2016-06-20 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes

Home

Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes — June 20, 2016 TL: Earlier, one of these gentlemen was talking about the number of predators, taape and roy and what have you that are out there and,the biomass of some of these fish are horrendous and I agree with you that some of the fish that we would seek, and the fishermen over there would tell you what, you know, there isn't anything there, ulua, papio or what have you, moi, you mentioned, these fish are competing, ah, with them for — and I'm not a fisherman per se, ah, but I was a diver like yourself and, you know, you see these things in the ocean, you draw, you know, certain observations, if you just put a ban and the predators that are there or the invasives that are there — that's why [unclear], ah, if they are free to roam, so to speak — how's that management and, when you also have the testimony of many, many fishermen that are there — people that have actually utilized the area — telling you that there is like, um, ah, Teresa, for example, is evidencing that there is still an abundance of fish there, you know, people are catching fish when they go fishing, they're not coming home without fish, so it's hard to justify some of the things that are being said about why this closure was necessary — why this ban was necessary and a ban, ah, myself personally, I'm against the ban of any kind because a ban isn't management, really, I mean it's not managing a resource, when you ban something and just to say we're gonna close it without, you know, it, how do you check the process — we don't even know where you started from according to most of these people that attended your hearings — none of that was shared with them — so if it's not shared with those that are saying, hey, you know, stop — how do you justify voting for this closure? CY: Well, there is, some baseline studies and information that was presented and the DLNR has a monitoring site in Kaupulehu that is monitored quarterly — there's other monitoring being done. It's not to say that there, you know, and also the previous question — it's not to say that there's no other problems and I would not say there are no other things that are going on, we have coral bleaching from the ocean temperatures rising, it's a serious problem and it has nothing to do with anybody going fishing. There are other problems that are out there — there are no question about that — but, I think that we can only go so far, you know, sort of batting back and forth on, on both what the sciences and what people's — what people's eyeballing of the situation is, you know, we, um, I have no doubt that — there are places that — I haven't spent a lot of time diving in this area — this stretch — I spent — been more on either end of it — let's put it that way, I've no doubt that there's some fish and you can go fishing and you could catch fish, but, ah, we had a large group of the old timers here say, you know, it's really, really down, and then we add the more scientific will say this is what our research says and it is down... 12