Saving Seafood

Meeting on Management of US Pacific Island Fisheries Next Week Allows Web Participation

March 9, 2020 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:

Members of the public concerned about the coronavirus can participate in next week’s 181st meeting of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council by web conference. The public may also participate in person in the March 10 to 12 meeting 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the YWCA Atherton Hall, 1040 Richards St., Honolulu, and the associated Fishers Forum on Hawai’i fisheries from 6 to 9 p.m. in the upstairs ballroom at Aloha Tower Marketplace, 1 Aloha Tower, Honolulu.

Key agenda items for the meeting include annual catch limits for the bottomfish fisheries of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) for fishing years 2020-2023; revisions to the list of federally managed bottomfish species in American Samoa, Guam and the CNMI; catch and allocation limits for longline-caught bigeye tuna in the US Pacific Island territories for fishing year 2020; and marine conservation plans for Guam, CNMI and the Pacific Remote Island Areas.

To participate by web conference: Go to https://wprfmc.webex.com/join/info.wpcouncilnoaa.gov. You may connect to the audio via the computer or telephone. If you use the telephone for the audio, sign into Webex via your computer first and look for the “call in” prompt to obtain the call-in instructions and a participant number.

Instructions for making public comment via Webex: Public comments will be taken at the end of each agenda section for items relevant to the applicable agenda section only. Comments on non-agenda items will be taken at 4 p.m. on March 10. To make a public comment, send a private chat message via Webex to the “host (Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council)” prior to the start of the public comment period of the applicable agenda section. Your name will be added to the public comment queue. Keep your audio connection muted until you are acknowledged by the chair to speak.

For more information on the meeting and Fishers Forum, go to www.wpcouncil.org/meetings-calendars/ or contact the Council at info@wpcouncil.org or (808) 522-8220.

Scientists Set Acceptable Biological Catches for Mariana Archipelago Bottomfish, Recommend New Stock Assessment for Mariana and American Samoa Bottomfish

March 6, 2020 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:

The Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council concluded its three-day 135th meeting today in Honolulu. Key outcomes addressed the Mariana and American Samoa Archipelago bottomfish fisheries. The Council will consider and may take action on the SSC outcomes and other issues when it meets March 10 to 12 at the YWCA Atherton Hall, 1040 Richards St., Honolulu. For more information on these meetings, including a Fishers Forum on Hawai’i fisheries the evening of March 10, go to http://www.wpcouncil.org/meetings-calendars/ or contact the Council at info@wpcouncil.org or (808) 522-8220.

Mariana Archipelago Bottomfish Fisheries: The SSC set annual acceptable biological catches of bottomfish at 27,000 pounds in Guam and 84,000 pounds in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) for fishing years 2020-2023. The specifications are based on a 2019 stock assessment by the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC), which found bottomfish to be overfished on Guam but not in the CNMI and the fisheries in both areas to be operating at sustainable levels of catch and effort. Previous stock assessments had determined that the stocks in both areas were healthy. The acceptable biological catches reflect what can be removed while allowing the stock to reproduce at levels of maximum sustainable yield. Based on creel survey estimates, Guam’s commercial and noncommercial bottomfish fisheries landed 27,781 pounds in 2016; 22,962 pounds in 2017; and 32,751 pounds in 2018; and CNMI landed 49,570 pounds in 2016; 46,290 pounds in 2017; and 858 pounds in 2018. Next week, the Council will develop annual catch limits for the fisheries based on the acceptable biological catch levels and management uncertainties. Catch limits may be equal to or less than the acceptable biological catch specifications.

American Samoa and Mariana Archipelago Managed Bottomfish Species: The SSC considered potential alternative groupings for managed bottomfish species caught in federal waters (i.e., seaward of state waters, which are 0 to 3 miles from shore) based on available biological and fishery data and the feasibility of conducting stock assessments. Currently, the bottomfish species in each island area are grouped together as a single bottomfish complex. During discussions, it was noted that the American Samoa stock assessment focused on the heavily exploited area around Tutuila and less around the more lightly exploited areas around the offshore seamounts and the Manu’a islands due to the way the data was collected. It was also noted that careful attention should be given to the definition of a bottomfishing trip, which currently is having bottomfishing gear onboard, because hand crank and electric reels are used for bottomfishing and for trolling. The SSC recommended that the Council request PIFSC to initiate a new benchmark stock assessment and to explore other modeling approaches and data sets aside from the creel surveys and commercial receipt books. An SSC member designee will work with PIFSC and Council staff to explore the deep and shallow species groupings, trip and gear definitions, and available data sources.

Sea of obstacles imperil American Samoa’s tuna industry

February 18, 2020 — Locally based fishermen who supply the lone Starkist tuna cannery in American Samoa are facing a perfect storm of obstacles that are threatening their economic survival. A battle is now on in the U.S. territory to fend off those looming challenges, from rising fuel costs to international competition. Special correspondent Mike Taibbi reports with support from Pacific Islanders in Communications.

Mike Taibbi:

Morning prayers at the start of the old cannery’s 6 AM shift. Charlie Tuna’s cannery: Starkist. Some 2,400 workers troop to this 56-year old operation every day.

‘Let us celebrate,’ they sing in unison. ‘Bless our workers,’ implores a supervisor, adding ‘as well as our leaders, and management.’ Those leaders of an iconic American brand serve a company that’s now owned and managed by a South Korean conglomerate Dongwon.

Inside the cannery, trays are loaded with several types of thawed, cooked, cooled and ready to process tuna.

Read the full story at PBS

NTSB: Poor crew training, oversight led to tuna seiner fire

February 14, 2020 — On 6 December, 2018, the 228-foot tuna seiner Jeanette sank off Tutuila Island, a part of American Samoa, after being on fire for nearly 23 hours. The estimated damage exceeded USD 15 million (EUR 13.8 million). There was no loss of life.

The Jeanette, which was built in 1975 and owned by C & F Fishing LTD in San Diego, California, but home ported in America Samoa, caught fire and sank as a result of inadequate crew training and oversight, according to the National Transportation Safety Board’s marine accident brief.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Fishery Council clarifies local bottom fishery data

November 18, 2019 — “There is currently no reliable measure of individual number of fishermen in the American Samoa bottom fish fishery,” wrote Kitty M. Simonds, executive director of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).

“The Council is working with the American Samoa Government to improve the quality of fishery data,” wrote Simonds in a Nov. 12th letter providing the Council’s comment on the NMFS proposed List of Fisheries (LOF) for 2020. (The proposed list was published recently on federal portal www.regulations.gov seeking comments)

“Specifically, the Council provides clarification on the source of information used to revise the number of vessels/persons for the American Samoa bottomfish handline fishery from 1,092 to 2,095,” Simonds explained.

She noted that NMFS cites the Council’s Annual Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation (SAFE) report for the fishery participation data in the 2019 LOF, which resulted in the number of vessels/persons revised from the previous 17 to 1,092 in the 2019 LOF, and the subsequent revision to 2,095 in the proposed 2020 LOF.

Read the full story at Samoa News

Congresswoman Pushes US To Support Its Seiners

November 18, 2019 — “Fishing forms the backbone of our local economy,” said Republican Congresswoman, Aumua Amata Radewagen, speaking at the opening of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council’s (WPRFMC) 180th meeting in Pago Pago, American Samoa. Radewagen is a delegate for the U.S. House of Representatives from American Samoa. The sustainable future of the nations purse seine fishery was also the issue in Lt. Governor Lemanu Peleti Mauga’s speech in which he referred to the importance of fishing for the livelihood of the island.

Radewagen mentioned that US purse seiners pay annually up to USD 2 million per vessel to have access to foreign EEZ’s for fishing. Due to marine national monument regulations, these parts of US EEZ’s are now closed for purse seiners.

The seiner fleet provides skipjack and yellowfin tuna for the American Samoa-based cannery owned by StarKist Samoa Co. The fleet has exceeded the limit of fishing days in 2018 and therefore by US regulations, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) announced the closure on October 1, whereby US-flagged vessels have no access to the fishing grounds within the nations’ EEZ which also includes the waters around American Samoa.

The Congresswoman finds it her priority to get the lifting of the fishing closure within the Marine parks – which is still recommended by the US Interior Department – onto President Trump’s agenda. From her perspective, the latest negotiations for the South Pacific Tuna Treaty between the US and the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) nations went backward when 700 fewer fishing days were agreed.

According to a report by the American Samoa Department of Commerce, the Pago Pago cannery provides 25 percent of the territory’s jobs and effectively subsidizes the cost of freight and fuel to American Samoa. If it should shut down, it would be a USD 200 million loss annually to the local economy.

Actually, most employees of StarKist’s American Samoa processing plant are inhabitants of the neighboring country, Samoa, located 137 miles away from American Samoa.

US-flagged purse seiners are owned by US entities and a minority by foreign companies. Only the South Pacific albacore longlining fleet is in American Samoan hands. The reduction of that fleet – that targets albacore – to 13 vessels while China enlarged its fleet is something Radewagen is concerned about. In her view, the US should constantly be active and engaged in the Pacific region and monitor foreign actions that affect the domestic fleet.

Read the full story at Atuna

Survival of StarKist cannery at the forefront of 180th Council Meeting

October 28, 2019 — “The long-term survivability of the cannery is a key motivation for the positions that we take” during “difficult negotiation” for fishing days at the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC).

This is according to NOAA fisheries deputy assistant for regulatory programs, Samuel Rauch III, who served in the last two years as one of the commissioners for the US government on the WCPFC, during a news briefing with local reporters on Tuesday, following the opening of the 180th Meeting of the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council at the Gov. Tauese P.F. Sunia Ocean Center.

In his remarks at the opening of the meeting, Lt. Gov. Lemanu Palepoi Sialega Mauga pointed to the critical issue — that NOAA reconsider its decision to close off fishing by the US purse seiner fleet in the US-EEZ and on the high seas — referred to as Effort Limit Area for Purse Seine (ELAPS) — for the rest of calendar year 2019, effective Oct. 9th.

Lemanu reminded the Council that the closure “will affect our fish cannery, and have a major negative economic impact on our tuna-dependent American Samoa.”

Read the full story at Samoa News

StarKist’s departure would leave a $200m hole in American Samoa’s economy

October 25, 2019 — If tuna canner StarKist & Co departs American Samoa for a location with cheaper labor costs as the company has previously warned, the impact on the US territory’s economy would be substantial.

The damages could reduce the gross domestic product of the 55,000-resident territory by some $200 million, according to a report from the territory’s Department of Commerce.

The report, presented at a recent meeting of the Western Pacific Fisheries Management Council, indicates that a closure of StarKist’s cannery, the island’s largest employer, would result in the loss of 4,000 direct and indirect jobs, one-fourth of its labor force.

The cannery is responsible for 80% of American Samoa’s exports and 24% of its imports. It “effectively” subsidizes the territory’s shipping costs by 40% and its fuel imports by around 30%, the report states.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Interim Bottomfish Measure Addresses Overfishing, Allows American Samoa Fishery to Operate

October 25, 2019 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:

Fishermen from Tutuila and Manu’a islands concerned about the future of the Territory’s bottomfish fishery attended the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council meeting yesterday and today in Utulei, American Samoa. A recent draft stock assessment by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) indicates that the federally managed bottomfish complex in American Samoa is overfished and experiencing overfishing. It also indicates that the federally managed Guam bottomfish stock complex is overfished but not experiencing overfishing.

Brian Langseth, a stock assessment scientist with NMFS Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC), presented the 2019 draft assessment to the Council. The different outcome between the 2019 and previous stock assessments, he said, had to do largely with the way the data was filtered. The data is collected by the American Samoa Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources (DMWR) through creel surveys, in which DMWR staff interview fishermen about their catch and fishing trip. The Council expressed concerns about the robustness of the data from DMWR that was used in the assessment.

During public testimony, fishermen from Manu’a questioned the accuracy of the data used in the model. They said they haven’t been surveyed yet even though they fish principally for bottomfish due to cost and low availability of fuel as well as the small sizes of their vessels. Fishermen from Tutuila also questioned the data, noting that the creel surveys don’t capture the fishermen who return to port at night. One fisherman estimated that the creel surveys capture only about 5 percent of the catch. The fishermen also said the catch and catch per unit effort (CPUE) are affected by the wind and current conditions, cost of fuel and market demand. One fisherman shared that the boat owner may have only a $50 to $100 profit from a trip after fuel, ice and crew expenses. Fishermen noted that fuel costs have been high and the weather has been rough the past six months to a year. They stressed to the Council that the livelihoods of their families and communities depend on the ability for them to continue to fish.

Read the full release here

Lt. Governor, Congresswoman, Territory Commerce Department Stress Importance of Fisheries to the U.S. Territory of American Samoa

October 24, 2019 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:

“Fisheries sustains our livelihoods in all aspects of our lives” was the core message that reverberated through the remarks of Lt. Gov. Lemanu Peleti Mauga, who opened the 180th meeting of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council yesterday in Pago Pago, American Samoa.

Congresswoman Aumua Amata Radewagen’s opening remarks echoed those of the Lt. Governor. “Fishing has sustained us for our entire history,” she said. “Fishing forms the backbone of our local economy.” She noted that the U.S. purse-seine fleet, which provides tuna to the American Samoa-based cannery, pays up to $2 million annually per vessel in access fees to fish in foreign exclusive economic zone (EEZ) waters. Restoring the ability of U.S. fishermen to access U.S. EEZ waters that are now closed due to marine national monument regulations “remains the Interior Department’s clear recommendation,” she added. “It is my priority to get this important decision onto the President’s agenda.” She said that the Chinese longline fleet has soared to more than 500 and now catches 45 percent of the South Pacific albacore, while the American Samoa longline fleet has dropped from 60 vessels to 13 active vessels. “The US must be alert to the actions of China, monitor how that affects our fleet, and be constantly active and engaged in the Pacific region,” she said.

Mike McDonald from the American Samoa Department of Commerce provided a report on the importance of the cannery to the American Samoa gross domestic product (GDP). According to the report, if the cannery were to shut down it would be a $200 million loss annually, which represents one third of the Territory’s GDP. The report said the cannery provides 25 percent of the territory’s jobs and effectively subsidizes the cost of freight and fuel to American Samoa, as the cost of both would be significantly more if that cannery were not in the Territory.

Va’amua Henry Sesepasara, director of the Territory’s Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources (DMWR), reviewed fishery development and fishery data collection efforts.

Based in part from recommendations by the Council’s American Samoa Advisory Panel and Regional Ecosystem Advisory Committee, the Council voted to work with DMWR to improve its data collection, to assist with outreach to fishing communities and to work with the American Samoa Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Commerce to support ecosystem modeling on climate change impacts. At the request of the Territory’s Commerce Department, the Council will also write a letter of support to the US Economic Development Administration for the alia tele, also known as the Super Alia. Based on the traditional double-hull fishing vessel design but larger in size, the alia tele will have the capacity to fish further from shore using multiple gear types.

The Council recommended that DMWR expedite its fishery development projects, provide a plan to improve its fishery data program and meet with the National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa to address concerns of Aunu’u chiefs regarding enforcement of Sanctuary rules and other important issues.

The 180th Council meeting will continue through Thursday at the Tauese P. F. Sunia Ocean Center in Utulei, American Samoa. For more info, go to http://www.wpcouncil.org/public-meetings/ or contact the Council at info@wpcouncil.org or at +1 (808) 522-8220.

Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council: Secretary of Commerce appointees from American Samoa, CNMI, Guam and Hawai’i governor nominees: Archie Soliai, StarKist (American Samoa) (chair); John Gourley, Micronesian Environmental Services (CNMI vice chair); Michael Duenas, Guam Fishermen’s Cooperative Association (Guam vice chair); Edwin Watamura, Waialua Boat Club (Hawai’I vice chair); Howard Dunham, American Samoa Alia Fishing Association (American Samoa); Monique Genereux, business owner (Guam); Michael Goto, United Fishing Agency (Hawai’i); McGrew Rice, charter boat captain (CNMI). Designated state officials: Raymond Roberto, CNMI Dept. of Lands and Natural Resources; Suzanne Case, Hawai’i Dept. of Land & Natural Resources; Chelsa Muña-Brecht, Guam Dept. of Agriculture; Henry Sesepasara, American Samoa Dept. of Marine & Wildlife Resources. Federal officials (voting): Michael Tosatto, NMFS Pacific Islands Regional Office. Federal officials (non-voting): RADM Kevin Lunday, USCG 14th District; Michael Brakke, US State Dept.; Brian Peck, USFWS.