Saving Seafood

Fishermen and Scientists Unite to Tackle Shark Depredation in the Pacific Islands

February 20, 2026 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:

The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, in partnership with the Pacific Islands Fisheries Group, hosted the region’s first shark depredation workshop Feb. 10–11, 2026, to address the issue and develop mitigation strategies for U.S. Pacific Island fisheries. Fifty-two participants from four countries and all three U.S. Pacific Island territories attended.

Shark depredation was repeatedly raised during the Council’s community consultation meetings held region-wide in 2025. Fishers described lost catch, damaged gear and safety concerns during bottomfishing and trolling—what many called a growing “tax” on their livelihoods. The issue was highlighted in Moloka‘i, Kaua‘i, Wai‘anae, Kona, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the Manu‘a Islands, where fishers reported more frequent interactions both nearshore and offshore. Fishermen from American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and Hawai‘i shared firsthand accounts and the need for practical solutions.

Plenary presentations reviewed trends in shark interactions across the Pacific Islands, the effectiveness and limitations of commercially available deterrent technologies, and the complex regulatory landscape governing shark interactions. Breakout sessions and an evening forum brought fishermen, scientists, managers and technology developers together to identify cost-effective fishing adaptations, priority research gaps and governance challenges linked to environmental change.

Participants described depredation as an increasingly significant economic and operational burden, including longer trips to replace fish. In some fisheries, fishers reported losing up to 50% of their catch in certain instances, along with growing “operational fatigue” from repeated shark encounters.

Fishers also discussed on-the-water strategies to reduce depredation—moving spots frequently to avoid shark aggregation, avoiding chumming or cleaning fish on the grounds, and using high-speed electric reels to bring fish to the surface quickly. Technology discussions included magnetic and electrical devices, as well as chemical repellents, with participants weighing cost, durability and species-specific performance.

“We need to catch the fish; if it works, it works regardless of scientific backing,” said Hawai‘i fisherman Eddie Ebisui III, who volunteered to test deterrent options in real-world conditions.

American Samoa participant Vincent Tofilau said the workshop “provided a ground-breaking platform for scientists and fishermen” and laid the foundation for future regional collaboration.

Recommendations emphasized fishermen must be active partners in solutions and that improved data are needed to better understand the scale of depredation and its impacts on commercial, noncommercial and subsistence fisheries.

Key recommendations included:

  • Improve regionwide reporting and data collection on depredation events, including fish lost to sharks, number of hooked sharks and socio-economic costs, using simple and non-burdensome tools and building on existing surveys and programs.
  • Coordinate near-term, cooperative field testing of deterrent technologies with fishermen and share results across islands; evaluate cost, durability and species-specific performance and consider combinations of deterrents and adaptive fishing practices.
  • Expand localized research to better understand shark abundance and behavior by island areas and U.S. exclusive economic zones, and ensure assessments and management decisions reflect local conditions. This could expand capabilities for managing sharks in fisheries.
  • Improve clarity and consistency among federal, state and territorial regulations to allow harvest of shark species with healthy populations, and explore funding mechanisms (e.g., grants or subsidies) that can help fishermen adopt mitigation measures where regulations limit responses to depredation.

The Council will hear a report on workshop outcomes at its 206th meeting on March 24-26, 2026. Participants urged the agencies, universities and community organizations to identify a lead entity to champion this issue and to convene a follow-up workshop within 6–12 months to review progress and share results from on-the-water deterrent trials. Participants also recommended expanding future discussions to include additional stakeholders, such as shark tourism operators, alongside fishers, scientists and managers.

Council Executive Director Kitty Simonds pointed out the lack of funding through industry cooperative research and development programs such as the Saltonstall-Kennedy (S-K) grant program. “S-K funding comes from 30% of customs receipts on imported fish products, which generates hundreds of millions of dollars each year, but only about $10 million is available to fishermen through grants. That’s a drop in the bucket of the support the program was intended to provide.”

The S-K Act requires at least 60% of funds be used for direct industry assistance grants benefiting the fishing community.

Cooperative Research Key to Successful Start of Annual Bottomfish Survey in Hawaiʻi

September 18, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

The coronavirus pandemic is affecting many aspects of our lives and has increased pressure on the local Hawaiian fishing community. During these challenging times, we are relying on our ten-year cooperative research partnership with the local fishing community to continue survey operations critical to fishery management. The annual Bottomfish Fishery-Independent Survey in Hawaiʻi (#BFISH) became operational in 2016. It has provided important local abundance estimates used in the Main Hawaiian Islands Deep 7 Bottomfish Stock Assessment.

One difference between BFISH and many of our other research missions is its foundational partnership with the local fishing community. In addition to work done from the NOAA Ship Oscar Elton Sette, local bottomfishers typically conduct two-thirds of the overall sampling effort. They use up to six commercial fishing vessels distributed among the main eight Hawaiian islands. These cooperative research fishers are contracted through Lynker Technologies and the Pacific Islands Fisheries Group. They conduct hook-and-line sampling using a design developed in partnership with PIFSC scientists. This year, they have stepped up to the plate and are conducting 100 percent of the sampling.

These small, open-deck fishing vessels are crewed by only a few people. They are a safer alternative to larger platforms, such as NOAA ships. All parties are following Center for Disease Control-recommended precautions to make sampling as safe as possible. Most of the vessels will be operating to and from neighbor islands, where COVID cases remain lower than in more populated regions. All crew members conduct self-evaluations with temperature checks each morning and wear masks at all times.

While our partnership with the local community has always been important, this year it has been critical to the continued success of the survey. Research fishing operations began in mid-August 2020 and will run through the end of November. Research fishers are conducting hook-and-line sampling at 453 locations across the main Hawaiian islands. They will be deploying the MOUSS stereo-video camera system at 47 locations around Oʻahu and Penguin Bank.

Read the full release here

Council Holds First Virtual Fishers Forum Highlighting Fishermen Contributions to Science and Management

September 1, 2020 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:

More than 100 people participated in the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council’s first virtual Fishers Forum and review of Hawaiʻi small-boat fisheries management Aug. 27, 2020. The theme for the forum was fishermen, particularly non-commercial fishermen, contributing to the knowledge base for fishery scientists and managers. Scientists highlighted research projects that depend upon fishermen input and collaboration to be successful. Council staff informed participants about Hawaiʻi small-boat fishery management regulations currently in place and discussed future options for mandatory permitting and reporting.

Hawaiʻi small-boat fishery management and other matters will be considered by the Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee when it meets Sept. 9-10, 2020, by web conference (Webex) and during the Council meeting Sept. 15-17, 2020, also by web conference with host sites at Cliff Point, 304 W. O’Brien Dr., Hagatna, Guam; Hyatt Regency Saipan, Royal Palm Ave., Micro Beach Rd., Saipan, CNMI; and Department of Port Administration, Airport Conference Rm., Pago Pago International Airport, Tafuna Village, American Samoa. Instructions on connecting to Webex, agendas and briefing documents will be posted at www.wpcouncil.org/meetings-calendars.

Fishermen Helping Science

Molly Lutcavage, Pacific Islands Fisheries Group (PIFG) and Large Pelagics Research Center, demonstrated how fishermen helped to identify tuna movement patterns through fish tagging, which is critical to answering many scientific and management questions. Cassie Pardee and John Wiley, Poseidon Fisheries Research, shared how biosamples provided by fishermen, primarily at fishing tournaments, contributed to the determination of coral reef fish life history characteristics such as life span and reproductive age and size. Justin Hospital, National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Pacific Islands Fishery Science Center (PIFSC), emphasized that fishermen’s responses to socioeconomic surveys is critical to support effective fisheries management because it helps NMFS better understand the fishing community and its motivations and the benefits and costs of regulations, among other issues.

Review of Hawaiʻi Small-Boat Fisheries Management

Council staff gave an overview of Hawaiʻi small-boat fisheries regulations in effect and current sources of fishery data. Non-commercial fishermen are not required to report their fishing effort, catch or participation, resulting in the bulk of the data used in management decisions coming from commercial data logbooks and non-commercial estimates derived from surveys and models, which are highly uncertain. This uncertainty may lead to future possible allocation management measures between non-commercial and commercial sectors.

The Magnuson Stevens Act, under which the Council operates, requires the regular review of fishery ecosystem management plans to evaluate their effectiveness. During his opening remarks at the forum, Ed Watamura, Council vice chair for Hawaiʻi, asked listeners to imagine “fishery regulations that are created and never revisited, never reviewed and never taken off the books, even though they are not working and not enforceable.” In October 2019, the Council directed staff to review Hawaiʻi small-boat fisheries management. The overall process of reviewing regulations includes many steps such as the public scoping meetings held in February 2020 across the state that pointed at the need for non-commercial fishery data, and developing options for mandatory permitting and reporting.

The options presented ranged from taking no action, continuing to rely on existing data gathering methods and potentially leading to impacts from quotas and international management, to mandatory reporting that would provide the data needed for science and management in federal waters but would require fishermen to apply for permits or provide catch reports, something that would be unfamiliar to them.

Since the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Council has worked to resolve conflicts between longline vessels and small-boat fisheries due to overlapping fishing grounds and effort. Longliners from the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean traveled as close as three miles out from the main Hawaiian Islands to set their lines. In response, the Council initiated 50 and 75-mile longline exclusion zones.

Several forum participants expressed concern about the possibility of removing the longline exclusion area, while others echoed the need for more fishery data, asked about plans for additional fish aggregating devices and encouraged the Council to focus their efforts on marketing and promoting local, fresh seafood.