COMMERCIAL FISHERIES OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 507 



One of the most important features of the fisheries of Oahu is the 

 fish ponds, more of these being used commercially on this island than 

 on all the others combined. The fishery rights have also been of 

 far greater importance and value than on any of the other islands. 

 Both of these subjects have been treated in detail elsewhere in this 

 report. 



On October' IT, 1003, the settlement of Gilbert Islanders (South Sea 

 Islanders) near Honolulu, which formed one of the most picturesque 

 features of the fisheries of Oahu, returned to their former home on 

 Tarawa. They had been in the Hawaiian islands for a number of 

 years, having been brought here b}^ the royal government in the hope 

 that enough could be introduced to offset the rapidly lessening number 

 of natives, but the project was abandoned after several hundred had 

 been introduced. In all 220 of them left, 85 from Lahaina and 135 

 from Honolulu, but 3 remaining on the islands. These people were 

 quite skillful fishers and were the chief users of baskets, a most effective 

 mode of fishing. 



In many of the irrigation ditches for transporting water to the rice 

 fields and taro patches, and in the trenches between the rows of Chinese 

 bananas, are to be found china-fish, gold-fish and oopu. A few of 

 these are sold, but the greater part are consumed by the workers in 

 the fields and their families. 



There are a few small fresh-water streams in the island, the 

 principal ones being Kaneohe, Nuaanu, Piinaio, and Waiawa. During 

 the rainy season these streams are raging torrents, but during the rest 

 of the year the}^ are almost dr}^ or form numerous pools. Among the 

 indigenous species found in them are the oopu and opae, and china- 

 fish and gold-fish have been introduced. A considerable proportion 

 of the catch from these streams is made by people living along the 

 banks, who consume the most of it themselves. As the fishing in 

 these waters is quite insignificant it has been included in the regular 

 tables showing the shore fisheries. 



In 1901 and 1902 some frogs from Hilo, Hawaii, were introduced in 

 various places around Honolulu, as it was thought they might aid in 

 ridding vegetation of the Japanese beetle, an insect w^hich was rapidly 

 becoming a pest. 



The fisheries of Oahu show a most gratifying increase during the 

 last few years. In 1900 there were 1,106 persons engaged in fishing, 

 while in 1903 there were 1,478 so emploj^ed, a gain of 372. The most 

 remarkable feature of this is the great increase of Japanese in recent 

 years. In 1900 there were 259 Japanese fishing, but in 1903 they had 

 increased to 707, a gain of 418. During the same period the number 

 of natives so engaged dropped from 654 to 533, a loss of 121. The 

 Chinese increased from 173 to 197, and the South Sea Islanders from 

 18 to 35. 



