Humpback Delisting Petition: A newly formed association claiming to represent Hawai`i fishermen wants to remove the North Pacific population of humpback whales from the federal list of endangered species.The group, calling itself Hawai`i Fishermen’s Alliance for Conservation and Tradition, Inc. (HFACT), … Continued
None of the council members seemed particularly bothered by what pre-eminent marine scientist Jeffrey Polovina just told them — that there is clear evidence longline fishers in Hawaiian waters are “fishing down the food web.” The term refers to fishery-induced … Continued
When does a law not mean what it says? Apparently, whenever the National Marine Fisheries Service decides Congress must have made a mistake. That is what has happened in the case of the Commerce Appropriations Act that was passed in … Continued
DLNR Proposes Strict Size, Bag Limits On Fish Catches Around Maui, Lana`i On June 12, the state Board of Land and Natural Resources approved a request by the state Division of Aquatic Resources to hold public hearings on some rather … Continued
What if you threw a party with no food? In Hawai`i, that is simply unthinkable. Yet, if the federal government’s response to our repeated requests for information about a party thrown by the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council (Wespac) last … Continued
False Killer Whale Recovery Plan: The beginning of this month was the deadline to submit information to the National Marine Fisheries Service on a recovery plan for the endangered insular stock of Hawaiian false killer whales. On October 2, the day … Continued
The National Marine Fisheries Service is proposing a change in fishing regulations that would make permanent what has been a year-to-year rule allowing Hawai`i-based longliners to exceed the annual catch limits on bigeye tuna imposed by the Western and Central … Continued
Callum Roberts. The Ocean of Life: The Fate of Man and The Sea. Viking Penguin (USA), 2013. 350 pages plus appendices, notes, and index. Callum Roberts is one of the world’s great fisheries biologists. More than that, he’s a terrific writer, capable … Continued
On December 13, the state Board of Land and Natural Resources approved the general form of a development agreement for a wind farm that Na Pua Makani Power Partners, LLC, plans to construct on 232 acres of agricultural land in … Continued
Five years ago, scientists pushed for a 30 percent reduction in bigeye tuna catches made in the Western and Central Pacific. That was the amount that was required, they said, to rebuild the stock to the point it could be … Continued