Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council Convenes in Honolulu
Members of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee are scheduled to convene in Honolulu Sept. 11-13 to address issues impacting fisheries management in the Pacific Islands.
The seven agenda items include the Guam bottomfish rebuilding plan and the Guam bottomfish data for future assessments.
The committee may provide recommendations on modifications to the bottomfish rebuilding plan and review projections to rebuild the stock by 2031, in alignment with the Mariana Archipelago Fishery Ecosystem Plan.
The SSC is also expected to consider the Western Pacific Stock Assessment Review report on Guam bottomfish data and discuss how this data may be used in future stock assessments, including single-species and multi-model assessments.
The Hawaii Shallow-Set Longline Fishery Tori Line Experiment is also up for review, with results to be discussed from an experimental fishing project that tested tori (bird scaring) lines as a seabird bycatch mitigation measure.
Other agenda items include identifying priorities for 2025 from the adopted 2025-2026 Magnuson-Stevens Reauthorization Act research priorities. The SSC said the list may be ranked in order of importance to inform regional National Marine Fisheries Service research activities for next year.
An analysis of foreign fleet impacts on false killer whale populations is on the agenda, to provide
information on managing interactions in Hawaii’s deep-set longline fishery.
Also on the agenda is a review of the striped marlin rebuilding plan, to inform the U.S. delegation at the upcoming Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission meeting. The aim is to meet WCPFC targets of rebuilding the stock to 20% of unfished biomass by 2034.
