Saving Seafood

Amata welcomes governors’ united stance on fishing

May 10, 2023 — America Samoa Congresswoman Uifa’atali Amata is welcoming the unified stance and combined bipartisan efforts of the governors of American Samoa, CNMI and Guam, as American Samoa Gov. Lemanu P.S. Mauga is visiting Washington, where among other meetings, the governors have requested a meeting with President Joe Biden to discuss the effect of his announced plan to place 777,000 square miles of Pacific waters off limits to fishing.

“As soon as we heard of the President’s announced plan to further limit the commercial fishing that is the cornerstone of our local island economy, I immediately and urgently responded publicly, voicing strong concerns in Congress, and in a letter jointly to the secretaries of Commerce and the Interior,” said Congresswoman Amata.

Read the full article at Marianas Variety

Amata testifies on Am Samoa’s funding concerns for the local fishing-based economy

April 2, 2023 — Congresswoman Uifa’atali Amata testified last week before key lawmakers of the Appropriations Committee to emphasize American Samoa’s appropriations situation, while expressing concern about the new challenges faced as a fishing-based economy.

“Tuna is to American Samoa, what the potato is to Idaho and the lobster is to Maine – without them our economies and identities would be drastically reduced,” Amata said to Committee Members representing those states.

“Now what would happen if the President declared that potato growing be outlawed or that lobsters couldn’t be caught in an area ‘bigger than Alaska and Colorado combined?’ Because that’s what the President bragged about yesterday (last week), declaring that over 777,000 acres of tuna fishing grounds be off limits for the U.S. fishing industry and that is canned at the American Samoa cannery.”

Read the full article at Samoa News

Amata Welcomes Administration Response That PRIMNM Will Not Be Expanded

October 5, 2022 — The following was released by Congresswoman Uifa’atali Amata:

Congresswoman Uifa’atali Amata is welcoming a response from the Biden Administration stating that the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument (PRIMNM) will not be expanded. In a response letter to the Congresswoman’s earlier inquiry, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Director Martha Williams said the administration is not considering an expansion to PRIMNM.

Director Williams said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), part of the Department of Commerce, and the FWS, part of the Department of the Interior, are co-leads in preparing the Monument Management Plan (MMP) for the PRIMNM.

“As part of this ongoing MMP effort, FWS is not considering additional or potential expansion of the PRIMNM beyond what has already been implemented by Presidential Proclamations 8336 and 9173,” states the FWS reply.

Those presidential proclamations created PRIMNM then tripled it in size, placing over 495,000 square miles of the Pacific off limits. In her June letter to President Biden, Amata urged the administration to seek thorough local input and advice from Pacific territories, saying that American Samoa, as it is thousands of miles from Washington, D.C., “is as rural a community can be in the United States and is traditionally built around a fishing-based culture,” before noting that PRIMNM “removed fishing operations from a U.S. EEZ area that was once the size of California and is now four times that!”

Amata’s Letter to NOAA Fisheries

In other fishing news, on Wednesday, Congresswoman Aumua Amata also wrote the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), also known as NOAA Fisheries, to oppose a proposed rule, in support of Gov. Lemanu P.S. Mauga’s concerns that the rule could result in new restrictions for the U.S. fleet. [Proposed Rule and Request for Comments for “International Fisheries; Western and Central Pacific Fisheries for Highly Migratory Species; Fishing Restrictions in Purse Seine Fisheries and 2022 Longline Bigeye Catch Limit”; 87 FR 55768 (NOAA-NMFS-2022-0082; September 12, 2022) (“Proposed Rule”).]

The Governor’s September 22 letter clarifies American Samoa’s concern: “Knowing that this rule will separate U.S. EEZ days from WCPFC high seas days, and that that separation will likely result in closing the high seas where American Samoa’s US flag purse seiners operate, thereby reducing the tuna supply to our economy, I cannot support this action being proposed by NOAA,” he said.

Amata’s letter emphasizes, “As a representative of a district which is heavily reliant on fishing, I believe this rule would have a negative impact not only on the territory of American Samoa and our own economic stability, but on the rest of the United States fishing industry. I am concerned that NMFS’s proposal will contribute to the economic distress currently faced by my district due to the ongoing decline of our purse-seine fleet.”

She notes, “The rule is unnecessary for compliance with the United State obligations under the WCPFC and hinders the negotiating position of the U.S. industry in critical international access. Furthermore, it is frankly not supported by any scientific reasoning nor does it further any goals of environmental protection or fish stock conservation.”

She agreed with the concerns about the rule expressed by Governor Lemanu, as well as the American Tunaboat Association. “This proposed rule as written is not good for American Samoa and for American fisherman,” she concluded.