The Hawaii-based Longline Logbook Summary Report
January-December 2010

• Summary Tables
• Summary Charts

This annual report summarizes data on fish catch and fishing effort by Hawaii-based longline vessels for calendar year 2010. Results are based on the date gear was hauled, as reported by vessel operators to the National Marine Fisheries Service in Federal logbooks of daily fishing activity. The report covers longline operations for fishing trips completed in 2010 and most, but not all, data from trips that began late in the fourth quarter of 2010 and continued into the first quarter of 2011. Therefore, the 2010 summary statistics reported here are preliminary.

During 2010, 124 vessels were active in the Hawaii-based fleet, three fewer vessels than in 2009 (Table 1, Fig. 1); participation in the fishery has been nearly constant over the past seven years. Longline fishers made 1,313 longline trips in 2010 (52 less than in 2009), including 1,205 using deep-set gear to target tuna (down 48 trips from 2009) and 108 using shallow-set gear to target swordfish (down 4 trips) (Table 1, Fig. 2). The Hawaii-based longline fishery deployed 39.0 million hooks in 2010, down 0.5 million hooks from 2009 (Table 1, Fig. 3). The number of hooks set increased steadily from 1994 through 2007, but has declined slightly over the past four years. A growing proportion of hooks are being set outside the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) - 75% of the total hooks set in 2010. The remainder were deployed in the main Hawaiian Islands EEZ (16%), Northwestern Hawaiian Islands EEZ (6%), and in the EEZ of the Pacific Remote Island Areas (PRIA, consisting of U.S. possessions Wake Island, Jarvis Island, Howland Island, Baker Island, Kingman Reef, Palmyra Atoll, and Johnston Atoll) (4%).

In 2010, the Hawaii longline fleet caught 137,089 bigeye tuna (Table 1, Fig. 4), 15% more than in 2009. The trend of bigeye tuna catch has been upward since the first year of logbook monitoring in 1991. The albacore catch in 2010 was 20,620 fish, about double the catch in 2009; however, the albacore catch has trended downward since peaking in 1997. The catch of yellowfin tuna in 2010 was 13,816 fish, an increase of 3% over 2009.

The 2010 swordfish catch was 19,703 fish (Table 1, Fig. 5). This was 10% lower than the swordfish catch in 2009 despite an increase in the number of hooks deployed in shallow sets targeting swordfish in 2010. The catch of striped marlin was 3,929 fish in 2010, a decrease of 51% compared to 2009; it has continued to vary during the 20-year period of logbook records, with a downward trend after peaking in 2003. The catch of blue marlin in 2010 was 3,460 fish, down 19% from 2009.

In 2010, the Hawaii longline fleet caught 70,812 sharks and kept just 2% of them (Table 1, Fig. 6). Blue shark comprised 83% of the total shark catch (58,585 fish). In 2010, the fleet caught 3,885 mako sharks and 6,372 thresher sharks. Catches of mako and thresher sharks have trended upward, whereas those of blue shark have been relatively steady during the last eight years (Fig. 6).

In 2010, the Hawaii longline catch of other key pelagic species included a record 94,854 mahimahi, 37,785 pomfret, 34,102 oilfish, 19,725 moonfish, and 8,804 wahoo (Table 1, Fig. 7). Catches of all these species in 2010 were higher than levels in the 1990s, but those of wahoo and pomfret have declined slightly over the last several years.

The longline logbook statistics reported above refer to all fishing areas combined. Summary catch and effort for 2010 were also compiled by several geographical sub-areas including: the MHI EEZ; the NWHI EEZ; the PRIA EEZ; the combined EEZ of MHI, NWHI and PRIA; and waters outside the U.S. EEZ. These statistics are presented in Tables 2 - 6. Summary statistics for the entire fishing area in 2010 are also presented for each distinct trip type: swordfish-targeted trips using shallow-set gear (Table 7) and tuna-targeted trips deploying deep-set gear (Table 8).

This website also provides a PDF version of the report [download report], a separate collection of quarterly and yearly charts, and an archive of quarterly and annual summary tables of fish catch and fishing effort from 1991 to the present. The statistics in the online graphs and archived tables are updated periodically as new records are added to the database and corrections are made.