Saving Seafood

Hawaii-based fishing boats caught in economic meltdown

May 6, 2020 — About 145 commercial longline fishing boats are based in Honolulu and the group that represents them say they are facing a financial disaster.

Each year, Hawaii’s fishing industry brings in about a $100 million worth of fish on a wholesale basis. That’s according to Eric Kingma, executive director of the Hawaii Longline Association.

He says that in the last eight weeks as demand from restaurants has plunged, revenue losses for longline fishing have run about 60 percent over that time period.

And Kingma says this is not just a short-term issue..

Read the full story at Hawaii Public Radio

Hawaii longliners donate 2,000 pounds of bigeye tuna to foodbank

April 24, 2020 — The Hawaii Longline Association (HLA) announced Thursday that it is collaborating with members of the state’s fishing industry to donate some 2,000 pounds of fresh big-eye tuna to the Hawaii Foodbank.

The donation, done in coordination with United Fishing Agency (Honolulu Auction), Hawaii Seafood Council, Nico’s Pier 38 and Pacific Ocean Producers, is the beginning of a new pilot program with the Hawaii Foodbank. As part of the partnership, the foodbank will buy $50,000 worth of seafood landed by the longliners.

“The face of hunger is changing every day and our nearly 140 vessels operating out of Honolulu Harbor are ready and able to make critical contributions to Hawaii’s fragile food supply,” said Eric Kingma, HLA’s executive director.

Kingma’s group lands about 30 million pounds of fish per year and generates more than $100 million in landed dock-side value, placing Honolulu Harbor sixth in the nation in terms of fisheries port value.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Hawaii Longline Association Launches Partnership with Hawaii Foodbank

April 23, 2020 — The following was released by the Hawaii Longline Association:

The Hawaii Longline Association (HLA) has collaborated with members of Hawaii’s fishing industry in donating 2,000 pounds of fresh seafood to Hawaii Foodbank. The donation, done in coordination with United Fishing Agency (Honolulu Auction), Hawaii Seafood Council, Nico’s Pier 38, and Pacific Ocean Producers, is the beginning of a new pilot program with the Hawaii Foodbank.

Through the partnership, Hawaii Foodbank plans to purchase $50,000 worth of seafood landed by Hawaii longline vessels. The purchase will ensure that Hawaii Foodbank will be able to meet the needs of Hawaii residents  facing hardship as a result of COVID-19. It will also support Hawaii’s longline fishermen, who, like many other fisheries across the nation, have suffered devastating losses in revenue within the last 4 weeks.
“We’re pleased to partner with Hawaii Foodbank on this important initiative supplying high-quality fresh fish to community members in need during this COVID-19 situation,” said Eric Kingma, PhD, executive director, Hawaii Longline Association. “The face of hunger is changing every day and our nearly 140 vessels operating out of Honolulu Harbor are ready and able to make critical contributions to Hawaii’s fragile food supply.”

The Hawaii longline fishery lands around 30 million pounds of fish per year, and generates  more than $100 million in landed dock-side value, placing Honolulu Harbor 6th in the Nation in terms of fisheries port value.

Fish caught by HLA, including ahi, marlin, and opah, will, according to Hawaii Foodbank, “be distributed through [Hawaii Foodbank’s] network of food partner agencies at distribution sites across Oahu. United Fishing Agency will break down the fish into filets and package into insulated boxes for distribution.”

For more information on the work being done by Hawaii Foodbank to support those in need during the current crisis, visit hawaiifoodbank.org.

HAWAII: Fishing boat captains face an impossible choice: Lose money at sea or lose money at home

April 20, 2020 — Hawaii’s fishing industry is far from a comeback after the price of fish plummeted and the market crashed in mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Many fishing boat captains have been forced to lay off crew members and keep their vessels docked until it is financially viable to return to the sea.

Each trip out costs money and the price of ahi is so low, many crews are actually losing money when they operate.

Prices have rebounded slightly, but they are nowhere close to what they used to be.

Read the full story at Hawaii News Now

Hawaii marine monument expansion’s impact on fishing debated 5 years later

April 15, 2020 — Tensions flared fast as the proposed expansions of national marine monuments near Hawaii in President Barack Obama’s second term set fishermen and conservationists against each other.

The Hawaii Longline Association, representing about 150 permitted vessels, objected to fishermen being locked out of fishing grounds. Conservationists aligned with The Pew Charitable Trusts, which advocates for marine protected areas (MPAs) around the world, and rallied for the preservation of coral reefs, unknown life in the deep sea, and the area’s natural and cultural resources.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Hawaii conservation groups file white-tip shark lawsuit

April 6, 2020 — The National Marine Fisheries Service was asked in a lawsuit filed in Hawaii to protect Pacific oceanic white-tip sharks, which are listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act.

The environmental law firm Earthjustice filed the lawsuit on behalf of several conservation groups, including the Conservation Council for Hawaii and Michael Nakachi, a Native Hawaiian cultural practitioner and owner of a local scuba diving company, the Garden Island reported.

“No protections exist to prevent fisheries from capturing oceanic white-tip sharks as bycatch,” said Moana Bjur, executive director of the Conservation Council for Hawaii. “That needs to change if we are to prevent this incredible apex predator from going extinct. That’s why we’re going to court.”

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Hawaii’s fishing industry financially impacted by COVID-19

April 2, 2020 — The state’s fishing industry has been financially impacted by COVID-19 but it provided an unexpected benefit for consumers. United Fishing Agency runs the auction at Pier 38 every morning. The manager says they started to feel the effects around mid-March when restaurants were ordered to go take-out only. At one point, ahi dropped to about $1 per pound, that’s about a 500 percent drop from normal prices.

As expected, sales at restaurants and hotels have gone down during the coronavirus outbreak and the fishing industry is adapting to a new normal by changing up the way they do business.

“You see a lot of businesses selling retail, slabs of fish that normally wouldn’t have done in a regular market,” Michael Goto, United Fishing Agency auction manager, said. “It really hurts everybody. It hurts the vessels, it hurts us here at the auctions.”

Goto believes how well his industry does depends on how tourism is doing so he’s unsure when numbers will go back to normal.

Read the full story at KITV

HAWAII: Oversupply of fish leads to bargains, but also raises concerns for future of industry

April 1, 2020 — For Roger Dang, president of Fresh Island Fish, navigating business amid fallout from the coronavirus crisis means tapping into a different set of sensibilities.

“We need to look at the whole picture with our whole hearts and our whole minds,” he said.

At his company this means putting Hawaii fish directly into the hands of the public.

The objective: to get fishing boats back out on the ocean and help keep Hawaii’s fishing industry afloat. More on that later.

Fresh Island Fish wholesales to hotels and restaurants, which means it has a lot of inventory with few places to send it. So, since March 21, it has been selling this bounty direct to the public at unheard-of prices. Early Monday morning on Instagram, for instance, it listed 5 pounds of ahi for $4 per pound and 5 pounds of marlin and hebi at $3 per pound.

Sales take place curbside at Pier 38, initially creating a traffic jam along Nimitz Highway. The company was unprepared for the response. Consider that its first announcement was “a Microsoft flyer — we’re not social media people, we’re fish people,” said Dang. “We didn’t expect more than 50 people. We had a small tent outside our facility and saw a line of more than 100 cars.”

Read the full story at The Honolulu Star Advertiser

HAWAII: Fish prices plummet as coronavirus pandemic cripples industry and idles boats

March 27, 2020 — As the coronavirus pandemic ripples through Hawaii’s economy, the state’s fishing industry is taking a severe hit.

But the downturn has provided consumers with an unexpected benefit: Lower fish prices.

Since the city and state banned sit-down services at restaurants, fishing boats have been idle on the docks as the wholesale price of ahi and salmon has plunged from about $4 a pound to as little at 20 cents a pound.

Many of the boats won’t go back out because the price for fish won’t even pay for fuel costs.

“We’re sitting side-tied waiting for about a four or five day wait to offload. I have 12,000 pounds of fish right now,” said Mike Wild, captain of the longline vessel the Kilauea.

“It’s going to hurt all the owners in their pockets and it’s hurting the crews. It might put a few guys out of business.”

Skip Gallimore, who owns three fishing boats, thinks the pandemic’s impact on the fishing industry is even more severe. “It’s a shame. I don’t think anyone has realized what’s happened to our fishing industry. It’s gone.”

Read the full story at Hawaii News Now

Hawaiian Monk Seal Population Saw Signs of Recovery in 2019

March 19, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The Hawaiian monk seal population has shown some signs of recovery over recent years. The size of the monk seal population in 2019 was about the same as in 2018, with slightly more than 1,400 seals. Most of the population (about 1,100 seals) reside in the remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Just about 300 seals call the main Hawaiian Islands home. While the population size hasn’t really changed since last year, the population trend remains positive in recent years. It has been growing at an average annual rate of 2 percent since 2013.  The potential for our continued conservation efforts to make such a positive impact is part of what makes Hawaiian monk seals one of NOAA’s Species in the Spotlight.

NOAA’s Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program closely tracks these year-to-year population trends, thanks to a robust, long-term dataset. During the 2019 field season, dedicated field biologists lived and worked on remote islands in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands for 3 to 5 months (depending on the site). In the main Hawaiian Islands, we rely on volunteers, members of the public, and agency partners who contribute to citizen-based seal monitoring.

Read the full release here