Hawaii court hears case about foreign fishing labor

HONOLULU — The Hawaii Supreme Court heard arguments Friday on the legality of issuing licenses to foreign workers in Hawaii’s longline commercial fishing fleet, which for years has been under scrutiny after an Associated Press investigation revealed claims of human trafficking and questionable labor practices.

The case involves the issuance of Hawaii state commercial fishing licenses to individual foreign fishermen who are not “lawfully admitted” to the United States.

State law says only those legally in the country can get state licenses to catch and sell marine life but the workers do not have visas to enter the U.S. and are ordered to live onboard vessels by federal officials.

Friday’s hearing stems from a petition that was filed by a Native Hawaiian fisherman who sought to have the state enforce a statute that declares only people who are in the U.S. legally can acquire commercial fishing licenses.

The petition was denied by the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, which issues the permits, and a lower court upheld the ruling before the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.

Attorneys for the state argued Friday that the workers are in fact lawfully admitted even though they are officially detained on board.

“The issue of whether or not the crew members are lawfully admitted under the terms of the statute is addressed in the conclusions of law,” said Deputy Attorney General William Wynhoff in representing the state.

The federal government “knows these people are here. They’re in the United States, in the waters of the United States, and they’re lawfully admitted. They can’t come on shore, but they’re on a boat in the United States,” Wynhoff said. “Nobody’s making them go away.”

The fishermen are allowed to fish in Hawaii under a loophole in federal law that allows those seeking highly migratory species such as tuna to utilize foreign labor to take those fish. Other fishing fleets in the United States are required to have mostly American crews.

An attorney for the Hawaii Longline Association argued that the workers were not taking fish in waters exclusively controlled by state authorities because federal law applies to the majority of the fishing grounds in the Pacific.

“The court found explicitly that the boats do not fish closer than 50 miles to the north and east or 100 miles to the south and west of the main Hawaiian islands,” said Geoffrey Davis on behalf of the Hawaii longline fishing industry. “So part of this rests on on how far out the state has jurisdiction over fishing in those waters.”

The state shares jurisdiction and enforcement of the fishery with federal authorities in waters up to 200 miles off shore.