65 



Testimony of April K. Romero 

 Mid-Pacific Hawaii Fishery, Inc. 



Hearing before the 

 Senate Committee on Commerce, Subcommittee on Ocean and Fisheries 



and 

 Senate Committee on Indian Affairs 



1 June 1995 

 Honolulu, Hawaii 



Thank you for coming to Hawaii to hold this hearing. We are pleased that you have 

 given us an opportunity to participate in the process of amending the Magnuson Fishery 

 Conservation and Management Act. I am co-owner of Mid-Pacific Hawaii Fishery, Inc. in 

 Hilo, on the island of Hawaii. My family is engaged full-time in fish marketing as well as 

 commercial and recreational fishing. I am of Hawaiian ancestry and have been for many 

 years a member of the Council's Pelagics Advisory Panel. My niece Flora Ho'oulualoha 

 Hookano Collins, comes from a long line of traditional Hawaiian fishing families, and in her 

 submitted written testimony, which I encourage you to read, she shares a short overview of 

 Hawaiians and their cultural ties to the ocean. The ocean ecosystem is like poetry; it 

 perpetuates in harmony and balance. 



Today, native Hawaiians cannot return to their traditional ways of fishing. The 

 grounds have been decimated by pollution and overfishing. The value of traditional fishing 

 is in the methods that were used to conserve, manage and enhance the bounty of the sea. 

 These values were instilled in the population and allowed for uninterrupted and perpetual 

 production. The Hawaiian fully understood and appreciated the wisdom of using and 

 managing their coastal resources. The present day applications of the ancient Hawaiian kapu 

 system (of fishing prohibitions) would be beneficial to the overall health of the ocean 

 ecosystem and its fish stocks. We all fret about the continual depletion of nearshore fish 

 stocks, as their decline is obvious. Yet few officials have the economic or political will to 

 implement protective action. 



