Hawai'i Fisheries Initiative - The Hawaii Institute for Public Affairs

Papaha – naumokua – kea Marine
National Monument: Northwestern
Hawaiian Islands
In June 2006, the Papaha – naumokua – kea
Marine National Monument (PMNM) was
created in the Northwestern Hawaiian
Islands; the monument extends 50 nautical
miles to each side of the 1,200 nm chain of
coral islands, seamounts, banks, shoals, and
islands northwest of Kaua‘i. Currently, there
are eight permitted commercial fishing
boats (due to monument restrictions, the
permit number will not increase), and the
proclamation also established total annual
catch limits for bottomfish and pelagics,
as well as restricted-use Special Preservation
Areas and Ecological Reserves (areas
of no commercial bottomfishing). The
multi-agency management plan for the
monument is expected to be finalized by
late 2007. 175
In 2003, bottomfish from the NWHI
provided approximately half of the total
harvest; by the terms of the proclamation,
the NWHI bottomfish harvest is limited
to 350,000 pounds annually. In 2006,
the NWHI bottomfish fishery brought in
$645,150, or less than 1 percent of Hawai‘i’s
$70 million wholesale fishing industry. The
average return to owners whose vessels
operate in the NWHI was $17,000 in 2003,
and the average return to owner-operators
was $43,341. 176 There had been discussions
between the handful of remaining NWHI
fishing permit holders and the Pew
Charitable Trusts, which offered the fishers
five times their average annual income
to stop fishing early. Discussions proved
unfruitful, and Pew abandoned its efforts. 177
PMNM will be closed to commercial fishing
in 2011. Estimates vary considerably as to
what effect the closure of the Northwestern
Hawaiian Islands fishing grounds will have
on the industry, with Wespac cautioning
that closure will eliminate a major source
of locally caught bottomfish. 178 Wespac
is currently considering a geographic
reformation of its limited-access fishery
management plan (which currently
extends to 200 nm) to adhere to the 50 nm
monument boundary surrounding the
seamounts and atolls. This would serve
to open the 50-200 nm zone to other
Hawai‘i fishers. 179
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