Report Title:

Longline Fishing; Turtles

RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, on March 15, 2001, the Hawaii longline fishery was shut down in accordance with an order issued by U.S. District Judge David Ezra in August 2000, absent a completed environmental impact statement (EIS) required by that order; and

WHEREAS, on March 30, 2001, the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) released the final Biological Opinion (BO) and final EIS on Western Pacific Pelagic Fisheries which proposed permanent closure of the swordfish fishery and a two-month annual closure of a 1.9 million square mile area south of Hawaii to all Hawaii longliners; and

WHEREAS, U.S. District Judge David Ezra modified his August 2000 injunction on March 30, 2001, in accordance with the Preferred Alternative of the EIS, allowing Hawaii longliners to fish for tuna outside of the closed area; and

WHEREAS, the EIS would eliminate the only source of information scientists have on the interaction of sea turtles with shallow-set longline gear in the central Pacific, and close the only fishery that reports all protected species interactions and mortalities on the high seas and makes it public; and

WHEREAS, shallow-set gear accounts for about 40 percent of the $50 million of fish landed annually by the Hawaii longline fleet, and the closed area accounts for 21 percent of the bigeye tuna and 35 percent of the yellowfin tuna (about 2.7 million pounds of tuna collectively) caught annually by Hawaii longline vessels using deep sets; and

WHEREAS, Hawaii longline vessels could try to make up the difference by fishing in non-traditional fishing grounds, but the lower catch-per-unit-effort would require more hooks and increase the opportunities for turtle hookups and entanglements; and

WHEREAS, the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council has recommended that an experimental swordfish fishery should be provided for in the Biological Opinion and Preferred Alternative of the EIS in order to develop new methods and gears that would minimize interactions with marine turtles; and

WHEREAS, scientists, fishermen, U.S. gear manufacturers, and fishery managers have expressed interest in such a fishery, as the mitigation methods developed could then be made available to foreign fisheries and other domestic fisheries which are less regulated and have higher turtle interactions; and

WHEREAS, scientists, fishermen, U.S. gear manufacturers, and fishery managers have successfully cooperated to develop and implement active mitigation methods that reduced turtle bycatch and mortality in the Gulf of Mexico shrimp trawl fishery and reduced dolphin mortality in the tuna purse seine fishery in the eastern tropical Pacific; and

WHEREAS, while 115 Hawaii longline vessels operating under federal limited entry permits would be completely banned from swordfish fishing in the north Pacific and from a 1.9 million square mile area for two months, more than 4,000 foreign longline vessels and hundreds of other domestic fishing vessels could continue fishing in those areas; and

WHEREAS, demand for fish will not decrease during the closure of the Hawaii longline fleet but will be supplied by these and other foreign fleets, which are expected to have higher turtle take rates than the Hawaii fleet; and

WHEREAS, destruction of turtle nesting sites and predation on nestlings on beaches, and directed foreign fisheries on adult turtles, are still occurring in other parts of the Pacific and are a major reason for the decline in some sea turtle populations; and

WHEREAS, closure of the Hawaii longline fishery and fleet would damage the Hawaiian fishing, restaurant, and grocery industries; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2001, the Senate concurring, that the U.S. District Court Judge David Ezra be commended for his immediate action of re-opening longline fishing for tuna upon release of the final EIS; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that NMFS is respectfully requested to establish an experimental swordfish fishery to adopt alternative turtle mitigation measures that would allow the swordfish fishery to remain operational year-round, allowing Hawaii fishermen an opportunity to devise turtle-friendly fishing gear and methods during the period; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that NMFS and the U.S. Department of State be encouraged to actively address turtle bycatch and mortalities internationally; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Governor, Judge David Ezra, the Hawaii Congressional Delegation, the Chairperson of Board of Land and Natural Resources, Director of NMFS, and Executive Director of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council.