The state has enacted a new set of lay gill net regulations that ban such fishing in some areas and severely restrict it everywhere else.

"It's basically an outright ban. You can't really use this gear under these rules. The gear is not effective in daylight, and with the short lengths of net, you're not going to catch very much," said recreational gill net fisherman Scott Moncrief of Kailua.

State officials said scientific studies of net impacts on local fish, along with the support of a large portion of the fishing community, led to aggressive regulations, which were developed by the state Department of Land and Natural Resources and have been signed by Gov. Linda Lingle.

They are now in effect, and establish total gill net bans on Maui and in three regions of O'ahu, and set strict limits on their use in other areas. The rules require all nets to carry identification tags, ban setting at night, and require nets never be left unattended for more than half an hour.

The image of green sea turtles drowned in unattended or abandoned gill nets helped galvanize public opposition to the fishing technique.

"Fishing is part of our island lifestyle and depends on maintaining a healthy ocean. Lay gill nets threaten our way of life because they take too many fish from the sea at once, regardless of size or season, and can drown protected species such as Hawaiian monk seals and sea turtles," said Kim Hum, director of the marine program at The Nature Conservancy of Hawai'i, in a statement.

The state's path to regulation has been nearly a decade long, starting with a statewide gill net task force formed in 1998, and statewide community meetings by both the land department and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. The DLNR in a news release said that during the agency's nine public hearings on the rules, 86 percent of 1,239 oral and written testimonies favored the regulations.

"DLNR has taken these steps to protect Hawai'i's nearshore marine resources by instituting requirements for more responsible and appropriate fishing practices," said land board director Peter Young. "We approach marine resource protection from a wide variety of perspectives, but without a change in the management of near shore reef fisheries, there is no reason to expect the marine resource decline to stop. We will continue to fight to reduce sedimentation, invasive species and other impacts to near shore waters."

Moncrief argued that there are only a few commercial gill net fishing interests today, and that their impact on fisheries is comparatively small, but others disagree.

"Frankly, lay gill nets should have been banned 20 years ago. I've fished in Hawai'i for more than 40 years and I've seen with my own eyes how the resources have diminished. We don't have the right to deplete these resources. It's really our responsibility to preserve them for the future generations," said Douglas "McD" Philpotts, a fisherman and woodworker, in a news release issued by the pro-regulation group Fair Catch Hawai'i.

If anything, the regulations do not go far enough, said John Randall, senior fish scientist at Bishop Museum.

"This is a landmark decision for Hawai'i's nearshore resources. Our reef fish populations are in serious decline, and it's time for us to stop fishing in indiscriminate, wasteful ways. Restrictions on lay gill nets are long overdue, and I would support us going further to a complete statewide ban," Randall said.

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.