Department of Land and Natural Resources 06/13/16 – Barbless Circle Hooks Angling For Converts; NOAA/DLNR Project Provides Fish & Mammal Friendly Hooks for Free

HILO) – At Sunday’s 13th annual Tokunaga Ulua Challenge Fishing Tournament weigh-in, you’d hear a call for “Mr. Barbless Hook.” That would be Kurt Kawamoto, a fisheries biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center. Kawamoto earned the moniker as the driving force behind the NOAA and DLNR Barbless Circle Hook Project. Each time a fish caught with a barbless circle hook weighed in, Kawamoto stepped forward to slap a special sticker on it, and hopefully to see a new record. Since initiating the program more than a decade ago, ulua and other fish caught by shoreline fishermen with barbless hooks have weighed in at one hundred pounds or more; winning more than just a few tournaments.

Division of Aquatic Resources 2/6/24 – 20 Years of the Barbless Circle Hook Project

Division of Aquatic Resources

Southeast Fisheries Management and Marine Life Protection

Water, Free Full-Text

Barbless Circle Hook Project

Barbless Circle Hook Project

UC Davis Collaborates with State and Federal Agencies to Protect Threatened Native Fish

Barbless Circle Hook Project

Barbless Circle Hooks

Division of Aquatic Resources Fishing Around Protected Species

Barbless Circle Hooks

Fishing Hooks

NOAA Fisheries and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to Propose Regulatory Revisions to Endangered Species Act