History of the Billfish Fisheries and Their Management in the Western Pacific Region - By Michael Markrich

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History of the Billfish Fisheries and Their Management in the Western Pacific Region - By Michael Markrich
No. 10, November 2020

History of the Billfish Fisheries
and Their Management in the
Western Pacific Region
By Michael Markrich

                                         A
History of the Billfish Fisheries and Their Management in the Western Pacific Region - By Michael Markrich
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
                    Michael Markrich
                    is the former public
                    information officer
                    for the State of
                    Hawai‘i Department
                    of Land and
                    Natural Resources;
                    communications
                    officer for State
of Hawai‘i Department of Business,
Economic Development and Tourism;
columnists for the Honolulu Advertiser;
socioeconomic analyst with John M.
Knox and Associates; and consultant/
owner of Markrich Research. He holds
a bachelor of arts degree in history from
the University of Washington and a
master of science degree in agricultural
and resource economics from the
University of Hawai‘i.

Disclaimer: The statements, findings and
conclusions in this report are those of the
author and do not necessarily represent the
views of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery
Management Council or the National Marine
Fisheries Service (NOAA).

© Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management
Council, 2020. All rights reserved, Published in
the United States by the Western Pacific Regional
Fishery Management Council under NOAA Award
#NA20NMF4410013
ISBN: 978-1-944827-55-7

Cover photo: Sports fishing for billfish, Kona,
Hawai‘i. Photo courtesy of Kevin Hibbard.

B
History of the Billfish Fisheries and Their Management in the Western Pacific Region - By Michael Markrich
CONTENTS

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ii                                       LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PREFACE iii                                                    1a–c. Shortbill spearfish, striped marlin and broadbill
                                                                     swordfish iv
1. Introduction 1                                              2.    Pacific blue marlin 1
2. Big Game Fishermen 2                                        3.    A marlin hangs in the window of the McDonald’s
                                                                     on Saipan 2
3. Hawai‘i Early Billfish History 3                            4.    Striped marlin caught by wealthy angler 3
4. Longline Expansion in the Post–World War II Era 7           5.    Wooden sampans introduced by Japanese fishermen 3
                                                               6.    Flagline gear (also known as basket gear) 4
5. Change Brought by the Big Game Fishermen 9                  7.    Flagline/longline gear illustration 4
6. The Recreational Billfish Controversy Comes to Hawai‘i 11   8.    Flagline-caught billfish 4
                                                               9.    Kajiki fillet 4
7. Challenges in Developing of the Preliminary Management
                                                               10.   Japanese woman selling fish cake in Honolulu 5
   Plans 12
                                                               11.   President F. D. Roosevelt visits Hawai‘i 5
8. The Council’s Fishery Management Plan 14                    12.   Capt. Henry Chee 6
9. Competing Fishery Management Goals for Billfish             13.   Capt. Chee charter boat advertisement 6
   in the U.S. Atlantic 16                                     14.   Peter Fithian 6
                                                               15.   Peter Fithian’s fishing news column banner 7
10. Inclusion of Tuna in the Magnuson-Stevens Act 17           16.   Japanese longliner (circa 1946) 7
11. Longline Impact on Hawai‘i Fisheries 18                    17.   Regional fishery management organizations
                                                                     focused on tuna and billfish 8
12. Local Actions Against the Hawai’i Swordfish Fishery 19     18.   U.S. EEZ in the Western Pacific Region 11
13. Marine Protected Areas and Their Impacts 20                19.   Longliner heading out to sea from port of Honolulu 17
                                                               20.   WPRFMC Executive Director Kitty M. Simonds and
14. Negative Impacts of the Billfish Conservation Act                Chair Wadsworth Yee 17
    Amendment 22                                               21.   Longliner from New Orleans in Honolulu 18
15. Evolution of Billfish Tournaments and Recreational         22.   Hawai’i Longline-Sea Turtle Interactions 19
    Fishery Policies 24                                        23.   Hawai’i Longline-Seabird Interactions 20
                                                               24.   Marine National Monuments in the Western Pacific
16. Proposals for Longline Changes 25                                Region 20
17. Conclusion 27                                              25.   Hawai’i Longline Exclusion Areas 21
                                                               26.   U.S. and foreign fishing effort in the Western Pacific 22
                                                               27.   Billfish selling at $4/pound retail after the Billfish
APPENDIX 1: Meetings Convened by the Western Pacific                 Conservation Act Amendment 23
Regional Fishery Management Council in Kona                    28.   Tagging a striper in Hawai’i 24
and about Marlin 28                                            29.   Great Marlin Race 2010 Highlights 24
APPENDIX 2: Pelagic Fisheries Research Program Projects        30.   Recreational fishing for billfish off Kona, Hawai’i 25
on Billfish and Hawai‘i Pelagic Fisheries (1997–2012) 29       31.   Recreational fishing for billfish off Kona, Hawai’i 25
                                                               32.   Serving blue marlin tempura at the 2003 NOAA
APPENDIX 3: Impact of the 2018 Billfish Conservation Act             Fish Fry 25
Amendment on Honolulu Fish Dealers 30                          33.   Spicy Au Tartare 26
REFERENCES 33                                                  34.   Smoked marlin 26
                                                               35.   Nairigi (striped marlin) filet 27
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 36                                             36.   Change in billfish sales by species following the
                                                                     BCA amendment 32
                                                               37.   Change in total billfish sales following the
                                                                     BCA amendment 32

                                                               LIST OF TABLES
                                                               Table 1. Change in billfish sales by type following the
                                                                       BCA amendment 32
                                                                                                                              i
History of the Billfish Fisheries and Their Management in the Western Pacific Region - By Michael Markrich
Photo: SBHawaii.com | Pinterest / Joel Villanueva
List Of Abbreviations
BCA      Billfish Conservation Act
CNMI     Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
CPUE     catch per unit effort
EEZ      exclusive economic zone
ESA      Endangered Species Act
FCMA     Fishery Conservation and Management Act
FCZ      Fishery Conservation Zone
FMP      Fishery Management Plan
HIBT     Hawai‘i Invitational Billfish Tournament
HMS      Highly Migratory Species
HVB      Hawaii Visitors Bureau
IATTC    Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission
ICCAT    International Commission for the Conservation
         of Atlantic Tunas
IGFA     International Game Fishing Association
ISC      International Scientific Committee for Tuna
         and Tuna-like Species in the North Pacific Ocean
IUU      illegal, unreported and unregulated
MAFAC    Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee
MHI      main Hawaiian Islands
MPA      marine protected area
MNM      Marine National Monument
MSA      Magnuson–Stevens Fishery Conservation and
         Management Act
MSY      maximum sustainable yield
mt       metric tons
NCMC     National Coalition for Marine Conservation
NEPA     National Environmental Policy Act
NGO      non-government organization
nm       nautical mile
NMFS     National Marine Fisheries Service
NWHI     Northwestern Hawaiian Islands
OY       optimum yield
PFRP     Pelagic Fisheries Research Program
PIFSC    Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center
PMP      Preliminary Management Plan
RFMO     regional fishery management organization
         (international)
SEZ      Southern Exclusion Zone (Hawai‘i)
SPC      South Pacific Commission
TBF      The Billfish Foundation
UNCLOS United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
USTF     U.S. Tuna Foundation
WCPFC    Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission
WCPO     Western and Central Pacific Ocean
WPRFMC Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council

ii
History of the Billfish Fisheries and Their Management in the Western Pacific Region - By Michael Markrich
Preface

Western Pacific Islanders have been skilled deep-water fishermen for pelagic fish such as the
blue marlin for hundreds of years. During the early twentieth century, a cultural clash occurred
between Japanese longline fishermen and European and American big game fishermen. At the
heart of the initial dispute was the Western cultural belief that marlin are beautiful, iconic and
rare. Their aesthetic value encouraged the belief that the fish should be reserved as big game fish
to provide exciting entertainment for the high-end recreational fishing market. This perspective
contrasted sharply with the Japanese view. Japanese fishermen considered these fish as the
unintended bycatch of their far more valuable tuna fishery, to be used most profitably in low-end
processed fish meal products such as fish cake (kamaboko) for the masses.
    Concerns over the survival of          The injuring of protected species was      species, taken at the expense of Pacific
large gamefish led wealthy big game        mostly solved by the sustained effort      Islanders. Currently, 51% of the
anglers—in alliance with recreational      of the Council to ban longline fishing     U.S. exclusive economic zone (EEZ,
tackle manufacturers, mass market          within 50 nm of the Northwestern           0 to 200 miles from shore) surround­
recreational fishermen, environ­mental­    Hawaiian Islands (NWHI). In addition,      ing Hawai‘i, American Samoa, Guam,
ists and some commercial fisher­men—       longline captains were required to alter   the Commonwealth of the Northern
to play a key role in the passage of the   their fishing practices and type of fish   Mariana Islands and the Pacific remote
Fishery Conservation and Management        hooks. Billfish continued to be caught     island areas (collectively, the Western
Act of 1976, now known as the              as incidental catch, but their numbers     Pacific Region) is designated as marine
Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA).                dropped as commercial fishermen            national monuments and 83% of the
    After implementation of the MSA        targeted deeper waters for tuna. In        U.S. EEZ surrounding Hawai‘i is
legislation, a suite of federal fishery    the meantime, the recreational billfish    closed to longline fishing.
measures in the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf     industry thrived, and Hawai‘i remains          The issue is at once economic and
of Mexico, including calls for partial     one of the best spots for big game         cultural. By forcing U.S. fishermen
ban of swordfish fishing off Florida       fishing in the world. However, cultural    from federal waters, it uninten­tionally
(Shillington 1983), led to economic        differences remain. While recreational     makes the plundering of these waters
hardships for commercial fishermen,        fishermen practice catch-and-release,      more viable by illegal, unreport­ed and
compelling them to move thousands          one Pacific Islander noted, “Gentlemen,    unregulated (IUU) fishermen.
of miles to Hawai‘i where state and        we don’t play with our food.”                  The closures have resulted in loss
federal agencies were providing                The protective exclusion of longline   of jobs and income for fishermen
incentives for them to fish for pelagic    vessels from the waters 0 to 50 nm         and their families in Hawai‘i and
fish (Wagner 2000). The result was         around the NWHI by the Council was         the U.S. Pacific territories. In terms
a fourfold increase in the number          held up as a model by the International    of environmental safeguards, U.S.
of longline vessels fishing Hawai’i’s      Game Fish Association in the early         fisheries subject to strict regulations
offshore waters, a situation for which     1990s. Ironically, what evolved was        have been supplanted by foreign
the Western Pacific Regional Fishery       demands that huge areas of open            fisheries that are largely unregulated
Management Council (WPRFMC) was            ocean be set aside from fishing forever    but are nonetheless able to sell
not prepared. The rapid growth in the      without compensating Hawai‘i’s             their catches in U.S. markets. For
fishery led to concerns about impacts      indigenous people. Native Hawaiians        U.S. Pacific Islanders who have few
to protected species such as monk seals    have been deprived from from the           economic options other than fishing,
and turtles as well as with the fishing    income of one of their largest assets,     these actions have had significant
practices of local fishermen.              the waters of the NWHI, renamed            negative consequences.
    The problem of longline vessels        Papahānaumokuākea and designated             The COVID-19 pandemic is alter­
interacting with the local, small-boat     a national marine monument through         ing familiar patterns for commercial
fishermen was solved by the WPRFMC         presidential proclamation. This was        and charter boat fishing throughout
through the development of a longline      the first of what would be a series of     the United States. It remains to be
exclusion zone that spanned from shore     similar closures of offshore federal       seen what impact this will have on
out to 50 to 75 nautical miles (nm)        waters in the name of protecting           billfish manage­ment in Hawai‘i and the
around the main Hawaiian Islands.          coral reefs, billfish and other pelagic    Western Pacific.

                                                                                                                             iii
History of the Billfish Fisheries and Their Management in the Western Pacific Region - By Michael Markrich
Fig. 1a. Shortbill spearfish (hebi).

     Fig. 1b. Striped marlin (nairagi).

     Fig. 1c. Broadbill swordfish (shutome).

     Photos: Hawaii Seafood Council

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History of the Billfish Fisheries and Their Management in the Western Pacific Region - By Michael Markrich
1. Introduction

S
      ince ancient times, flocks of black seabirds have indicated
       the presence of huge schools of tuna swimming off Hawai‘i
       (Glazier 2016a). Found among these tuna schools are Indo-Pacific
(Makaira mazara) and Atlantic (M. nigricans) blue marlin (both here
referred to as blue marlin, kajiki or a‘u), black marlin (M. indica or a‘u),
striped marlin (Kajikia audax and Tetrapturus audax, nairagi or a‘u),
shortbill spearfish (T. angustirostris or hebi), sailfish (Istiophorus
platypterus) and broadbill swordfish (Xiphias gladius, mekajiki or
shutome). (See Collette and Graves 2019 and HawaiiSeafood.org.)
These pelagic fish have been well known to the fishermen of the
Western Pacific for hundreds of years (Amesbury 2008) and have long
played an important role in Pacific Island culture.

    Longlining is an 18th century                        only one time for eating, they started
Japanese fishing technique—considered                    the practice called catch and release,
the most efficient means of subsurface                   which allowed the same large marlin
fishing for tuna on the open sea—that                    or other billfish to survive after being
found its way to Hawai‘i in the early                    hooked so they might be caught
twentieth century. As the longlining                     multiple times.
industry grew alongside the world’s                          Eventually, a pastime for the very
demand for tuna, a number of big                         rich evolved into a recreational charter
game fishermen on the U.S. mainland                      and tournament industry associated
complained that the Japanese longline                    with gaming that is today valued at
fishermen were taking too many prized                    more than $3 billion (Ditton and Stoll
large blue marlin, turning what could                    2003).1 As this elite industry grew
be rare and beautiful sport trophies                     in size and influence, it changed the
into fish cake. A clash of cultures and                  nature of the sport and transformed
classes developed.                                       the balance between recreational
    Unlike their counterparts in Hawai‘i,                and commercial fishing in U.S. waters.
who also caught marlin for sport,                        The competition between U.S. big
big game fishermen from the U.S.                         game fishermen and commercial
mainland did not normally eat the                        fishermen, as it affects U.S. regulatory
marlin and other fish they caught.                       practices and the islands and peoples
They were not interested in the flavor                   within the jurisdiction of the Western
of the fish but in the exhilaration of                   Pacific Regional Fishery Management
catching an elusive quarry and sharing                   Council (WPRFMC), is the subject
the experience with their friends. They                  of this history.
created yacht clubs, competitions and
social gambling events around the
                                                         Fig. 2. Pacific blue marlin (Makaira mazara)
catching of marlin and other billfish.                   is commonly known in Hawai‘i as kajiki or
Believing that marlin, like freshwater                   a‘u (the Hawaiian word applied to all marlin
trout, were too valuable to be caught                    species). Photo: Hawaii Seafood Council

1. Their estimate of the economic impact for the United States in 2003 was $2.4 billion. In 2019 dollars,
   that number equates to $3.3 billion. Depending upon the multiplier, it may be even higher.

                                                                                                            1
History of the Billfish Fisheries and Their Management in the Western Pacific Region - By Michael Markrich
2. Big Game Fishermen

The recreational pursuit of trophy billfish such as marlin, spearfish,                 emitted highly visible social signals of
sailfish and broadbill swordfish is known as “big game fishing.” This                  exclusivity, wealth and success. Men
                                                                                       and women alike enjoyed the status
sport was helped in its development around 1900 by the creation of                     and signature branding that came
specially built fishing boats with inboard engines. (Holcombe 1923).                   from being photographed standing,
                                                                                       usually well dressed and fishing
    The social culture of the time            in the Atlantic northwest, as far        pole in hand, next to a huge blue
embraced big game fishing as an               south as Florida and as far north as     marlin hanging from a steel hook,
exciting action sport. Anglers used           New England. However, marlin are         the fish dwarfing them in scale.
carefully crafted fishing rods and reels      found throughout the world’s seas,          The sense of accomplishment did
with specially made fishing lines and         and the glamour that surrounded          not end there. Many of these large
baited hooks to troll for fish behind         their catch spread as fishermen          trophy fish were cast in sand molds
their boats. Photos of brave anglers          competed to catch the biggest fish       by taxidermists who hand painted
standing next to enormous fish caught         and establish a world’s record.          them into brilliantly colored lifelike
the world’s imagination. Opinions                 The sport was immortalized           reproductions that could be hung
differ as to when the first marlin was        during the 1920s by celebrity writer     on walls in prominent locations
caught by a motor boat. Some say              Zane Grey, who wrote bestsellers         as a tangible symbol of success for
it was in Florida in 1900. However,           such as Tales of Fishing Virgin Seas     everyone to see. This is true even
following the establishment of the            (1925) and Tales of Tahitian Waters      today. Visitors to Saipan who visit
Tuna Club of Avalon in California,            (1931). Images of the sport became       the local McDonald’s can admire a
prominent big game fishermen who              a mainstay of popular culture            239-pound Pacific blue marlin that
knew about the abundance of billfish          and were featured in Hollywood           was caught by the chairman of the
and tuna in Hawai‘i founded the               movies and sports magazines.             McDonald’s Corporation in August
Hawai‘i Big Game Fishing Club in                  Although places such as Key West,    1977 off Honolulu (Tuten-Puckett
1914, the second such club founded            Florida, offered at-will shared-cost     et al. 2003). Even after more than
globally. The first motorized billfish        charters aimed at attracting working-    40 years, its shining presence in the
fishing boat arrived in Hawai‘i in            and middle-class participants, the       store fills visiting customers with
1916 from San Diego, California.              demographics of big game fishing from    awe and demonstrates like a talisman
    At the heart of this new sport            its start was largely the wealthy and    the proud connection between
was then and is today the marlin—             those with high levels of disposable     the Saipan McDonald’s and the
beautiful fish, distinct in shape and         income (Ditton and Stoll 2003).          executive of its parent company.
color, that swim at 50 miles an               Part of the sport’s appeal was that it      A number of the big game fishermen
hour or more among tuna schools,                                                       of the early sports fishing era went
feeding off the tuna as they move                                                      on to participate in exclusive fishing
beneath the surface. The catching                                                      tournaments with friends and family.
of these large blue and black billfish
by means of a lure trolled behind
a motor boat produces a sense of
euphoria that is difficult replicate in
other sports pursuits. During the
early part of the twentieth century in
the U.S. Atlantic, the catch occurred
seasonally. Blue marlin were sought
from January to April in the southwest
Atlantic and from June to October

Fig. 3. A marlin hangs in the window of the
McDonald’s in Saipan, Commonwealth of the
Northern Mariana Islands, and another hangs
on the restaurant’s wall. One of the marlin
was caught by the chairman of McDonald’s
Corporation. Photo: WPRFMC.

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History of the Billfish Fisheries and Their Management in the Western Pacific Region - By Michael Markrich
These tournaments—with their protocols,           The sport also attracted busy               Through their international organi­
carefully carved trophies and exotic           executives, who could relax fishing for    zations, the big game fishermen of
rituals—were promoted as incentives            billfish on a small boat away from         the Atlantic were encouraged to travel
for wealthy individuals to visit exclusive     the demands of others. Alternatively,      the world to catch the biggest marlin.
high-end resorts in Florida, Hawai‘i,          they could use the sport as an oppor­      Encouraged by their international
Cuba and other parts of the world.             tunity for negotiating exclusive           social networks, a number of big game
                                               business deals while they enjoyed the      fishing celebrities, such as Ernest
                                               enhanced privacy the charter boats         Hemingway, became interested in
                                               offered (TBP 2004).                        Hawai‘i where the largest marlin
                                                  Despite the economic downturn           were caught.
                                               of the Great Depression (1929–1939),           In the desire at the time to catch
                                               which caused many of the low-cost          the biggest, few were troubled that
                                               charter boats to go out of business,       the heaviest and largest fish taken were
                                               interest in the sport remained high,       females. The maximum weight of male
                                               and, in 1939, the International            blue marlins is 300 pounds and rarely
                                               Game Fishing Association (IGFA)            a few pounds more. Thus, they are
                                               was established. The IGFA was an           generally not regarded as trophy fish.
                                               organization of like-minded individuals        The perceived need to protect and
                                               from around the world who supported        monopolize the biggest fish for the
                                               with annual dues the interests of          pleasure of their fellow upper-class
                                               big game fishermen, established a          sports fishermen would put big game
                                               library and museum, and created            fishermen on a collision course with
                                               protocols for world’s record catches.      Japanese fishermen who saw marlin and
                                               The last included specifications for the   other gamefish as a catch less valuable
                                               reporting, weighing, certifying and        per pound than tuna but important
                                               recording of catches.                      nonetheless as a source of revenue
Fig. 4. Striped marlin caught by wealthy                                                  from fish-cake makers. This led to the
angler, mid-twentieth century. Photo: Eugene                                              controversy that followed.
Marie Marron (1957).

3. Hawai‘i Early Billfish History

Native Hawaiians used special
hooks to catch billfish (a‘u), tuna
and other large pelagic fish for
hundreds of years from outrigger
canoes. The tuna and billfish
schools, including those of blue
marlin, were abundant and could
be found close to shore. As it
was among the Europeans and
Americans later, the excitement
and satisfaction of catching huge,
fast-moving fish was considered        Fig. 5. Hawai‘i historic flagline/longline vessels were wooden sampans introduced by Japanese
such a rare experience that it was fishermen. Photo: NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC).
reserved exclusively for the ali‘i, the Native Hawaiian nobility.                              In the early nineteen hundreds, two
Billfish such as marlin were especially prized for their long, spike-like                  events  occurred that would change that
                                                                                           perspective.
bills, which, in ancient times, were turned into daggers and swords.                           From 1906 onwards, Japanese
The ancient Hawaiians knew how to catch billfish in the open sea                           fishermen were searching the world for
and did not anticipate competitors from outside their world coming                         subsurface tuna schools. Information
to fish for them.                                                                          reached Japan about the proximity of

                                                                                                                                   3
History of the Billfish Fisheries and Their Management in the Western Pacific Region - By Michael Markrich
Fig. 6. Flagline gear included sections of tarred rope. Each section was kept   Fig. 7. Flagline/longline gear includes miles of line kept afloat by
in a basket. Photo: NOAA PIFSC.                                                 buoys. Source: WPRFMC.

bigeye and yellowfin tuna schools                   lines with baited hooks fastened to the         Hawai’i during the 1920s and 1930s
to Honolulu. Soon afterward,                        mainline descended to depths of 150             ate with thin noodles known as saimin.
a fisherman from Wakayama,                          to 300 feet. The average number of              Kamaboko had both economic and
Japan, came to Hawai‘i to explore                   hooks was 300 per vessel. The flagline          political importance. It was one of the
its fishing possibilities. He was                   could spread for up to 8 miles behind           principal sources of protein for the
successful, and, in 1917, a fishing                 the vessel.                                     plantation workers, many of whom
fleet was developed in Wai‘anae that                    By changing the depth of the hooks,         could not afford other kinds of fish.
became the largest source of fresh                  the fishermen could target different                The dismay that sports fishing
tuna in Hawai‘i (Otsu 1954).                        species. On average, 7,000 pounds of            writer S. Kip Farrington expressed
    This fleet was comprised of 40- to              fish were caught per 10-day trip, of            about the Honolulu fish market of the
63-foot motorized wooden sampans,                   which approximately 25% to 32% was              late 1930s was typical of the mainland
vehicles introduced by Japanese fisher­             billfish of various kinds, including            writers of his era. He described the
                                                                    marlin. In contrast to          sight by saying, “… almost all of the
                                                                    the relatively few large        fish brought in [to the fish market in
                                                                    game fish caught by the         Honolulu] are the magnificent game
                                                                    troll fishermen in small        fish we so much desire to catch on rod
                                                                    boats, skilled professional     and reel. Every morning there will be
                                                                    flagline fishermen caught       sampan after sampan tied up at the
                                                                    hundreds. The largest           fishing piers with hundreds of these
                                                                    flagline fleet was in           great fish iced down in their holds”
                                                                    Honolulu on O‘ahu, but          (Farrington 1942). This cultural diffe­
                                                                    other fleets were based         rence would have long-term political
                                                                    in Hilo and Kona on the         repercussions on billfish policy in Hawai‘i.
                                                                    Hawai‘i (locally called the         Recreational anglers came to Hawai‘i
                                                                    Big Island) and in Port         from California in search of blue marlin
                                                                    Allen on Kaua‘i.                and giant tuna soon after these species
                                                                       The catch of marlin          were found in Southern California.
Fig. 8. (Right) Billfish would account for one-quarter to one-third by the local flagline           Over the next 10 years, Hawai‘i became
of the flagline catch. Photo: NOAA PIFSC.                           fishermen was criticized
men that would become the standard                  by visiting recreational fishermen who
in the Hawaiian longline industry for               feared that the billfish stocks would
the next 50 years. The longline fishing             be overexploited. The recreational
technique imported from Japan was                   anglers, predominately upper-class
known as flagline. The fishing gear                 Caucasians from the U.S. mainland,
included sections of tarred ropes, known did not generally eat the billfish they
as “baskets” or “basket gear” as they               caught. Instead, they posed with
were often stored in baskets. These                 them for photos. Meanwhile, the local
sections were deployed connected to                 flagline fishermen sold their billfish to
each other end to end to constitute a               be ground up as fish meal and baked
set. Flagged floats were attached at the            into kamaboko, or fish cake, which the
                                                                                                    Fig. 9. Kajiki (blue marlin) fillet. Photo: Hawaii
juncture of each section. Numerous                  working class plantation workers in             Seafood Council.

4
a premier global destination for big
game fishing for marlin and other fish.
The activity was heavily promoted to
visitors who arrived on Matson luxury
liner ships and stayed in Honolulu at the
world-famous Royal Hawaiian hotel.
    Big game fishing differed in Hawai‘i
from other areas on the U.S. mainland.
On the mainland, marlin may have
been thrown away or sold for cat food
after being photographed. However,
Hawai‘i sports fishermen knew their
crews needed to sell game fish at the
local Japanese fish markets to pay their
expenses. For this reason, most did
not share the antagonism to longliners
of their mainland counterparts. Besides,
there seemed to be enough fish for
everyone.
    Likewise, recreational billfish played
an important role in local society.             Fig. 11. President F. D. Roosevelt offered gifts of octopus (squid) and fish while vacationing in
Prominent members of Hawai‘i society            Hawai‘i, July 1934. Photo: Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, National Archives.
such as Charles M. Cooke III, co-
founder of the Cooke Trust, became                   in local tournaments. The sport drew           Maui, Kaua‘i and the Big Island of
involved in the sport and participated               wealthy tourists, who looked at big            Hawai‘i catered to both the local
                                                     game fishing as something to do in             elite and mainland visitors. In an
                                                     Hawai‘i and who posed with the                 effort to please their high-paying
                                                     large fish they caught as mementoes            clientele who needed to hook up a
                                                     of their trips. The sport became so            marlin to be satisfied, charter boat
                                                     popular among wealthy visitors that            crews developed special knowledge
                                                     the Kona Inn was built specifically to         of marlin habits. They caught a
                                                     accommodate these visiting fishermen,          disproportionate number of the blue
                                                     who featured among them many                   and striped marlin in which their
                                                     famous people including President              clients were interested. This was
                                                     Franklin Delano Roosevelt.                     especially true off Kailua-Kona on the
                                                         Recreational billfish fishing also         Big Island, where ocean eddies create
                                                     played a part in local business and            unique currents where marlins tend
                                                     commerce. Because the Hawai‘i                  to congregate (Seki et al. 2002).
                                                     tourism charter boat business was                  Through much of the 1930s, 40s
                                                     aggressively promoted by mainland              and 50s, the Kona area was known
                                                     writers, business was strong. Skilled          among the world’s billfish enthusiasts
                                                     boatmen of Japanese, Native Hawaiian,          as a place where one was likely to catch
                                                     Chinese and Filipino ethnicities could         a “grander,” a large billfish weighing
                                                     earn significant tips from visitors            over 1,000 pounds. Each year wealthy
                                                     who had high disposable incomes.               fishermen from California, including
                                                         In addition, a small but highly            Hollywood celebrities, would hire
                                                     skilled specialty lure business                famous local fishing boat captains like
                                                     developed. Hawai‘i handmade lures              Henry Chee, whose vessel, Malia, was
Fig. 10. Ethnic Japanese, working-class women        were sold at high prices to sportsmen          known as the “Grey Ghost of Kona.”
in Honolulu (circa 1930) shopped for items like      and fishing stores globally. As with           But the fishing trips skippered by Chee
fish cake to feed their families. Selling fish and
                                                     the ali‘i of old, the sport of marlin          and others, such as George Stevens
fish cake from door to door on the plantation
was a form of life insurance for fisherwomen
                                                     fishing was reserved for the prominent         Parker, catered to a small group of
and their families and provided a constant           in Hawai‘i society. Even the boats             very wealthy people and did not have
stream of income. If their husband was lost at       were moored at yacht clubs, which              a significant impact on the island’s
sea, the family could survive by selling fish        were privileged retreats for the elite.        economy. Only four charter fishing
provided to them from someone else in their              Private-charter trolling boats found       boats worked regularly between 1945
close social network. Photo: Hawai‘i State Archives. at small boat harbors in Honolulu,             and 1955. They anchored off the

                                                                                                                                                    5
Kona Inn, where deckhands doubled                tourism destination if they created           However, despite these challenges
as waiters to drum up fishing clients            a prestigious international fishing           commercial charter boat fishing in
among the visitors.                              tournament (Hogan 1983).                      Kona began to grow
   For the few                                       In 1958 he proposed the idea to the           By the early 1970s Fithian’s
charter boat                                     director of the Hawaii Visitors Bureau        interest in building a reliable database
captains, business                               (HVB). The HVB agreed to make up              on Hawaiian billfish attracted the
was difficult. The                               any incurred losses. Support also came        attention of John C. Marr, one of the
money they made                                  from local airlines, Big Island hotels        most influential biologists of the era
came from the few                                and the Kona Jaycees.                         and the former director of the Bureau
tourists and from                                    While preparing for the tournament,       of Commercial Fisheries (later renamed
what they could                                  Fithian discovered the need for billfish      the National Marine Fisheries Service
make driving                                     research in Hawai‘i. “We had the species      or NMFS) Biological Laboratory in
across the island to                             all screwed up because we didn’t know         Honolulu. The Honolulu Laboratory,
sell their fish at the Fig. 12. Capt. Henry Chee.one kind of marlin from another and           as it was commonly called, began its
                       Source: IGFA.
Suisun fish auction                              we had different names for them. What         work in 1949 under the leadership of
in Hilo. There were few radios on                was a black marlin, we called silver,         Oscar Elton Sette and soon started
boats. During the early days, captains           and there was no recognition of the           what would become a long record of
like Chee carried pigeons. When he               Pacific blue marlin. The Hawaiians            advanced tuna and billfish science.
caught a marlin, he would write a note,          called all the blues black (marlin)”          During Sette’s time, the lab was known
put it in a capsule, tie it to the bird’s        (ibid). The recordkeeping did not meet        as the Department of the Interior’s
leg and send the pigeon flying to the            IGFA standards. Deciding that the             Pacific Oceanic Fishery Investigations.
home of his partner’s wife, Mrs. Charles         offshore anchorage at the Kona Inn was        Its internationally recognized research
                                                 inadequate for world class destination,       in the 1950s included groundbreaking
                                                 he began promoting the idea of a new          surveys of tunas and billfishes and
                                                 small boat harbor.                            their pelagic habitat in the equatorial
                                                     Fithian persevered and ran the            Pacific with the research vessels Smith
                                                 tournament out of his office. The             (which did oceanographic research)
                                                 first Hawaiian International Billfish         and Manning (which did longline
                                                 Tournament (HIBT) was held in 1959            gear work).
                                                 and attracted 20 Hawai‘i teams, two               In the 1979s, NMFS was moving
                                                 foreign teams and two U.S. mainland           from an approach of fisheries
                                                 teams. Most of the entrants had their         management based solely on catch
Fig. 13. Advertisement for Capt. Henry Chee’s    own boats. There were only six or             data by commercial fishermen to one
chartered fishing boat service aboard the Malia. seven charter boats available in Kona         in which models might be used to
Source: Honolulu Advertiser, Sept. 12, 1954.     for hire.                                     determine populations on the open
                                                     Fithian spent the next years actively     sea. There was interest in getting more
Findlayson. She would read the note. If promoting fishing charters in Kona                     and new kinds of data based on the life
it was a big marlin, she would arrange                                     with a travel and   history of fish, e.g., their ages, what
for a photographer. The fish was hung                                      booking agency.     they ate, how they reproduced, etc.
from a hook attached to palm tree in                                       He introduced           This need for improved information
front of the Inn. It was a simple life                                     a share concept     for management purposes led Richard
with the captains living on a narrow                                       so that a single    Shomura, the director at the time of
margin of income. It may have seemed                                       fisherman could     the Honolulu Lab, to hold the first
idyllic to some, but, in fact, it was very                                 book a place on     international symposium on billfish
stressful. One of the last things Chee                                     a charter boat.     in 1972. The meeting focused on the
said to his wife, before he died of a                                      By making the       little known life history of billfishes
stroke at age 55 while gaffing a fish,                                     experience more     and included panels of fishermen
was “Don’t let Butch [their son] fish for Fig. 14. Peter Fithian.          affordable for      and scientists, including Fithian,
                                                 Source: Honolulu
a living” (Gutskey 1986).                                                  more people, he     international fisheries author Peter
                                                 Advertiser, Nov. 6, 1955.
    The island of Hawai‘i lacks beautiful                                  broadened the       Goadby and Kona captains George
beaches that are large and accessible,           potential market for fishing boat captains.   Parker and Richard Stroud (Hawaii
and it attracted few visitors during the             In 1970, his push for a small harbor      Tribune Herald 1972).
early years of tourism development.              for Kona was successful. It took about            By 1975, Fithian’s venture was a
Peter Fithian who arrived in 1955                50 tons of dynamite to blast lava to          success. Thousands of visitors were
decided that things could be different.          create the harbor at Honokohau. It was        coming to Kona to fish with their
He began promoting the concept to                a rough harbor without steps in some          families and there were luxury resorts
local businessmen that the Kona coast            places, and people had to jump down           to cater to them. However, as this
could become a year-round, high-end              from rock walls to get to the boats.          business developed there was increasing
6
luxury market that Fithian and his              Pacific Ocean Research Foundation.
                                                   colleagues had created. If the granders         Its goals were “Preservation,
                                                   were gone, the business could go too.           Knowledge and Management.” The
                                                      To garner the information needed             foundation’s independent research
                                                   to face this threat, Fithian and Marr           and lobbying effort ensured that not
Fig. 15. Peter Fithian’s news column banner.       formed the Pacific Gamefish Foundation.         all discussion dealing with the future
Source: Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Jan. 21, 1966.     The foundation supported the work of            of billfish would be dominated by the
                                                   researcher Charles Daxboeck, whose              commercial fisheries and government
concern that commercial longliners                 work in time moved from forensic exami­         fishing administrators. The big game
from Japan were taking too many of                 nation of stomach contents of caught            fishing industry, which depended on
the large gamefish on the open sea.                billfish toward eventual state of the           tourism, would have a seat at the table.
The presence of these large fish was               art satellite tagging. The foundation           (Hogan 1983)
essential for the new ocean tourism                eventually became known as the

4. Longline Expansion in the Post–World War II Era

Partly subsidized by the U.S. and Japanese governments in an effort                                took 8,236 metric tons of striped
to prevent famine in occupied Japan after World War II, Japanese                                   marlin (126,700 fish) and 9,413
                                                                                                   metric tons of blue marlin (75,300
longline fleets re-geared and used their pre-war knowledge to search                               fish). Not to mention countless other
the world’s ocean for tuna. Their quest for yellowfin and other species                            billfish and tuna.” (Kane 1966).
such as albacore as well as bluefin and bigeye tuna began in the Pacific                               The Japanese fleet alone in 1965
and, in 1956, extended the Atlantic (NOAA 1978). They set 100                                      set almost 100 million hooks in the
                                                                                                   Atlantic, catching almost 300,000
million hooks in a band between 40˚ N and 40˚ S. Fishing fleets from                               marlins according to estimates
Korea and Taiwan soon followed their example (Beardsley 1989).                                     (NOAA 1978).
                                                                                                       Although other countries, including
                                                                                                   the United States, were involved with
                                                                                                   bycatch of marlin, Japanese longline
                                                                                                   fishing vessels became identified in
                                                                                                   the public mind with the issue of
                                                                                                   overfishing of the stock. Some of the
                                                                                                   recreational big game fishermen began
                                                                                                   to fear that billfish such as blue marlin,
                                                                                                   white marlin, sailfish and swordfish
                                                                                                   would be wiped out by 1970. Others,
Fig. 16. Japanese longliner (circa 1946). Photo: U.S. NOAA NMFS; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service;
                                                                                                   such as Winthrop P. Rockefeller Jr.,
U.S. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries.                                                               a founder of The Billfish Foundation
                                                                                                   (TBF) and later to become lieutenant
    It did not take long for the South             (mt) in 1963 and then dropped to                governor of Arkansas, were more
Atlantic big game fishermen to feel                less than 2,000–3,000 mt from                   optimistic and predicted they would
the effects of Japanese longlining.                1967 onwards, while white marlin                last until 2001 (Rockefeller 1989).
Their catches in the Caribbean Sea                 catches peaked at 5,000 mt in 1965                  The fears of overfishing worsened
off Florida, Cuba and Puerto Rico                  and fell to approximately 1,000                 as 100 to 300 foreign vessels from
decreased almost immediately. The                  mt by 1977 (Gentner 2007).                      Russia, Poland, Spain and other
results of the Japanese industrial                    A sense of panic set in, reflected           nations joined the Japanese and
fishing effort would soon be borne                 in articles in Sports Illustrated: “[The        developed factory-fishing industries
out by Japanese fisheries data,                    Japanese fishing industry] growth               off American shores: from Florida to
which indicated that, from 1958                    from 1956 to 1963 was astronomical.             Maine on the Eastern Seaboard and
onwards, the catch per unit effort                 In 1956, when 164,000 hooks were                from California to Alaska on the West
(CPUE) of blue and white marlin in                 set by the Japanese, they caught                Coast (NOAA op. cit.). Many of these
the Atlantic had decreased from its                seven metric tons of striped marlin             industries used huge drift and drag
previous levels (Beardsley 1989).                  (100 fish) and 50 metric tons of blue           nets that caught everything in their
    Atlantic blue marlin commercial                marlin (400 fish). By 1963 they had             path, including billfish (Kifner 1974).
catches peaked at 9,000 metric tons                more than 50 million hooks out and

                                                                                                                                            7
Regional Fishery Management Organizations
The U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) codified the rules of international law relating to
the high seas. Signed in 1958 and entered into force in 1962, UNCLOS was superseded by UNCLOS III in
1982. Articles 116 to 120 of UNCLOS address the responsibility of states engaged in fishing on the high
seas to negotiate with other states fishing in the same area or on the same stock to establish regional or
sub-regional fisheries organizations to conserve these living resources. Today, there are about a dozen and
half RFMOs globally. Of these, five manage fisheries for tuna and other large species such as swordfish and
marlin, covering approximately 91% of the world’s oceans.

The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Com­
mission (IATTC) was established in 1949,
primarily to manage bait fish resources
for pole-and-line tuna vessels operating
in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. The
mem­  bers of the IATTC are Belize,
Canada, China, Colombia, Costa Rica,
Ecuador, El Salvador, European Union,
France, Guatemala, Japan, Kiribati,
Korea, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama,
Peru, Chinese Taipei, United States,
Vanuatu and Venezuela. Cooperating
nonmembers include Bolivia, Chile,
Honduras, Indonesia and Liberia. The
focus on baitfish shifted as more indus­
trialized methods of tuna fisheries,
i.e., longline and purse-seine fishing,    Fig. 17. The major regional fishery management organizations that focus on tuna and billfish.
became prominent. Further information      Illustration: PewTrusts.org.
is available at www.iattc.org.
                                           into force on 19 June 2004. The mem-              Northern Committee of the WCPFC.
The International Commission for the       bers include Australia, China, Canada,            Membership is contingent on data
Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT)     Cook Islands, European Union, Federa­             indicating that fishing by a WCPFC
was established in 1966. ICCAT is          ted States of Micronesia, Fiji, France,           member occurred at latitudes higher
involved in management of 30 species,      Indonesia, Japan, Kiribati, Republic              than 20˚N. The ISC’s main focus is on
including swordfish, white marlin, blue    of Korea, Republic of Marshall Islands,           North Pacific albacore, Pacific bluefin
marlin and sailfish as well as tuna and    Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau,                  tuna, blue marlin, swordfish, striped
mackerels. The Commission is current­      Papua New Guinea, Philippines,                    marlin, blue shark and shortfin mako
ly comprised of 53 contracting parties.    Samoa, Solomon Islands, Chinese                   shark. http://isc.fra.go.jp/.
The Commission may be joined by any        Taipei, Tonga, Tuvalu, United States of
government that is a member of the         America and Vanuatu. Several French,              The Commission for the Conservation
United Nations any specialized U.N.        U.S. and New Zealand terri­tories (Ame­           of Southern Bluefin Tuna was estab­
agency or any inter-governmental eco­      rican Samoa, Commonwealth of the                  lished in 1994 and involves Australia,
nomic integration organization con­        Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI),                  Japan, New Zealand, Korea, Indonesia,
stituted by States that have transferred   French Polynesia, Guam, New Cale­                 Taiwan, the European Union and
to it competence over the matters          donia, Tokelau, and Wallis and Futuna)            South Africa.
governed by the ICCAT Convention.          have a nonvoting seat at the table.
                                                                                             The Indian Ocean Tuna Commission was
                                           Coopera­ting Non-members coun­tries
The Western and Central Pacific Fisher­                                                      founded in 1996 and is comprised of
                                           include Curacao, Ecuador, El Salvador,
ies Commission (WCPFC) was established                                                       31 members, including Indian Ocean
                                           Nica­ragua, Panama, Liberia, Thailand
by the Convention for the Conservation                                                       coastal countries and countries or
                                           and Vietnam. www.wcpfc.int.
and Management of Highly Migratory                                                           regional economic integration organi­
Fish Stocks in the Western and Central     The International Scientific Committee            zations that are member of the United
Pacific Ocean (Honolulu Convention),       for Tuna and Tuna-like Species in                 Nations or one of its specialized
which was signed in 2000 and entered       the North Pacific Ocean (ISC) is the              agencies and are fishing for tuna in the
                                           science provider to the members of the            Indian Ocean.

8
5. Change Brought by the Big Game Fishermen

One day during the 1960s, big game fisherman Christopher Weld                              Weld recognized that recreational
encountered large foreign fishing trawlers off Georges Bank, one                       fishermen would have little influence on
                                                                                       the general public in regards to marine
of his favorite fishing grounds. Concerned that the foreign industrial                 conservation unless they took steps
fishing fleets were threatening the very existence of marlin and other                 to change their own culture first. For
prized game fish, he decided that the laws governing U.S. ocean                        this reason, he began promoting the
policies had to change. It was a daunting task. He believed the only way               concept of catch and release.
                                                                                           At the time, catch and release was
to resolve the problem was for the United States to adopt a 200-mile                   a known but not a common practice.
Fishery Conservation Zone (FCZ) off its shores, a suggestion that                      A whole industry had been built around
had been promoted by UNCLOS since 1958.                                                the killing of game fish: the taking and
                                                                                       framing of photographs, the making
    Weld had a unique perspective.          In an effort to empower recreational       of trophies and handing them out at
In addition to being a big game fisher­     big game fishermen, he convened a          tournaments, and the entire livelihood
man and hunter, he was independently        meeting of the IGFA and the organizers     of taxidermists. All of these activities
wealthy—a descendant of one Boston’s        of the 40 major fishing tournaments in     made money and returned it in the
oldest, wealthiest and most distinguished   the United States. To them he promo­       form of sales commissions to charter
families; a Harvard College and             ted several ideas:                         boat crews. These commissions and tips
University of Virginia law graduate;        • The need to protect Atlantic tuna        were vital to the business of the charter
and a partner in one of Boston’s most         from being overfished,                   fishing boats. Big game fishermen were
prestigious law firms. He was also an                                                  reluctant to push catch and release as it
                                            • The first major catch-and-release
appointee of President Richard Nixon          program for billfish, and                might alienate the captains and crews
to the Department of Commerce’s                                                        on whom they depended for successful
                                            • A law that would push foreign            fishing trips.
Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee
                                              fishermen away from U.S. shores.             Still, Weld and his colleagues persisted.
(MAFAC). Established in 1970, it was
the highest and most senior fisheries           These were major ideas at the time.    Over time, catch and release became a
advisory committee in the United            Management of billfish such as marlin,     customary practice that demonstrated
States at the time (Marine Biological       which travel thousands of miles across     that recreational fishermen were not just
Laboratory n.d.).                           the open ocean, involves sharing           catching billfish, they were doing their
    Weld was determined to use his          information and gaining cooperation        part for conservation.
connections and skills to pass a law        from many nations. Most of the                 Pushing foreign fishing vessels away
in Congress that would force foreign        nations that had access to tuna and        from U.S. shores would prove more
fishermen from U.S. waters and              billfish subsidized the commercial         difficult. As a member of MAFAC,
promote the concept of a general            fishing operations that sought pelagic     Weld was aware that Senator Warren
marine conservation policy in the           fish. African states such as Senegal       Magnuson of Washington represented
public interest. The number of elite big    and Latin American nations such as         commercial salmon and crab fishermen.
game fishermen upon whom he could           Brazil and Venezuela allowed artisanal     Weld also knew that Magnuson had
draw for political support was very         fishermen to target marlin and tuna.       been trying, unsuccessfully, to push a
small, perhaps no more than 8,000           Organizations like ICCAT, the leading      bill matching Weld’s intentions through
(Ditton and Stoll 2003). However, as        RFMO in the Atlantic, had difficulty       Congress since the early 1960s.
a group, they were disproportionately       getting the participating Atlantic         However, Magnuson was opposed by
wealthy, and many, like him, had            nations to provide them with either        powerful interests in the U.S. govern­
significant political and economic ties.    good data or the authority to make         ment: the office of the President, the
    In 1973, he founded the National        management decisions.                      U.S. Navy and the U.S. Department
Coalition for Marine Conservation               Fishing agencies in most of the        of State (Carmel 2012).
(NCMC). His intent was to force             countries affected were small, if they         During the Cold War, the U.S.
foreign fishing vessels from U.S. waters    existed at all, and underfunded.           political and military establishments
and to give recreational anglers “a seat    The different nation’s political leaders   deemed it strategically preferable to allow
at the table” (Hinman 2017). To his         competed with one another for fish         the presence of foreign fishing fleets in
way of thinking, “the table” was then       or sold their fishing rights for hard      U.S. waters. The alternative was to face
dominated by U.S. fishery biologists        currency to foreign fishermen. There       reciprocal demands that would limit the
and large commercial fishing interests.     was little incentive to cooperate.         ability of U.S. military and fishing vessels

                                                                                                                                  9
to enter the coastal areas within 200                       In 1975, Senator Magnuson joined                    began to be written. The legislation
nautical miles (nm) of shores that were                 Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, whose                    intended for all decisions to be based
claimed by foreign nations. The U.S.                    son was a commercial crab fisherman                     on scientific research, with catch targets
government’s official position could be                 off Alaska, in sponsoring a new bill                    for the different species to be managed
summarized as follows:                                  called the Fishery Conservation and                     based on information derived from
    The U.S. wanted to send its military                Management Act (FCMA) intended to                       stock assessment models of existing
    throughout the world’s oceans,                      protect Alaska’s fish from the Japanese                 fish populations. The models were
    unimpeded by regulations as                         and Russians (Hinman 2017). Congress­                   used to determine whether a stock was
    seemingly far-fetched as where a boat               men Don Young of Alaska and Gerry                       experiencing overfishing (too much
    could fish. If a country could regulate             Studds of Massachusetts, representing                   fishing effort) and/or was overfished
    where boats could fish, that could                  New England fishermen, introduced it                    (below the stock level capable of yielding
    open the door to other restrictions.                in the House of Representatives.                        catch equal at MSY) and to provide the
    But the flip side of this policy was                    Weld was determined to push the                     means to support the development of
    that other nations claimed the same                 FCMA through Congress. Using his base                   rebuilding overfished stocks.
    rights, the freedom of the seas to                  of big game fishermen, he built a                           However, soon after the MSA was
    navi­gate where they wanted, and to                 coalition of non-tuna commercial fisher­                passed and the regional councils were
    fish where they wanted, and to claim                men, recreational fishing tackle manufac­               created, Weld and big game fishermen
    those fish resources for themselves.                turers and ocean conservationists. They                 complained that their intentions were
    (Finley 2012)                                       urged millions of recreational saltwater                not being fulfilled. They expressed
                                                        fishermen, who normally caught fish                     their dismay that the U.S. government
The advocates for acceptance of                         close to shore, to call their congressmen               was still biased in favor of commercial
UNCLOS were also opposed by the                         to protect marlin and other sports fish                 over recreational fisheries. Since tuna
powerful U.S. Tuna Foundation                           from foreign fisheries. These actions                   was the fish most sought after in
(USTF). The USTF consists of                            helped find the votes to make the FCMA                  offshore and distant-water fisheries,
individual U.S. flag vessels that use                   a reality (ibid.).                                      the tuna industry was driving U.S.
purse-seine nets to catch fish. At the                      However, there was a price to be paid.              policymakers. The regional councils
time, they caught 70% of their fish in                  The USTF would not allow the bill to                    could not manage tuna beyond their
the Pacific Ocean and opposed any                       pass Congress without a compromise—                     jurisdictions; they could only influence
effort that could threaten their access                 tuna had to be exempt from regulation.                  the management actions of the
to the fish off the coastline of any other              This requirement created a dilemma                      international RFMOs by working with
nation. The USTF had a powerful                         because billfish and tuna not only inhabit              the U.S. State Department and other
lobby. They were supported by many                      overlapping depths of pelagic waters but                stakeholders including the U.S. tuna
members of Congress and were                            also eat much of the same food, which                   fishing industry (primarily the purse-
adamantly opposed to any change in                      means both have similar vulnerabilities to              seine industry). NMFS collaborated
U.S. law that would restrict them from                  longline and troll fishing gear. One could              with the U.S. State Department.
fishing within 3 nm of a foreign shore.                 not be managed reasonably on the open                       In response to criticism from big
    When Weld began his campaign to                     ocean without also managing the other.                  game fishermen, U.S. commercial
protect Atlantic billfish, he knew he                       Weld said, “The net result of the                   fishermen responded that they had not
had to change the paradigm in which                     exclusion has been to defeat completely                 suffered from years of foreign fishing
fishing research subsidies were awarded                 every attempt to regulate fishing for                   so wealthy recreational anglers and
almost exclusively to subjects related to               large pelagic species beyond the territo­               large recreational tackle manufacturers
the success of the commercial fishing                   rial seas pursuant to the […] Act” (ibid.).             could make fortunes at the expense of
industry. He wanted the U.S. govern­                    Nevertheless, reasoning that this com­                  commercial fishermen. Commercial
ment to expend funds on scientific                      pro­mise was better than no legislation                 fishermen stated they had a right to
studies so billfish populations could                   at all, Weld supported the agreement.                   catch fish, restaurants had a right to
be assessed properly. In the legislation                Thus, the revised act, called the                       serve fish and consumers had a right
he envisioned, the government would                     Magnuson Fisheries Conservation and                     to eat it. Commercial fishermen stated
set careful targets based, not on the                   Management Act (ultimately known as                     they would proceed along the lines
greatest catch possible, but on the                     the Magnuson-Stevens Act or MSA),                       agreed in the FCMA but argued that
maximum sustainable yield (MSY) 2                       passed through Congress in 1976 and                     the ocean did not belong to any one
of the fishery. He wanted to ensure that                took effect March 1, 1977.                              group. This situation became a national
large marlin, spearfish and swordfish—                      The MSA established eight regional                  controversy that soon found its way to
the world’s pre-eminent game fish—                      fisheries councils, and, at the urging                  Hawai‘i. Here, billfish constituted an
would be not become overfished.                         of Weld and his associates, billfish                    important part of the local diet.
                                                        fishery management plans (FMPs)

2. The maximum sustainable yield (MSY) for a given fish stock means the highest possible annual catch that can be sustained over time, by keeping the stock at the
   level producing maximum growth.

10
6. The Recreational Billfish Controversy Comes to Hawai‘i

In 1976, the WPRFMC was formed as one of the eight U.S. councils                             An estimated 1,500 private recreational
created under the MSA. Its authority was the management of fisheries                         boaters spent more than $1 million to
                                                                                             operate 386 vessels (WPRFMC 1978).
seaward of state/territorial waters of Hawai‘i, American Samoa and
                                                                                             The total spent on recreational fishing
Guam and eventually the CNMI and the U.S. Pacific remote island areas                        for billfish and tuna in Hawai‘i was
as well. Although the Council was initially dominated by commercial                          probably much greater.
fishing interests, among its mem­bers were charter boat fishermen                                Although the Atlantic was very far
State Sen. Wadsworth Yee (who would become the Council chair) and                            away from the Western Pacific, Weld
                                                                                             felt compelled to comment on behalf
Peter Fithian. On the commercial side, the fishermen were represented                        of big game fishermen against foreign
by Frank Goto, the manager of the United Fishing Agency and the                              longline fleets operating in the newly
first Hawai‘i tuna fisherman to be appointed to the MAFAC. For the                           established U.S. EEZ in the Western
first time, Hawai‘i fishermen had influence at the highest levels of                         Pacific Region. He came to Hawai‘i to
decision-making on fishery policies at the U.S. Department of Commerce.                      testify against longlining in front of the
                                                                                             new Council (WPRFMC 1977). From
   After the Council was established,     its more comprehensive Billfish and                his office in Massachusetts, he wrote
Council members were appointed and        Associated Species FMP (later named                to NMFS and recommended several
the Council staff was hired, the Council the Pelagic FMP) (1987), which would changes to the 1978 draft Billfish PMP
began to assist NMFS in the develop­      regulate both foreign and domestic                 (Weld 1977). In particular, he wanted
ment of the Pacific Billfish and Oceanic fishing in the Western Pacific Region.              foreign longlining “prohibited altoge­
Sharks Preliminary Fishery Management         There was little question that, by             ther in the FCZ” and described long­
Plan (PMP). The PMP (1978) would          1976, the local recreational charter boat line as “an indiscriminate fishing gear
be used to regulate foreign fishing in    fleet and trollers were more valuable              which catches many species of fish ….”
the Pacific U.S. exclusive economic zone to the state’s economy than the decli­                  Compared to the Japanese fleet, the
(EEZ) until the Council comple­ted        ning commercial longline fleet was.                Hawai‘i   longline fleet was insignificant.
                                                                                             At the time Weld wrote his criticism
                            160°E                    180°                            160°W                       of longlining in the
                                                                                                                 Western Pacific, only
                                                                                                                 13 full-time domestic
                            North Pacific Ocean                                                                  longline vessels were
                                                                               Hawaiian                          still operating in
                                                                                Islands
                                                                                                                 Hawai‘i. The industry
                                         Wake Is.
                                                                                                           20°N had been in decline
                                                                                                                 for 25 years, from
                                                                INTERNATIONAL DATE LINE

            Northern
            Mariana Islands
                                                                              Johnston                           1950 to 1975, for a
                                                                              Atoll                              number of reasons:
    Guam                                                                                                         low prices for fresh
                                                                                                                 tuna, the inability
                                                                     Palmyra
                                                                                                                 of Hawai‘i fish distri­
                                                                        Atoll                                    butors to enter the
                                                                                                                 Japanese market,
                                                         Howland Is.                                             better opportunities
                                                                                                           0°
                                                        Baker Is.
                                                                                    Jarvis Is.
                                                                                                                 for young Japanese-
                                                                                                                 American men and
                                                                                                                 increasingly high
                                                                                                                 fuel costs.

                                                                                          American
           South Pacific Ocean                                                             Samoa

                                                                                                              20°S
                                           200 Mile Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) – Pacific Island Nations

Fig. 18. U.S. EEZ in the Western Pacific Region in red. Source: WPRFMC.
                                                                                                                                     11
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