Hawaii longline fishery Archives

Hawaii Longline Leader Testifies on Ways to Strengthen the MSA

July 27, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — A Hawaii fishing industry leader made three suggestions to the House Natural Resources Committee’s Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans during a hearing last week on “Exploring the Successes and Challenges of the Magnuson-Stevens Act.” The hearing was designed to continue discussions relevant to MSA reform and consider current draft legislation.

Hawaii Longline Association President Sean Martin, one of four invited witnesses, said overall the MSA is working well, but the Hawaii seafood industry is facing problems related to national monuments created under the Antiquities Act, Endangered Species Act issues and more.

“The MSA is a success and should be the principal source of authority for management of U.S. fisheries,” Martin said in his testimony. “Overfished stocks have been rebuilt, and few stocks are now overfished. Management measures are precautionary and based on the best scientific information available. The regional fishery management councils provide regional fishing expertise and utilize an effective bottom-up decision making process that includes the fishing industry. The MSA also requires the evaluation of impacts on fish stocks as well as fishermen and fishing communities.”

However, the 140 active vessels in the longline fleet, which lands roughly $100 million worth of tuna and other highly migratory fish annually, is struggling with access to fishing grounds.

“We operate in a very competitive arena, both for fishing grounds in international waters and for the U.S. domestic market. The recent marine monument designations established under the Antiquities Act prohibits us from fishing in 51 percent of the US Exclusive Economic Zone in the Western Pacific region,” Martin said. “Access to the high seas is also being challenged by recent United Nations initiatives. Closure of US waters and the high seas hurts us, reducing our ability to compete and increasing the vulnerability of our markets to foreign takeover.”

Martin said the longliners have worked with NMFS and the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council for more than 25 years to ensure sound fishery data would be used in stock assessments and regulations. They have collaborated on research such as gear modifications to protect sea turtles, seabirds and marine mammals.

“We are proud of our efforts and the Hawaii longline fishery is an iconic, internationally recognized model fishery. It is the most highly monitored, strictly regulated longline fishery in the Pacific,” he said.

With that, Martin suggested three things to help make the MSA stronger:

Manage U.S. ocean fisheries through the MSA process;
Strengthen support for U.S. fisheries in the international arena; and
Simplify the MSA regulatory process.

“In recent years, the management of fisheries covered by the MSA has been circumvented by other statutes and authorities,” Martin said regarding using the MSA process for managing ocean fisheries. “This includes the Endangered Species Act, Marine Mammal Protection Act, Migratory Bird Treaty Act, National Marine Sanctuaries Act, and the Antiquities Act. These acts do not require the same level of public consultation and transparency as compared to the MSA.

“For our fishery, the biggest gains in protection have been achieved through the Council process. For example, sea turtle and seabird interactions were reduced by 90 percent as a result of industry cooperative research and Council developed regulations. In HLA’s view, fisheries should be managed primarily through the fishery management councils under the MSA. This ensures a transparent, public, and science-based process which allows the fishing industry and stakeholders to be consulted. It provides that analyses of impacts to fishery dependent communities are considered, and prevents regulations that might otherwise be duplicative, unenforceable, or contradictory.

“Past administrations have established huge national marine monuments in the Pacific totaling more than 760 million acres of U.S. waters under the Antiquities Act of 1906. In our view, marine monument designations were politically motivated and addressed non-existing problems. Fisheries operating in these areas were sustainably managed for several decades under the MSA and the Western Pacific Council. There was no serious attempt to work with the fishing industry in the designations of these marine monuments. Public input was minimal.”

Regarding support for U.S. fisheries in the international arena, Martin said, “In 2016, Congress enacted ‘Amendments to the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Convention Implementation Act’ (16U.S.C. 6901 et seq.). The amendments direct the Secretaries of Commerce and State to seek to minimize any disadvantage to U.S. fisheries relative to other fisheries of the region and to maximize U.S. fisheries’ harvest of fish in the Convention Area.

“The amendments are intended to level the playing field between
U.S. and foreign fisheries. U.S. fisheries managed under the MSA are sustainable, yet they are often disadvantaged within international fisheries commissions. U.S. fishing interests require strong U.S. government negotiators to advocate and support U.S. fisheries.

“For example, the Hawaii longline bigeye quota has been reduced to 3,345 metric tonnes (mt), while quotas for other countries have not been reduced (e.g. Indonesia). The WCPFC-imposed quotas are based on historical catch and do not match current fishing capacity. For example, Japan has a bigeye quota of nearly 17,000 mt, but only catches around 11,000 mt. China has been expanding its longline fleet from about 100 vessels in 2001 to over 430 vessels in 2015, and has a bigeye quota of around 7,000 mt. Our fleet has been limited to 164 permits since 1991. China is continuing to expand its longline fisheries and supplying US markets with poorly monitored seafood.”

Lastly, Martin hit on another problem faced by several industry groups around the country, not just in Hawaii: Simplifying the MSA regulatory process. The National Environmental Policy Act has caused delays and duplications in several regions.

“HLA supports the regional councils’ efforts to achieve a more streamlined process for approval of regulatory actions,” Martin testified. “A fishery management plan document from a regional council typically contains a full discussion of impacts on the fisheries, on the fish stocks, and on associated species (e.g., endangered species, marine mammals, seabirds, etc.).

“The National Environmental Policy Act requires duplicative evaluation and incongruent public comment periods. The analytical duplication between the MSA and NEPA is unnecessary, delays needed actions, has a high cost, and provides more avenues for legal challenges and delays on non-MSA grounds. Also, it is often very confusing to the industry with regard to timing and where we should apply our input in the process.”

Martin said the longline association recommends amending the MSA to authorize a single analytical document for any proposed regulatory action that will streamline the process, eliminate duplication and allow for more meaningful industry input.

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

Calls grow louder for Trump to reverse marine monument designations

March 13, 2017 — Elected representatives in Congress and industry groups are appealing to the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump to investigate the potential of removing marine monument designations made by Trump’s predecessors, Barack Obama and George W. Bush.

U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT) and Rep. Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen (R-American Samoa) sent a letter to Trump earlier this week requesting the removal of fishing restrictions and the reinstatement of fisheries management under federal law, according to a letter released by the committee.

“Using the Antiquities Act to close U.S. waters to domestic fisheries is a clear example of federal overreach and regulatory duplication and obstructs well-managed, sustainable U.S. fishing industries in favor of their foreign counterparts,” the letter said. “You alone can act quickly to reverse this travesty, improve our national security, and support the U.S. fishing industry that contributes to the U.S. economy while providing healthy, well-managed fish for America’s tables.”

The letter attributes the closure of the Tri Marine’s Samoa Tuna Processors canning factory in American Samoa in December 2016 to the U.S. purse-seining tuna fleet’s loss of access to fishing areas in the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument designated in 2009 by President George W. Bush. It also criticizes the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument – created by Bush and expanded by Obama – for removing fishing territory from the Hawaii longline fleet.

“[The monument designations] exemplify how a president and government bureaucracies can dispassionately decimate U.S. fishing industries,” the letter said.

In their letter, Bishop and Radewagen urge Trump to “act swiftly and effectively to remove all marine monument fishing prohibitions,” but do not clarify what specific actions they are asking Trump to take to undo the marine monument designations made under the powers of the Antiquities Act.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

How Foreign Crews Are Able To Work Aboard US Fishing Boats

September 22, 2016 — Foreign crew members reportedly working in slave-like conditions for monthly wages as low as $350 would not have found their way onto Hawaii’s longline fishing boats without an exemption carved into the law almost 30 years ago, according to longtime industry leaders, federal officials and government records.

Today, almost all the vessels in the longline fleet have entirely foreign crews.

It wasn’t always that way.

As the Cold War was coming to an end in the late 1980s, there was a push to “Americanize” the country’s fishing fleets by instituting requirements similar to those imposed under the Jones Act on vessels engaged in coastwise trade — namely, that U.S.-flagged ships be built in the U.S. and crewed by U.S. citizens.

Congress passed a bipartisan bill to that effect, and President Ronald Reagan signed it in 1988 as the Commercial Fishing Industry Vessel Anti-Reflagging Act.

But the legislation exempted commercial fishermen fishing for highly migratory species, such as tuna and swordfish, from the law’s requirement that U.S. citizens comprise at least 75 percent of each crew.

At about the same time, the longline industry — then comprised of just a few dozen vessels — and more established purse seiners were leaving the West Coast to set up shop in Hawaii and Pacific Island territories.

They left because of depleted stocks and, in the case of purse seiners, pressure to stop killing so many dolphins.

The purse seiners were setting their huge nets, up to 500 yards deep, around schools of tuna near pods of dolphins. It created a national controversy that led to new restrictions and “dolphin-safe” tuna.

The longline boats, which catch fish by extending miles of line with thousands of hooks, initially remained strictly crewed by U.S. citizens. This changed as the fleet grew and it became harder to find local residents willing to work on the boats. Fuel prices also soared after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, adding to operational costs.

This spurred the longliners to take advantage of the foreign-crew exemption that had been pushed by members of Congress from the West Coast who were looking after the purse seiners’ interests, said Jim Cook, who co-owns several longline fishing vessels, a marine supply store and fish restaurant at Pier 38 in Honolulu.

“It slowly infiltrated our fleet,” he said.

The longline industry now includes roughly 140 vessels, nearly all of which are ported in Honolulu, and most have entirely foreign crews, according to industry leaders and federal officials.

Read the full story at the Honolulu Civil Beat

Stricter standards for Hawaii’s longline fishing fleet

September 20, 2016 — More oversight and regulations are requested by outside groups and the industry itself.

After reports of slavery and unsafe working conditions, the industry takes steps to reel in problem boats and protect contract workers.

Unlike regular jobs, the fishing day ends when all the lines are back in, recovering broken lines, or hauling in completely full ones, making the long days even longer.

“Fishing is a brutal industry,” said Jim Cook, Hawaii Longline Association. “We have the highest fatality rate of anyone in the industry. We have working hours that the average person couldn’t come to grips with.”

After facing allegations of forced labor and poor working conditions on some boats, the Hawaii Longline Fishing Industry hopes to set standards for all crews to follow, including inspections of boats, questionnaires of workers to make sure conditions are safe, and proper documents; that includes a standardized crew contract.

If not come October 1st, they won’t be allowed to sell their catch at the Honolulu Fish Auction.

“We want you to show us your crew contracts, your I-95 & passports, prior to unloading, and if you don’t – you don’t get to unload,” said Cook.

The changes won’t shorten the long hours of fishing or hard work involved, but will make set standards for the industry.

“If there are outliers out there in this community, bad actors, we’re going to discover them. We’re going to find them,” said Cook.

Read the full story at KITV

JOHN SACKTON: If it is Unethical in Thailand, It is Unethical in Hawaii Also

September 8, 2016 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Charlie Nagle said it best: We “do not and will never knowingly source from vessels that mistreat their crew.” The Nagle family has been in the fish business on the Boston Fish Pier for 130 years.

The AP report on the imprisonment of foreign fishermen on Hawaiian vessels is a wake-up call. No seafood buyer will tolerate abusive conditions for fishermen, whether the result of a legal loophole or not.

The US has been highly critical of Thailand, where abusive labor practices and human trafficking in the seafood industry earned worldwide condemnation and resulted in changes in laws and in close audits of the supply chain.

In New Zealand, documentation of abusive labor practices on offshore vessels led to changes in the law and requirements that crews on these boats be free from unfair labor contracts, be paid according to New Zealand laws, and through New Zealand bank accounts out of reach of the labor brokers who hired them.

Can we expect anything less in Hawaii?

The fishermen in question are hired overseas, brought to Hawaii by boat never having set foot in the US, and then kept onboard for months without any possibility of coming ashore while their vessels dock in Hawaii and California. They are paid as little as $0.70 per hour.

The AP report says that “under the law, U.S. citizens must make up 75 percent of the crew on most American commercial fishing boats. But influential lawmakers, including the late Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye, pushed for a loophole to support one of the state’s biggest industries. It exempted Hawaiian commercial fishing boat owners from federal rules enforced almost everywhere else.

Thus the workers in Hawaii, who catch $110 million worth of seafood annually, are paid as little as 70 cents an hour. They are detained on boats by captains who are required by law to hold their passports. That potentially goes against federal human trafficking laws saying bosses who hold workers’ identification documents can face up to five years in prison.”

The Hawaiian tuna and mahi fleet has no excuse. They can either find fishermen and pay them a US wage, or stop selling to most US markets.

It is simply not acceptable for buyers to express huge concern about fishery labor abuses in Thailand, and ignore those that legally take place in Hawaii.

The fact that these workers can’t come ashore due to lack of visas doesn’t excuse the practice of holding these men on vessels who have no opportunity to leave, nor any opportunity to change their work situation or demand higher pay. All the condemnation of labor agents and traffickers that supply labor to Thai fishing boats applies to these vessels in Hawaii also.

Undoubtedly the AP story will lead to a change in laws. But the seafood industry, including the Hawaii longline fleet, cannot wait until then. They must reform this practice immediately, or shut down. There is no middle ground.

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

Hawaii’s Longline Fishermen Hit Bigeye Tuna Limit Early

July 21, 2016 — For the second year in a row, Hawai‘i longline fishermen are on course to hit their annual limit for bigeye tuna. And again, it’s much earlier than expected. The island’s longline fleet will close in Western and Central pacific waters this Friday, and larger vessels in the Eastern region will also be halted a few days later. HPR’s Molly Solomon has more.

Starting Friday, the productive fishing grounds west of the Hawaiian Islands will be off limits for Hawai‘i’s longline fishing fleet. That’s more than three weeks earlier than fishery officials had predicted.

Sean Martin is president of the Hawai‘i Longline Association. They represent the 140 vessels that will be affected by the closure.

“Having less area to explore and trying to find an area of productive fishing becomes more complicated because a large swath of the ocean is no longer available,” said Martin.

Read and listen to the full story at Hawaii Public Radio

Former Hawaii Governor, Chefs Protest Marine Monument Expansion

July 18, 2016 — Set against a backdrop of commercial fishing boats at Pier 38 in Honolulu, former Hawaii Gov. George Ariyoshi told a crowd of roughly 200 people Friday that they need to work together to stop the proposed expansion of Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument.

“We should not let the federal government come in and tell us what to do with our ocean,” the 90-year-old Ariyoshi said, receiving a round of applause.

It was the biggest rally to date against expanding the monument around the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Some waved signs saying “Fishing Means Food” and “MVP Most Valuable Poke.”

Top chefs like Nico Chaize and George Mavrothalassitis were on hand, along with longline fishermen who object to a further encroachment on their fishing grounds.

Chaize told the crowd that the expansion would lead to higher poke prices and greater reliance on imported frozen fish.

The longliners primarily go after bigeye tuna, a highly valued species targeted for sashimi markets. They catch on average 8 percent of their annual haul of tuna from the area within the boundaries of the proposed expansion.

Read the full story at the Honolulu Civil Beat

Proposal would expand marine conservation area in Northwest Hawaiian islands

June 17, 2016 — U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz is proposing to expand one of the world’s largest marine conservation areas in a way that preserves some fishing grounds for local fishermen.

The proposal submitted to President Barack Obama today would make the monument near Hawaii the largest protected marine area in the world.

It reflects a smaller protected area than what was originally sought by Native Hawaiians, who consider the remote islands, atolls and coral reefs found within the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument sacred.

“I think it’s a really good compromise to help alleviate some of the concerns that were raised on Kauai by the fishing community about their access to the waters that are surrounding Papahanaumokuakea,” said Sol Kahoohalahla, a member of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Native Hawaiian Cultural Working Group, which pushed for expansion.

Even so, important fishing grounds would still be lost, said Sean Martin, president of the Hawaii Longline Association, which includes about 140 vessels. About 8 to 12 percent of the fish caught by Hawaii longline fishermen comes from waters in the proposed protected area, he said.

“We’ve been operating there for many, many decades and the place is still pristine,” Martin said. “I’m sorry but I don’t get it.”

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser

CNMI, Hawaii Longliners Agree On Sharing Tuna Quota

April 20, 2016 — Senate Vice President Arnold I. Palacios says the CNMI and the Hawaii Longline Association have finalized a deal regarding the tuna-catch limit.

Palacios was with Gov. Ralph Torres who visited Hawaii to meet its governor and officials of the Hawaii Longline Association who, the senator said, agreed to an annual payment of $250,000 for three years.

Palacios said the deal had been on hold for six months.

Read the full story at the Pacific Islands Report

Hawaiian leaders seek expansion of marine conservation area

April 18, 2016 — HONOLULU — A group of Native Hawaiian leaders have urged President Barack Obama to expand what’s already one of the largest marine conservation areas in the world.

But the president of the Hawaii Longline Association said Friday the lobbying effort is using Hawaiian culture as an excuse to close off more waters to fishermen.

Papahanaumokuakea (pah-pah-HAH-now-moh-cuh-ah-cay-ah) Marine National Monument is a 140,000-square-mile area of the Pacific where remote islands, atolls, islets and coral reefs serve as habitat for some of the world’s most endangered species.

The region is also a sacred place in the history, culture and cosmology of Native Hawaiians.

“Mr. President, as an island boy from Hawaii, we trust that you understand the significance of the ocean to our islands,” said a letter signed by leaders of the expansion push.

They want Obama to expand the monument to the full 200 nautical-mile limit of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands exclusive economic zone while keeping the main Hawaiian islands outside the boundaries.

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