“You’ll know,” says Kydd Pollock, fisheries science manager for The Nature Conservancy and research leader for the Fishing for Science program at Palmyra Atoll.He had substantial experience with a form of hand line: He tagged more than 2,500 sharks at Palmyra using the method.

Now, a new database of seabird restoration projects will aid these conservation efforts, providing an essential resource for practitioners working to protect the world’s most imperiled group of birds.TNC is using social attraction tools, like decoys and sound systems, to restore seabird populations on Palmyra.

On the next Fishing for Science trip in February of this year, a scientific angler caught a bluefin trevally that had been tagged on February 6, 2020, at liberty for 753 days.Giant trevally caught and tagged on a Fishing for Science trip in February 2022.

© Kydd Pollock / TNC My fishing partner, Kawika Auld, a master angler from Hawaii, is already by the side of the boat, gloves on and ready to go.After 10 days, we had tagged more than 240 trevally, more than any previous Fishing for Science trip.

That is thanks to an innovative partnership called FAD Watch Program between conservation and industry, specifically the US tuna fishing fleet, that is remotely tracking FADs to protect Palmyra, and provide important oceanographic data as well.

To that end, TNC is working with partners, including the USFWS, to derive lessons and best practices to maximize Palmyra’s resilience in the face of climate change by eradicating black rats, realigning the native rainforest, and reintroducing endangered bird species.