Saving Seafood

HAWAII: The Honolulu Fish Auction Celebrates Its 70th Anniversary

November 29, 2022 — Commercial fishing in Hawai’i was banned during World War II and slowly resurfaced by the early 1950s. The United Fishing Agency launched the Honolulu Fish Auction on Aug. 5, 1952, and it celebrated its 70th anniversary this year at Honolulu’s Pier 38.

The agency says it’s the only fish auction in Hawai‘i and the only large-scale tuna auction in the Pacific this side of Tokyo. Michael Goto, who has been running the auction for a decade, says seafood is a much bigger industry in Hawai‘i than many people might realize.

“The whole business has been over-looked over the years,” Goto says. “It is the number one food-producing industry in the entire state of Hawai‘i. No one else comes close to this industry as far as food production.”

Sales from Hawai‘i’s longline fishing boats are worth between $100 million and $120 million a year at the ports before the fish hit the wholesale and retail sectors and gets marked up, he says.

He says more than 90% of people in the state consume seafood regularly and seafood is a big draw for tourists too. “Tourists come to Hawai‘i not to eat chicken or beef, but what we’re known for: fish,” he says.

Read the full article at Hawaii Business

Helping Hawaii: Non-profit removes 200,000 pounds of debris from Pacific

November 17, 2022 — Marine debris is an accumulating problem for Hawaiian wildlife at 57 tons per year, so one non-profit group is working to give their water and wildlife the best chance for long-term survival.

“Anything from motorcycle helmets to car bumpers to baseball bats and recently a lot of Wilson volleyballs is, believe it or not, due to a container spill that happened near Hawaii,” Kevin O’Brien told FOX Weather Monday. “And this time, we actually found a lifeboat that was part of a fire at sea from a large container ship.”

O’Brien is the president and co-founder of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine Debris Project (PMDP), a non-profit dedicated to cleaning up the Papahanaumokuakea National Marine Monument. He organized and trained a group of 16 free divers to collect dangerous debris from a 185-foot ship. Animals eat the plastic and get entangled in it.

Read the full article at Fox Weather

HAWAII: Hawaiian Fishpond Kicks Off State’s First Sea Cucumber Aquaculture

September 28, 2022 — The following was released NOAA Fisheries

A crowd surrounds David Anderson as he reaches into the large bin’s water. He slowly pulls a fine mesh material out of the bin to reveal … nothing. He pulls out another section of the mesh, and there it is—a brown, pinkie-nail-sized, cylindrical blob. “It’s like a dark maggot,” an onlooker comments.

But this “dark maggot” is actually a baby loli (Hawaiian sea cucumber) whose potential belies its tiny size and appearance. Kauaʻi Sea Farms, in partnership with the Pacific American Foundation, is rearing sea cucumbers in a solar-powered hatchery at its Nomilo Loko Iʻa (Hawaiian fishpond). The goal of this NOAA grant–supported project: to cultivate loli as a high-value export product, primarily for Chinese and Japanese markets.

Read the full release here

Effort to expand Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument gets pushback

September 26, 2022 — A Hawaii-based coalition’s effort to expand the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument is getting pushback by the fishery council created to oversee that area of the Pacific.

The national monument makes up nearly 500,000 square miles of open ocean, coral reefs and island habitats south of Hawaii. The Pacific Remote Islands Coalition wants to extend the monument around two sets of islands from 50 miles to 200 miles.

“Places like these remote islands, atolls and reefs represent some of the priority areas that we need to protect that would have minimal impact to other interests, such as fishing,” said coalition member Kekuewa Kikiloi.

But the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, meeting in Honolulu this week, has taken a hard stand against the proposal.

Read the full article at Hawaii News Now

HAWAII: Hawaii Longline Association earns Marine Stewardship Council Certification

September 23, 2022 — Celebrating 70 years in operation, the United Fishing Agency has become the anchor of commercial fishing on Oahu.

Up to a 100,000 pounds of raw fish can be auctioned off each morning. And in consideration of such high volumes, standards for fishing sustainability are constantly evolving.

The Hawaii Longline Association (HLA) oversees the operation of 145 local longline vessels, and has been subject to independent observer coverage to maintain the protection of wildlife and manage gear and bait procedures.

Read the full article KITV

WPRFMC Scientists Concerned with Lack of Data to Support Marine Monument Expansion

September 21, 2022 — Like strong fishing regulations, successful closed areas should rely on solid science.

But scientists for the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council are questioning the information supporting a proposed monument expansion in remote waters.

The Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee last week heard a presentation by Bob Richmond, University of Hawai‘i professor and coauthor on the proposal to expand the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument. Richmond provided information related to the scientific merits of the proposed expansion.

However, SSC members noted in their discussion the overwhelming lack of data to support theorized benefits and an analytical framework to assemble data in the proposal evaluation.

Read the full article at Seafoodnews.com

Council to consider fishing rules in marine monument

September 20, 2022 — Possible changes to fishing regulations within the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument could allow cultural fishing practices, although such changes are also viewed as “harmful ” to Native Hawaiian traditions.

This week the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, or Wespac, in its, will consider options in a list of alternative commercial and noncommercial fishing regulations in the monument.

The Papahanaumokuakea monument, located around the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, is one of the largest fully protected conservation areas in the world, covering around 580, 000 square miles of ocean.

There has been no fishing activity in the monument since former President Barack Obama established a “monument expansion area (MEA )” in 2016 that prohibited commercial fishing. Noncommercial fishing is allowed, but there isn’t a permitting process in place to give fishers entry into those waters to fish.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has since initiated a process to consider designating the monument as a national marine sanctuary, and Wespac was given an opportunity to draft fishing regulations for it.

Most of the alternative regulations under consideration would codify the MEA boundaries and ban commercial fishing, so much of the discussion about them has revolved around the establishment of a permitting and reporting system for various noncommercial activities, including fishing for cultural, recreational and research purposes.

Read the full article at Yahoo News

First Hawaiian fishery achieves MSC certification

September 19, 2022 — The Hawaii Longline Association’s (HLA) swordfish, bigeye, and yellowfin tuna fishery, has achieved Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification, making it the first fishery in the U.S. state of Hawaii to achieve MSC certification.

“HLA is proud to receive the certification as it is recognition of the fleet’s stringent management and monitoring regime. We believe our fleet produces the best-quality and highest level of monitored tuna in the world. We look forward to working with MSC, WPRFMC, NMFS and others on the continued and long-term production of sustainably and responsibly harvested fish landed by our fleet,” HLA Executive Director Eric Kingma said.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

HAWAII: Hawaii Longline Association certified for sustainable fishing

September 14, 2022 — The Hawaii Longline Association has achieved a globally recognized certification for sustainable fishing by the Marine Stewardship Council.

The MSC Fisheries Standard, which the council says is the world’s most recognized benchmark for sustainability, follows a 16-month certification process that assesses if a fishery is well-managed, with three core principles it has to meet: sustainable fish stocks, minimizing environmental impact and effective fisheries management.

Read the full article at Star Advertiser 

Mission to remove tons of garbage from marine sanctuary underway

September 14, 2022 –A million-dollar mission to remove garbage from an important marine sanctuary is underway.

Kevin O’Brien, founder of Papahanaumokuakea Marine Debris Project, and his crew of 16 are preparing for their fifth mission to clean the Papahanaumokuakea Marine Sanctuary in the Northern Pacific, more than 1,000 miles away from Honolulu.

“There’s the main Hawaiian islands,” O’Brien explained pointing at a map. “Big Island, Kauai — and then we’re headed up here. This little string of tiny dots is Papahanaumokuakea.”

They depart Thursday for the month-long expedition.

According to O’Brien, they’ll likely return with garbage weighing as much as a small commercial jet airplane. He said it will fill three shipping containers and be piled in a huge mountain of garbage on the deck.

Read the full article at KHON