Recent reviews indicate that local catches have had no impact on the CPUE of local fisheries for tunas. This result is hardly surprising since very large tuna fisheries occur along the equator. The catch in these fisheries exceeds local catches by f actor of nearly 1000. Local tuna populations belong to the same general stocks of tuna that are widely distributed throughout the Pacific, and in some cases, abundance in Hawaii appears to vary in the same way as Pacific-wide abundance.

Nevertheless, tunas spawn locally, and the possibility that local spawning contributes significantly to the local population cannot be dismissed.

Information on movement within the Hawaii EEZ and exchange between the Hawaii EEZ and the rest of the Pacific is largely non-existent.

Tagging is an excellent, cost effective method to determine both exchange and mortality rates of tuna populations. In 1992, a group of fishermen from Hawaii approached the PFRP with a proposal to tag juvenile tunas on the offshore fishing grounds. A modified version of this proposal was implemented in 1995.

He, X. and B. H. Boggs. 1996. Do local catches affect local abundance? Time series analysis of Hawaii’s tuna fisheries. Proceedings of the Second FAO Expert Consultation on Interactions of Pacific Ocean Tuna Fisheries; January 23-32, 1995, Shimizu, Ja pan; R. S. Shomura, J. Majkowski, and R. F. Harman (eds) FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 365. pp 224-39.

Boggs, C. H. and R. Y. Ito. 1993. Hawaii’s pelagic fisheries. Mar. Fish. Rev. 55:69-82.