"These proposed changes are needed to address the current determination that overfishing is occurring for bottom fish species in the main Hawaiian Islands," said Laura H. Thielen, chairwoman of the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

"Overfishing has been determined by (federal) fisheries and we have been working with them in order to more efficiently manage these fisheries and to facilitate enforcement of federal and state regulations," she said in a written announcement of the scoping meetings.

Maui commercial bottom-fishers say the additional regulations, especially a requirement for catch reports on each fishing trip, will be a further burden on them while they are facing more difficult conditions, including soaring gas prices and unpredictable weather.

"It's going to be really tough," said James "Kimo" Gomes, a commercial fisherman from Kihei. "It's hard enough. It's too time-consuming.

"The fisherman get hard time turning in a monthly report. All they are going to do is make it worse."

Lahaina commercial fisherman Deytyn Asami said the demand for trip reports may mean less accurate information from fishermen tired from a night at sea who have to prepare the report immediately.

"You get back from fishing you pretty much want to go to sleep," he said. "It's definitely going to be hard. You fished all night or all day."

Currently commercial fisherman mail a monthly report that has information on the places they fished along with what they caught. Noncommercial fisherman do not file a report, but would be required to do so under the proposed rules.

Asami disputed the reports that Hawaii's bottom-fish stocks are depleted. He said his catch has gone up 1,000 to 1,500 pounds a year since he began commercial fishing full time five years ago.

For the commercial fishers, the proposed rules compound the grievance they feel over a five-month ban on bottom-fishing imposed by the federal and state fisheries agencies around the main Hawaiian islands. The closure from May 15 through Sept. 30 barred fishing for seven commercial species: onaga, ehu, gindai, opakapaka, kalekale, lehi and hapu'upu'u.

The closure was in response to a recommendation from the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council to immediately reduce the fishing pressure on the bottom fish stocks while the council, National Marine Fisheries Service and the state developed long-term management measures to prevent overfishing. That led to the proposed rules.

Dan Polhemus, administrator of the state Aquatic Resources Division, said an impetus for the proposed rules is a federal law that sets a catch limit on how many pounds of bottom fish can be caught in the main Hawaiian islands.

The federal limit for all bottom fish species is 178,000 pounds for the season that began Oct. 1.

The catch limit is based on provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act of 2006. Signed by President Bush early this year, it sets a deadline to end overfishing in U.S. waters by 2011 and imposes guidelines on regulating fishing.

Without timely reports by commercial fishers on what fish is being caught, and no reports from recreational fishers, Polhemus said no one would know when the state is reaching the catch limit. Any trip reports on fish catch would be similar to what fisheries agencies in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest require, he said.

If catch numbers are not monitored and overfishing occurs in the main Hawaiian islands, the federal law could lead to a declaration that the waters are overfished and all fishing could be shut down.

As part of the rules to monitor the bottom-fish catch, the state proposes to register recreational fishers as well as commercial operators. Other proposals deal with related issues affecting bottom-fishing, including: