Saving Seafood

Judge sides with American Samoa local fisherman over feds

March 23, 2017 — A federal judge in Honolulu has ruled that the decision to reduce the area off-limits to large vessels along the coast of American Samoa “is invalid,” clearing the way for exclusive access by local fishermen and small boats.

U.S District Court Judge Leslie E. Kobayashi also ruled that National Marine Fishery Service’s change of the rule “was arbitrary and capricious.”

Fishing waters had been preserved for the local “alia” — or small boat — fishing fleet from the shoreline out to 50 miles since 2002. Last year, the National Marine Fishery Service reduced the large-vessel-protected area, or LVPA, to 12 miles from the shoreline, allowing vessels 50 feet and longer to net hauls once reserved for local fishermen.

The plaintiffs, through the American Samoa government, filed the lawsuit in March 2016 arguing that American Samoa’s cultural fishing rights are found in the two Deeds of Cession — the 1900 Deed of Cession for Tutuila and Aunu’u islands and the 1904 Deeds of Cession for Manu’a islands — with the U.S.

The defendants, who include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, countered in court documents that deeds say nothing, about fishing or marine resources and “that silence should not be read to establish rights.”

In a 42-page ruling issued Monday, Kobayashi says the Deeds of Cession require the United States to respect the American Samoans’ customary practices — such as fishing — even though the deeds do not specifically identify the practices.

American Samoa Gov. Lolo Matalasi Moliga said he hopes the case serves as a reminder to the federal government that “we have rights and they should not be easily dismissed.”

American Samoa Attorney General Talauega Eleasalo Ale, who appeared for the territorial government at federal court during oral arguments last month, describes the ruling as “thorough and well-reasoned.”

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Jersey Herald

American Samoa Longline Fishing Industry Had Record Revenues In 2015

February 28, 2017 — While revenues for commercial landing of tuna species in American Samoa were down in 2015, revenues were at an all time high for the longline fishery, according to the 2015 Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation (SAFE) Report for Pelagic Fisheries of the Western Pacific Region released this month by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council.

Council’s executive director Kitty M. Simonds says the report represents a major advance in the monitoring and evaluation of the pelagic fisheries in the region.

“Besides the usual complement of fishery modules found in previous reports, the 2015 report has in-depth chapters on protected species, stock assessment summaries, socio-economics and human dimensions of pelagic fisheries, climate and oceanic indicators, essential fish habitat and marine planning,” she said in a news release earlier this month.

Not included in the SAFE report is data on purse seine and non-U.S. vessel landings. According to the more than 250 page report, the largest fishery in American Samoa is the American Samoa longline fishery and a majority of these vessels are greater than 50 ft, and are required to fish beyond 50 nautical miles (nm) from shore, and sell the majority of their catch, primarily albacore, to the canneries.

Read the full story at the Pacific Islands Report

Feds to Analyze Environmental Impacts of Western Pacific Longline Fisheries for Bigeye and Tuna

February 17, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — HONOLULU — The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) announced on Monday that it will prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) on the U.S. Pacific Island deep-set tuna longline fisheries, which target bigeye tuna.

The PEIS will analyze the environmental impacts of management of deep-set tuna longliners, which operate out of Hawaii, American Samoa, and the U.S. West Coast. The need for the proposed action is to manage deep-set tuna longline fisheries under an adaptive management framework that allows for timely management responses to changing environmental conditions, consistent with domestic and international conservation and management measures.

The PEIS will be developed in coordination with the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council based in Honolulu.

Tuna longline fisheries use two distinct gear types: shallow-set vessels target swordfish near the surface and deep-set vessels target tunas deeper than 100 meters.

The deep-set tuna longline fisheries have greater levels of vessel participation, fishing effort, catch, and revenue than the shallow-set fishery. NOAA Fisheries previously evaluated the effects of the shallow-set fishery, so it will not be included in this PEIS.

The primary deep-set tuna longline fisheries are the Hawaii and American Samoa longline fisheries. Access to the Hawaii longline fisheries is limited to 164 vessel permits, of which about 140 vessels are active. Of these active vessels, about 20 may also shallow-set during any given year. Most vessels in the Hawaii deep-set tuna longline fleet homeport in Hawaii and about 10 operate from ports on the U.S. west coast. These vessels target bigeye tuna.

Access to the American Samoa deep-set tuna fishery is limited to 60 permits. Historically, a few deep-set tuna longline vessels operated out of Guam and the CNMI, but these fisheries have been inactive since 2011.

“The PEIS is a proactive step in the management of deep-set tuna longline fisheries,” said Council Executive Director Kitty M. Simonds. “It streamlines environmental review for future management decisions and facilitates the ability of fisheries to adaptively respond to changing conditions.”

Management tools used for deep-set tuna longline fisheries include limited assess programs, vessel size limits, area constraints, observers, satellite-based vessel monitoring systems, gear configuration and specific handling and releasing bycatch methods.

Potential management issues include territorial bigeye tuna specifications and transfers, changes to permitting programs, and new gear requirements to further reduce bycatch.

Potential environmental, social and economic issues include the catch of target tuna and non-target (such as sharks) species, interactions with protected species, gear conflicts, and impacts on the ecosystem.

Public comments may be made at the scoping meetings listed below, sent electronically via the agency, or by mail to Michael D. Tosatto, Regional Administrator, NMFS Pacific Islands Region (PIR), 1845 Wasp Blvd., Bldg. 176, Honolulu, HI 96818.

Public scoping meetings on the PEIS will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. on Feb. 21 in Hilo and Feb. 23 in Honolulu, Hawaii; Feb. 28 in Utulei, March 1 in Tafuna and March 2 in Pago Pago, American Samoa; March 7 in Susupe, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI); and March 9 in Mangilao, Guam.

All comments must be received by April 14, 2017.

This story originally appeared on Seafoodnews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

RUSSELL F. SMITH: US takes stronger role in international fisheries

December 16th, 2016 — On the high seas, the U.S. has all hands on deck. Congress just passed landmark legislation giving the U.S. a formal role in international organizations that govern vastly important areas of the North and South Pacific Ocean, including the high seas adjacent to Alaska and the Pacific Islands and American Samoa, respectively.

Further, sweeping improvements were made to existing international fishery management in the Northwest Atlantic, which includes waters off the coasts of New England and Canada. Collectively, this week’s passage of three major bills demonstrates a renewed commitment to sustainably manage fisheries on the high seas and to protect vulnerable marine ecosystems from the effects of adverse fishing practices.

While the United States has long worked with other nations to improve international fisheries management, the new legislation ensures our country will fully and formally participate in developing standards for best fishing practices in two new international organizations in the North and South Pacific, respectively.

Until now, our status with these organizations has essentially been that of observer. With the new legislation, the U.S. will speak with an active global voice. We have new opportunities to learn, and a proud track record to share and leverage.

Read the full story at Alaska Dispatch News 

U.S. Tuna Treaty Brings No Special Benefits For American Samoa Industry

December 7, 2016 — PAGO PAGO, American Samoa — While the new six-year South Pacific Tuna Treaty does not appear to provide any special recognition or benefits to the American Samoa’s tuna industry, Commerce Department Director Keniseli Lafaele says the Treaty is a way forward and the territory hopes to find opportunities under the Treaty that will benefit American Samoa.

Lafaele is also hopeful that the incoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump will concentrate more on finding ways for the locally based US flag boats to compete in the global tuna industry.

Signed Dec. 3 (Saturday) during a ceremony in Nadi, Fiji, the new Treaty is valid through 2022 and is between the US and 16 Pacific Island countries. It allows the US purse seiner fleet to fish in waters of these Pacific countries. The Treaty was approved in “principle” during another round of negotiations held in Auckland, New Zealand in June this year.

Signing of the new Treaty came two days before the start Monday in Fiji of the week-long Western and Central Pacific Fishery Committee meeting in Nadi, for which American Samoa has a delegation that is part of the U.S. delegation.

Leading the local delegation is Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources director Dr. Ruth Matagi-Tofiga, who told Samoa News that signing of the new Treaty “is indeed an exciting occasion, being that it took 7 years to sign the Treaty with amendments.”

And the Treaty is “important for American Samoa because it sets operational terms and conditions for the U.S. tuna purse seine fleet to fish in waters under the jurisdiction of the Pacific Island Parties, which cover a wide swath of the Western and Central Pacific Ocean,” Matagi-Tofiga said via email from Nadi, over the weekend responding to Samoa News inquiries.

She points out that the U.S. purse seine fleet “operates under the highest commercial standard and subject to strict U.S. enforcement authorities… that curtails illegal and unregulated fishing.”

Read the full story at the Pacific Islands Report

U.S. Fishing Fleet Prepares To Fight For Fishing Rights In Pacific

November 30, 2016 — PAGO PAGO, American Samoa — San Diego-based American Tunaboat Association (ATA) is calling for, among other things, a “level playing field” and the protection of US fishing rights on the high seas at the 13th meeting of the Western and Central Pacific Fishery Commission from Dec. 5- 9 Nadi, Fiji.

Tri Marine International, which has a fishing fleet based in Pago Pago, as well as American Samoa officials have called for more fishing days on the high seas for the US fleet, as fishing restrictions have impacted fish delivery to the two canneries in American Samoa.

Responding to Samoa News questions, ATA Executive Director Brian Hallman says he as well as eight to ten ATA members will be attending the WCPFC meeting.

Asked to name some of the important issues he plans to argue for ATA, Hallman says, “Our main approach will be to ensure that all management proposals are science based.”  He went on to explain that in the past that has not always been the case; and rules should be applied equally and enforced equally for all fishing fleets, so that there is a level playing field for US vessels.

Read the full story at the Pacific Islands Report

American Samoa Attorney: Feds Continue To Ignore Local Concerns About Fisheries

November 4, 2016 — PAGO PAGO, American Samoa — Local attorney Marie Alailima says the federal agencies involved in fisheries “continue to ignore” the call from local traditional chiefs, government leaders and residents of American Samoa for meaningful discussions in issues impacting the territory’s resources.

Alailima made the observation in her Oct. 27 comment letter to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration opposing the way NOAA’s National Marine Fishery Service (NMFS) sought public comments, with only one local public hearing held on a proposed regulation for aquaculture program in American Samoa.

She joins Commerce Department director Keniseli Lafaele and Shipyard Service Authority chief executive Moefa’auo Bill Emmesly — both have lodged strong objections in the way NMFS sought public comments and have called for a delay in making any final decision on the NMFS proposal.

In her letter, released yesterday through the federal portal [www.regulations.gov], the local attorney says “no further action” should be taken on NMFS and Western Pacific Fishery Management Council’s intent to prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) to analyze the potential environmental impact of a proposed Pacific Islands Region (PIR) aquaculture management program and alternatives.

The PEIS is intended to support offshore aquaculture development, including appropriate management unit species for aquaculture, reasonably foreseeable types of offshore aquaculture operations, and permitting and reporting requirements for persons conducting aquaculture activities in Federal waters.

She cited various reasons, why no action should be taken and included the fact that notice of Sept. 8’s public meeting in American Samoa was made electronically, but such medium of notification, including in the case at hand — the sending of notice by electronic emails to a “select few” — “erroneously presumes notice through email, the federal register online, through announcement of public hearings on NOAA agency websites is a means readily accessible by the majority of the American Samoa population.”

Alailima argues, “It also erroneously presumes that the subject matter or import of such public meetings can be readily understood from such online notice by a population [that] for the most part lacks access to computers and is still transitioning into fully embracing American culture, its language, its federal procedures, legal institutions and concepts.”

Greater responsibility for providing the American Samoa population with meaningful notice and opportunity to comment must be considered by NMFS and other NOAA agencies, inclusive of all further steps involving the present proposed action, she said.

Read the full story at the Pacific Islands Report

US tuna fishing company fined USD 1.6 million for illegal waste dumping

November 3, 2016 — U.S.-based tuna fishing company Pacific Breeze Fisheries, LLC, has been accuised by the U.S. Department of Justice of discharging oily waste into South Pacific waters near American Samoa and of maintaining false records of the events, leaving the company on the hook to pay a USD 1.6 million (EUR 1.44 million) fine, according to a report from Ship and Bunker.

The tuna company admitted that on two separate occasions, one in 2014 and the other in 2015, its engineers released oily bilge water into American Samoan waters, and then failed to properly document the acts. Pacific Breeze also admitted that its senior engineers did not properly document instances of oil waste disposal in the ship’s Oil Record Book from the period between October 2014 and July 2015, according to court documents.

Pacific Breeze will pay USD 400,000 (EUR 360,644) to the National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa, in addition to the USD 1.6 million (EUR 1.44 million) fine. While the company does not currently manage any active fishing vessels, it has vowed to implement “an ‘extensive’ environmental compliance plan should it resume operations,” reported Ship and Bunker.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Processing Company: US Must Support American Samoa Tuna Industry

October 19, 2016 — PAGO PAGO, American Samoa — Tri Marine International chief operations officer Joe Hamby has brought up with the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council several issues concerning the tuna industry in American Samoa, pointing to the industry as the backbone of the territory’s economy and support must happen that “can be measured in economic terms.”

A letter discussing the issues by Hamby, who is also the acting chief executive officer of Tri Marine-owned Samoa Tuna Processors cannery, was distributed to members of the Council during it’s 168th meeting in Honolulu last week.

Tri Marine announced last week that canning operations at STP would be suspended indefinitely effective Dec. 11.

In his Oct. 14 letter to the Council, Hamby recalled that the local tuna industry consists of two large scale canneries, a number of purse seiners, longliners and alias. He noted purse seiners are mostly US flagged, while the longliners are foreign flagged, except for the locally based US flagged fleet.

“I understand that there are no alias currently targeting tuna,” he said. “The alias therefore represent potential participants in the American Samoa tuna industry.”

The local tuna industry also includes service providers like ship handlers, maintenance and repair companies, stevedores, net repair yards, a shipyard, transportation, agents, hotels, restaurants, etc.

“The tuna industry is the backbone of the American Samoa economy,” he declared and said the tuna canneries depend on the US market as tuna products from American Samoa are exempt from duty in the US.

“Without this duty exemption, the canneries are not competitive with lower cost sources of canned tuna. Free trade agreements, like TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership), are a serious threat to the American Samoa tuna industry,” Hamby said.

Read the full story at the Pacific Islands Report

Tuna cannery in American Samoa to halt production

October 14th, 2016 — One of the two tuna canning companies operating in American Samoa announced Thursday it plans to suspend production in December.

In a statement, Bellevue, Washington-based Tri Marine says it will end production indefinitely at its Samoa Tuna Processors cannery plant.

Tri Marine told its 800 employees of the plan Thursday. The company didn’t specify how many will be affected.

American Samoa does not have labor unions, and most employees are paid minimum wage. The company said economic difficulties spurred the decision.

“The challenging economics of canning tuna in American Samoa combined with external factors facing STP make Tri Marine’s private-label focused business model for operating the plant economically unsustainable,” the company said in a statement. The company is considering alternatives for the plant, including an outright sale. The company pumped $70 million into the plant before it opened in January 2015.

“This is an incredibly difficult decision and one we make with a great deal of reluctance,” said Tri Marine Chief Executive Officer Renato Curto in a statement. “Our hearts go out to STP’s employees, suppliers, service providers and everyone else who depends on STP’s operations.”

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The New Jersey Herald