August 21, 2025 — The University of Hawaiʻi is launching a major initiative to advance fisheries research, education and training, ensuring sustainable management for Hawaiʻi and the Pacific. The new program leverages the expertise of eight new faculty members to develop a graduate program that focuses on both Western science and Indigenous knowledge, training the next generation of leaders for sustainable Pacific fisheries.
Fisheries in Hawaiʻi are distinct in that they include a variety of sectors ranging from the open ocean longline fishery, which is the sixth largest fishery in monetary value in the U.S., to community managed fishponds or loko iʻa. Importantly, the majority of nearshore fisheries in Hawaiʻi are non-commercial, which requires unique considerations for management. This program seeks to build on existing work by faculty and practitioners across the UH System to understand the unique contributions of these diverse commercial and non-commercial fisheries to the economic, social, and cultural well-being of Hawaiʻi to ensure their longevity.
Management strategies from the U.S. continent often fail in the Pacific Islands because they were designed for cold-water, industrial fisheries. Pacific fisheries are different—they operate in warm tropical waters with diverse species and fishing gear, and with Indigenous Pacific Island communities. The Pacific Island region is multinational and has comparatively less scientific data, requiring a locally developed approach to ensure they can be sustained for generations.