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New Angle:
Offshore fishing center on barge proposed
By Hugh Clark
Honolulu Advertiser, May 30 1985
KAILUA-KONA - A group of Alaska and Hawaii investors wants to
set up a permanent offshore fishing center on an old commercial barge off the
Kona coast, The Advertiser learned yesterday.
The development, to be called Fishing Island Inc., would be a
combination commercial fishing and marine science center, according to spokesman
Rick Gaffney of Maui. He said preliminary technical studies have been completed
for the project that would cost more than $1 million.
The fishing structure would be placed 41h miles south of
Kailua Bay where the ocean is 500 feet deep.
If the concept proves a success, it could offer something new in the sport
fishing industry, which is a major business along the Kona coast. Instead of
taking fishers to sea in boats and trolling for fish, a shuttle boat would ferry
anglers from Kailua Pier to the stationary dock where they would fish at
leisure.
Gaffney said users would be charged perhaps $25 a day, much
less than fees on standard sport fishing boats.
An hourly shuttle would take about 40 passengers to the barge. Many more
passengers would be shuttled to the barge by the Captain Cook VII, a Kona cruise
ship. It would take fishers out at 7:45 a.m. and return at 5 p.m. to pick them
up for the return trip to Kailua.
In addition to sport fishing, the developers want to establish a marine
laboratory at the, facility for use by university personnel and other marine
scientists. The laboratory would be available to the scientists without fee.
Fishing Island envisions various aquacultural projects to
restock Hawaii's diminishing fisheries with a special ulu'a-raising project that
also could lead to reviving the fish population around other islands. Large
ulu'a are now caught only on the windward side of the Big Island.
By combining research facilities at Keahole's Natural Energy
Laboratory, Gaffney said his group also hopes to develop a mahimahi farm
program. The mahimahi would be raised as fingerlings at Keahole and released
after about 18 months from cages below the barge. The fish would be about 60
pound each at that time.
The idea of a fishing structure known as an aggregation
device is not new. There are a number of fish aggregation buoys off Hawaii's
islands. There have been two large offshore artificial fishing structures in
shallow water off the southern California coast at Redondo Beach and near San
Pedro.
However, this would be the first such development in deeper
water, Gaffney said.
Fishing Island Inc. is a Hawaii Corporation made up of Ray Nibert of Kona,
Stephan Holland of Maui and George Cline and William McLaughlin of Anchorage,
Alaska. The latter two are contractors.
All four are friends who have been involved in previous joint
ventures on the Kona coast. They also are veteran Kona sport fishermen.
Gaffney, serving as project coordinator, said the investment hui has obtained
rights to a former commercial barge owned by the Sause Brothers. It now is in
dry dock in Tacoma, Wash. The barge is 255 feet long and 55 feet wide and would
accommodate up to 200 fishers a day.
Gaffney said that weather, wind and ocean current studies
have been completed by Fishing Island and that findings indicate the barge
facility could be in use virtually year-round. Because of its size and
stability, the barge would be almost motionless, Gaffney said.
Cost projections are still being developed, Gaffney said.
If the project wins approval from the various agencies,
operations could start as early as the' middle of 1986.
Although the project would be more than three miles off shore, the state would
still have some controls because the project would occur over what is known as
submerged state lands for which the deyelopers have to seek a conservation
district use application.
Approvals are needed from the state Board of Land and Natural
Resources and the federal Army Corps of Engineers. Permit applications are
pending before each of the agencies.
© Hugh Clark 1990