Every year for the last decade, scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration join Hawaiʻi fishermen like Clay Tam to measure the abundance of bottomfish like the ʻopakapaka, hāpuʻupuʻu, and five other species known as the “Deep 7.”
The latest data from their survey found that the bottomfish stock in Hawaiʻi is relatively healthy — crucial information for any future decisions made by fishery management agencies.
For many years the assessments of bottomfish stock relied heavily on fishery-dependent data such as catch reports.
But Benjamin Richards, a fish biologist with NOAA’s Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, says there are other factors, such as market prices or the stock of fuel, that can skew data on the actual abundance of the fishery.
Read more:
https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/local-news/2021-11-16/scientists-partnered-with-local-fishermen-find-hawaiis-bottomfish-are-not-being-overfished