Hawaii FEP - Western Pacific Fishery Council

is not recorded by NMFS, dockside reports in 1998 indicated that a permit was worth $40,000 to$100,000 (Pooley and Kawamoto 1998).As an internationally traded commodity, supply and demand circumstances for lobsters tend tobe volatile, resulting in frequent price adjustments (Samples and Gates 1987). In addition, theHawaii fishery changed over the years in terms of target species and product form. In the earlyyears of the fishery (1977-1984) landings consisted mainly of spiny lobsters. However, for athree-year period from 1985 to 1987 the fishery targeted a previously lightly exploitedpopulation of slipper lobsters (Polovina 1993). Between 1988 and 1997 the target was againspiny lobsters, but the catch in 1998 and 1999 consisted mainly of slipper lobsters. Almost alllobsters harvested from the NWHI were sold as a frozen tails; however, from 1996 to 1998, thefleet also landed a significant quantity of live lobsters.The proportion of fishing effort and reported catch at each bank within the NWHI varied bothspatially and temporally. While as many as 16 banks within the NWHI were fished on an annualbasis, the majority of fishing effort was been directed at Maro Reef, Gardner Pinnacles, St.Rogatien, and Necker Island. Between 1984 and 1989 most of the fishing effort was directed atMaro Reef. After 1989, fishing effort decreased at Maro Reef and increased significantly atGardner Pinnacles and Necker Island. In 1997, most of the fishing effort was directed at NeckerIsland (64%), followed by Maro Reef (23%), Gardner Pinnacles (13%), and St. Rogatien (