Cooperative Research:

Fishing is important when you live on an island. Doing it for recreation can be serious business. However, figuring out how serious it is has been a problem for those who track and evaluate such trends. To better understand and engage the recreational fishing community, NOAA Fisheries has contracted PIFG to provide outreach to this important fishing sector in the Pacific Islands.

PIFG has also been developing networks and databases to help bridge the gap between recreational fishermen and fishery managers. This effort culminated in the compilation of a fishing club directory, dissemination of information to Pacific Island anglers about the Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP) and collection of comments, concerns, questions and ideas related to recreational fishing, experiences and other qualities within the region. PIFG also conducted a survey of the fishing community to better understand the attitudes and perceptions of how fishermen classify themselves.

Preliminary results suggest that the high cost of living drives “recreational” boaters to obtain State of Hawaii commercial marine licenses (CML’s) to legally sell portions of their catch to defray operating costs. However, these “recreational” boaters, now classified as commercial fishermen per holding of the State CML, still view themselves as recreational and not commercial.