![\"Red](\"http:\/\/blogs.nicholas.duke.edu\/hawaii\/files\/2012\/05\/IMG_5456.jpeg\" "\\"Red")
<\/a><\/strong>Our trip to the Honolulu Fish Auction started out in darkness as we stumbled our way towards the van at 5:30 am.\u00a0 As much as we didn\u2019t like the idea of waking up before dawn, the Fish Auction started at 6 am and we didn\u2019t want to be late.\u00a0 When we stepped into the cold and surprisingly clean auction, our senses were awoken by the fish on ice all around us and the sounds of the auctioneer and buyers.\u00a0 It\u00a0was a slow day at the auction and the catch from only two boats was on the floor — in total around 15,000 pounds of fish. We slowly meandered from fish to fish, the big, shimmering, glassy-eyed yellow fin tuna caught our eyes first but we learned that it\u2019s the Red Snapper that fetches the highest price this time of year.\u00a0\u00a0The Lunar (Chinese) New Year is approaching and fish buyers explained to us that red is the color of good luck and eating Red Snapper ensures a prosperous start of the New Year.\u00a0 Nevertheless, it\u2019s the Bigeye, Yellowfin, and Albacore tuna that are the most expensive fish at the auction — we watched in awe as just one fish was sold for $1,300.\u00a0 Eventually the auction came to a close and we headed off to breakfast and to watch Obama\u2019s inspirational inauguration speech.\u00a0 With fish conservation on our minds, watching Obama\u2019s speech was especially moving as we look forward to a new perspective on marine conservation and management.<\/p>\n Longline Fishing from a Fishers Perspective<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong>After breakfast we met with Sean Martin — a longline-fishing vessel owner in the Hawaiian fleet.\u00a0 He owns six longline vessels that primarily fish for tuna, but also are permitted to fish for swordfish.\u00a0 Graciously, he gave us a tour of his relatively new (only four-years-old), beautiful boat, talked with us about the longline industry and gave us a glimpse into the fisher perspective of fisheries management in the Hawaiian archipelago.<\/p>\n Sean\u2019s job is to catch fish, and to catch a lot of it.\u00a0 Each trip lasts around 18-19 days in which tens of thousands of baited hooks are set — each set consists of 40 miles of line and hooks using fish as bait. We picked Sean\u2019s brain on a diverse range of fisheries management issues including seabird and marine mammal bycatch, enforcement and observer coverage, international fisheries regulations, gear regulations and Marine Stewardship Council certification.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It was interesting and encouraging to learn that Sean\u2019s boats use many of the recommended sustainable fishing practices for the industry.\u00a0 The boats set\u00a0the fishing gear off the side of the boat (called side-setting) so that by the time the hooks reach the stern, the bait is too deep for albatross to feed on, and albatross and other sea birds interact with the gear less often.\u00a0\u00a0After bombarding Sean with questions and listening to him educate us on everything we could possibly want to know about the longline fishery, we left Sean alone and hurried off to the NOAA offices to bombard them with questions instead.<\/p>\n NOAA-Papahanamokuakea<\/strong>Monument and Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong>Randy Kosaki gave us an overview of how the Monument was created, the cultural significance of the Northwest Hawaiian Islands for native Hawaiians, the many species which are native to only the Hawaiian islands and the management challenges of such a large and remote area.\u00a0 The most intriguing part of Randy\u2019s talk was how the Monument was designated under the Antiquities Act instead of the National Marine Sanctuary Program, which presents a unique set of challenges and opportunities for managing the area.\u00a0 The management plan for the Monument just came out and will soon be available\u00a0here<\/a>. Thea Johanos from the Protected Species Division of the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center spoke to us about monk seals, in particular about endangered monk seal and Galapagos shark interactions.\u00a0 We had a passionate discussion about how to stop the monk seal population from declining even further and the best way to protect the newborn pups from shark attacks.<\/p>\n After asking a lot of questions and realizing how difficult protecting an endangered species can be for both scientists and marine managers, we were inspired to learn even more about issues facing the species within the Monument ecosystem.<\/p>\n After an exhausting inaugaration day meeting with fishers, managers, and scientists throughout the entire Hawaiian archipelago, we could only cross our fingers and hope that the Obama administration will be an ally in marine conservation efforts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/a><\/a><\/a>