UH launching advanced degrees in fisheries management

The University of Hawaii has hired eight faculty members for new master’s and doctorate degree programs in sustainable fisheries management, coincidentally as President Donald Trump opened up prohibited fishing areas to Hawaii’s longline fleet.

The idea for the new UH degrees was born three years ago with the goal of merging Western and Native Hawaiian fishing management practices while studying marine species around the Pacific region.

New UH assistant professor Kanoe Morishige, 35, attended Kamehameha Schools, studied Hawaiian studies at UH-Hilo and has a doctorate in marine biology from UH-Manoa. She came to the university this month after working at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument.

Morishige said she wants to help local students, especially female scientists, merge Hawaiian management practices with Western techniques and up-to-­­­date research. Another goal is keeping Hawaii students home instead of having them pursue advanced degrees on the mainland, where they likely will study species not found in Hawaiian waters.

“It’s important to reverse the brain drain, ” Morishige said. “There are a lot of barriers in fisheries science for local students and Indigenous people. There’s not enough Indigenous women in fisheries science. So it’s an exciting moment.”

The program has been scheduled to be in full swing in the fall of 2026 but Morishige this week will begin teaching how to “understand ocean resources through a Native Hawaiian view, values and practices, ” she said.

On April 17, Trump proclaimed that parts of the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument south and west of Hawaii were reopened to commercial fishing in the area of the monument that was expanded under former President Barack Obama.

Eight days later, on April 25, a letter from the National Marine Fisheries Service to all commercial fishing permit holders said the area was open for fishing.

But earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice was unable to convince U.S. District Court Judge Micah W.J. Smith that a president has the ability to sidestep the federal rule-making process and its public comment period.

The ruling represented a temporary victory for conservationists and a hui of Hawaiian cultural practitioners, the Conservation Council for Hawaii and the Center for Biological Diversity.

THE CONCEPT for UH’s new degree program was supported by environmentalists, the longline fishing…