The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council is calling on the State of Hawaii to remove its Bottomfish Restricted Fishing Areas (BRFAs) located in federal waters.
Meeting in Honolulu last week, the Council also encourage the State to consider removing all BRFAs in State waters.
The State’s Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) established the BRFAs in 1998 after a federal assessment revealed main Hawaiian Islands (MHI) Bottomfish stocks were approaching an ‘over-fished’ condition.
The Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) has now questioned the utility of the closed areas given the current State-federal coordinated management of the Bottomfish fishery for seven deep-water species.
The MHI Bottomfish fishery is deemed healthy by stock assessments with no overfishing occurring thanks to mandatory annual catch limits.
Now, the SSC has suggested that data collection, monitoring, stock assessments and cooperative research with the fishing industry be carried out prior to the opening of any BRFAs.
Hawaii’s MHI Bottomfish Working Group is due to meet soon to address these objectives.
