American Samoa Archives - Page 16 of 18

American Samoa Key To Combatting ‘Illegal, Unreported, And Unregulated’ Fishing

August 18, 2016 — PAGO PAGO, American Samoa — With the United States a signatory to an international agreement to combat IUU — illegal, unreported, and unregulated — fishing, American Samoa, home to two canneries and many fishing vessels, is now part of the agreement, which went into force on June 5 this year.

According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Port State Measures Agreement does not solely focus on IUU fishing vessels, but also requires action against vessels that engage in supportive activities such as refueling or transshipping fish from IUU fishing vessels at sea.

Adopted in 2009 by the UN Fish and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Agreement identifies measures to block the entry from ports of IUU-caught fish into national and international markets.

For the US, the NOAA Office of Law Enforcement (NOAA-OLE) is charged with enforcing the Agreement, which according to the federal agency, applies to foreign flagged fishing vessels carrying fish that have not been previously landed in a port.

Under other U.S. law (Nicholson Act), foreign flagged vessels cannot land these fish/fish products in U.S. ports, with the exception of ports within U.S. territories. Because of this, the most significant impact will be seen in the US territories of American Samoa and Guam.

“The… Agreement is the most significant legislation passed in nearly 40 years and American Samoa is at the center of this effort,” NOAA-OLE special agent Murray Bauer told Samoa News yesterday.

Read the full story at the Pacific Islands Report

Pre-Proposals for SK Grants Program FY 2017

July 25, 2015 — The following was released by NOAA:

Today is the start of the fiscal year 2017 Saltonstall-Kennedy (SK) Grant Program application solicitation; now with a new, early “pre-proposal” process that will reduce the burden of preparing full proposals on projects that do not meet program criteria. Pre-proposals will be accepted for 60 days, July 22 through September 20, 2016. To maximize time and familiarity, NOAA Fisheries will conduct at least two public webinars for interested stakeholders to walk through the process and answer any questions.

Briefly, the “pre-proposal” process is a required step that will provide applicants with early clarification from NOAA as to the technical merits and relevancy of their project. This new step provides applicants an early indication of their project’s eligibility before going through the more intensive process of developing a full project proposal.

In addition to the new “pre-proposal” process, NOAA Fisheries made a number of modifications to the proposal review process in 2016 to improve transparency and participation by external expertise. Starting in 2016, the eight fishery management councils and three state marine fishery commissions selected external parties to assist in identifying priority focus areas for funding, as well as serve on the review panel process. Also in 2016, NOAA gave broader consideration to projects focused on sustainable economies, business innovations and opportunities as well as science and research.

The 2017 priority focus areas remain the same as 2016 with the additional focus area aimed at improving the quality and quantity of fishery information from the U.S. territories, including American Samoa, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealths of Northern Mariana Islands and Puerto Rico.

HAWAII: Longliners Have Nearly Pulled In Their 2016 Limit Of Bigeye Tuna

July 14, 2016 — Hawaii’s longline fleet is about to hit its 3,554-ton limit for bigeye tuna in the Western and Central Pacific, prompting a closure date for the fishery of July 22, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The longliners had caught an estimated 98 percent of their annual quota by Wednesday, NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service reported. The feds had been predicting longliners would hit their bigeye tuna limit by Aug. 14.

But the closure will likely be short-lived thanks to a federal rule that proposes, like in years past, allowing U.S. Pacific Island territories — American Samoa, Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands — to each allocate up to 1,000 tons of their 2,000-ton quotas to U.S. longliners under a “specified fishing agreement.”

In April, the Hawaii Longline Association reached such an agreement with the Marianas that involves paying the territory $250,000 in each of the next three years for up to half of its quota. That’s $50,000 more than the association paid the territory last year.

The money is deposited into the Western Pacific Sustainable Fisheries Fund, which the territories use for fishery development projects approved by their respective governors, according to Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council spokeswoman Sylvia Spalding. These includes boat ramps, fish markets, processing facilities, training programs and loan programs.

Read the full story at the Honolulu Civil Beat

Why U.S. Fisheries Are A Global Model Of Sustainability

May 5, 2016 — In the 40 years since passage of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, we’ve been on a journey that has made U.S. fisheries management a global model of sustainability. In the Pacific Islands, we see the wisdom of this act on our dinner plates and in our local fisheries every day.

In our region, much credit goes to the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council, which is responsible for recommending conservation and management measures to NOAA Fisheries in the Pacific Islands. Comprised of commercial and non-commercial fishermen, and environmental, academic and government interests, the council has a proud track record of achieving its goal of sustainable fisheries.

Within the Councils’ expansive jurisdiction – extending from the Hawaiian Islands through the Western Pacific including American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam – only a small number of stocks are subject to overfishing or overfished.

Read the full story at the Honolulu Civil Beat

US Justice Department asks federal court to dismiss American Samoa lawsuit

May 3, 2016 — The U.S. Justice Department has asked the federal court in Honolulu to dismiss with prejudice the Territory of American Samoa’s lawsuit, which seeks to overturn a ruling made in February this year by the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service or NMFS that reduces the Large Vessel Protected Area or from 50 miles to 12 miles in the waters of American Samoa.

A dismissal “with prejudice” would mean the plaintiff — in this case, American Samoa — will be barred from bringing action on the same claim again.

The Large Vessel Protected Area or LVPA, implemented in 2002, was reserved for the locally based alia or fishing boat, but the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council had argued that the number of local alias has declined over the years, to number less than 10 in 2014. The council then recommended that the NMFS issued its final rule on Feb. 3, 2016 to allow U.S. longline vessels to fish in portions of the LVPA.

According to NMFS, the intent of the rule is to “improve the viability of the American Samoa longline fishery and achieve optimum yield from the fishery while preventing overfishing….”

However, American Samoa said the NMFS — in promulgating the final LVPA — “acted arbitrarily by asserting a rationale to support the new rule that is contrary to the evidence in the record.”

It asked the court to vacate the NMFS rule and declare that, among other things, the final LVPA rule is inconsistent with the Deeds of Cession, and therefore violates the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and the Administrative Procedure Act.

Read the full story from the Marinas Variety

Proposal For Observers Could Further Hurt U.S. Purse Seiner Fleet

PAGO PAGO, American Samoa — May 3, 2016 — A new fishery rule that the federal government is moving to implement is expected to deal another financial blow to the US purse seiner fleet, which is already faced with stiff competition from foreign vessels such as the Chinese fleet, who are subsidized by their government, China.

US National Marine Fishery Service (NMFS) has proposed a rule which would require Observers to be on board US purse seiners fishing in the western and central Pacific ocean (WCPO).

The proposal was issued last week under authority of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Convention Implementation Act. It is a three-pronged proposed rule, which includes a move to establish restrictions in 2016 and 2017 on the use of fish aggregating devices (FADs) by U.S. purse seine vessels in the WCPO; and to establish limits in 2016 and 2017 on the amount of bigeye tuna that may be captured by U.S. longline vessels in the WCPO.

According to NMFS, this longline vessel big eye tuna proposal would not apply to American Samoa and the other two US Pacific territories, as they have their own federal programs.

NMFS says the proposed action is necessary to satisfy the obligations of the United States under the Convention on the Conservation and Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean (Convention), to which it is a Contracting Party.

NMFS is now seeking public comments on the three-pronged proposed rule-making, and deadline for comment submission is May 12. Details are available online on federal portal: www.regulations.gov.

Read the full story at the Pacific Islands Report

U.S. Tuna Industry Objects To New Proposed Labeling

April 29, 2016 — PAGO PAGO, American Samoa — Tri Marine International, whose local operations include a tuna cannery, and National Fisheries Institute (NFI) both contend that the new interim final rule by the federal government on dolphin safety labeling is due to a recent sanction of the US by the World Trade Organization in a long standing case which pits the US against its neighbor, Mexico. They say it is an unfair and unproductive burden to U.S. seafood companies that does not resolve the protracted WTO litigation, nor improve on the existing dolphin-safe operational performance.

Industry officials told Samoa News that the new interim final rule (or IFR) will only increase operational costs for the US tuna canneries, who are already faced with stiff global competition, and that the US canneries have been adhering to dolphin safe labeling standards set by the federal government for many years.

This was echoed by NFI president, John P. Connelly in an Apr. 22 letter to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), who is seeking public comment on the IFR for “enhanced document requirements and captain training requirements to support use of the dolphin safe label on tuna products.”

“Consumers purchasing canned and pouched tuna from Bumble Bee Foods, Chicken of the Sea, and StarKist should be confident that the ‘dolphin-safe’ label the retail packaging bears means just that,” Connelly wrote.

The three canneries are the major US producers of tuna products.

Read the full story at the Pacific Islands Report

Am. Samoa Cannery Opposes Reducing Tuna Data Collection

April 7, 2016 — PAGO PAGO, American Samoa — Tri Marine International, operator of Samoa Tuna Processors cannery in American Samoa, has called on the federal government for more “rigorous data” collection of imported frozen tuna loins, which are from fish typically caught in distant waters and off loaded into foreign ports.

The Bellevue, Washington-based company’s call was in response to the US National Marine Fishery Service seeking public comments on proposed rule-making dealing with a number of issues on trade monitoring procedures for fishery products, and permit requirements for importers and exporters. The comment period has already closed.

Among the proposed changes in the rule-making are reduced data sets pertaining to importation of frozen cooked tuna loins used in cannery operations and tuna products in airtight containers (or tuna cans) manufactured in American Samoa and imported into the United States or Puerto Rico.

According to NMFS, the reduced data set is, among other things, intended to prevent duplicative reporting for the companies that import the tuna products and that already submit required information to the Tuna Tracking and Verification Program (TTVP) via monthly reports.

Read the full story at the Pacific Islands Report

Pacific media commits to stronger reporting of tuna stories

(March 24, 2016) –Journalists from American Samoa, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu have met this week as part of the 4th Pacific Media Summit hosted by the government, media partners and people of Palau.

Their two-day Fisheries Forum Agency (FFA) tunanomics Pacific media initiative regional editors dialogue on ‘Reporting the Future of Fisheries – challenges to 2020’ comes two years after the launch in February 2014 of the FFA tunanomics Pacific media initiative at the 3rd Pacific Media Summit in Noumea, New Caledonia.

The journalists expressed success stories and challenges in covering tuna stories and came up with recommendations that would make fisheries stories more attractive to readers.

One of the recommendations is “to develop and grow their understanding of tunanomics and what the economics of tuna mean to policy and decision makers, not just to news makers”.

In Palau, although offshore fishing contributes less than five percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Palau is taking a different approach by conservation and beefing up its marine surveillance capacities through its new national marine sanctuary.

Read the full story at Loop

San Diego tuna chief addresses Congress

March 1, 2016 — A leader in the San Diego tuna industry addressed U.S. Congress on Tuesday over fishing restrictions on the high seas that he said favor foreign boats.

American Tunaboat Association head Brian Hallman threw his support behind legislation that would potentially give U.S. boats a leg up in treaty negotiations for areas of the world’s largest ocean.

The U.S. fleet, many with ties or based in San Diego, has had a rough year so far, losing access to massive sections of the western and central Pacific Ocean.

Compliance in international waters — for things like how many days boats are allowed to fish for tuna in areas where there is no treaty — is governed by three multinational agreements.

The legislation, called the Ensuring Access to Pacific Fisheries Act, was introduced by congressional delegate Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen (R-American Samoa) and Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska).

Its basic function would give more people a chance to negotiate for fishing rights instead of just two people from the federal government.

Read the full story at The San Diego Union-Tribune