Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2020 i Hawaii Fishing News

Cover Story: Molokai Family’s First Ulua Catch is 110-lbs ■ On March 14, my wife, Kalehua, our 5-year-old daughter, Evie, and I decided to get out of the house and go fishing. My parents, Franklin and Charmaine, decided to join us, as well. I loaded up the truck with my son Buzzy’s poles, riggings and bait, and we headed out. We got to our fishing spot at about 2:15 p.m. and had our lines out by 2:45 p.m. I’d cast one ulua pole and one spinner. I took my daughter to swim in the bay while my wife and parents watched the poles. We hadn’t even been at the bay for 10 minutes, when I heard a bell ringing. We jumped into the truck and headed back. My wife had…

DOBOR Defers Rent ■ Using a Zoom video format, DLNR broadcast its April 9 Board of Land and Natural Resources monthly meeting. The meeting members discussed the deferral of the Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation (DOBOR) commercial boat operator income surcharge. As a result of Gov. Ige’s COVID-19 Emergency Proclamations on March 4, 16, 21 and 23, all commercial boating operations in Hawai‘i have ceased. DLNR Chairperson Suzanne Case said they have “received numerous requests [from] lessees, permits and concessionaires statewide for rent relief.” According to regulations passed last year, commercial boat operators pay fee surcharges that “shall be the greater of two times the mooring fees as provided in Section 13-234-3 or 3 percent of the monthly gross receipts.” Suzanne was firm in her testimony that all boaters…

Cascadia Research Collective is a 21-year-old proj-ect that studies Hawai’i’s marine mammals. ■ Aloha mai kakou. I was born and raised on the Hilo side of the Big Island. You might recognize my last name from my grandpa Alfred Lerma, who was an avid boat and shore fisherman who could be found talking story at S. Ebisuzaki fishing supply, “Aisles” or “Bayfront” back in the day. He is probably most recognizable from the Las Vegas Magazine, News at the Cal. When I was little, my parents were often busy working so I would accompany my grandpa as he made his rounds. One day that I will never forget started in front of the Naniloa Hotel where we fished for bait before going around Hilo, visiting different groups of fishermen and…

■ The advancing fringe of a new day was faintly visible in the eastern sky as we traveled south past Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, descending in the remaining night darkness into Ka‘u. We were headed for the place I had taken Jayson to bag his first turkey two years ago. I had scouted the area the previous week, dismayed to find our normally used entry road now closed. I found an alternate road that I believed would get us to the same place; we turned onto it, splashing through a large puddle of water. It appeared the area had received a good soaking since my previous visit. We continued along the dark, rocky dirt road and encountered a large pond in a low dip ahead. Without thinking, I plowed into…

GOLDEN AHOLEHOLE ■ The plans were set. I was invited to join Doug, my high school classmate, and his diving partner to go spearing in the waters of the harbor after school. Both Doug and his friend were experienced divers and members of the high school swim team. I was a newcomer to the team and my spearing experiences were limited to the safe and shallow waters of Waikiki. Beach, so this would be something different. It was a short ride from our Kalihi neighborhood to Sand Island Road and to their “secret” location. Our object was the deep-water aholehole. The surface of the dark green water sparkled in the early afternoon sun as we prepared our equipment. They entered the warm water, and, with a bit of apprehension, I…

■ COVID-19 has changed life in Hawai‘i as we know it. Statistics show that the visitor industry, housing market and healthcare sector have all been seriously impacted by the virus, with impacts that will likely be longfelt. We have growing understanding of the impacts to our economy and to our people, but what do we know about direct and indirect impacts to our fishing community? There is clear evidence that Hawai‘i’s longline industry has been hit hard by the pandemic. Fewer vessels are headed out, and the amount of fish leaving the auction has significantly decreased. While any decrease in island food security should be a concern for us all, for this particular commercially important industry, we can at least quantify COVID-19 impacts, develop a response plan and adjust accordingly…

■ Did you see them – those folks who were meeting at the school cafeteria talking about fishing? No? You didn’t go to the meetings or hear about them? Let me tell you what happened. About 130 fishermen and members of the public met with the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (the Council) in Honolulu, Kane‘ohe, Kona, Hilo, Kahului and Lihu‘e in February 2020 to review the current federal management of pelagic small-boat (i.e., non-longline) fishing in Hawai‘i and explore potential management issues. The Council manages fisheries in the U.S.Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) (waters three to 200 nautical miles offshore) seaward of the State of Hawai‘i waters (0 to three nautical miles from shore). The catch data clearly shows that small boats are prominent in terms of the total…

Hi, Hawaii Fishing News, I have written to the Governor and his committee members to suggest an alteration in the restrictions placed on fishermen as follows: Aloha from Kona, The Governor’s recent restriction to two fisherman per boat reflected his concern for the crowding that may occur on the average trailer boat and is an understandable measure in regards to social distancing. Unfortunately the Kona fishing community is faced with another danger which presents itself to us each time we head offshore. That danger is the exceedingly dangerous Pacific Blue Marlin, which requires three people to manage. One person is needed at the wheel, a second person on the rod, and a third person to manage the fish at the back of the boat, so that nobody gets injured. The…

Novice cooks and gourmet seafood chefs will love the tempting simplicity of the more than three hundred recipes that are offered in “FRESH CATCH OF THE DAY… from the FISHWIFE.” An extensive array of Fishwife’s Tips will guide readers to success—from choosing fresh seafood, to safe handling and preparation, to innovative cooking in the kitchen and barbecuing and smoking seafood outdoors. This, the second work of author and “Fishwife” Shirley Rizzuto, spanned the last decade of the 20th century. As we enter the next millennium and increasing attention is given to healthy living for longer life, scientists and dietitians predict we will turn more and more to the oceans of the world for healthy eating. With this in mind, “FRESH CATCH OF THE DAY” will most certainly become a popular…

■ Fishing in Kona means getting attacked by marlin, and a marlin’s head is something like a cement rocket with a long bone spike. If you do hook a marlin, you will want to be able to safely and easily remove the hook. If you are conservation-minded, you will want to hook the fish in just the right spot so that the hookup is solid but the wound is not serious to the fish. Yikes! That sounds pretty hard to do! The way the hooks are set can make a big change in how a lure behaves in the water. A Kona head has an angled face, like a water ski, and it performs according to the dimensions and weight of the lure head as well as the angle of…

▪ Consumers bracing against COVID-19 have raised demands not only for health and safety products but also for many food staples, including tuna. According to an NPR report yesterday, tuna sales were up more than 31 percent last week compared to the same time last year. StarKist Samoa, located in the US Territory of American Samoa, supplies tuna for the US market. “The StarKist Samoa operation relies on the US tuna fishermen, and direct fish deliveries to the cannery are a major component of our business model,” said StarKist Samoa in a statement today. “We have seen an increase in sales that has been attributed to the COVID-19 impact, and we are doing our best to keep up with the demand. It’s important to note that the global impact of…

Aloha. I just wanted to share some pictures of a recent weekend fishing trip. My friend Blaine Kawagoe and I left He‘eia Kea Harbor at 10:20 p.m. on my custom 22-foot boat named the BONNIE K. to beat O‘ahu’s 11 p.m. curfew. We set out to provide fish for our family, friends and kupuna who were following the stay-at-home order and no longer had access to fresh fish. I have a commercial fishing license, but I often go out to try to provide for those ones who can’t fish. On this trip, I wanted to catch enough to provide for the whole ‘ohana. Our plan was to catch akule on this full moon night because the ‘opelu bite had been really slow lately. At 11:30 p.m. we finally found a…