Where Does Your Fishing Data Go?

The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council is a major player in the management of fisheries in the Hawaiian Islands. Each year at the end of June, the Council releases a summary of the state of the fisheries, including both nearshore fisheries that focus on bottomfish and reef fish, and pelagic fisheries that are larger in scope and harvest larger species such as ‘ahi.

These Annual Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation (SAFE) Reports not only provide descriptions of the volume of fish caught over the course of the previous year, but also include information on factors that may influence or better inform the performance of the fisheries. These factors include changes to the environment, socioeconomic considerations, protected species interactions, surveys of fish populations not based on catch and fishers’ “on the water” observations.

Having all of the available fishery data in one place allows the Council to easily review the information and monitor changes in fishing from year to year. This is especially important when considering annual catch limits (ACLs) and ensuring that fishing activity for the year hasn’t caused catches to race by these limits, which have been implemented to ensure the sustainability of fish populations in the future.

Fishing data is also used for stock assessments to determine the health of fish