A public hearing to discuss fishing regulations at the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument will be held on Oahu as
fisheries managers decide how to encourage noncommercial fishing within the monument.
The meeting will be held Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Ala Moana Hotel Hibiscus Ballroom — the last of a series of public hearings that have taken place around the state.
The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, or Wespac, decided in September to hold public hearings about a set of proposed noncommercial fishing regulations within the Papahanaumokuakea monument expansion area following concerns about the regulations.
Wespac wants to encourage fishing by Native Hawaiians in the monument, but the proposed regulations entertain the implementation of “customary exchange,” a type of subsistence fishing that would allow fishers to catch fish, bring it back home and exchange it within the community.
Customary exchange is one of the primary issues opponents have about the fishing regulations.
They said that there wasn’t a tradition of fishing in the monument, which is in federal waters around the Northwest Hawaiian Islands, and bringing the catch back home. Native Hawaiians used to travel there for important occasions.
“My grandfather was one of those fishermen from Kauai. That was the ultimate trip, to run from French Frigate Shoals with a fleet of fishing boats — that was like a quest to them,” said Pelika Andrade, a member of the Papahanaumokuakea Native Hawaiian Cultural Working Group. “It wasn’t there to exploit and make a living off of the catch.”
The working group had testified to Wespac in September against the use of customary exchange.
Customary exchange also could include cost-recovery methods, which would allow fishers to be reimbursed for customary exchange fishing trips.
Opponents say that cost recovery easily could be exploited to allow commercial fishing under the guise of noncommercial fishing. Commercial fishing is prohibited in the 580,000-square-mile monument — the largest fully protected
conservation area in the world.
“We’re fearful of what these little loopholes might lead to, especially when these options are not well defined. … I feel like it could be a Trojan horse,” said Kekuewa Kikiloi, an associate professor at the Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies at the
University of Hawaii.
Wespac staff wasn’t immediately available to comment, but a spokesperson said that in the public hearings — so far held on Maui, Hawaii island, Kauai and Molokai — participants want access to the monument to fish.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has initiated a process to consider designating Papahanaumokuakea as a national marine sanctuary, giving Wespac an opportunity to draft fishing regulations for it.
