An advisory panel that oversees fishing in federal waters around Hawai'i has approved a proposal that would ban shark feeding by commercial tour operators.

The recommendation by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council must be approved by the U.S. Department of Commerce. If approved, the measure would prohibit the practice of feeding or chumming for sharks in federal waters around the Hawaiian Islands.

The measure, however, would allow chumming in conjunction with fishing or traditional Hawaiian cultural or religious practices.

The state has a similar law that prohibits the feeding of sharks in state waters if it's part of a commercial activity. State waters extend three miles from shore. The proposal would extend the prohibition to federal waters beyond the three-mile mark.

Supporters of the federal measure say the ban is needed because of the large number of sharks that they say two North Shore businesses are attracting. North Shore Shark Adventures and Hawai'i Shark Encounters take their boats three miles offshore of Hale'iwa where customers get into a cage and have a chance to view the sharks.

Critics say that not only are more sharks coming to the area, but the tours have also "trained" the sharks to follow the sound of a boat. Many people have said they are afraid to dive, surf or fish off Hale'iwa because of the increase in shark sightings.

The measure would ban shark feeding, but not the tour operations.

"These guys are taking out buckets of palu (chum) before the first tour goes out," said Edwin Ebisui, a member of the council and Hale'iwa resident. "They dump big amounts of palu to attract the sharks. Then they go back and pick up their first tour and throughout the day (the sharks) continue to feed."

But the owners of the two businesses said they don't always use bait to attract the sharks because the creatures are already in the area.

Joe Pavsek, owner of North Shore Shark Adventures, said he anchors his boat where crabbers fish and that it's the crabbers, not the shark-viewing tours, that lure the sharks.

"We don't always feed. We don't have to," said Pavsek, who began his business six years ago. "I didn't train these sharks. For 40 years these guys have been trapping crabs and they're trained already. That's why they'll go to most any boat."

Pavsek said if the ban were to take effect that it likely won't hurt his business because the crabbers will still be in the area.

"If I wanted to I could just pull up right next to them while they're pulling their traps, drop my cage and I can get a shark tour," Pavsek said.

Jimmy Hall, owner of Hawai'i Shark Encounters, said he and Pavsek got into the business because they knew the sharks were already out there.

"If what they said were true, if we were endangering anyone, I wouldn't do it," Hall said. "Regardless of the law, I wouldn't do it if it were dangerous."

But Ebisui said the tours have had an adverse impact in the area. Ebisui, 55, said he has fished, surfed and swam in waters off Hale'iwa all of his life and noticed a sharp increase in the number of sharks in recent years.

On a recent fishing excursion, Ebisui said his boat was surrounded by 20 sharks as he made his way back to shore.

"The point is that there's an artificial aggregation of these sharks to a super density," Ebisui said. "There's a big-time difference. I also surf and we see them in the surfline all the time now."

Hall had worked for Pavsek before starting his own business three years ago. The two remain friends and said they will fight the measure because they feel they are being unfairly targeted by the council.

"To most people, a shark is a shark is a shark, there's no difference," Hall said. "They don't know that the sharks that we normally see, that there's no case of them ever biting anyone. But they don't care. It's unfortunate."

One issue that must be resolved before the measure can be adopted is whether the council has jurisdiction over the shark tours. The council is the policy-making body for fishing activity, which Hall and Pavsek said does not include their kind of operation.

Ebisui acknowledged that an attorney for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration general counsel's office said that shark-viewing was not a fishing activity and therefore did not fall under the council's jurisdiction. But Ebisui said it was not a formal opinion and the council voted to advance the measure.

"That's not determinative of what we should or should not do. I mean, there's a huge public safety issue here," Ebisui said.

Reach Curtis Lum at culum@honoluluadvertiser.com.