Panel OKs greater size New size limits for catching fish in Hawaii designed to prevent overfishing were approved yesterday by the state Board of Land & Natural Resources and should take effect by the end of the year.
limits for fish
The limits will rise 3 to 7 inches
depending on the speciesBy Diana Leone
dleone@starbulletin.comWilliam Aila, fisherman and Waianae harbormaster, is among those who heartily endorse the changes.
"Not only do I think they're a good thing, I think they're long overdue," he said. "For about 45 years, fishermen have been harvesting some species of fish before they have the chance to mature."
The result, he said, is that Hawaii's nearshore fishing grounds are declining.
Under the state's new rules, legal sizes for amaama (mullet), moi (threadfin), oio, uhu (parrotfish), papio and ulua (trevallies or jacks), kumu (whitesaddle goatfish), kala (unicornfish) and opelu kala (sleek unicornfish) will increase by 3 to 7 inches.
Meanwhile, legal limits for aholehole (Hawaiian flagtail), awa (milkfish), moano, weke (yellowstripe goatfish) and manini (convict surgeonfish) will remain almost the same as they are now -- "almost" because of the new way Division of Aquatic Resources will be measuring all fish: from snout to where the tail forks, instead of to the end of the tail.
The object of the new rules is to allow at least half of any given species to live long enough to reproduce, said Kimberly Lowe, a division biologist who has worked on the project and attended most of the public hearings about the proposed changes.
Scientific data gathered by Lowe and others confirm what many kupuna have been saying for years, she said: People were catching fish too young, before they could create offspring. "It's easy to explain and it makes sense," Lowe said, "Let them get big enough to have babies."
Lowe said many attending hearings on the change said that this should have been done a generation ago.
The state will be spreading the word of the new size limits any way it can over the next few months, Lowe said. "We'll probably do spots on TV, especially to let people know the difference in the way fish will be measured," she said. The first year of new size limits on fish will be the toughest, Lowe said. "People will have to throw back fish they didn't before."
But by the second year, the fish that were not caught will have spawned, increasing the catch for future years.
Guy Tamashiro, buyer for Tamashiro Market, said he supports the new limits as long as they are uniformly enforced.
"We are all for perpetuating the resource for our kids and our kids' kids," he said. "We always want management in place to ensure that."
The amendments to the Hawaii Administrative Rules now go to the attorney general for final review before going to Gov. Ben Cayetano for approval.
A comparison of the new and current size limits can be seen on the Division of Aquatic Resources Web site at www.state. hi.us/dlnr/dar/regs/amend/minsizes.pdf. (Until it is updated, the site will not reflect a change made by the Land Board yesterday increasing the minimum size for mullet to 11 inches.)
