438 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES 



enforced its beneficial effects would be soon apparent. Under the 

 present conditions the fishery, instead of increasing as a result of the 

 greater efforts put forth in recent years, has slightly decreased since 

 1900. 



The fine-meshed nets in such general use throughout the islands, and 

 more especially in Pearl Harbor, destroy the young of other species, 

 notably the akule and ulua, both of which are valuable food fishes. 

 Thousands of these, from 2 inches in length up, are caught and sold, 

 and, as the law does not protect them, nothing can be done to stop the 

 slaughter. The data collected for the year 1903 show a decrease in 

 the catch of ulua of 177,080 pounds since 1900. In the same period of 

 time the catch of akule quite materially increased, but this was owing 

 to the introduction by the Japanese of a method of catching them with 

 hook and line. 



Heretofore all efforts to prohibit the use of these fine-meshed nets 

 have been blocked by the native members of the legislature, who 

 claimed that it would deprive their native constituents of the oppor- 

 tunity to gratify their desire to eat little fishes raw. Of these the 

 favorite species is the nehu, which never grows large. It, however, 

 is an important food of larger and more valuable fishes, and for this 

 if for no other reason should be protected. The fine-meshed nets are 

 used almost entirely by the Japanese, who throw away probably one- 

 fourth of the catch in some localities, notably in Pearl Harbor, in 

 order to keep up the present high prices of fish. 



THE COMMERCIAL SPECIES. 



At the time of the 1901 investigation considerable difficulty was 

 experienced in classifying the commercial species, owing to the lack 

 of scientific data on Hawaiian fishery products, nearly all of which 

 bore native names, and but few of which were to be found in other 

 United States waters. To make confusion worse confounded, the fisher- 

 men, in many instances, call the same species by different names at 

 various stages in its life, and also when there is a slight variation in 

 its external appearance. The study of the large collections made 

 under the auspices of the Bureau of Fisheries in 1901 and 1902 and 

 by private collectors has greatly aided in identifying the various species 

 and in straightening out the tangle of native common names. Even yet 

 a few of the latter are unidentified, but these are species unimportant 

 commercially. In order to prevent confusion and misapprehension 

 among the fishermen and others, a list of the commercial species has 

 been prepared, showing the names used in the statistical tables; and 

 where two or more species have been included under one name, as 

 in the case of the young of the species when it bears a different name 

 from the adult, the other names are shown in the list immediately 



