Sponsors (3)
The bill creates coordinated research, outreach, and formal federal‑state coordination to reduce shark interactions and support fishing communities and researchers, but it imposes taxpayer costs, could prompt new fishing restrictions, and has a short 7‑year sunset that may limit long‑term benefits.
Coastal fishing communities and recreational and commercial anglers will receive coordinated research, guidance, and outreach aimed at reducing shark interactions and depredation, which can lower economic losses and improve on-water safety.
Researchers and fisheries managers (including state agencies) gain new funding pathways and cooperative project structures to study shark depredation, stock impacts, behavior, and non‑lethal deterrents, improving scientific capacity and management options.
States and Regional Fishery Management Councils are provided a formal coordination mechanism linking councils, state agencies, NOAA Fisheries, and researchers to align research priorities and management responses.
Taxpayers may incur additional costs to establish and operate the task force and to fund cooperative research, with no specified offsets or funding sources in the bill.
Regulatory recommendations that emerge from the task force could lead to new restrictions or compliance requirements on fishing practices, increasing costs for commercial and recreational fishers and small fishing businesses.
The bill’s seven-year statutory termination may limit ability to conduct long-term monitoring and adaptive management for ecological changes (for example those driven by climate change), reducing the durability of scientific and management gains.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Establishes a federal Shark Depredation Task Force to set research priorities, recommend management, add cooperative depredation research eligibility, report to Congress, and sunset within seven years.
Official title: Direct the Secretary of Commerce to establish a task force regarding shark depredation, and for other purposes.
Introduced July 16, 2025 by Richard Lynn Scott · Last progress July 16, 2025
Establishes a federal Shark Depredation Task Force to study and address shark depredation (sharks taking or damaging catch) and to coordinate research, management recommendations, and outreach. The task force must identify research priorities (species ID, stock assessments, habituation, angler behavior, non‑lethal deterrents, ecological roles, climate impacts), recommend strategies, produce educational materials, report to Congress within two years and biennially thereafter, and will terminate no later than seven years after creation. The bill also adds shark depredation cooperative research projects to the list of eligible projects under existing cooperative research authorities and clarifies it does not change Endangered Species Act or Magnuson‑Stevens Act authorities.