State ponders fishing restrictions on Ni'ihau
By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau
LIHU'E, Kaua'i — State officials are studying several alternatives for limiting fishing by outsiders around isolated Ni'ihau, after Gov. Linda Lingle heard a plea for help from island residents.
Lingle toured the island with several of her top advisers on May 7. Residents expressed concerns about off-island people using chlorine and nets to fish, and about the taking of large quantities of 'opihi.
Ni'ihau residents have appealed to government officials several times for help in protecting their fishery, but nothing has been done. This time, the issue is being taken seriously, by the governor and the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, said chairman Peter Young.
Ni'ihau lies 17 miles off Kaua'i's coast. The island is owned by brothers Keith and Bruce Robinson, whose ancestors bought it from the Hawaiian monarchy in 1865. It is operated as a cattle and sheep ranch and as a hunting reserve. Its roughly 200 residents live in a scattering of small homes surrounded by rock walls that keep the livestock out.
Island residents speak a unique Hawaiian dialect as their first language. At least one member of each family works for Ni'ihau Ranch, and residents supplement their income by collecting rare shells for lei that sell for hundreds and thousands of dollars.
While many food staples are shipped to the island by the ranch's old military landing craft, residents also live off the land and the sea, depending on fruit trees in their yards and marine life from the island's reefs.
"Based on the governor's visit and her reaction, we have had a couple of meetings and feedback from our aquatic resources and conservation people. We're looking at a variety of alternatives," Young said.
He said the department expects to develop one or more proposals and to seek input from the Ni'ihau and Kaua'i communities. The department has not isolated what kinds of regulations it might recommend, but establishing marine life conservation districts or marine protected areas are among the options, he said.
State biologists are considering a study of the island's nearshore reef resources to establish how much marine life is available there.
The idea of limiting fishing pressure on Ni'ihau's nearshore reefs has support outside the island.
Isaac Harp, a Native Hawaiian fisherman from Maui who has been outspoken on several fishing issues, said it may be appropriate statewide to let local communities govern their marine resources.
"It's not right to have people fish out their own areas, and then go across the channel and fish on somebody else's island," Harp said.
Another reason for protecting resources is the growing population of endangered Hawaiian monk seals, many of which have their pups on the island, said John Naughton, Pacific Islands environmental coordinator for the National Marine Fisheries Service.
"It's becoming an important Hawaiian monk seal habitat. We would like to see it protected," Naughton said.
He said the availability of marine life is particularly important for young seals, which seek out octopus, lobster and reef fish in the shallows, he said. Naughton said gillnets can entangle and drown young seals.
He expressed concern about reports of the use of chlorine, which immobilizes fish so they can be easily collected, but also kills coral and other marine life.
"That's very upsetting if it's going on. It totally blitzes the reef for a bucketful of fish. It's just as bad as using dynamite," he said.
Ni'ihau residents have complained that the growing number of monk seals are another reason for the fish depletion.
Young said the preservation of fishing opportunities for the residents of the small island seems like the right thing to do.
"Unlike other areas around the state, the residents of Ni'ihau can't go down to the supermarket. You need to make sure the resource is there, because that's how they eat," he said.
Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 245-3074.
Correction: Ni'ihau residents on May 7 asked Gov. Linda Lingle to limit fishing by outsiders around their island. The time frame was unclear in a previou version of this story.
