29 



this area by: determining where the fishing resources are located; 

 identifying the competitive forces which impinge on these re- 

 sources; determining how these negative and counterproductive 

 forces can be mitigated or eliminated; and assessing the manage- 

 ment strategies, enforcement of rules and regulations, and examin- 

 ing funding requirements for assuring full exercise of traditional 

 fisning and marine gathering rights. 



Failure to acquire this knowledge for this area, and eventually 

 for the entire State, may extinguish, rather than expand, Native 

 Hawaiian fishing rights. The information gathered from this and 

 similar endeavors will be invaluable in formulating governmental 

 policies to enhance and protect traditional fisning practices 

 throughout the entire State. 



While this legislation was being discussed during the 1994 legis- 

 lative session, representatives from other Hawaiian fishing commu- 

 nities throughout the State indicated a keen interest in establish- 

 ing similar subsistence fishing projects in the waters fronting their 

 communities. 



Amending the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management 

 Act by passing the Hawaiian Community Fisheries Act will provide 

 the United States with an excellent opportunity to preserve and 

 protect traditional Native Hawaiian fishing practices, including the 

 management and conservation of fisheries resources, the enforce- 

 ment of conservation measures and the integration of such prac- 

 tices with modern management and conservation principles vital to 

 the well-being of Native Hawaiians. In addition, adoption of these 

 amendments in fact becomes recognition of the distinct rights of 

 Native Hawaiians to continue to use their fishery resource for sub- 

 sistence, economic, social, cultural and spiritual sustenance. 



Thank you for allowing us to provide this information to you this 

 morning. 



[Prepared statement of Mr. Bowman appears in appendix.] 



Senator Inouye. Thank you very much, Mr. Bowman. 



Mr. Meheula. 



STATEMENT OF HAROLD H. MEHEULA, PRESIDENT, NATIVE 

 HAWADJ\N FISHERMENS ASSOCIATION 



Mr. Meheula. I want to thank you for inviting but I only had 

 24 hours to get this testimony together which was pretty hard for 

 me. I'm going to get it together on paper and present it to you folks 

 in a couple of days. 



Want I want to say is that the Native Hawaiian Fishermens As- 

 sociation is what this State needs and the people of Hawaii. Due 

 to the fact that our vessels can only go out 30 miles and come back, 

 we are creating a fishing industry where you're going to have a 

 mother ship to take the small boats out to where the fish is and 

 from there bring them back here. It's going to be a mother ship 

 where there are going to be ten 50-foot vessels on it and go out. 

 The airplane will be going out to spot the fish within at least 200 

 miles of Hawaii and everything is going pretty good. It will take 

 time but we're going to go through the Federal Government for 

 grants because we would Tike to get the money now if possible be- 

 cause the vessels and ships at Washington and Alaska are very 

 cheap, so hopefully it will be okay. 



92-666 0-95-2 



