Suit alleges agency’s failure to protect Pacific sharks

A lawsuit filed Tuesday accuses the National Marine Fisheries Service of failing to do its job in protecting the threatened Western and Pacific oceanic whitetip shark.

Earthjustice filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Honolulu on behalf of the Conservation Council for Hawai‘i and Mike Nakachi, a Native Hawaiian cultural practitioner.

The complaint asserts that the National Marine Fisheries Service is allowing Pacific longline fishing fleets to operate off Hawaii and American Samoa even though the agency hasn’t completed the required science about the oceanic whitetip shark populations there.

The Fisheries Service said fishing was the shark’s greatest threat when the species was listed as threatened in 2018 under the Endangered Species Act.

Earthjustice attorney Grace Bauer said the agency formally launched consultations in a mandated exercise designed to shine additional light on the impacts on the sharks.

“They began the process,” Bauer said. “They just haven’t finished it.”

Meanwhile, the agency continues to authorize fishing in the Hawaii and American Samoa longline fisheries without regard to its impact on the sharks, according to the complaint.

A spokeswoman for the Fisheries Service said the agency was unable to comment on matters pertaining to ongoing litigation.

Oceanic whitetip sharks are large, long-lived sharks found in tropical and subtropical oceans around the world. They live in deep water but spend most of their time in the upper part of the water column near the surface, which makes them susceptible to fishing lines.

Oceanic whitetip sharks and other creatures are killed unintentionally as bycatch by longline fishing boats that target fish species such as tuna.

The boats drag hook-filled lines that stretch for miles. Sharks and other species, including manta rays, sea turtles, seabirds and marine mammals get caught and often die when they bite or ingest the hooks.

Oceanic whitetips were once one of the most abundant shark species in the Pacific Ocean. Due in large part to overfishing, however, the population has declined by 80% to 95% since the 1990s, prompting the federal protection.

The Fisheries Service has estimated that several thousand oceanic whitetips are caught each year in the Hawaii longline fisheries, American Samoa longline fishery and U.S. tuna purse seine fishery.

According to the fisheries website, oceanic whitetip sharks are inherently vulnerable to depletion, given their late age of maturity and low reproductive output and “low likelihood of recovery.”

Additional research is needed to better understand the population structure and global abundance of the oceanic whitetip shark, the website says.

Moana Bjur, executive director of the Conservation Council for Hawai‘i, said it’s important to protect the oceanic whitetips because they are predators at the top of the food chain that help to balance the open ocean’s ecosystem.

Bauer said the federal agency must do biological assessments to determine what levels of fishing should be allowed in areas around Hawaii and American Samoa as part of its legal duty to protect Western and Pacific oceanic white­tip sharks under the Endangered Species Act.

The suit asks the court to order the agency to complete the required consultations and render a final biological opinion on the effects of the Hawaii deep-set longline fishery and the American Samoa longline fishery on the oceanic whitetip shark within 90 days.

“We need to hold the Fisheries Service accountable,” Bjur declared.

In related news, the oceanic sharks are formally scheduled to receive extra protection starting May 31 when a new regulation takes effect that bans the use of wire leaders used at the terminal ends of fishing lines near hooks.

They are being replaced by plastic leaders, which offer sharks and other creatures a better chance of survival because they can either bite themselves free or be more easily cut loose by fishermen.

The National Marine Fisheries Service proposed the rule after the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council voted in 2021 to ban the use of wire leaders.

Most of the 160 or so affected vessels in the Hawaii Longline Association’s fleet have already stopped using wire leaders and have switched to monofilament nylon after the association announced it would voluntarily make the switch.

The switch to monofilament leaders is expected to reduce oceanic whitetip catch and mortality by about 30%.

The proposed rule would also require longline fishers in Hawaii and American Samoa to remove trailing gear from caught oceanic white­tip sharks and release them.