A request by two O'ahu-based sport-fishing clubs for a federal investigation of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council for its stand on certain kinds of fishing in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands is based on "factual errors, general empty claims and fundamental misunderstanding" of the agency's responsibilities and authority, the council said yesterday.

The O'ahu Game Fish Club and the Waianae Boat Fishing Club on Tuesday forwarded a 46-page report to the inspector general's office of the federal Department of Commerce detailing what the clubs claimed was the council's chronic failure to protect Northwestern Hawaiian Islands fisheries and the council's repeated efforts to protect commercial fishing interests instead.

Both the fisheries council, or Wespac, and the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration, to which it reports, are part of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Wespac is one of eight management councils established to regulate fishing in U.S.-governed waters.

The council has authority over Pacific waters surrounding Hawai'i, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Marina Islands, and along the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands extend about 1,200 miles to the northwest from Kaua'i and include a number of coral reefs and low islands.

In their request for an investigation, the fishing clubs claimed Wespac improperly lobbied Congress and federal agencies in favor of continued commercial fishing in the Northwestern Islands, manipulated public testimony in favor of continued commercial fishing of some species, and used scare tactics in an attempt to wrongly convince Native Hawaiians their subsistence fishing rights in the Northwestern chain would end if regulations proposed by NOAA were to be adopted.

But in its statement yesterday, the council said it was not required by NOAA to submit a position on new rules but decided to do so after collecting as much public input on the proposed regulations as possible.

The council said it extended the public comment period — with NOAA's approval — to get public input on the plan.

While NOAA is advocating a total ban on all commercial fishing in the Northwestern Islands, Wespac continues to believe bottom fishing by a limited number of commercial boats will not pose a threat to the sustainability of those fish stocks if the fishery is properly managed, the council said in its statement.

Reach David Waite at dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com.