A conundrum could turn out to have a silver lining for ocean resource-oriented nonprofit Wild Oceans. Some of the sport fishing boats in Honokohau have recently installed a technological device known as an omni directional sonar. In use for years by the large scale commercial fishing fleets, omni sonar is different than traditional sonar in that the scan can be aimed in any direction, for a 36 degree view. Traditional sonar aims the scan straight down.
One reason that sport boats have been slow to install “omni” as they are called, is the cost. The other is that they’re big and take up a lot of space in the engine room. For either of these reasons or both, only about 13 of the 50 odd charter boats in Honokohau have installed them.
Because they were developed for commercial fishing, the perception among many is that these devices provide the handful of boats that have them with an advantage. Tournament catch logs however, show a 59% to 41%, with the lead currently to omni boats. Ironically, catch numbers were even after the Firecracker and then favored Omni in the last two events, which were won by boats without Omni.
Regardless of statistics, many without omni expressed a desire to fish only against other boats without omni. In response, the HMT Series launched a new event, simply known at present as the No Omni Tourney. It is scheduled to fish in a couple of weeks, on Aug. 6 and 7.
On top of being a low tech affair, the No Omni Tourney will fish a Jungle Rules format. This way small boats and big boats, fancy boats and simple boats can all compete evenly — for fun — the old school way while also raising funds to support a research project that can help sustain our unique Kona fishery.
Wild Oceans is the oldest saltwater fish-oriented nonprofit organization in the USA and launched its Kona Project at the beginning of this year. The Kona Project is a scientific research project aimed at gaining a comprehensive understanding of the importance of the pelagic fish spawning grounds known to exist in the waters between the Kona Coast and Cross Sea Mounts.
In the ocean between the terrestrial mountains of the Big Island and the oceanic at Cross turns one of the largest oceanic eddy systems in the world, known by some as the Kona Gyre. To some this is a misnomer because Gyres are spiraling circulations thousands of miles in diameter and rimmed by large, permanent ocean currents — the conveyor belts of the Pacific.
Eddies in contrast, are smaller, temporary loops of swirling water that can travel long distances before dissipating. The Kona Gyre is unique in that it features components that fit both definitions. To most non-ologists such as yours truly, this hair splitting is irrelevant. There is always an eddy out there and it is the single largest eddy in the north central Pacific.
It is rimmed by larger, permanent ocean currents but the physical features of the Hawaii island chain and the Cross sea mounts contain it within a geological perimeter that physically limits the diameter to about 200 miles. However, the tailings can be seen and measured from satellites, and the dynamic effects of this oceanic turbine do reach thousands of miles downstream.
This eddy is also the source of the name of Kailua because the town sits on the coast where these currents thrown out by this eddy hit the shore, and often split in two directions. Kai translates as “ocean” and Lua is often translated as “two.” Many Polynesian words have a number of definitions, but that in itself is an entirely different topic.
The currents driven to the shore also strike underwater ledges creating upwellings that bring nutrients to the surface from the deep. This creates a fundamental layer of the oceanic food chain — the unique food source that all sorts of fish need to survive the larvae stage.
In addition to this food source, next time you look out to sea take notice of the glassy calm areas known as “slicks.” Slicks are formed with two bodies of water converge. In this convergence all sorts of flotsam and jetsam are concentrated, providing perfect habitat for tiny fish larvae, or all sorts.
So the Kona Coast is known to be a hot spot for pelagic and reef fish spawning and known well as a nursery. Marlin larvae have also been found out by Cross Seamount and scattered in other areas that are not so well understood, but a product of the same gyre. In addition, because the eddy currents tail so far down stream, what is spawned here can populate areas far away another aspect that is not well documented.
If one were to zoom out into space, it becomes evident to see that the Hawaiian Islands and the Big Island in particular, form the first and largest obstacle to interrupt the flow of the equatorial current, for thousands of miles. The fact that you have to go more than 5,000 miles farther west to the Philippines before you find anything like this, also sinks in when you look at it from the perspective of space.
So far, the study has turned up scientific evidence that our gyre and the subsequent eddy system and downstream tailings are the most important pelagic spawning ground and nursery in the entire north Pacific, but there is much more work to be done.
Science and omni sonar are both expensive but an irony here is that omni makes the commercial fishing sector so efficient in catching more fish, that better science is needed to insure the sustainability of those fish. Another irony is that although there are tournaments here almost every weekend, they harvest very few marlin. The HMT Series tags and releases about 95% of all marlin caught — while also funding the research to sustain them.
Kind of makes you go, “Hmmmmm.”