Alexandria, VA. – July 23, 2025 – Yesterday, Senators Rick Scott (R-FL) and Brian Schatz (D-HI) launched the Supporting the Well being of Aquatic Techniques via Analysis, Information, and Enhanced Dialogue (SHARKED) Act.
The bipartisan SHARKED Act directs the Secretary of Commerce to ascertain a process drive devoted to mitigating shark depredation, which is the consumption of a hooked fish earlier than the angler can land it. If enacted, the invoice will convene state and federal fisheries managers, shark consultants, and stakeholders to determine and develop methods and methods to mitigate interactions between sharks and anglers.
“Shark depredation has been on the rise and the SHARKED Act brings collectively consultants to determine significant actions that may be taken to attenuate these dangerous interactions,” mentioned Mike Leonard, Vice President of Authorities Affairs on the American Sportfishing Affiliation. “We applaud Senators Scott and Schatz for recognizing the significance of specializing in shark depredation, which is able to profit each sharks and the sportfishing neighborhood.”
In response to a 2022 examine from College of Mass Amherst, greater than 77% of anglers have skilled shark depredation whereas fishing. That very same 12 months, ASA launched a place assertion calling for a four-step strategy to lowering shark depredation: schooling, improved coordination in shark administration, wise coverage options, and continued analysis.
Shark depredation has turn into a rising problem for saltwater anglers, pushed by recovering shark populations, rising angler exercise and the realized habits of sharks associating fishing boats with straightforward meals. By means of enhancing coordination, analysis, and schooling, the SHARKED Act will convey lengthy overdue consideration to the difficulty of shark depredation whereas enhancing the angler expertise and supporting the sportfishing trade, which supplies $230 billion to the U.S. economic system.
The Home of Representatives handed the SHARKED Act in January 2025, lower than a month after its introduction.
The American Sportfishing Affiliation (ASA) is the sportfishing trade’s commerce affiliation dedicated to representing the pursuits of the sportfishing and boating industries in addition to your entire sportfishing neighborhood. We give the trade and anglers a unified voice when rising legal guidelines and insurance policies might considerably have an effect on sportfishing enterprise or sportfishing itself. ASA invests in long-term ventures to make sure the trade will stay sturdy and affluent, in addition to safeguard and promote the enduring financial, conservation and social values of sportfishing in America. ASA additionally provides America’s 57.7 million anglers a voice in coverage choices that have an effect on their skill to sustainably fish on our nation’s waterways via Hold America Fishing, our nationwide angler advocacy marketing campaign. America’s anglers generate greater than $50 billion in retail gross sales with a $230.5 billion influence on the nation’s economic system creating employment for 1.1 million individuals.
