An emergency five-month suspension of all bottomfishing in the main Hawaiian Islands resulted from new research that seven species of bottomfish are being overfished and that immediate steps are needed to protect them.

The closure, which will start in six weeks, needs to be enacted by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service and the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, but both agencies have indicated they are prepared to do so.

The new closed season, which is to be established in both state and federal waters around all the main Hawaiian Islands, will be in place May 1 to Sept. 30. The closed season replaces a previous plan to close federal waters only at Penguin Banks of Moloka'i and Middle Bank, between Kaua'i and Nihoa.

The more aggressive regulation is because the newest fisheries data suggests bottomfish stocks are more threatened than scientists had realized, said Ed Ebisui, a member of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council.

Prized Hawaiian eating fish — the onaga, 'ehu, gindai, 'opakapaka, kalekale, lehi and hapu'upu'u — are covered by the closed season. The closure will mean the only Hawaiian bottomfish on local markets during those months will be from the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, which federal regulators say is not being overfished.

The closure will affect his business, but something clearly needed to be done to protect the fishery, said Brooks Takenaka of United Fishing Agency, which operates a fish auction in Honolulu.

"It's all of our collective responsibility to realize what is happening. We've got to be careful of the utilization of our resources," he said. But he also said he hopes regulators keep open minds and continue looking at data to find ways to manage the fishery that least affects the community and the fishing industry.

"I'm getting calls from fishermen and wholesalers that weren't aware of this. For the full-time commercial fishing guys, this is a knock. They can't just go and do other types of fishing. It takes different equipment. And it's not like they can just go somewhere else," Takenaka said.

He said some fish will continue coming in from the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands until a fishing ban takes place in four years within the Papahanaumokuakea National Marine Monument. And local consumers will also find more fish coming in from the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific — generally from areas not carefully managed to protect resources, he said.

"People are going to be eating fish from someone else's backyard," he said.

The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council responded with the closed season after receiving NOAA Fisheries' latest estimate, based on fishery data through 2005, that says local bottomfish stocks are at risk unless the take is reduced by 24 percent.

Federal waters beyond three miles and out to 200 miles from shore are covered by the new ban. The state is committed to enacting a nearly identical closed season as well, said Alton Miyasaka, an aquatic biologist with the state Division of Aquatic Resources. But he said the state has not yet laid out a timetable for getting the new closed season rules enacted.

"Our hope is to manage it together. We're all pulling together," Ebisui said.

During the first year of the closed season, NOAA Fisheries and state fisheries officials will be aggressively gathering data, and trying to expand the information they now collect about the fishery. Within the next year, they expect to establish a fishery managed like some Alaskan and West Coast fisheries, in which a total allowable annual catch is established and daily catches are monitored. When Hawai'i anglers have caught the total allowable catch, the season immediately closes until the following year.

One problem: Commercial anglers report their catch, but recreational fishing boats don't have to.

Recreational bottomfishers by the start of the 2008 season will be required to report their catch daily, as will commercial anglers. Both would also be required to provide detailed locations on where they catch their bottomfish. One benefit for recreational anglers is that bag limits will be removed.

"This year's five-month closure is kind of a buffer. We still don't have a handle on the recreational take," Ebisui said.

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.