ISLAND VOICES
Fishermen are being ignored
By Rick Gaffney
Rick Gaffney is a lifetime resident of Hawai'i (Kailua, Kona) who has made his living in and around Island waters for more than 30 years.
The longline debate has left out those who ply Hawaiian waters for commerce and recreation.
Absent from the coverage of the on-again-off-again saga of Hawai'i-based longline fishing for swordfish is any discussion of the impact of longline fishing on the vast majority of the fishermen in Hawai'i — the recreational, subsistence, small-boat commercial and charter-boat fishermen of the Islands.
The story is always about the longliners versus the turtles. Those struggling, beleaguered longliners versus endangered, charismatic megafauna.
Unfortunately, nowhere in the discussion is there any recognition that longline fishing may also have an impact on the catch of the thousands of fishermen who also ply our offshore waters in search of pelagic fish.
It is not just the news media that ignore the several other ramifications of the swordfish longline story. Those who "manage" our fisheries also virtually ignore the rest of the fishing industry here. First, by refusing to review the impacts of the longline closure on all the other Hawai'i pelagic fisheries; and second, by ignoring the rest of the local fishing industry when making decisions about reopening that closed longline fishery.
Since the federal court ruling three years ago that curtailed longline fishing for swordfish out of Hawai'i, the catch by our local small-boat fishing fleet has been excellent. Hawai'i's charter fishing fleet has realized some of the best Pacific blue marlin fishing in decades, in terms of both quality and quantity, and we've caught 'ahi bigger than we've seen here in years.
Apparently the removal of hundreds of thousands of hooks from nearby waters has resulted in bigger and better catches by our local fishermen, both recreational and commercial, although we can't say that for sure.
Sadly, when improved local fishing catch information is presented to fishery managers, they generally slough it off as serendipity. Granted, there are a lot of variables in the ocean, but when fewer longline hooks are out there and our small-boat fishermen catch more fish, shouldn't that at least trigger an investigation?
"Can't do it," say the fishery managers, "don't have the background data."
They don't have that data because they rarely consider, much less investigate, our small-boat fisheries. Lack of data and interest results in a lack of inclusion and participation in the management process, and the best interests of our local small-boat fishermen continue to be ignored as a result. This is an endless, unfortunate cycle that needs to be broken, and it needs to be broken soon.
Why? Well in part because the economic value of our recreational, subsistence, small-boat commercial and charter-boat fishing industry in the Islands is substantial. All told, those fisheries have a substantially larger economic impact on our state than the longline fishery for swordfish. That economic impact also reaches further and benefits more people in our Islands. Moreover, we are an island state with a long, proud, deeply ingrained history and tradition of offshore fishing.
Also, the virtual exclusion of the majority of our fishermen from the process, due in large part to a fishery management oligarchy controlled by a minority of commercial longline fishermen and their suppliers, needs to come to a halt.
Recognition that there are other important players in this ongoing saga of the longliners versus the turtles is long overdue.
