In recent years, Honolulu, Hawaii has seen more than 34 million pounds of seafood landed annually at its docks, valued at over USD 100 million (EUR 92.2 million). The totals, as compiled by NOAA, rank the port seventh in the list of U.S. ports sorted by value of seafood landed.
But this year, the coronavirus pandemic has upended the local commercial fishing sector, which is operating at just 30 percent capacity since coronavirus practically eliminated the tourist trade that serves as the backbone of the consumer market in The Aloha State.
Honolulu’s commercial fleet is comprised of 140 long-line vessels, but more than 100 are currently tied up and not fishing, according to Hawaii Longline Association Executive Director Eric Kingma. Kingma said an average fishing trip for bigeye and yellowfin tuna or swordfish can cost a boat up to USD 45,000 (EUR 41,500) and that, due to cratering dock prices, most fishing operations can’t break even.
“Our daily value dropped by 80 percent, and trip costs exceeded the landed value,” he told The Washington Post.
Local television station KITV reported ahi tuna prices had dropped to about USD 1.00 (EUR 0.92) per pound, 500 percent drop from normal prices.
“It’s a complete disaster,” Kingma said. “A disaster that many vessels will not recover from.”
Currently, the Honolulu Fish Auction is still open to buyers who were registered prior to March, and the United Fishing Agency’s Pier 38 auction is also still operational, according to auction manager Michael Goto. But he even with high-quality fish on offer, prices are “not sustainable.”
"You see a lot of businesses selling retail, slabs of fish that normally wouldn't have done in a regular market. It really hurts everybody. It hurts the vessels, it hurts us here at the auctions,” Goto said. "We're hopeful we can recover in a quickly manner as we can. It's gonna take time. We understand that but we're trying our best to sustain ourselves as well as the state of Hawaii.”
Kingma and Goto said the local fishing industry has attempted a direct-to-consumer sales model, but local consumers are not willing to pay break-even prices, and restaurants and other foodservice operations that catered to Hawaii’s robust tourism industry are either shut down entirely or not interested in premium-quality seafood.
"The consumer can pick up fresh fish, they can only do that for so long. Companies can only provide that base price for so long before they're going out of business, they're letting go of their employees," Goto said.
Fishermen interviewed by Hawaii News Now said they’re worried about going out of business. Mike Wild, captain of the longline vessel the Kilauea, said he’s sitting on thousands of pounds of fish because there’s nowhere for it to go.
“We’re sitting side-tied waiting for about a four- or five-day wait to offload. I have 12,000 pounds of fish right now,” Wild said. “It’s going to hurt all the owners in their pockets and it’s hurting the crews.”
Skip Gallimore, an owner of three commercial fishing boats, said the economic impact of the coronavirus on the local fleet will be severe.
“I don’t think anyone has realized what’s happened to our fishing industry,” he said. “It’s gone.”
The pain is also being felt by Hawaii’s wholesalers and distributors, according to Dave Marabella, president of Garden and Valley Isle Seafood, which recently laid off 70 percent of its workers.
“It’s a frightening thing,” he said. “I never thought I’d experience anything like this. We have to get some kind of financial assistance and we need it like yesterday. "
