Sharks play important ecological roles in marine ecosystems. However, due to their life-history traits and low resilience, their vulnerability increases with overexploitation. The Eastern Pacific Ocean (EPO) purse-seine fishery catches several pelagic sharks as bycatch. Therefore, describing the environmental preferences of bycaught sharks is crucial to improve fisheries management. This study aims to describe the environmental preferences and spatiotemporal distribution of most bycaught shark species within the EPO through Generalized Additive Models (GAMs). Results show that the silky shark (C. falciformis) is bycaught in oceanic waters on floating objects, and close to the coast in unassociated and dolphin sets. This species inhabits warm waters with low or high productivity. Oceanic whitetip shark (C. longimanus) is bycaught in warm and oceanic waters with low productivity. Meanwhile, scalloped and smooth hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna lewini & S. zygaena) are bycaught in temperate and productive waters offshore of Peru. The obtained results allowed us to identify hotspots where fisheries management can be implemented, improved, or modified (e.g., temporal closures) for reducing shark bycatch.

鲨鱼在海洋生态系统中发挥着重要的生态作用。然而，由于它们的生活史特征和低恢复力，它们的脆弱性随着过度开发而增加。东太平洋 (EPO) 围网渔业捕获了几条远洋鲨鱼作为副渔获物。因此，描述兼捕鲨鱼的环境偏好对于改善渔业管理至关重要。本研究旨在通过广义加性模型 (GAM) 描述 EPO 内大多数误捕鲨鱼物种的环境偏好和时空分布。结果表明，丝鲨（C. falciformis）是在海洋水域的漂浮物体上被误捕的，靠近海岸的无关联和海豚群。该物种栖息在生产力低或高的温暖水域。远洋白鳍鲨（C. longimanus ) 被误捕在温暖的海洋水域，生产力低下。与此同时，在秘鲁近海温带和肥沃的水域中误捕了扇形和光滑的双髻鲨（Sphyrna lewini & S. zygaena）。获得的结果使我们能够确定可以实施、改进或修改渔业管理（例如，暂时关闭）以减少鲨鱼兼捕的热点。