The Maui fishery rules package -- is it valid? There is a lot of controversy over the need for bag limits and, if so, how they should be set. A Division of Aquatic Resources biologist, who has 30 years of experience with the DAR, pointed out some interesting facts: -- The federal Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation Act has a specific definition for the terms overfishing and overfished, tied in with annual catch limits (ACL) that are monitored annually. If the ACL is exceeded over a number of years, then certain actions are put into play. -- The National Marine Fisheries Services Pacific Islands Regional Office (PIRO) has the authorization to make such declarations, but has not deemed it necessary. -- The State of Hawaii has neither a definition nor a process to determine whether a stock is being overfished. -- The rules package alleges that certain uhu are becoming rare on shallow coral reef. But there are no sources for that information. Its not known who conducted those surveys, when they were conducted, or if the studies went through the required peer reviews. -- Bag limits were set but without any explanation as to how they were set. No means of determining a maximum sustainable yield (MSY) was provided, nor how many people were fishing for those species. Without knowing these two numbers, a bag limit is impractical to calculate. The proposed bag limits, he said, appear out of nowhere with no explanation or reasoning. There is a lot more in the veteran biologists testimony. It puts the entire rules package into a questionable status. We need to manage our fisheries based on solid, verifiable science and statistics. The biologist said this proposed rules package, as written, has the power to essentially end the commercial fishery for these fish families. If the fishery were sustainable, he said, then this cost would be too high. A State law that would potentially hurt the Maui commercial fishing industry should be carefully evaluated for is pros and cons. I would add that the rules package might unnecessarily harm Mauis commercial fishing industry.
Posted on: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 07:45:02 +0000