[ OUR OPINION ]
Longline fishing is a fight
that’s far from overCALIFORNIA swordfish boats coming about to sail for Hawaii will have to wait to angle for catches here for at least a few months, if not longer. Although federal rules expected in April may reopen Hawaiian waters to limited longline fishing, legal action may further tangle the rigs if protections of endangered sea turtles aren't deemed adequate.
THE ISSUE
The federal government has shut down Pacific longline swordfishing off the West Coast.
Finding a balance between commercial interests and safeguarding ocean species has proven elusive and even as the industry readies new hooks and baits designed to reduce the bycatch of turtles, longline fishing remains contentious.
The government last week closed a huge swath of the Pacific Ocean off the California coast to the longline swordfish fleet of about two dozen boats after biologists determined that too many turtles protected by federal law were being killed.
The ban, similar to one put in place in the Western Pacific about three years ago, came after a federal appeals court ruling that the National Marine Fisheries Service had violated the Endangered Species Act by allowing longline fishing off the West Coast.
The fishing method involves unreeling as much as 50 miles of line with baited hooks off each boat -- as many as 1.5 million hooks a year -- within 100 feet of the ocean surface, often with lights that attract turtles as well as the prized swordfish. Tests of experimental gear showed that snagging turtles could be reduced significantly. Federal officials are hoping that the gear, along with onboard observers and limits on bycatches and sets, will be effective enough to open the oceans to longliners once again.
However, environmental groups that challenged longline fishing contend that reducing the number of turtle bycatches isn't enough, that complying fully with the law means not killing them. In addition, they say, fleets once based in the islands were simply taking their fish to California instead, skirting the ban in Hawaii.
Shutting down fishing off California closes that loophole, but foreign fleets from Japan, South Korea and Taiwan aren't held to U.S. regulations. International fishing puts as many as 2 billion longline hooks in the water each year, taking unknown numbers of turtles and other sea creatures.
Without global cooperation, endangered leatherback and loggerhead populations will continue to dwindle. The United States can only hope that new longline techniques will be adopted by foreign fishers as well. Although American boats make up just 5 percent of the worldwide longline fleet, the industry can show the way to responsible fishing.
Meanwhile, the conflict between commercial fishing and environmental interests will persist as the market for seafood grows. Still, the well-being of marine life should be a priority.
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[ IN APPRECIATION ]
Choy created a path
for Asian lawyersA pioneer Asian American in the legal profession, Herbert Choy will remain a role model for future lawyers. He will forever be in the record books as the nation's first person of Korean descent to become a lawyer and the first Asian-American appointed to the federal bench. He will be remembered by those who knew his legal abilities best as a thorough and fair-minded judge on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Choy died Wednesday at the age of 88.
The Kauai-born son of South Korean immigrant sugar plantation workers, Choy graduated from the University of Hawaii and earned his law degree from Harvard University. After duty as an Army lawyer during World War II, he practiced law in Honolulu until 1971, when President Nixon appointed him to the San Francisco-based appellate court. His former clerks say he was both demanding and inspiring.
"He made sure every appeal received justice, and was a living example that you could be very effective on the strength of reasoning, logic and the use of law, not through theatrics or personal attacks," says Craig Nakamura, an assistant U.S. attorney who clerked for Choy in the early 1980s.
Choy remained on the appellate court full-time until 1984. His departure to senior, part-time status left Hawaii without full-time representation on the 9th Circuit until Senator Inouye engineered a provision in a 1997 budget bill that entitles each state to at least one judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals.
It is somewhat fitting that Choy's successor, appointed by President Bush, was among his earliest clerks. Now appellate Judge Richard Clifton says Choy "took every case very seriously," adding that he will try to do the same. Hawaii will be well represented at the 9th Circuit if Clifton equals the performance of his predecessor and mentor.
