Hawaii FEP - Western Pacific Fishery Council

In contrast, HDAR’s Commercial Marine Landings Summary Trend Reports indicate 2002 MHIcommercial landings of 10,157 lbs of lobsters and 14,149 lbs of Kona crabs. This report seriesalso lists 2003 landings of 7,377 lbs of lobsters and 12,279 lbs of Kona crabs. HDAR’s 2004report indicates that no lobsters were caught commercially in the MHI in 2004; however 12,120lbs of Kona crabs were reported. Information on the number of participants is unavailable.NMFS’ regional office has issued two 2007 MHI lobster fishing permits for EEZ waters aroundthe MHI. All crustacean permit holders are required to submit federal logbooks of their fishingactivities.Impact of NWHI Monument Designation and RegulationsIn 2006 the designation of the NWHI monument essentially closed the NWHI fishery as underthe monument’s regulations the annual harvest guideline was set at 0 lbs until 2011, at whichpoint commercial fishing will be prohibited in the monument.Eight species of deepwater shrimp in the genus Heterocarpus have been reported throughout thetropical Pacific (Heterocarpus ensifer, H. laevigatus, H. sibogae, H. gibbosus, H. lepidus, H.dorsalis, H. tricarinatus and H. longirostris). These shrimp are generally found at depths of 200to 1,200 meters on the outer reef slopes that surround islands and deepwater banks. Speciesdistribution tends to be stratified by depth with some overlap. The deepwater trap fisheries haveprimarily targeted Heterocarpus ensifer and H. laevigatus. Western Pacific commercial trapfisheries for deepwater shrimp are intermittent. There have been sporadic operations in Hawaiisince the 1960s, small-scale fisheries in Guam during the 1970s, and some activity in the CNMIduring the mid-1990s. The fisheries have been unregulated, and there has been nocomprehensive collection of information about the fisheries. Most of these fishing ventures havebeen short-lived, probably as a result of sometimes-frequent loss of traps, a shrimp product witha short shelf life and history of inconsistent quality, and the rapid localized depletion ofdeepwater shrimp stocks leading to low catch rates.While fishing for deepwater shrimp has been highly sporadic over the last several decades, in1984, a total of 17 vessels reported catching approximately 159 tons of deepwater shrimp worthan estimated ex-vessel value of $780,000 across all western Pacific fisheries for Heterocarpus.4.3.2 Review of BycatchNontargeted species account for a small percentage of the total catch in the NWHI lobsterfishery, as the traps are designed for high selectivity. Using data from 1976–1991 (wire traps)and 1986–2003 (plastic traps) from research cruises in the NWHI, Moffitt et al. (2005) examinedthe diversity of catch composition. The traps used for the research were more conservative thancommercial traps as they did not have escape vents, but otherwise they conformed to fisheryregulations. Both wire and plastic traps were found to be highly selective; that is, they primarilycaught lobsters. Wire traps caught a total of 82 species over the study period, of which the twotarget species of lobsters accounted for 90.5 percent by number. Plastic traps caught a total of258 species over the study period, of which 73.1 percent by number were the two target species.Because lobsters are one of the larger organisms captured, they would be a much higher109