Saving Seafood

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

Hawaii Longline Fishery Producing Fresh Seafood for Hawaii Food Security

March 17, 2020 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council and Hawaii Longline Association:

Due to COVID-19 impacts, local food security, self-sufficiency and access to healthy food and fish are increasingly important. Hawaii longline vessels are positioned to continue supplying fish to Hawaii restaurant and retail markets for local Hawaii consumption during the current COVID-19 pandemic.

The Hawaii longline fishery is the largest food producing industry in the State of Hawaii. The fishery is comprised of 150 active vessels supplying highly monitored fresh, ice-chilled fish to Hawaii and US mainland markets.

The Hawaii longline fishery is considered globally as a golden standard in tuna fisheries, with robust management measures and strict monitoring and enforcement.

Hawaii residents consume seafood at twice the national average, as fish is culturally important to Hawaii’s diverse communities.

According to HLA Executive Director Eric Kingma, PhD, “The Hawaii Longline Association [HLA] is working with government officials, restaurants, and retail outlets to ensure that Hawaii consumers continue to be supplied with safe, high-quality, healthy seafood products caught by Hawaii longline vessels.”

For further information, contact Kingma at (808) 389-2653 or Eric.K.Kingma@gmail.com.

Council Urges Reopening of Fishing Grounds Based on New False Killer Whale Study

March 12, 2020 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:

A new study indicates that the pelagic stock of false killer whales around the Hawaiian Islands may be healthier than previously thought. Amanda Bradford of NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center presented the research yesterday to the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, which has authority over fisheries in the US exclusive economic zone (EEZ, i.e., generally 3 to 200 miles offshore) of Hawai‘i and other US islands and territories in the Pacific. The Council is meeting this week in Honolulu.

In light of the new population estimates, the Council yesterday asked the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to explore reopening the Southern Exclusion Zone (SEZ), a 132,000-square-mile area spanning the entire EEZ south of the main Hawaiian Islands. Since 2012, the SEZ is closed to the Hawai‘i longline fishery when it interacts with two pelagic false killer whales that result in a mortality and serious injury determination by NMFS. The closed SEZ leaves only 17.8 percent of the EEZ around the Hawaiian Islands open to the fishery.

When the SEZ was implemented, the estimated population size of pelagic false killer whales allowed a maximum of nine individuals from the stock to be removed by means other than natural mortalities. Above that number could impair the stock’s ability to reach or maintain its optimum sustainable population, it was determined. The new estimates may indicate a need to modify that number.

The Council meeting continues today and tomorrow at the YWCA Fuller Hall, 1040 Richards St., Honolulu, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. To participate by web conference: Go to https://wprfmc.webex.com/join/info.wpcouncilnoaa.gov. For more information on the meeting, go to www.wpcouncil.org/meetings-calendars, email info@wpcouncil.org or call (808) 522-8220.

Mandatory Hawai’i Pelagic Small Boat Fishery Permit and Reporting to Be Explored

March 11, 2020 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:

Federal fishery managers today in Honolulu voted to explore mandatory permit and reporting requirements for the pelagic small-boat fishery in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) waters (3 to 200 miles offshore) around Hawai’i. The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council will work with the State of Hawai’i Division of Aquatic Resources, as requested by the Council member representing the State’s Department of Land and Natural Resources. The State has jurisdiction over fisheries in waters 0 to 3 miles from shore. Small boat fishermen and pelagic fish (e.g., tuna, billfish, mahimahi, ono) are found in both federal and state waters, which calls for coordinated federal and state management. Information on the pelagic small boat fishery, which does not include Hawai’i longline vessels, is currently insufficient for robust fisheries management. The major gap is the number, catch and effort of noncommercial fishermen. Currently, mandatory permits and reporting are required for the commercial sector only through the State’s commercial marine license program. The Council made its decision following a presentation of the findings of public scoping meetings held throughout the Hawaiian Islands by the Council in early 2020. An options paper on the proposal will be reviewed by the Council at its next meeting in June 2020 in Honolulu.

Tomorrow and Thursday the current Council meeting will continue at the YWCA Fuller Hall, 1040 Richards St., Honolulu, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Key agenda items to be addressed include annual catch limits for the bottomfish fisheries of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) for fishing years 2020-2023; revisions to the list of federally managed bottomfish species in American Samoa, Guam and the CNMI; catch and allocation limits for longline-caught bigeye tuna in the US Pacific Island territories for fishing year 2020; and marine conservation plans for Guam, CNMI and the Pacific Remote Island Areas.

To participate by web conference: Go to https://wprfmc.webex.com/join/info.wpcouncilnoaa.gov. You may connect to the audio via the computer or telephone. If you use the telephone for the audio, sign into Webex via your computer first and look for the “call in” prompt to obtain the call-in instructions and a participant number. Public comments will be taken at the end of each agenda section for items relevant to the applicable agenda section only. To make a public comment, send a private chat message via Webex to the “host (Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council)” prior to the start of the public comment period of the applicable agenda section.

For more information on the meeting, go to www.wpcouncil.org/meetings-calendars/ or contact the Council at info@wpcouncil.org or (808) 522-8220.