Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2010 i Hawaii Fishing News

Howzit Chuck, After my birthday fishing trip was cancelled due to the tsunami, it was time to cash in my rain check. My brother Scot came to town for the weekend, and, as usual, we went straight from the airport to the ocean. He had some last-minute running around to do, so he decided to leave his gear at home and just be the bait man. I told him all I wanted for my birthday present was a puhi-paka, and he assured me it would happen. Sure enough, as I was setting up my poles, he caught a perfect-sized paka! “All right!” I thought. Not even a pole rigged yet, and I already had my favorite fresh bait waiting! As we set up, we couldn’t help but appreciate a rare…

■ At the beginning of this year, the policy was set hard and fast. There would be no more catfish sessions at Nu’uanu in spite of the repeated calls from the public for the contrary. There is no doubt that there is still a sizeable stock of catfish in the reservoir, and their future is very uncertain at this moment. The question of how to handle the removal and use of this resource is another issue. The crux of the problem lies with the current lack of adequate funds to sustain and justify the expenditure in personnel costs that such a venture would entail. We have therefore engaged conversation with Laura Thielen, director of the Department of Land and Natural Resources, and inquired whether it would be possible to open…

Dear Senators, House Members, Neighborhood Boards and Ocean User Friends: The Department of Land and Natural Resources has been complaining about lack of funding for management. Here I am expressing my opinions on the solutions for management and responding to Chairman Thielen’s inaccurate statements on “fisher representatives asking unlimited activities only for fishers and no one else” in the March issue of HAWAII FISHING NEWS. This is a detailed report with reference links to supporting documents. I appreciate your time and efforts to read this article. MahalolJeanie Li ■ I am an average fishing woman. I can’t say that I represent the fishermen, but I would like to respond to Chair Laura Thielen’s letter in the March issue of HAWAII FISHING NEWS. She claimed that fisher representatives for Ka’ena Point…

■ Was the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) “caught offguard” by Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) Chairperson Laura Thielen, USCG Commander Mark S. Young, USCG Capt. Barry Campagnoni and others during Chairperson Thielen’s recruitment and hiring of Commander Young for DLNR’S vacant position of Conservation and Resources Enforcement Administrator (CREA)? Shortly after my article discussing the hiring of Commander Young (among other issues) was published in HA WAU FISHING NEWS (February 2010), Chair Thielen wrote a letter to the DLNR staff stating: “to provide you with the official start date for Mark Young as DOCARE Chief, explain why it has taken this long for me to provide you with a firm date, and why this selection is the right choice for DOCARE despite the timetable. Commander Young will start…

I just received the E-mail below from a captain friend in Connecticut. I would encourage all of you to flood your Congressman’s office with letters of protest or the Obama Administration will take away all of our rights to hunt or fish in this great country. Thank you,Cari HuffmanElec-Tra-Mate New Obama Regulations Could Ban Sport Fishing ■ The environmental zealots have tugged on Obama’s sleeve and now new regulations could ban fishing and further decimate the economy. Not to mention anger 60 million people. The Obama Administration will accept no more public input for a Federal strategy that could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing the nation’s oceans, Coastal areas, Great Lakes, and even inland waters. “When the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) completed their…

■ To catch a big ‘omilu, bait with something red, green and slippery. Paul Petrill was slide-baiting with a Christmas wrasse in February when he hooked a 20-lb ‘omilu. The fish was his Personal biggest. It was also the largest bluefin trevally on the Big Fish List I maintain of the catches along the Kona-Kohala Coast in 2010 up to that date. There is a lot more to be leamed from his catch than just using a live and colorful hinalea for bait. Paul was slide-baiting from a low cliff next to a cove at the end of the broken road leading to South Point. Paul lives in Ocean View, so the great shore fishing grounds around South Point are just a quick jaunt from home. It was late afternoon-still…

Aloha, My name is Chad Keaukai Awai, and, boy, do I have a true story for you! In the afternoon of Saturday, January 22, I was closing my beach at ‘Anae-ho‘omalu Bay when I saw something streak across the water. At first I thought it was our resident whitetip shark that frequents the bait fish in the shallows. Lo and behold, it was a 6-to 7-foot Pacific blue marlin. It was chasing bait fish in 2 to 4 feet of water. It swam in circles, chasing food, then headed outward. I went back to work. Then, 10 minutes later, it came back and did the same thing. I proceeded to follow the fish. It was 4 to 6 feet from shore. I made a once-in-a-lifetime decision to go down in…

Let’s Stop the Insanity of an Administration Gone Wild! ■ Sometimes we wonder which are eroding faster, Hawai’i’s shorelines or our public lands. Interestingly, the DLNR has responsibility for oversight of both. World-famous Waikiki, Kailua and Lanikai Beaches are disappearing right before our eyes! Reefs are threatened, water quality is deteriorating and fisheries are declining, while professional staff members that care for these resources are being laid off. The public trust is eroding like the sands of our shoreline. The threat to public health is just one of the symptoms of our deteriorating System of stewardship. Another is the loss of access to special places that renew our spirit and sustain us in ways as important to our livelihood as they are hard to define. As more and more fences…

Empire of the MPAs ■ Former President George W. Bush became the world’s biggest no-fishing-zone czar in 2006 when he created the Marine Protected Area (MPA) Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. The monument is his 196,000-square-mile, no-touch and no-fish enviro-aquarium. The Northwest Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) cover an area greater than Oregon and Washington combined. England’s Prime Minister Brown wants to beat Bush by making 55 islands in the Indian Ocean an MPA. But is the designation of the Chagos Islands by Prime Minister Brown and the NWHI by former President Bush a no-fishing ploy or a fishy way for the U.S. military to expand turf? Prime Minister Brown wants to save the Chagos Archipelago’s surrounding waters, which cover 210,000 square miles-an area twice the size of Britain. A decision is expected…

■ Most people will tell you that the key to a productive fishing trip is the moon, the tides, your knots, rigging and various gear, boat harmonies, and several other variables right down to not having bananas onboard and maintaining a peaceful household. That is all fine and good, but the truth is that there are dynamics that occur on charterboats just as they do in restaurants and other businesses. No one talks about them, but they are always there. For many of the same reasons you might think twice before irritating a chef, dentist, or barber, you may also think twice about upsetting your captain and crew. Captains and anglers have had all kind of experiences-some positive and some negative. However, the odds are that a captain has had…

■ As we turned off Queen Ka’ahumanu Highway, views of the rugged Southern coastline melting into the deep blue of the Pacific took our breath away. Ten chaperones and 11 middle-schoolers in seven trucks began the off-road journey with one goal: to catch fish. Every year at Hawai’i Preparatory Academy’s middle school, sixth-, seventh-and eighth-graders take a week off from academies to explore teacher-created adventures, on and off the Big Island. This special week is called Theme Week. This year, my adventure involved shoreline fishing and gyotaku printing with renowned artist Naoki Hayashi (who was one of our chaperones). Luckily, one of our parents (Uncle Frank Schenk) knew someone who granted us permission to access fishing spots down south near Ocean View. After a big tarp was set and anchored…

■ The joke of the show was that the 2010 Hawaii Ocean Expo (HOE) was so big it generated a tsunami! We got notice late Friday evening about a magnitude 8.8 earthquake that occurred in Chile. The reports online noted that there “may” have been a tsunami generated. I sat in my office finishing up last-minute HOE details on my computer. I kept checking tsunami updates. I took a deep breath each time I looked online for the status. By the time I left the office (at 1:30 a.m.) the tsunami status was at “warning.” I packed up my work and told myself to pray and sleep on it. Sleep was not an option. By 4 a.m. phone calls flooded our phones. The vendors were wondering, “Is the HOE on?”…

■ In the 15 or so years that I’ve lived on the continent, there are a few things I’ve never figured out: driving directions that require an understanding of north/south/east/west; people who expect you to arrive on time (no Hawaiian time); and the wasteful way haoles clean fish! My first exposure to haole fish-cleaning occurred when I was helping out at a local seafood store. The owners are longtime friends of a fishing buddy of mine. In fact, he still sells them fish including grunts, sea trout, Spanish mackerel and the like from time to time. But I digress. I’ll use a Florida-caught grouper as an example. They take the fish and make a diagonal cut down to the bone behind the gills. Then, they turn Ms. Grouper and make…

■ I write in response to Laura H. Thielen’s response to complaints and accusations regarding Ka’ena Point and Kapapa Island regulations. The complaint that DLNR regulations that don’t allow camping paraphernalia is discrimination against fishing and cultural practices! You say that Ka‘ena Point remains open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but we all know that fishermen need coolers with ice not only for bait and their catch but also for food and beverages. Any reasonable person understands that you need lights at night and some shelter from the elements. The reasoning you present, claiming that these policies need to be enforced so that Ka’ena Point doesn’t become a “tent city” as other state parks have, is invalid. Ka’ena Point is not now and never has become a…

■ It’s a beautiful day, the sun is shining, the wind is in your hair, and the lines are in the water. Life is good. You are happily trolling along, minding your own business when out of the corner of your eye you see some splashing. Your first thought is, “Oh, boy, a bird pile,” but a doser look reveals the true cause: a Zodiac is racing toward you at top speed, and it knocks the tops off the chop. You scan the horizon and make out a U.S. Coast Guard cutter off in the distance. Your heart sinks as you retard the throttles and start winding up your gear in preparation for boarding. You are lucky enough to have two aku in the boat. At 2 lbs each, they…