Engaging Hawaiʻi small boat fishers to mitigate pelagic shark mortality

This project examines West Hawaiʻi small boat fisher perspectives on pelagic shark interactions and fisheries management. A recent listing of the oceanic whitetip shark under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) has stimulated interest in poorly documented fisher-shark interactions of Hawaiʻi. We conducted semi-structured interviews with West Hawaiʻi small boat fishers to supplement limited scientific understanding of fisher-shark interactions in Hawaiʻi, elicit fisher perspectives on shark interactions and local fisheries management more broadly, and shed light on the viability of different approaches to mitigate shark mortality and engage with fishing communities. By partnering with and observing a community-based shark-tagging project based primarily in the West Hawaiʻi community, we illuminated fishers’ relationships with one another, fisheries managers and scientists, and the sharks they encounter.