Two O'ahu-based sports-fishing clubs are asking for a federal investigation of the agency in charge of managing fisheries throughout the Hawaiian Islands, to see whose interests the agency is representing.

William Aila, a spokesman for the Oahu Game Fish Club and the Waianae Boat Fishing Club, said yesterday that the clubs have sent a request to the inspector general's office of the U.S. Department of Commerce to investigate the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, also known as Wespac.

Aila said the clubs believe that Wespac has spent years trying to protect or restore commercial fishing interests within the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands' federally designated Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve area and is resisting efforts to have the area designated a marine sanctuary.

Aila said the final straw came last month when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration "completely rejected" Wespac's proposed fishing regulations for the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, a string of low islands and seamounts extending about 1,200 miles to the northwest from Kaua'i.

Two calls to Wespac representatives in Guam were not returned yesterday.

Wespac is one of eight fishing management councils established to regulate U.S.-governed waters. Wespac's 13 members have authority over Pacific Ocean waters surrounding Hawai'i, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands and along the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

Aila claims Wespac officials have spent the past five years trying to get commercial fishing restored within the Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands that was established by President Clinton in his final days in office.

And while NOAA has repeatedly tried to persuade Wespac members to adopt an all-out ban on commercial fishing within the marine sanctuary proposed for the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, the agency as recently as this year proposed that commercial fishing be allowed to continue, with proper oversight.

Aila said the two fishing clubs have about 100 members each and believe that Wespac spent public money to lobby in favor of continued commercial fishing within the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, improperly manipulated public testimony in drafting its proposed rules for the fishery and engaged in scare tactics by trying to convince Native Hawaiians they would be banned from subsistence fishing in the northwestern islands if a marine sanctuary were to be created there.

Aila said the members of the two sports-fishing clubs realize Wespac is responsible for considering the views of people engaged in commercial fishing as well as the public.

"We have no quarrel with Wespac advocating on behalf of the commercial fishing industry as long as it's done in an ethical, lawful and responsible manner," Aila said.

The two fishing clubs want the inspector general's office to "thoroughly investigate Wespac and do whatever is necessary to get Wespac back on track to doing its job within the legal mandates."

Reach David Waite at dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com.