Sharks Archives - Saving Seafood

The catch with bycatch: Saving sharks goes beyond no-fishing policies

October 8, 2026 — The go-to solution for protecting most marine wildlife is to create designated areas where fishing is strictly prohibited. But when it comes to wide-ranging marine animals — such as fast-moving sharks in the tropical waters of the Galápagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador — there’s a catch.

Bycatch, that is.

The long fishing lines of tuna boats can accidentally drift into the marine reserves, and they often catch a lot more than tuna — mainly, sharks, turtles and sea lions. This unintentional capture is called bycatch.

“People think that by setting a reserve, that’s getting to an outcome, but it’s not,” said Leah Gerber, professor in Arizona State University’s School of Life Sciences and founding director of the Center for Biodiversity Outcomes. “We really wanted to highlight that. What are the implications of this and what really would work?”

Gerber led a new study she co-authored that reveals how data, local knowledge and community collaboration can help shape more effective solutions.

The study compared the efficacy of no-fishing conservation areas with bycatch reduction in the Galápagos Marine Reserve. The researchers ultimately found that reducing bycatch was likely to have a higher conservation impact on sharks.

Read the full article at Arizona State University News

United States Wins Key Measures Benefiting U.S. Fisheries on Pacific Bluefin Tuna and Ensuring Research on Dorado and Billfish

October 8, 2026 — During recent international negotiations, the U.S. delegation to the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission advanced key American economic and conservation priorities. The successes support Executive Order 14276 on “Restoring America’s Seafood Competitiveness” by improving U.S. fishing opportunities, leveling the playing field for U.S. commercial fishermen, and modernizing ocean governance.

At the September 2026 Commission annual meeting in Lisbon, Portugal, 21 nations built consensus on high-priority fisheries and issues, including:

Pacific bluefin tuna
Electronic monitoring
South Pacific albacore
Dorado, South Pacific swordfish, and other billfish
Sharks and seabirds

Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries

Kitty Simonds receives outstanding contribution to Pacific Coast Fisheries Award

October 5, 2026 — The Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission (PSMFC) recognized Kitty M. Simonds, executive director of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, with its Outstanding Contribution to Pacific Coast Fisheries Award during the Commission’s 79th Annual Meeting in Kona, Hawaiʻi.

David Sakoda of the Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Aquatic Resources presented the award during the meeting’s awards luncheon.

“Her career has had a lasting influence not only in the Western Pacific, but nationally and internationally,” Sakoda said. “We are pleased to recognize Kitty today for her exceptional service, leadership and commitment to the people and marine resources of the Pacific.”

Simonds has served as executive director of the Western Pacific Council since 1983, leading the development and implementation of fisheries management strategies across Hawaiʻi and the U.S. Pacific Islands. Under her direction, the Council pioneered regulations on fishing gear including drift gill nets and bottom trawls, as well as the first satellite-based fishery vessel monitoring system in the United States. She also helped transform the Hawaiʻi longline fishery through onboard observer coverage and gear changes that reduced interactions with and mortality of sea turtles, seabirds and sharks. The Council developed the nation’s first Coral Reef Fishery Ecosystem Plan and advanced the integration of local and traditional ecological knowledge into modern fisheries management.

Read the full article at Samoa News

Kitty Simonds Receives Outstanding Contribution to Pacific Coast Fisheries Award

September 30, 2026 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:

The Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission (PSMFC) yesterday recognized Kitty M. Simonds, executive director of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, with its Outstanding Contribution to Pacific Coast Fisheries Award during the Commission’s 79th Annual Meeting in Kona, Hawaiʻi.

David Sakoda of the Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Aquatic Resources presented the award during the meeting’s awards luncheon.

“For Hawaiʻi and the Pacific Islands, fisheries are not simply an industry. They are food security, cultural heritage, jobs and the ability of our communities to have a voice in decisions affecting our waters,” Simonds said when accepting the award. “We can protect our marine resources without sacrificing the American fisheries that put food on our tables. That requires sound science, meaningful conservation and — most importantly — a seat at the table for the communities that depend on these resources.”

PSMFC established the award program in 1987 to recognize individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the conservation, development and management of marine fishery resources. Past recipients include the late U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, who received the award in 2005, and fisheries scientist Dayton L. “Lee” Alverson of Washington, who was recognized in 1999 for his contributions to fisheries management and research.

The recognition comes as Simonds approaches another milestone. Jan. 3, 2027, will mark her 50th anniversary as a staff member of the Western Pacific Council. A native of Maui, Simonds joined the Council in its early years after working on the staff of U.S. Sen. Hiram L. Fong in Washington, D.C., and Honolulu.

The 79th PSMFC Annual Meeting is being held Sept. 27–30 in Kona and is the Commission’s first annual meeting in Hawaiʻi since the state joined PSMFC as a member in 2024. The Commission is also a nonvoting member of the Council. PSMFC’s annual meeting provides a forum for its six member states — Alaska, California, Hawaiʻi, Idaho, Oregon and Washington — and federal and regional partners to share information and discuss fisheries management issues. This year’s agenda includes Hawaiʻi and Pacific fisheries, federal fisheries science and management updates, fisheries data and technology, electronic monitoring, habitat conservation and other regional priorities.

About the Council
The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council is one of eight regional fishery management councils established under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. The Council develops fishery management measures for federal waters surrounding Hawai‘i, American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Pacific Remote Island Areas, working to support sustainable fisheries through science-based management and stakeholder participation.

ALASKA: Trump administration order urges ‘robust’ harvest of sharks, seals and sea lions

September 28, 2026 — The White House this month issued an executive order to support the sportfishing industry by, among other things, paving the way for increased harvests of sharks and pinnipeds, including sea lions and seals.

The order specifically aims to help saltwater anglers, offshore boaters and charter operators — an industry in Alaska that, with its copious fish populations, generates thousands of jobs and more than $1 billion in economic impact, according to the state Department of Fish and Game.

If all of its provisions are enacted, fishing groups say, the directive could improve fish abundance in Alaska by reducing predation by marine mammals. It could also lead to potential conflicts with federal laws that currently protect the animals.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

Atlantic tuna, swordfish and shark fisheries see mixed outlook

September 9, 2026 — Commercial fishermen from New England to the Southeast are seeing a mixed picture across Atlantic highly migratory species, with several major tuna and swordfish stocks remaining in relatively strong conditions while some shark stocks continue to face rebuilding challenges.

NOAA Fisheries released its 2024- 2025 Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation Report for Atlantic Highly Migratory Species on Sept. 4, providing an updated look at tunas, swordfish, billfish, and sharks managed along the East Coast, Gulf, and Caribbean.

For fishermen, the report offers more than a snapshot of stock health. It also shows where commercial landings and revenues are moving, including a notable decline in overall highly migratory species revenue in 2024.

Tuna stocks show some of the stronger signs

Among the major commercial species, North Atlantic albacore remained well above its biomass target and was not considered overfished or subject to overfishing. Atlantic yellowfin and western Atlantic skipjack were also classified as not overfished, with overfishing not occurring.

The picture is less straightforward for bluefin.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Guam fishers say shark deterrents fail as disaster aid remains out of reach

August 17, 2026 — Federal fisheries officials heard a familiar complaint from Guam fishers this month: Sharks are stealing their catch, the fixes on the market don’t work, and the island still has no clear path to federal disaster money when storms wipe out their gear.

The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council and the Pacific Islands Fisheries Group hosted a community meeting last week at the Guam Museum Art Cafe, part of a series of gatherings the groups have held across the region to collect input on federal fisheries policy. The Council’s Guam Advisory Panel followed with its own meeting Aug. 8 at the Council office in Hagåtña, taking up commercial fishing rules inside the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument and 2026 strategic planning.

Last week’s gathering was one of close to 40 meetings the fisheries group has held across the Pacific over the past year and a half, part of an ongoing effort to document fisher concerns for the Council and its federal partners. Those observations feed into the Council’s annual Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation reports, which Jesse Rosario, the Council’s representative in Guam told The Guam Daily Post help shape recommendations on adapting fishery management to a changing climate. The Council is also building an online and mobile app that will let fishers report shifts in fish abundance, currents and weather directly, with a launch targeted for later this year.

Shark depredation, when sharks strip fish off the line before a catch reaches the boat, ranks among the most pressing issues raised by Guam’s small-boat fishers. According to Rosario, the Council held an international workshop on the problem in February that paired fishers with technology developers and scientists working on deterrent devices.

One Guam fisher put a magnetic deterrent that cost him nearly $70 to the test over two days on the water and came away unconvinced. He described attaching the device near the hook, expecting it to disrupt a shark’s electrical receptors before it reached the bait.

Read the full article at The Guam Daily Post

Baby sharks grow up in New Jersey’s back bays. Climate change could threaten the nurseries

July 31, 2026 — New Jersey’s back bays, those lush wetlands that sit between the barrier island beach towns and the mainland, are home to unknown numbers of baby sharks that feast on the American eel, crabs and small fish that thrive in the coastal salt marshes. Giving birth to litters in those food-rich shallow waters like Little Egg Harbor is just about all the maternal care given to the shark pups by their mothers, who swim back out to the Atlantic Ocean soon afterwards.

The tiger shark, the sandbar shark and the smooth dogfish return each summer to the Jersey coast to give birth between June and July, utilizing the safety of shallow waters that are free from predators that would devour their newborns. Although the smooth dogfish can grow to 3 feet long, the babies are no larger than 12 inches at birth and litters range in size from four to 20 pups. The dogfish are benthic feeders, meaning they forage along the bottom of the marsh.

“We all have our favorite shore towns,” said Adrianna Zito-Livingston, an ecologist who works as the climate adaptation project manager for the New Jersey Nature Conservancy. “We come back year after year. The sharks are doing the same thing.”

The Nature Conservancy is working with Monmouth University to research the health of the salt marshes that have become eroded due to the impacts of climate change. As part of that work, researchers like Zito-Livingston are tagging the sharks with acoustic trackers that are then monitored by listening stations placed along the Jersey coast. She said the sharks provide a good indication of the health of the salt marshes.

“In a lot of ways, sharks are a canary in the coal mine,” she said. “They’re top predators and healthy sharks with a good distribution are indicative of healthy, diverse ecosystems.”

Read the full article at WHYY

ASGA: Striped Bass Accountability Requires More Than Blaming Menhaden

July 13, 2026 — The American Saltwater Guides Association has published a blog post urging its membership and the broader recreational fishing community not to avoid accountability by blaming the diminished striped bass population on a lack of one forage species—Atlantic menhaden—while ignoring the central problem that anglers are “killing more fish than are being born.”

ASGA makes clear that menhaden are critically important to the Atlantic ecosystem and that the organization remains committed to responsible menhaden advocacy. But the post also warns against reducing striped bass conservation to an oversimplified message that “more menhaden = more stripers.” As ASGA explains, “while stripers and bunkers are ecologically connected, their advocacy demands nuance,” and any group claiming that menhaden campaigns alone are the reason anglers are catching large striped bass this year is “a major disservice to striped bass advocates.”

The blog post also highlights what fishermen know from experience: striped bass are opportunistic predators. Anglers on ASGA’s Guide Post Podcast described striped bass feeding on squid, sand eels, river herring, hickory shad, mackerel, crabs, glass minnows, eels, and other forage species depending on season, geography, and conditions. Capt. Ray Jarvis put it plainly: “Striped bass eat everything.” He also cautioned that blaming striped bass declines on a single factor makes people believe “there’s a simple solution to this problem… but it’s not that simple.”

ASGA’s central point is an important one: blaming menhaden, climate change, seals, sharks, or any other single factor may be politically convenient, but it does not replace the need for accountability in striped bass management. As the post says, the harder truth is that “as a collective angling body we are killing more fish than are being born.” That is the conservation challenge that cannot be avoided.

Read the post here

GEORGIA: NOAA says snapper permits top priority locally in ‘America-first’ seafood strategy

July 8, 2026 — A new federal push could have a big impact on fishermen in Coastal Georgia and the Lowcountry.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association announced a new “America First” seafood strategy aimed at boosting the U.S. seafood industry July 2. The plan focuses on supporting commercial fishermen, cutting regulations and expanding access to domestic seafood.

For the South Atlantic region, which includes Georgia and South Carolina, NOAA officials said its priorities are to revise the Snapper Grouper permit policies and support state agency led exempted permits for red snapper.

Read the full article at WSAV