What's the source of your SH4 copy.. disk, Steam, Ubi... out of a magician's magic hat...???
Ok, that's a bit better... Now knowing what mods you're working with, will help...
Ok.. & I thought I had added in a lot of mods into a mix...
With your mod soup du jour there, am not even sure where to begin... could well be, of needing to activate 1 other mod... (hand crafted to ease off on the sampans... etc., that you asked about...
) editing 1 of those in the mix... could well be having to drop one... at this juncture... won't even attempt to hazard a guess here... not even a WAG...
At this point, am hoping that 1, of the others here, can be able to know & outline just what would be needed... to get you where you want to be on the excessive small fry ship encounters issue.
Best to you, on finding the info/settings your looking for on that issue.
M. M.