Residents of Hawaii’s Molokai Island are seeking protected status for a subsistence fishing area on its coastline.

The Maui News reports that Molokai residents have monitored the north shore for more than 20 years and are pushing for a community-based subsistence fishing area designation form the state. Such a designation wouldn’t prevent fishing and gathering, but it would place restrictions on catching the most threatened species.

In 1993, a task force found that 28 percent of Molokai families’ diets came from subsistence activity, including fishing, hunting and growing food.

A recent series of public meetings on Molokai and the islands of Oahu and Maui have paved the way for an official rulemaking process to begin. Supporters on Maui said Wednesday that the time is ripe for a designation.