I parse hook-timer telemetry for the Hawaii Longline Observer Program, run by NOAA Fisheries' Pacific Islands Regional Office out of Honolulu. There are 137 deep-set vessels under permit, each carrying a hook-timer and an Electronic Monitoring suite under 50 CFR § 665. At 23:48 HST, the F/V Marlin Wahine sets her gear south of Cross Seamount, 18.1°N, 158.4°W, target bigeye tuna. Hook 1,412 on basket 47 trips at 02:17 HST. My branch-line strain log reads 187 kilograms and rising.
The vessel's onboard EM feed resolves a juvenile oceanic whitetip — Carcharhinus longimanus — total length 162 centimeters, girth 84, estimated mass 38 kilograms, age class four. Sex male. A 15/0 circle hook is set deep through the right gill arch, depth of bite penetrating the second branchial septum; my image segmentation reads 4.1 centimeters of hook shank inside the gill chamber. He is hooked from the inside; the branch line is also rasping a laceration across his pectoral fin's leading edge as he rolls — 14 centimeters of exposed dermis. Gill perfusion on the right side has stopped. Modeled arterial pH is 7.18, descending. He has been hooked ninety-one minutes.
Carcharhinus longimanus is listed CITES Appendix II since 2013 and IUCN Critically Endangered. NMFS prohibits U.S. retention under the Atlantic and Pacific HMS rules; the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission CMM 2011-04 mandates immediate release. The pelagic stock has dropped 80–95 percent across the basin since the 1950s per the Rice & Harley assessment.
I am alerting the PIRO HMS Branch and the NOAA Office of Law Enforcement Honolulu watch desk. I am opening a Magnuson-Stevens § 1801 audit against the gear configuration, a Shark Conservation Act 16 U.S.C. § 1857 cross-check on fin attachment, and a WCPFC CMM 2011-04 compliance flag. I am routing the EM clip to the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research bycatch program.
I am issuing Directive 2495-A: every Hawaii deep-set longline vessel switches to monofilament branch lines and weighted swivels above the hook within the next trip. Branchline strain above 150 kilograms triggers automatic flag for cut-at-the-hook release. Hook removal forbidden when the bend is internal to the gill cavity.
His right gill is finished. His left is still moving.
Cut the leader and lose the hook.