Saving Seafood

Sharks, Fishing Rules and Disaster Recovery: Hawaiʻi Fishermen Invited to Bring Their Concerns to Nine Island Forums

November 9, 2026 —  The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:

Sharks taking fish off the line. Confusing fishing regulations. Damage to boats and harbors from natural disasters. Concerns about the future of local fishing.

These are real challenges facing Hawaiʻi’s fishing communities, and the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council and its partners want to hear directly from those experiencing them. Nine public meetings across the Hawaiian Islands from Nov. 13 through Dec. 3, 2026, will bring fishermen, community members and fisheries agencies together to tackle local challenges and identify solutions.

The Hawaiʻi Small Boat Fishers’ Forum builds on community conversations held since early 2025, with a focus on turning fishermen’s concerns into priorities and potential actions. The Council and Pacific Islands Fisheries Group are working together to connect local fishing communities with the agencies and organizations involved in managing and supporting Hawaiʻi’s fisheries.

What’s on the table?

  • Sharks taking the catch: Addressing shark depredation and improving state and federal shark regulations.
  • Disaster relief and recovery: Helping fishing communities prepare for and recover from damage to boats, harbors and fishing infrastructure.
  • Fishing rules and research: Improving fisheries management through fishermen’s firsthand observations, better data and community input.
  • The future of local fishing: Strengthening fishing infrastructure, supporting local seafood and food security, and sustaining fishing traditions, including discussions on the cultural harvest of green sea turtles.

Each island faces its own challenges, and participants are encouraged to bring forward the issues that matter most to their communities.

Most meetings begin at 5 p.m. with a Fisheries Open House, where attendees can meet agency representatives and local organizations, learn about ongoing projects and resources, and ask questions one-on-one. Fisheries updates and open discussions will follow, giving fishermen an opportunity to share concerns, recommend solutions and help identify next steps.

Whether you fish commercially, non-commercially or to feed your family — or simply care about the future of Hawaiʻi’s fishing communities — your perspective matters.

Meeting Schedule

All meetings are from 5 to 8 p.m., except Honolulu, which is from 6 to 8 p.m. Food and refreshments will be provided.

  • Friday, November 13 – Hilo, Hawaiʻi Island: Itsuko’s Kitchen
  • Saturday, November 14 – Kona, Hawaiʻi Island: West Hawaiʻi Civic Center
  • Monday, November 16 – Waiʻanae, Oʻahu: Waiʻanae Intermediate School
  • Tuesday, November 17 – Honolulu, Oʻahu: Ala Moana Hotel (6–8 p.m.)
  • Wednesday, November 18 – North Shore, Oʻahu: Waialua Elementary School
  • Monday, November 30 – Kaunakakai, Molokaʻi: DHHL Conference Room
  • Tuesday, December 1 – Lānaʻi City, Lānaʻi: Lānaʻi High & Elementary School
  • Wednesday, December 2 – Maui: Location TBD (check the Council calendar for updates)
  • Thursday, December 3 – Līhuʻe, Kauaʻi: Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School

Your fishery. Your voice. Our future. Come share what’s happening on the water and help shape the conversation.

For more information, visit the Council Inflation Reduction Act Project webpage or contact Zach Yamada at zach.yamada@wpcouncil.org or Alex Min at PacificFisheries@gmail.com.

About the Council

The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council is one of eight regional councils established under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act to manage fisheries in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The Council is responsible for developing and implementing fishery management plans for waters surrounding Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, the CNMI and U.S. Pacific Remote Island Areas. The Council works to promote sustainable fisheries, protect marine ecosystems and support the livelihoods of fishing communities through science-based decision-making and stakeholder engagement.

NOAA to rebuild historic science lab in Beaufort, North Carolina

August 28, 2026 — Today, NOAA announced plans to fund the reconstruction of a new laboratory in Beaufort, North Carolina. This new lab will replace the former building that was permanently closed in 2024 due to significant hurricane-related structural damage. The project will be funded using $64 million from the 2025 Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act. Design and preconstruction work is expected to begin in early 2027.

Established in 1899, the NOAA Beaufort Laboratory is the nation’s second-oldest federal marine science laboratory, predating NOAA by more than 70 years. Following a routine inspection, NOAA determined the laboratory sustained foundational damage that made building occupancy unsafe. The new facility will be built above the floodplain and designed to withstand storm and flooding events.

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

ALASKA: Southeast Alaska fishermen qualify for federal salmon disaster relief. The deadline to apply is fast approaching.

August 20, 2024 — The first deadline for Southeast Alaska fishermen to apply for relief funding from the abysmal 2020 salmon season is this Saturday, August 24.

A federal fishery disaster was declared for fisheries in the state with extraordinarily low returns.. The U.S. Department of Commerce at the time attributed those low runs to a series of marine heatwaves in the 2010’s and in 2022, the federal agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration gave the state of Alaska about $56 million for those losses.

Read the full article at KRBD

New Hampshire fishing industry gets more $1M in federal aid

October 2, 2015 — More than $1 million in federal funding has been released to help struggling New Hampshire fishermen and fishing communities.

The money released from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will assist the commercial ground-fishing industry and for-hire fishing vessels. It is in addition to the more than $2 million in fishery disaster funds that have been released to New Hampshire in the past two years.

Read the full story at WMUR

 

MASSACHUSETTS: State floats new plan for fishing disaster money

September 5, 2015 — The state Division of Marine Fisheries listened to those who wanted a wider distribution of $6.7 million in federal fisheries disaster money. At a meeting of the groundfish disaster aid working group in New Bedford on Friday, the agency laid out a plan where more than $6 million of the money would be used in direct aid to fishermen.

While an earlier proposal set a fairly high bar of 20,000 pounds of groundfish landings in any year from 2012 to 2014 to qualify for aid, the new plan would require 10,000 pounds of groundfish or have at least one trip in 2014 on which a vessel carried an observer.

Groundfish once were the bread and butter of New England fishermen, and include bottom-feeding species such as cod, haddock and flounders.

According to DMF analysis, 138 vessels would have qualified under the 20,000-pound criteria and 164 can receive aid under the reduced landings or observed trip scenarios. Only 10 of the 24 vessels in the Chatham-based Georges Bank Fixed Gear Sector would have qualified under the higher amount and 18 now qualify under the new plan. Claire Fitz-Gerald, manager of the sector, believes this number is closer to 22 or 23 based on her own calculations.

Read the full story from the Cape Cod Times

Read Rep. William Straus’ letter to Massachusetts Gov. Charles Baker

NEW JERSEY: Christe Administration Announces $2.1 Million in Federal Grants to Help Fishing-Related Businesses Impacted by Superstorm Sandy

July 16, 2015 — The Christie Administration announced that 266 fishing-related businesses will share more than $2.1 million in federal grants to help them recover some costs resulting from damages sustained as a result of Superstorm Sandy.

The grant program focused on helping smaller businesses. Owners of bait-and-tackle shops, commercial dealers, commercial fishermen, for-hire party and charter boat operators, marinas and those involved in shell-fish aquaculture businesses were eligible to apply to the DEP for grants of up to $10,000 to help offset some of the costs of the storm on their operations.

“The DEP and our Marine Fisheries staff have worked tirelessly since Sandy to help these businesses get back on their feet,” said DEP Commissioner Bob Martin. “Our economically vital commercial and recreational fishing industries are coming back after the devastation caused by Sandy. This grant program will help our smaller fishing-related businesses recover some of their losses.”

Grants were provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as part of a federal fishery disaster declaration for states impacted by Sandy.

Applicants had to document a minimum of $5,000 in losses as a result of Sandy. Grants were awarded to help with repair or replacement of equipment that was not covered by other programs. Activities already paid for out-of-pocket as part of a business’ or individual’s recovery effort also were eligible.

Read the full story at the Cape May County Herald

 

 

MASSACHUSETTS: 151 Cape Ann crew, dockhands to share in $3M relief

July 13, 2015 — The state will distribute about $3 million in federal fishery disaster aid to 525 eligible Massachusetts-based crew members, dock workers and owner-operators, including 136 from Gloucester and 15 from other towns on Cape Ann, according to the state Division of Marine Fisheries.

Peter Lorenz, DMF spokesman, said letters went out June 30 to 601 Massachusetts-based crew members who applied for the funds, informing them of their status.

Lorenz said 76 applicants were not qualified for any payments.

The payments for eligible years range from $1,209 per year to $10,080 per year, with 68 successful applicants to receive $8,064 per eligible year while 120 successful applicants maxed out at $10,080 per eligible year.

Lorenz said the qualified recipients, including the 151 from Cape Ann, must fill out state-vendor forms. Once the forms are approved, the agency will begin scheduling payments — which will go out weekly on Fridays.

The $3 million earmarked for crew members, dock workers and some owner-operators is part of the $8.3 million initially contained in the second phase of the $75 million in federal fishing disaster funding approved by Congress in January 2014.

The four coastal New England states, as well as New York and New Jersey, received about $33 million of the total $75 million, with Massachusetts’ share amounting to about $14.8 million.

The first phase of funding funneled $6.5 million to more than 200 eligible federal limited permit holders in the form of checks of $32,500 per eligible permit.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

 

 

GLOUCESTER TIMES: Disaster aid belongs to the fishing industry, not NOAA

June 23, 2015 — The following is an excerpt from an editorial published in the Gloucester Daily Times:

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has in recent weeks been casting about for a pool of money to tap for its controversial onboard fishing vessel monitoring program. Efforts to make fishermen pay directly for the program – yet another unfunded federal mandate – have so far fallen short.

Not to be deterred, however, NOAA administrators have come up with an even more disturbing idea – take the money from the emergency funds the government set aside for fishermen.

On Friday, NOAA Regional Administrator John K. Bullard said the $2.5 million needed to pay for at-sea monitoring for the rest of this fishing season could come from yet-to-be-delivered federal fishery disaster aid.

“The states sill have about $10 million in the ‘third bin,'” Bullard said. “(Monitoring) would be an eligible use of those funds.” 

We’re sorry, Mr. Bullard. That money is already spoken for.

The so-called “third bin” of the roughly $33 million allocated to the five coast New England states and New York last year is set aside for a permit buyback and boat buyout program that would allow fishermen to leave the industry without facing total financial ruin.

That plan has been delayed by squabbling over how to develop a system that would fairly split the money among the states. The extended bureaucratic wrangling has raised the possibility the $10 million could be spent elsewhere, and it prompted NOAA’s leaders to suggest they get a cut.

Read the full editorial at the Gloucester Daily Times