Catching reef fish in Hawai'i can be pretty straightforward.

Take whatever tool you need — a pole, net, spear — to many shorelines and catch one. Or two. Or 20.

This wide-open, lightly regulated harvesting makes no sense. The survival of Hawai'i's near-shore reefs depends on a healthy population of fishes. So does our economy, which values those reefs at an estimated $10 billion.

The near-shore reefs are worth protecting, and there should be sensible rules that can do the job.

But even as the state Department of Land and Natural Resources moves closer to imposing modest regulations — size and bag limits on uhu, weke and jacks, three popular but threatened reef fish species — it is encountering resistance.

Spokesmen for fishermen worry that too-strict bag limits will put small commercial fishers out of business.

They also say that the limited data available do not reflect the amount of fish that are really out there — that there's still enough to allow a robust fishery.

It's true that the data are limited. While new rules have led to more commercial fishers reporting their catches, Hawai'i doesn't require recreational or subsistence fishing licenses, or any reporting on what's caught. So it's difficult to say how much fish are being taken out of the ocean. Nonetheless, there are strong arguments for stricter management of Hawai'i fisheries.

Recent studies have shown that overfishing has a significant negative impact on fish populations, depleting popular species like parrotfish and jacks to critical levels. And it doesn't take a study to know that there are far fewer fish offshore than there used to be.

Certainly, limits on harvesting uhu, weke and jacks, for both commercial and other fishers, are needed to sustain the species in the long run. And for the smart, comprehensive management of Hawai'i's fisheries, other tools, such as seasonal closures and a ban on monofilament lay gillnets, should be considered as well.

Fishing is an integral part of Hawai'i's cultural, economic and recreational heritage. In old Hawai'i, the fisheries were carefully managed and protected with sustainability in mind.

Somehow we've moved away from this practice; it's time we returned to it.