Fishing Line Change Could Be Lifeline For Oceanic Whitetip Sharks

It's been announced that The Hawaii Longline Association is making welcome changes to its fleet’s fishing equipment to help ensure the endangered Oceanic Whitetip shark doesn't swim into extinction just yet.

Come July, the fleet’s 140 vessels plan to replace the steel wire fishing leaders at the ends of their fishing lines with ones made from less-lethal nylon, or monofilament.

It's said this change will help the endangered and overfished sharks, local fishing officials and industry watchdogs say, because they can bite through the nylon more easily and free themselves when they’re accidently caught.

It’s a much-welcomed change to help a species of shark that was once plentyful in the central and western Pacific Ocean before commercial fishing and demand for shark fins destroyed their numbers, ocean conservationists say.

At the moment this change to nylon is a drop in the ocean, as a report from the National Marine Fisheries Service found that 53,500 oceanic whitetip sharks were caught by western and central Pacific fishing fleets each year between 2013 and 2017.

Longline fishing kills millions of sharks every year

That includes an estimated 1,700 catches a year by Hawaii’s longline boats. So other fleets that catch the shark will need to follow suit for it to make any significant impact.

But, it is at least a step in the right direction and the hope is now that more fleets will follow their example.

Words by Dean Newman

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