Hawaii Longline Boats Face Lower Tuna Catch Quota

Hawaii's longline fishing boat owners expect their sales of ahi will drop by millions of dollars under an agreement in which the United States will reduce its longline tuna catch for three years starting in 2015.

U.S. longline fishing boats in the western and central Pacific must cut their catch of bigeye tuna by 10 percent, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported ( http://bit.ly/1d56Ya3 ). That will amount to at least a $10 million drop in bigeye tuna sales by 2017.

The catch limits were agreed to by the 27-member Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission last month in Cairns, Australia. The commission, of which the U.S. is a member, is a multinational group formed to promote sustainable fishing in the Pacific.

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