Waianae Boat Harbor, Hawaii
July 13, 2024
On a beautiful 23rd day of summer, the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard hosted its 30th annual fishing tournament. The Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard Annual Fishing Tournament is organized and run by the Federal Managers Association Chapter 19 who represents the federal workforce throughout the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard area. Chapter 19 Director, Thomas Chow, arrived to Waianae Boat Harbor to begin inspecting tournament boats to ensure their fish boxes and coolers did not have any live bait at 3:30 am on Saturday, July 13th. As Tournament Director, Thomas relies on many volunteers who assisted with the many facets of running a fishing tournament. Just as critical to a successful tournament are the tournament sponsors that provide prizes to the participating boats recognizing the single largest fish for each species and the top ten fish by weight.
Landing a large game fish can be a strenuous and time consuming process, especially if the fish is actively fighting and resisting. Additionally, a struggling fish is likely to attract sharks or other predatory fish as was the case with the CHARLOTTE MARIE whose hooked 89.0 pound Ahi suffered bites to its belly and tail before the fish was landed.
A large game fish can be powerful and dangerous when hooked. They may thrash about wildly and their sharp bills or teeth can cause serious injury. Each of the 64 boats that got underway has their approaches and techniques to landing the fish while reducing risk of injury to the crew and damage to the boat. The successful boats would radio tournament base when they land the fish along with the species and estimated weight. The information is then affirmed when they reach the scale.
Not all hooked fish gets landed. Landing a hooked game fish can put a lot of strain on fishing gear. If the boat gear is not up to the task, the gear can break or fail, potentially leading to lost fish and, worst case, injury. All tournament boats are required to radio to tournament base when they hook a fish. Tournament base is then eagerly waiting to see if the fish is landed but, in some instances, the next report is that the fish was lost.
The competition was fierce, with 32 boats successfully landing fish, including Pacific blue marlin (Au), yellowfin tuna (Ahi), mahi-mahi, ono (Wahoo), and skipjack (Aku) before fishing closed at 3:00 p.m. The first boat to the scale was LUNACY, captained by Nathan Nixon, with an impressive 123.6-pound Au setting the bar for the remaining boats to beat for largest Au and, potentially, the largest tournament fish.
Our tournament master of celebration, Tsarkie, was joined by the tournament weigh master, Henry Keanini, who together with a member of the boat crew affirmed the winning largest fish as an Au weighing 177.2 pounds. In total 2,350.0 pounds of fish were brought to the scale including a 51.6 pounds of mahi-mahi, a 189.6 pounds of ono, a 271.2 pounds of Aku, a 430.4 pounds of Ahi, and a 1,407.2 pounds of Au. The tournament winners by species are a 29.6 pound mahi-mahi landed by ANYKINE, captained by Ron Pickering; a 28.2 pound ono landed by TAYLOR Y, captained by Scot Yoshimura; a 26.0 pound Aku landed by KAHEKILI, captained by Kalae Sampoang; a 130.6 pound Ahi landed by MYA JOAN, captained by Chad Souza; and the tournament winning fish is the 177.2 pound Au landed by MARY K, captained by Reno Young.
In keeping with his continued partnership with the community and to share in the success of the tournament boats, CAPT Richard A Jones, USN, former Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility Commanding Officer, was present to enjoy the trials and tributes of the boat crews and to recognize the winners. Aside from the species and tournament winners, the top 9 fish by weight received awards. In order of largest to smallest were MYA JOAN captained by Chad Souza with the 130.6 pound Ahi, ONE LOVE captained by Adam Momeyer with a 128.2 pound Au, LUNACY captained by Nathan Nixon with the 123.6 pound Au, POMPOOH captained by Ryan Moriguchi with a 118.0 pound Au, LEILA captained by Kurt Nakashima with a 114.6 pound Ahi, TORI LE captained by Jason Moromisato with a 108.0 pound Au, ANYKINE captained by Ron Pickering with a 96.2 pound Ahi, AZURE SKY captained by Edwin Ganir with a 95 pound Au, and CHARLOTTE MARIE captained by Chris Kini with the 89.0 pound Ahi. Congratulations to all our tournament participants that landed fish and a special celebratory congratulation to all our 30th Annual Fishing Tournament winners.
Mahalo to Derek and Dacia Takahashi for collecting and distributing the prizes. Also many thanks to the support crew consisting of Varney Range, Patrick Morrissey, Kaipo Punahele, Mona Punahele, Allen Couture, James Andrade, Enrique Sabal, Charlene Keanini, Chelsea Paglinawan, Kaika Manalo, Marcus Takahashi, Gary Casino, Kimberly Chow, Carlos Baez, Shaun Gokan, Nicole Gokan, Allan Higa, Bailey Daguman, Kellie Koda, Chiemi Arakawa, and Jeffery Endo for pulling off another successful tournament. All participants had a safe day on the ocean with roughly 50 percent of the boats returning with fish resulting in another astounding success. A special mahalo to the Waianae community for gracious allowing the 30th rendition of the Pearl Harbor Shipyard Annual Fishing Tournament.
The Federal Managers Association was established in 1913 and is the oldest and largest association representing the interests of the 200,000 managers, supervisors and executives serving in today’s federal government. Federal Managers Association Chapter 19 was founded in 1946 and represents the federal workforce throughout the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard area.