Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 10, Number 7, 1 July 1993 — New net law riles fishermen [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

New net law riles fishermen

by JeffClark If you lay net overnight and retum to piek up your catch in the niorning, you're breaking the law. Gov. John Waihe'e recently signed into law Act 86, whieh makes it illegal to leave gill nets in the water for more than four hours. It is also illegal to leave a net for longer than two hours without inspecting it and removing undersized, illegal or unwanted ftsh. (Gill nets are curtain-like nets suspended in the water with mesh openings large enough to permit on!y the heads of fish to pass through. ensnaring them around the gill or spiny parts v> hen they attempt to escape.) The Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) says the law's purpose is to protect fish. "These new restrictions are designed to enhanee nearshore fish populations by reducing the number of undersized, out-of-season, or unwanted fishes that are inadvertently caught in gill nets," according to a press release issued by DLNR May 18.

Ka Wai Ola asked a eouple Hawaiian fishermen for their mana'o. Kāne'ohe-based commercial fisherman Stanford Kamaha'o Okalani Meheula said he had heard of the new net law but didn't know the details. This was his reaction on being informed: "Are you serious? That's a joke! How do they expect the fishermen to survive? And anyway, who's going to enforce it? "The small-time loeal fishermen suck wind, and all they want

to do is make some pocket money and kaukau fish." Said Billy Kalipi, Sr. of Kaunakakai, Moloka'i, "It's not realistic. Whoever made the law, they're not looking at how the fishermen fish. We fish with the tide, not with the eloek." Kalipi said he likes to lay his

net overnight in anticipātion of high tide, so that fish will be caught heading seaward as the tide goes back out. He thinks fishermen should be allowed to lay their nets from 6 p.m. - 6 a.m. "To me, it should be sunset to sunrise," he said, but suggested that the net owner could be required to stay on his boat with the net so it could be checked p>eriodically. Rep. Kenneth Hiraki, chair of the committee on oeean recreation and marine resources, introduced the bill that became the net law. He said the bill was enacted "to implement the suggestions from the Department of Land and Natural Resources study." That study was issued in response to a resolution passed during the 1992 legislative session that called for DLNR to assess the impact of gill nets, finding that the department had in the past "documented that the use of gill nets has indiscriminately removed fish from the nearshore ecosystem and has thereby seriously depleted and harmed nearshore fishery

resources." Violating the law is a petty misdemeanor punishable by fine. When asked how the law will be enforced, Randy Honebrink, education coordinator in DLNR's aquatic resources division, said, "That is the problem. ... I think the (department's) enforcement guys are cringing (at the thought of enforcing the time limit)." Hiraki, however, said the department wanted the four-hour limit because it would be easier to

enforce than the previous 12-hour limit. Honebrink said DLNR may also push to have the minimum mesh size increased from two inches to two-and-three-quarters or three inches. Fishermen (and -women) wishing to keep track of legislation affecting fishing may eall Hiraki's office at 586-6180 (neighbor islanders eall 1-800-468-4644, extension 66180) to be put on the hearings mailing list.

"We fish with the tide, not with the eloek." - Billy Kalipi, Sr.

Stanford Meheula is upset with the four-hour gill-net limit. photo by Jeff Clark