MEDIA RELEASE

The West Hawaii Fisheries Council, a community-based marine advisory organization, meets 6:30-8:30 p.m. Thursday, March 15 at the Hawaii Big Game Fishing Club at Honokohau Harbor.

The Council has invited Ret Talbot to give a presentation to the group and to members of the public who would like to attend. Talbot, an award-winning writer and photographer, will discuss the impact of marine aquarium fisheries across the Pacific with an emphasis on fisheries in developing nations such as Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Fiji.

He will address issues of environmental and socio-economic sustainability in relationship to other industries seeking to extract resources from these bio-diverse and untouched regions.

Also at this March meeting, the WHFC Committee of the Whole will continue to work with DLNR/DAR to get approval to move previously submitted recommendations on to public review, before the Small Business Regulatory Review Board and before the Board of Land and Natural Resources for their approval and/or changes before being written into Rule.

This is a process that began before 2002 and includes the recommendation for the movement of a boundary line at Pebble Beach to avoid conflict; the proposal that no spearfishing be allowed with SCUBA; and a white list of approved fish to collect and a list of some not approved for collecting under any circumstances.

The WHFC Fish Reserve Committee (Act 306) will continue to fine tune its proposal for ‘no-fishing’ on certain shores of the Kona-Kohala coastlines.

The proposal that the WHFC has approved ‘in-concept’ is that near-shore areas of the Kaupulehu Fish Replenishment Area be set aside for 10 years as a no fishing area.

This discussion is ongoing and public input is welcome.

The mission of the West Hawaii Fisheries Council is to “manage fishery activities to ensure sustainability, enhances near shore resources, minimize resource depletion and manage conflicts of use.” The council was created after the 1998 State Legislature created Act 306 which called for a community source to formulate and recommend West Hawaii fisheries management actions and changes to the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Aquatic Resources.

Council meetings are open to the general public and, for those wanting to join, applications can be picked up at the Division of Aquatic Resource office at Honokohau Harbor in Kona as well as contacting Marni Herkes at 987-2171 or marniherkes@gmail.comt or Glennon Gingo at 960-9348.