August 24, 2023 — NOAA Fisheries plans to test a new fishing device designed by the Hawaii Longline Association along with other gear in the Pacific Islands to see what is safest for marine mammals.
Hawaii fishermen developed the fighting line device in response to concerns over harm to porpoises and sharks caught in fighting gear in the Pacific longline fisheries. The Western Pacific Fishery Management Council (WPFMC) has been working to reduce false killer whale bycatch in tuna fisheries, but weaker hooks developed to straighten out have proven ineffectual. In roughly a decade of usage, the hooks only straightened ten percent of the time.