A gillnet is any net that catches fish by trapping them by their gills. The particular use of gillnets in Hawai’i that has drawn the most opposition involves the setting of several nets strung together into a long monofilament curtain that is hung in the water usually at right angles to the line of the coast. Setting the net may take up to 45 minutes and hauling it in can take up to two hours.
The same gear can be employed in different ways. Sometimes fishers drive fish into the nets by noisy clapping, in a style of fishing called “pa’ipa’i” (the Hawaiian word for applause).
At other times, the nets are allowed to soak for longer times. Current regulations call for fishers to check nets every two hours, to make sure they are not snaring animals whose catch is prohibited (such as turtles or out of season fish). This method is called “moemoe,” the Hawaiian word for sleep, since in past times the fisher would put the net out in the evening and not check it again until morning. (The term also means to ambush – which some would argue is precisely what the invisible nets do to the fish they catch.)
Trammel nets are gillnets made with overlapping panels of netting. They tend to foul up larger fish that can break through single-panel nets. Surveys by the Division of Aquatic Resources suggest these nets are used mainly by commercial fishers. If their use is to be allowed, the Division of Aquatic Resources’ aquatic biologists recommend that they be restricted for commercial use only and that there by a minimum mesh size of three inches for the first panel and five inches for the second
Volume 15, Number 3 September 2004
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