2026-03-11T06:15:00-0400 / CBS新闻
更新于：2026年3月11日 / 美国东部时间上午6:21 / 美联社
近年来，在夏威夷，以捕捞诸如ehu、onaga以及新年期间餐桌上颇受欢迎的红鱼（red opakapaka）等珍贵底栖鱼类为生的本地小型渔船渔民，发现鲨鱼突然增多，它们会突然袭击并抢走渔获。这一情况令人担忧。
“他们基本上在赔钱，因为鱼都抓不到了。”倡导组织夏威夷渔民保护与传统联盟（Hawaii Fishermen’s Alliance for Conservation and Tradition）主席菲尔·费尔南德斯（Phil Fernandez）表示，“鱼市场不会收购有咬痕的鱼。”
他指出，这种被称为“鲨鱼盗食”（shark depredation）的事件在夏威夷沿海水域及太平洋其他地区变得愈发普遍，以至于许多底栖鱼类捕捞者、拖网渔民及其他依靠渔获为生的渔民濒临放弃这一行业。
一些渔民将此类盗食行为戏称为“向鲨鱼纳税”，而这“税款”正日益增加。报告显示，在夏威夷水域，每四次有执照的捕捞航行中，至少有一次会出现鲨鱼咬食渔获的情况。水生生物学家布莱恩·石田（Bryan Ishida）表示，这一比例目前处于该州有相关数据记录的约20年以来的最高水平。
针对鲨鱼对特定化学物质、电荷和磁场的厌恶而研发的各种驱鲨剂，已在佛罗里达等其他地区被海洋游泳者和渔民使用并上市销售。
然而，太平洋地区的研究人员和渔民刚刚开始测试这些驱鲨剂，以确定哪种类型和设计在当地效果最佳。到目前为止，测试结果好坏参半。
“就我个人而言，我对西太平洋的情况并不十分了解，所以我很想实地测试。”研发公司SharkDefense的合伙人埃里克·斯特劳德（Eric Stroud）说道，该公司生产化学驱鲨剂。
他特别希望前往关岛，因为那里的盗食事件尤为严重。他想研究当地人的捕鱼方式，并看看他的公司如何能为他们提供驱鲨剂。
去年，西太平洋地区渔业管理委员会（Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council）举办了一系列听证会，太平洋地区渔民将鲨鱼盗食列为最紧迫的问题之一。该组织于今年2月举行了后续研讨会，进一步解决该问题，并计划在3月17日的西太平洋科学与统计委员会会议上报告调查结果。
与此同时，夏威夷大学马诺阿分校夏威夷海洋生物研究所的科学家们正在培训当地渔民使用法医DNA检测试剂盒，对被咬过的鱼进行分析，以追踪究竟是哪种鲨鱼种类抢走了他们的渔获。
研究所官员表示，他们还在长期追踪鲨鱼的活动，以观察它们多久会造访关键渔场，最终试图减少与小型渔船渔民的遭遇。
“我们正在开展首次真正全面的努力，”研究所研究教授卡尔·迈耶（Carl Meyer）在一份电子邮件摘要中表示，“以了解并减轻这些渔业中的鲨鱼盗食问题。”
类似的鲨鱼偷鱼事件也在加利福尼亚、马萨诸塞州和南卡罗来纳州发生。
磁场与刺鼻驱鲨剂
自20世纪80年代末起，费尔南德斯就一直在科纳海岸外进行拖网捕鱼。他表示，在夏威夷岛开始捕鱼时，鲨鱼盗食并非问题。他称，此类事件仅在过去20年开始出现，并在过去几年中成为小型渔船渔民的严重关切。
斯特劳德等人表示，目前尚不清楚这种掠夺行为为何会增加。一些人怀疑，气候变化导致海水升温，将鲨鱼的猎物驱赶到了不同区域。
“有很多猜测，”费尔南德斯说，许多渔民认为当地的礁鲨、加拉帕戈斯鲨、虎鲨以及来访的远洋白鳍鲨已经学会将小型渔船与容易获取食物联系起来。
经常在莫洛凯岛附近企鹅银行（Penguin Banks）渔场作业的小型渔船，现在会不断移动以避开附近的鲨鱼。费尔南德斯补充道，一些渔民一捕到鱼就会关闭引擎，因为他们担心鲨鱼会将螺旋桨的声音与容易获取的食物联系起来。
“鲨鱼非常聪明，”他说。
鲨鱼对磁场也有独特的敏感度，而渔民捕捞的ahi（黄鳍金枪鱼）和其他鱼类则没有这种敏感度。开发商已研制出利用磁铁和金属合金在水中产生磁场的产品，以在鲨鱼靠近几英尺内时驱离它们。
斯特劳德表示，磁场可能非常有效——就像在它们眼前闪强光一样。
他说，要成功使用这些驱鲨剂，需要设计出价格亲民且能与各地区使用的渔具无缝配合的产品。费尔南德斯称，一些测试已在科纳海岸外展开，但到目前为止，他们使用的电磁驱鲨剂在当地使用并不实用。
“它们太长且形状不对，”他说，“鱼钩往往会缠住这些装置，现在鱼钩都缠在一起了。所以这仍是一个正在进行的工作。”
其他驱鲨剂会在鱼钩和诱饵附近的水中产生电荷，斯特劳德说这些装置每个售价在150至300美元之间。
斯特劳德的公司生产一种闻起来像腐烂鲨鱼的化学驱鲨剂。他表示，一些化学物质是合成的，但大部分是从佛罗里达海岸合法捕捞的鲨鱼身上提取的。在夏威夷，所有鲨鱼捕捞均被禁止。
斯特劳德称，SharkDefense的化学驱鲨剂是一种类似黄油的材料，要么混入捕鱼诱饵中，要么放在鱼钩旁的笼子里溶解在水中。每个鱼钩成本约1美元。
斯特劳德补充道，使用多种驱鲨剂可能更有效，因为鲨鱼有时在受到过度刺激或淹没时会暂时“关闭”某种感官。如果鲨鱼关闭电磁感应，化学驱鲨剂可能会作为备用手段发挥作用。
远洋渔业科学家马克·菲奇特（Mark Fitchett）表示，当地小型渔船渔民对鲨鱼及其日益严重的盗食行为持有不同看法。他称，许多渔民感到厌烦，认为鲨鱼从过多的环境保护中受益，而另一些渔民则将这种变化视为相对健康生态系统的代价。
“他们中的很多人也意识到，这些动物在某种程度上是……海洋的园丁，这是他们岛屿文化的一部分，”他说，“所以他们对这些动物怀有一定的尊重。”
菲奇特表示，现在的问题是他们能接受多少盗食行为，同时仍能继续捕鱼。
西太平洋区域渔业管理委员会将在3月24日至26日的下一次季度会议上进一步讨论该问题，并计划在会议后几周内发布更详细的报告。
Galapagos Sharks are seen in the Pacific Ocean off Oahu, Hawaii in this undated file photo. Reinhard Dirscherl/ullstein bild via Getty Images
Sharks are taking a bigger bite of fishermen’s catch in Hawaii: “Paying the tax man”
2026-03-11T06:15:00-0400 / CBS News
Updated on: March 11, 2026 / 6:21 AM EDT / AP
In recent years, local small-boat fishers who pursue prized bottomfish such as ehu, onaga and the red opakapaka that’s popular on table spreads across Hawaii each New Year’s have seen a troubling spike in sharks that swoop in and tear their catch off the hook.
“They’re basically losing money because they can’t bring in the fish,” said PhilFernandez, president of the advocacy group Hawaii Fishermen’s Alliance for Conservation and Tradition. “The fish markets won’t buy a fish that has a bite on it.”
The growing incidents, known as shark depredation, have grown so common in Hawaii’s coastal waters and other parts of the Pacific, he said, that many of those bottomfishers, trollers and others who rely on the catch for their livelihood are on the verge of giving up the trade.
Some fishers call such depredation “paying the tax man,” and the tax is growing. Reports indicate sharks now bite off catch in at least 1 of every 4 licensed fishing trips out on Hawaiian waters. The rates are currently at their highest on record in the 20 or so years the state has been collecting that data, aquatic biologist Bryan Ishida said.
Various shark repellents that exploit the animals’ aversion to certain chemicals, electric charges and magnetic fields are already for sale and used by ocean swimmers and fishers in other regions, such as Florida, where recreational fishing is a big draw.
However, researchers and fishers in the Pacific have only just started testing those repellents to see which types and designs might work best locally. So far, the results have been mixed.
“Personally, I didn’t really know anything about the Western Pacific, and so I would love to get out there and test,” said Eric Stroud, a managing partner with the research and development company SharkDefense, which makes chemical repellents.
He’s interested in getting to Guam in particular because incidents there are especially high. He wants to study how people there fish and see how his company could supply them with repellents.
Shark depredation was among the most pressing issues that fishers around the Pacific raised during a series of listening sessions that the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council held last year. The group held a follow-up workshop in February on efforts to further address the problem and plans to report on the findings at Wespac’s next Scientific and Statistical Committee meeting March 17.
Meanwhile, scientists with the University of Hawaii Mānoa’s Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology are training local fishers to use forensic DNA kits on torn and bitten fish to trace which shark species nabbed their catch.
They’re also tracking shark movements over time to see how often they visit key fishing grounds, institute officials said, to ultimately try and reduce those encounters with small-boat fishers.
“We are building the first truly comprehensive effort,” institute research professor Carl Meyer said in an emailed summary, “to understand and mitigate shark depredation in these fisheries.”
Similar incidents of sharks stealing fish have unfolded in California, Massachusetts and South Carolina.
Magnetic fields and stinky erpellants
Fernandez, who’s been troll-fishing off the Kona Coast since the late 1980s, said shark depredation wasn’t an issue on Hawaii island when he started fishing there. The incidents only started to emerge in the past 20 years, he said, and then grew into a serious concern for small-boat fishers in the past several years.
It’s still not clear what’s causing the uptick in plundering, Stroud and others said. Some suspect it’s related to warming waters due to climate change driving the fish that sharks prey on to different areas.
“There’s a lot of speculation,” Fernandez said. Many fishermen think the local reef, Galapagos and tiger sharks as well as pelagic oceanic whitetips that visit the area have learned to associate small fishing boats with an easy way to grab a meal.
Galapagos Sharks are seen in the Pacific Ocean off Oahu, Hawaii in this undated file photo. Reinhard Dirscherl/ullstein bild via Getty Images
Small boats that frequent the Penguin Banks fishing grounds — which are off of Molokaʻi — now constantly move around to avoid sharks spotted nearby. Some fishers turn off their engines the moment they catch a fish, Fernandez added, because they’re worried sharks connect the sound of the propeller to an easy meal.
“Sharks,” he said, “are very smart.”
They also have a unique sensitivity to magnetic fields that the ahi and other fish species sought by fishers don’t have. Developers have made products that use magnets and metal alloys to create magnetic fields in the water as a result to repel the sharks when they get within a few feet.
The magnetic fields can be very effective, Stroud said — akin to flashing a bright light in their eyes.
What’s needed to succeed, he said, is to design the repellents so they’re affordable and work seamlessly with the fishing gear used across various regions. Some of those tests have started off the Kona Coast, Fernandez said, but so far the electromagnetic repellents they’ve used aren’t very practical for fishing there.
“They’re too long and they’re the wrong shape,” he said. “The hooks tend to wrap around these devices, and now the hooks are all tangled up. So it’s a work in progress.”
Other repellents produce an electric charge in the water near the hook and bait, and Stroud said those devices tend to cost between $150 and $300 apiece.
Stroud’s company produces a chemical repellant that smells like decaying sharks. Some of the chemicals are synthetic, he said, but much of it is harvested from sharks caught legally off the Florida coast. In Hawaii, all shark fishing is prohibited.
The SharkDefense chemicals are part of a butter-like material, Stroud said, that’s either mixed into fishing chum or placed in a cage by the hook to melt in the water. It costs about $1 per hook, he said.
It might make sense, Stroud added, to use multiple types of repellants because sharks can sometimes “turn off” a sense temporarily when they get too stimulated or overwhelmed. If the shark turns off its electromagnetic sense, he said, the chemical repellent could work as a backup.
Mark Fitchett, a pelagic fisheries scientist, said local small-boat fishers hold a range of views on the sharks and their growing depredation. Many of them are fed up and believe the sharks benefit from too many environmental protections, Fitchett said, but other fishers see the changes as the cost of having a relatively healthy ecosystem.
“A lot of them also recognize that it’s part of their island culture that these animals are sort of … the gardeners of the water,” he said. “So there’s that respect for the animal.”
Now, Fitchett said, the question is how much depredation they can accept and still keep going.
Wespac will further discuss the issue at its next quarterly meeting, March 24-26, at the Ala Moana Hotel. Fitchett said the council plans to release a more detailed report on the situation several weeks after the meeting.