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A month later, A row of tuna longliners was docked in Kewalo Basin Monday, ready to unload for the early-morning fish auction.
swordfishermen
still beached
Lack of federal observers means
longliners must move, convert
to tuna fishing, or just
languish at the pierBy Peter Wagner
Star-Bulletin
Others in the tuna fleet were out fishing or gearing up for a trip.
But things were notably quieter at nearby Honolulu Harbor, where more than half the state's swordfish fleet is tied up with nowhere to go.
"It's hard to plan what to do," said Kevin Tran, whose two 95-foot longliners, the Lady Christine and the Capt. Kevin, were grounded by a judge's decision four weeks ago.
The deeply tanned boat captain insists that U.S. District Judge David Ezra was wrong in singling out swordfishermen as a threat to endangered sea turtles.
Ezra on Aug. 3 found the National Marine Fisheries Service remiss for allowing a major fishing industry to take hold in Hawaii without the required environmental study of impacts on marine species.
Environmentalists last year brought suit against the federal agency for not protecting endangered sea turtles, saying scores of Pacific leatherback and other turtle species are dying on tuna and swordfish longlines.
Ezra allowed tuna fishing to continue pending an environmental study due in April, saying swordfishing seems to pose more of a threat to turtles.
While a handful of smaller swordfish boats recently converted to tuna gear -- the switch can cost up to $20,000 -- most are too big and cost too much to operate to make a profit with tuna, Tran said.
Tran's boats, 20 to 30 feet longer than most tuna boats, are geared for rougher waters north of Hawaii.
About a dozen longline vessels left for California to wait for the fall migration of swordfish to an area off the West Coast, beyond the reach of Ezra's order. They left early because it's cheaper to wait in Long Beach, where docking is free, than in Honolulu, where state docking fees and insurance totals about $3,000 a month.But most of the swordfish fleet is just tied up at Pier 17, a somber community of fishermen unable to leave or just hoping their luck will change.
"The judge's decision is not fair," Christine Tran said. "He keeps saying he doesn't care what we're saying, but that isn't right."
Some say their crews have deserted, unwilling to fish for tuna on a converted swordfish boat because of long odds against a payday.
Tran argues that swordfishermen claim fewer turtles than tuna fishermen.
Drawing on a napkin in the cluttered cabin of the Lady Christine, Tran made his case. His sketch showed short fishing line dangling from a deeply submerged longline -- too far down for a hooked turtle to reach the surface.
Fewer turtles drown on swordfish lines, he said, because the lines are shallow enough to allow a turtle to make it to the top where it can be cut loose.
"Swordfishing kills less turtle than tuna fishing," he said. "Nobody believe me."
Ezra, who allowed tuna longliners to continue under some restrictions, limited swordfishing to 154 "sets" -- individual deployments of fishing lines -- the rest of this year in two areas far north of Hawaii. Some 12,000 sets were recorded by tuna and swordfish longliners in Hawaii last year.
While the judge set an annual limit of 370 next year, the injunction is to expire with the filing of a federal environmental impact statement in April.
But if Ezra severely limited swordfishing, few are able to take advantage of the opening because of a shortage of federal observers, another stipulation of his Aug. 3 order. The judge required that an observer -- a biological data-gatherer -- be on each swordfishing boat.
As of last week there were just 7 observers available to a Hawaii longline fleet of more than 100.
Tuna boats will initially operate under a 10 percent observer coverage requirement, effective about the third week in September, followed by a 20 percent coverage requirement in early November. The lesser coverage was allowed, Ezra said, because tuna boats are thought to be less of a threat to turtles with their deeper water fishing methods.
Federal fisheries officials say they will be hard-pressed to meet the initial 10 percent coverage requirement, needing a staff of about 20 observers in the next three weeks. Thereafter, the staff will need to increase to about 40 observers to meet the 20 percent coverage requirement.
The officials hope to contract with private observer agencies on the mainland to meet the requirements.