Non-Longline Pelagic Fishery
Introduction and Beginning
There are four non-longline Pelagic fisheries in Hawaii. The aku boat fishery is the bait boat or pole-and-line skipjack tuna fleet. The Main Hawaiian Islands (MHI) troll fishery includes all of the various types of troll fishing in the MHI fishing area. The Main Hawaiian Islands handline fishery includes deep sea handline, ika shibi, palu-aku and drifting/pelagic handline gear types in the MHI fishing area. The other gear pelagic fishery includes trolling and handline fishing in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) EEZ, offshore deep sea handline fishing outside of the MHI Area and around certain seamounts and distant water albacore trolling.
The MHI fishing area consists of one degree squares around the islands of Hawaii, Maui, Molokai, Lanai, Oahu and Kauai.
The aku boat fleet was the dominant pelagic fishing method from the post World War II period until the mid-1970s before declining. The aku boat fishery reached its current low level with the 1984 closure of the Hawaii Tuna Packers (Bumble Bee Brand) cannery. The commercial troll and handline pelagic fisheries remained at a low level from 1948 until its rise in the late 1970s. The longline fishery recovered and had a subsequent rapid rise in the late-1980's and is now by far the largest fishery in Hawaii.
Pelagic catch by the MHI troll and MHI handline fisheries has been on a 30-year upward trend growing an average of 12% per year since 1970. Catch from these fisheries was relatively stable in the 1990s. Catch of pelagics by other gear was at a record high in 2001 and greater than those for MHI handline. This was probably due to distant water albacore trollers who fished on the high seas but landed their catch in Honolulu. In contrast the catch by the aku boat fleet showed a declining trend to a record low in 2000.
Vessels, Methods and Effort
The fishing methods, target species, vessel sizes, yields, and operational areas of Hawaii's domestic non-longline pelagic fisheries are diverse. The commercial sectors are largely composed of the aku boat fisheries utilizing large vessels more than 40 feet long. The small-vessel troll and handline fisheries include poorly differentiated commercial, recreational, and subsistence components.
HDAR asks fishermen to identify their primary fishing gear or method on the Commercial Marine License at time of licensing. This does not preclude fishermen from using other gears or methods, but it indicates what they consider to be their primary fishing method.
In 2001 there were 2,122 licensed pelagic fishermen. Of these licensed fishermen 1,449 or 68% were trollers, 465 or 22% were longliners, 163 or 8% were handliners and 44 or 2% were aku boat fishermen.
Trips by MHI troll and all handline fishing vessels dropped in 2001 but increased for aku boats. trolling trips were about the same as 2000 and have continued at a level of 20,000 to 25,000 trips per year since 1986. Handline trips dropped 24% from 2000 and were below the long-term average of about 5,000 trips per year. aku boat activity rose 17% from the record low in 2000 but is still below the long-term average of 225 trips per year. There were only two full time aku boats, while another five including one in Haleiwa and Maui fished part time .
Catch
The catch of primarily skipjack tuna from the aku boat fishery continued its decline since the closure of the tuna cannery in Hawaii in 1984. In the late 1980s the tuna catch from this fishey was around 3.0 million pounds per year. The aku boat tuna catch reached a record low of 700 thousand pounds in 2000 and bounced back to 990 thousand pounds in 2001.
The tuna catches of the MHI troll and handline fisheries, which account for most of the yellowfin tuna catch, remained stable from 1987 to 2001 with the MHI troll catch varying about an average of 1.1 milion pounds per year and the MHI handline catch varying about an average of 1.5 million pounds per year.
Yellowfin and skipjack tuna were the primary tuna species caught by the MHI troll fishery. The yellowfin tuna catch decreased by 60% in 1988 but has remained stable since. The skipjack tuna catch remained stable from 1987 to 2001 and small quantities of bigeye tuna, albacore and other tunas were also caught by this fishery.
The MHI handline catch was composed primarily of yellowfin tuna. The general trend for yellowfin tuna decreased in the late 1980s and remained stable in the 1990s up until 2001. Albacore was the second largest catch of this fishery with catches growing from 1987 and peaking in 1999. This fishery had smaller catches of bigeye and skipjack tunas.
The MHI troll catch for non-tunas remained steady from 1987 to 2001. Blue marlin is the main non-tuna catch of this fishery, followed by mahimahi and ono. Striped marlin and swordfish made up only a small contribution to this fishery.
The tuna catch by other gear shows a tremendous growth or reporting and wide fluctuations from 1987 to 2001. The catch in 2001 was close to the record levels set in 2000. Most of the tuna catch by other gear was from offshore handline fishing around the seamounts and NOAA weather buoys.
The catch of billfish and non-tuna pelagic species by all non-longline methods was relatively stable at 2.0 million pounds per year from 1987 to 2000. In 2001 the catch jumped to 6.6 million pounds due to the offloading of distant water trollers.
The MHI troll and handline and other gear fisheries typically account for half of the mahimahi catch while the MHI troll fishery accounts for more than half of the ono or wahoo catch.
The MHI troll fishery is the second largest commercial fishery, producing 2.6 million pounds worth $3.8 million in 2001. The landings were the same as in 2000, but revenue dropped by $0.9 million due to a $0.44 drop in average price per pound.
The MHI handline fishery produced 1.3 million pounds of pelagic catch worth $2.3 million in 2001. Landings were lower than for 2000, and average prices fell by $0.61 per pound causing a $1.0 million drop in revenue.
The aku boat fishery produced 1.2 million pounds of fish valued at $1.6 million in 2001. This is a 0.5 million pound and a 0.5 million dollar increase over 2000 in spite of a $0.18 per pound price drop.
Fish Size
In 2001 the average weight for most species caught by troll-handline-other gear were within their 13-year ranges. Swordfish and striped marlin appear to be on a trend toward smaller fish.
The average weight of 47 pounds in 2001 for albacore has been steadt for the past 3 years. The average weight for bigeye tuna and yellowfin tuna was close to its long term average.
Swordfish weight was at a record low of 42 pounds in 2001. Blue marlin average weight was 180 pounds and declined for the first time in 4 years. In contrast, average weight of striped marlin has declined for the fifth straight year, reaching a record low of 51 pounds in 2001.
In 1995 all species caught by trolling, handline, or other gears were within their recent size ranges, except for albacore. Albacore were much smaller in 1995 due to substantial landings in Honolulu by distant-water albacore trollers, which tend to catch smaller fish than the handliners.
Market
The aku boat fishery generated the most revenue from 1948 until 1980. Revenue from this fishery peaked at $12.6 million in 1973 and continued to dominate the pelagic fisheries in Hawaii until 1980 and decreased slowly after that. Part of the reason for the decline of the aku boat fishery was the closure of the Bumble Bee Tuna cannery in 1984. The only market for this fishery after the closure of the canney was the fresh fish market. This fishery was worth $1.6 million in 2001.
The revenue from the other three non-longline pelagic fisheries combined was less than $1.0 million until 1971. Revenue from these three fisheries grew and peaked at $13.0 million in 1987. It ranged from $7.4 million in 1997 to $12.0 million in 2001.
Competition from Longliners
Up until 1980 distant-water longliners from Japan caught between 1,300 and 5,000 t of tuna and billfish annually within the EEZ around Hawaii. Since 1980 there has been no legal foreign longline fishing conducted in the EEZ. The Fishery Management Plan (FMP) enacted by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WPRFMC) was designed to regulate billfish catches by these foreign distant-water longliners. The Japanese distant-water pole-and-line fishery for tuna that operated in the NWHI through 1992 was the only foreign fishery operating legally within the EEZ after 1980.
Although the primary target species of the Hawaii-based longline fishery are different from those of the troll and handline fisheries, the longline fishery also catches over 1,300 t of tuna, blue marlin, and mahimahi. This creates a potential for fishery interaction between the longline and small-vessel troll and handline fisheries. Potential interactions, impacts on endangered species, the possibility of localized overfishing, and gear conflicts prompted the WPRFMC to establish regulations for the domestic longline fishery in 1990. A moratorium on entry of longline vessels into the Hawaii fishery and prohibited areas for longline fishing was established in 1991.
The absence of clear declining trends in local CPUE associated with local fishery expansion, combined with distinctly seasonal variations in CPUE, suggests that pelagic fish availability in Hawaii was most strongly affected by factors other than local fishing pressure. Anomalies in whatever factors control seasonal availability could also be the major source of interannual variation in CPUE. Research leading to an ability to forecast changes in pelagic fish availability could ameliorate fishermen's concerns that local fishing pressure has decreased fish availability. Development of new methods to locate or predict productive fishing areas could increase the yield and efficiency of Hawaii's pelagic fisheries. However, greatly increased fishing efficiency and yield might then have some negative impact on local fish availability.
Decreases in fish availability caused by local fishing pressure may have been obscured by biases such as increased fishing power, expansion into more productive fishing grounds, economic influences on fishing operations, and environmental influences on local abundance and catchability. Further analysis of catch and effort data as well as an improved data collection system is needed to account for such biases. However, the basic explanation of the available data is that locally exploited stocks have not yet been impacted by the expansion of Hawaii's pelagic fisheries.
If fishery managers can prevent physical conflicts between the longline and small-vessel troll and handline fisheries in Hawaii, and if adequate markets continue to support the profitable operation of all fishery sectors, then Hawaii's pelagic fisheries should continue to expand. No strong evidence suggests that the local availability of fish is a factor limiting further expansion. However, this optimistic assessment is based on statistics and analyses that may be inadequate; therefore, better fishery monitoring systems are needed.