The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-03-25
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"MALOLO" FISH
EXPERIMENT

In connection with the attempt of W.
II. S. Edmunds, promoter of the Inter
Island Live Fish Company, to secure
control of the fish business in Homo
lulu many people will remember the
troubles of a company which tried
a similar venture about six years ago.
The person who eventually secures con-
troll of the fishing industry here will
make considerable money but he will
have many difficulties to encounter be-
fore securing such control.
In 1890 the government erected the
Honolulu Fishmarket on the water
front. It's cost, including the value of
the land, was about s155,000. A few
months ago a private corporation Sc
cured permission to establish the new
Chinatown fishmarket. The result has
been that the new fishmarket, pri-
vate venture, has secured practically
all of the business, and the old Fish
market on the waterfront, fine struc-
ture. is now tenanted by but few fish
v
is carried on, on King street. The loss
to the government in this way now
amounts to a considerable sum each
month
Just as the new company has secured
control of the fishmarket business in
time some other company will prob
ably get control of the fishing at sea.
John n. Cobb, agent of the United
States Fish Commission, in 1901 gave
the following review of the failure of
the previous attempt to secure control
of the fishing:
when one considers the fine fishing
grounds in deep water and on the reefs
and shoals within reasonable distance
of the Islands, it is surprising that
there are no vessels engaged in the
fisheries at the present time. Several
attempts have been made to establish
vessel fisheries but for various rea-
sons they have met with failure.
THE last attempt was in 1898, when
a number of persons in Honolulu form
ed a company and had the gasoline
schooner Malolo built, at a cost of
$4,000, to engage in this business She
was fitted out with six seines and one
bag net at cost of $1,000, and carried
a crew of four men, the captain, John
NJ. Sass of Honolulu, an engineer, and
two sailors. The fishermen were Jap
anese, who were hired at Honolulu.
They had their own boats and lines,
and the schooner towed them to the
fishing grounds. A station was es-
tablished at Palaau district, on Molo-
kai. An old fish pond was purchased
there, the purpose being to clean it out
and use it for catching fish which came
in through the entrance. The inten-
ton of the company was to hire fish
ermen on the Islands to work the nets,
while the Japanese would engage in
line fishing, and the schooner would
make regular trips to Honolulu with
the catches The fishing was to be
done on the reefs about the west and
south sides of Molokai The Japanese
were very unreliable, as when the YES
sci was away they would go to La
haina and other places ana sell their
catch
Another fishing crew, composed
largely of white men, mostly beach
combers, was gathered together and
taken out to the fishing grounds to
work the nets principally. AS they
were a failure from the very beginning.
THE third fishing crew, composed OF
native Hawaiians and South Sea Is
landers, was secured at Lahaina.
Twelve of these men were put on the
island of Lanai and were supplied with
boats. nets, lines. and provisions by
the vessel. After a few hauls the YES
sci left for Honolulu with the catch.
the understanding with the fishermen
being that they We're to continue fish
ing until the vessel returned, so that
she would have cargo to take back
to Honolulu. When the vessel return
ed half of the fishermen had deserted
and the few remaining were taken to
Lahaina. The whole business was
abandoned in August, 1899, after the
failure of an effort to get another gang
on Maui.
Captain Sass says there was no
lack of fish at any time, and if the
fishermen could have been properly
trained to the work the experiment
would have been a brilliant success.
Most of the work was done with troll
ling and hand lines, as the nets would
not work well on the coral reefs, fire.
quently tearing, while the numerous
sharks about the reefs would do much
damage to them