By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

Today we will talk about the remote Northwest Hawaiian Islands between Midway and Kaua'i. Remember the ghost ship Joyita, sighted off French Frigate Shoals in 1948. She next appeared as a derelict near Guam, abandoned with food still on the table.

Stories about shipwrecks up there abound: the Pearl and the Hermes, the Saginaw. Archaeologists have found ancient Hawaiian ruins on bleak Nihoa and Necker. Now kumu hula Vicky Takamine has discovered old chants about those islands.

All sorts of get-rich-quick schemes have been perpetrated in that lonely vastness. Before the big stock market crash in 1929, Lorrin A. Thurston had a pearl farm. Others tried guano and shark fins.

Now the vast ocean area with the world's largest complex of coral reefs is a federal preserve. As we speak, a research ship with Hawai'i scientists aboard is exploring the islands. The Hawaiian Maritime Center is opening an exhibit to teach schoolchildren about those atolls.

The person who brought the Northwest Islands into focus for me in a practical way is Louis "Buzz" Agard, an old-time fisherman out of Kamehameha Schools.

Buzz Agard's eyes bugged out when he saw the size of the reef fish at French Frigate Schools where the Navy had built an air strip called Tern Island during World War II. After mustering out of the Army in 1946, Agard leased the island.

Agard said he went out in his boat the first day and caught a school of huge moi. Everywhere he saw reef fish of tremendous size: ulua, onaga, 'opakapaka. When word got around, other boats came up to reap this bountiful harvest.

The first sign of trouble came when Agard went back to the first moi hole. No fish. He waited a month. No fish. He waited a year. No fish.

"I didn't realize that I had taken the standing stock," he said. "Those big fish are the breeders for the reef. Every year, they spawn millions of eggs. It takes years for them to mature. The spawn of smaller fish is very limited by comparison."

Gradually, Agard's catches became smaller. After 10 years, he gave up.

He said the experience taught him a lesson, not only about the Northwest Islands but about the ones we live on. The spawn of those big breeders floats in the planktonic mass for thousands of miles before growing into fish near local shores.

"That spawn is what keeps recreational fishermen on O'ahu and the other islands going," said Agard. "It's good for everybody. That's why we must not wipe out those big fish in the Northwest Islands."

Reach Bob Krauss at 525-0873.