the federal case before Ezra.
Neither Cayetano nor Anzai could be reached yesterday, but Achitoff said he didn't see how the state could establish legal standing: The state cannot show, he said, that it has a special stake in the outcome of the suit that was different from the stake of the general public.
"It takes a lot more than a state legislator trolling for votes to intervene in a lawsuit," Achitoff said.
The lawyer said the Hawaii Longline Association, which is a party to the case, went to Ezra last Friday with the other parties and made a presentation. The issue of whether the shutdown would be delayed was brought up, and Judge Ezra said he would not delay it, Achitoff reported.
Roy Morioka, chairman of the Pelagic Fisheries Committee of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, joined Tam at a news conference, surrounded by fishing boat owners, at Kewalo Basin yesterday.
Morioka said the council, as a federal agency, has no standing in the suit, but that he believed the state would have standing.
Morioka acknowledged political action and news conferences might irritate Ezra as inappropriate efforts to pressure the court. But he said the judge needs to know the economic impact on Hawai'i's $50 million fishing industry.
The National Marine Fisheries Service, which is preparing strict regulations of the fishery to replace Ezra's temporary ban, has said it is not allowed to consider economic impacts when dealing with endangered species issues.
The temporary ban imposed by Ezra was announced last August. Asked why he had waited until now to act, Tam said he had been learning about the issue.
