Aquarium fish rebound in Big Island preserves

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Science Writer

A ban on aquarium fish collecting in new marine refuge areas on the Kona coast of the Big Island has led to an increase in their population, researchers say.

The most-collected fish by far for aquariums is the yellow tang. In 1998, some 177,994 such fish were reported collected from the Big Island, according to the West Hawai'i Aquarium Project.

The project grew out of concern that collectors of aquarium fish were taking tens of thousands of fish per year from the reefs off Kona. The Legislature in 1998 established the West Hawai'i Fishery Management Area, leading to the establishment in 1999 of nine preserves where the collecting of aquarium fish and the feeding of fish are prohibited.

In the protected area off the hamlet of Ho'okena, Bill Walsh, one of the principal investigators and an aquatic biologist with the state Division of Aquatic Resources, said when he dives now he sees sizes and numbers of yellow tangs that didn't occur earlier.

"We can go out there and see there are yellow tangs that are growing pretty rapidly, and we're also starting to see some rare species, like flame angels and banded angels," he said.

The areas with the best aquarium fish counts tend to be previously established marine protected areas, and the best counts are found in the ones that are the oldest, Walsh said.

"We're finding that change doesn't happen necessarily overnight," he said. "It takes time."

A fish such as the yellow tang, which may live for as long as 20 or 30 years, may not begin reproducing until it is several years old. That means the small fish surviving today will not begin adding their offspring to the reef for several more years.