What's the Catch?

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  Wai'anae, Hawai'i
  Emil Muroka lives for the catch. He gets up at 8am and is out the door with his fishing gear in tow, ready to spend countless hours at his favorite fishing spot.
  
  “I fish for passion, I fish for excitement, I fish for my own joy,” said senior Emil Muroka. As a recreational fisherman, Emil fishes as a hobby and a way to keep busy during his free time. Others, like Eileen Bebeau, have a different reason.
  
  “It started out recreational and you kinda get hooked on it so we do it quite often now commercially and we supply the market in this area,” said commercial fisher Eileen Bebeau. Both Emil and Eileen rely on fishing, something that might not be around in the next thirty years.
  
  According to The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, more than 3/4 of the world’s fish stocks are overexploited. This overexploitation creates countless changes to the ocean’s environment, as well as those who fish in it.
  
  Bebeau said, ”there is a difference when we fish, it’s already showed a decline from 30 years ago. We used to catch 6-7 ahi in a couple hours fishing close to shore and you can’t do that anymore."
  
  In thirty more years, the changes will follow the same trend unless something is done to cut the line of overfishing. If nothing is done to balance the ocean’s sensitive environment, the world’s fish stocks will be depleted by 2048, according to a journal in Science Magazine. The drastic changes from thirty years ago give fishers an idea of what thirty more years of overexploiting fish populations could do.
  
  “If I couldn’t fish anymore, I don’t know what I would do. It’s something I can’t even imagine. I would be lost.” said Muraoka. The instability of the ocean’s future causes concern but it does not have to be a fear of the unknown.
  
  Department of Land and Natural Resources Director WIlliam Aila said, “What you wanna do is manage the amount of fish that get taken out in a relative ratio so that balance continues to exist. When you have balance, you’re not overharvesting and the environment is at its optimum potential.”
  
  As the scales of the fish population are balanced, fishing as a lifestyle, or even a hobby, becomes more secured.

"I love it because it's just like a mystery and that's kind of an extraordinary thing I think."
~ Emil Muraoka

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Looking Back

Write Tools

I didn't know how abundant the fish population was 30 years ago.  I'd like to see something done about this on a local scale.
Shayla Ader, Editor

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I've realized that worldwide issues can still have large impact on us even in Waianae.
Kahunui Foster, Writer

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It doesn't seem as big at first because it happened so gradually.  We need to change our mindsets to change the situation we're in.
Crystal Cebedo, Reporter

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It doesn't only affect the people on the boats and the people on the shore, if we keep this up there might be nothing left.
Mahea Nieto-Lopes, Photographer

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Awards/Honors

Award of Excellence
Serious News

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2013  STN News Feature Challenge Winner

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Fall 2013 ASB Storytelling Award Winner

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Hiki No Awards 2014
 Best overall story

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