Hawaii fishers
air concerns
The head of a federal agency that regulates commercial fishing spent two days in Honolulu listening to Hawaii fishers, whose concerns included their desire for extending the tuna longline season and resuming longlining for swordfish.
Bill Hogarth, director of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries, more commonly known as the National Marine Fisheries Service, listened to Hawaii fishermen at public meetings Tuesday and yesterday at the Ala Moana Hotel.
"I want to talk to people. I want to make the agency more transparent," Hogarth said of the "listening tour" he is making of all eight regions of the country this summer.
"There are lots of controversies surrounding fisheries management right now," Hogarth said in an interview yesterday, referring to two recent studies that criticized his agency for not being a tough-enough conservator of U.S. ocean resources.
The Pew Oceans Commission concluded after two years of study that "thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of investment have either been lost or are jeopardized by collapsing fisheries."
"I don't agree with that, personally," Hogarth said, saying that over the past five years, 20 overfished stocks have been replenished, including the king mackerel in the Southeast, sea scallops in the Northeast and the North Atlantic swordfish.
The only overfished stock in Hawaii is the armorhead, he said.
In Hawaii, environmental groups successfully sued NOAA Fisheries to obtain court-ordered restrictions on longline fishing that close tuna longlining two months a year and prohibit swordfish longlining entirely. The restrictions are intended to save endangered sea turtles that were being hooked by the lines.
The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, which is meeting today, expects to ask NOAA Fisheries to soften those rules, said council Executive Director Kitty Simonds.
Modification to longlining gear, bait and methods has the potential of reducing turtle killings as much as 92 percent, according to experiments on the East Coast, Hogarth said.
But he acknowledged that environmental groups probably will protest the council's request.
EarthJustice attorney Paul Achitoff has argued that the turtles, especially the leatherback species, are too endangered to risk even a few accidental deaths at the hands of fishermen.
Anyone wishing to comment on how NOAA Fisheries is managing the fishing industry in Hawaii can send comments to Hogarth by visiting www.nmfs.noaa.gov/emeetings or writing to Bill Hogarth, NOAA Fisheries 2003 Constituent Sessions, 1315 East West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910.