Saving Seafood

Feds to Reopen Papahanaumokuakea to Fishing?

March 27, 2017 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Management Council: 

The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council concluded its three-day meeting in Honolulu with a suite of recommendations, many of which are focused on keeping U.S. fishing grounds open to sustainably managed U.S. fisheries.

The council includes the local fishery department directors from Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam and the CNMI, fishing experts appointed by the Governors and federal agencies involved in fishing-related activities.

Marine national monuments, national marine sanctuaries, other marine protected area designations and Department of Defense training are among the uses that are increasingly closing off fishing grounds in U.S. waters.

Council Chair Edwin A. Ebisui Jr. clarified that council communications to the administration about impacts of marine national monuments on fisheries are not lobbying.

Some environmental activists recently made misleading statements about this in regards to a letter to President Trump prepared on March 1, 2017, by the Council Coordination Committee or CCC. The CCC includes the chairs of the nation’s eight regional fishery management councils. The letter details the impact of designations of Marine National Monuments under the Antiquities Act in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and was submitted to the president after conferring with the NOAA Office of General Counsel.

Read the full story at The Hawai’i Free Press 

Western Pacific Council to Tackle Management in Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument

March 23, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — At this week’s Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council in Honolulu, members are developing new fishing rules for the marine national monument that was expanded last year and decided which species will be under federal management as components of the area’s ecosystem.

The Presidential proclamation under the Antiquities Act that expanded the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument calls for closing offshore commercial fisheries from 50 to 200 miles around the NWHI, an area twice the size of Texas. The Council includes the local fishery department directors from Hawai’i, American Samoa, Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), fishing experts appointed by the Governors and federal agencies involved in fishing-related activities.  The meeting runs through tomorrow and is open to the public.

The Presidential proclamation under the Antiquities Act that expanded the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument calls for closing offshore commercial fisheries from 50 to 200 miles around the NWHI, an area twice the size of Texas.

The Hawai’i-based longline fleet is expected to redirect its fishing efforts to the high seas (beyond 200 miles from shore) or into the allowable longline fishing area 50 to 200 miles offshore around the main Hawaiian Islands. The Hawai’i longline fleet, which catches bigeye tuna and swordfish, is banned from 0 to 50 miles throughout Hawai’i.

While the Presidential proclamation bans commercial fishing around the NWHI, it allows regulated non-commercial and Native Hawaiian subsistence fishing.

This week the Council is considering the results of public scoping meetings that were conducted throughout Hawai’i in December as well as the recommendations of its advisory bodies.

The Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC), which met March 7 to 9 in Honolulu, recommends that existing data, such as data from the former sport-fishing operation at Midway Atoll in the NWHI and the Hawaii tuna tagging project, be explored.

The SSC also recommends that potential impact on protected species be considered as fishing effort is redistributed.

The Council advisory bodies jointly support the removal of fishing provisions in the NWHI as well as other marine monuments in the region: Rose Atoll (American Samoa), Marianas Trench (CNMI) and Pacific Remote Islands (the US atoll and island possessions of Johnston, Palmyra, Wake, Baker, Howland, Jarvis and Kingman Reef). The group recommends that the Council continue to express its concerns to the new Administration regarding the impacts to fisheries from the monument designations and their expansions as well from military closures and other marine protected areas in the region.

In addition to management of the monument, the Council will determine which of the thousands of marine species in the region will be managed using annual catch limits as targeted fish species,  and which will be managed using other tools (for example, minimum sizes and seasonal closures) as ecosystem component species. The Council may endorse the SSC recommendation to form an expert working group to ensure the final listings take into account species of social, cultural, economic, biological and ecological importance.

As part of the Council meeting, a Fishers Forum on Using Fishers Knowledge to Inform Fisheries Management will be held 6 to 9 p.m. on March 22 at the Ala Moana Hotel, Hibiscus Ballroom. The  event includes informational booths, panel presentations and public discussion.

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

Hawaii legislature kills bills tightening rules on commercial fishing licenses

March 9, 2017 — Two separate legislative efforts to increase state oversight of commercial fishing licenses in Hawaii, initiated in response to an Associated Press investigation into the working conditions of foreign fishermen in the Hawaiian fleet, have failed to advance.

One bill would have required fishing license applicants to apply in person, “creating a logistical barrier because most of Hawaii’s foreign fishermen are confined to their boats,” according to the AP. Supporters of the bill said that interaction would give foreign fishermen “a chance to tell state officials if they were victims of human trafficking or having problems such as withheld wages,” the article reported.

The second bill had called for records of employment and fishermen contracts to be retained with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

However, following opposition by the Hawaii Longline Association, which argued that state officials should not be put in the position of having to review labor contracts, Hawaii’s House Judiciary Committee and Senate Committee on International Affairs and the Arts deferred action on the legislation, making the bills ineligible for further consideration in the state’s current legislative session.

“I think we all share an interest to ensure that there’s safety for the crews of these boats, but we just felt like the bill was more of a federal issue,” state Rep. Scott Nishimoto told ABC News. “I read through the bill and I didn’t really see how collecting contracts in different languages would do anything to ensure their safety.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Hawaii bill targeting commercial fishing industry dies

March 2nd, 2017 — A Hawaii bill that sought to change the way commercial fishing licenses are granted died after industry representatives told lawmakers it would wreck the business.

The bill sought more oversight of the fishing industry, but that’s the role of the federal government, not the state, said state Sen. Brian Tanighuchi, chairman of the Senate Committee on International Affairs and the Arts.

Two committees including Taniguchi’s deferred the bill indefinitely Wednesday, killing it for the legislative session.

The bill sought to restrict commercial fishing licenses to people who are legally allowed to enter the U.S., a redundant move because that already is codified. But despite what’s currently in the law, the state issues fishing licenses to the men.

The bill also would have required fishing license applicants to appear in person, creating a logistical barrier because most of Hawaii’s foreign fishermen are confined to their boats. Supporters said that interaction would give foreign fishermen a chance to tell state officials if they were victims of human trafficking or having problems such as withheld wages.

“It’s hard to set up a whole government procedure to just maybe bump into that problem when you have a federal agency that’s actually supposed to enforce that,” Taniguchi said after the hearing.

The bill was introduced after an Associated Press investigation found some foreign fishermen working without most basic labor protections while catching premium seafood. The 2016 investigation also found that foreign fishermen were confined to the boats while docked in Honolulu.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Baynews9.com

Hawaii bill would ban licenses for some foreign fishermen

February 23, 2017 — Hawaii lawmakers are considering a proposal with the potential to cripple the state’s commercial fishing industry after an Associated Press investigation found foreign fishermen confined to boats and living in subpar conditions.

A 2016 AP investigation found that some fishermen earned less than $1 an hour and worked without most basic labor protections while catching premium seafood. The boats often have crews of fishermen from Southeast Asia and Pacific Island nations, and the men are restricted to their vessels when docked in Honolulu because they lack proper documentation to enter the U.S.

A bill in the Hawaii Legislature aims to change rules for how fishing licenses are issued to foreign crew members that make up the majority of the state’s commercial fleet.

Read the full story from the Associated Press here

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.

Hawaii bill seeks more oversight of commercial fishing

February 15, 2017 — Hawaii lawmakers advanced a bill Tuesday calling for more oversight of the commercial fishing industry after an Associated Press investigation found hundreds of foreign fishermen confined to boats and some living in subpar conditions.

The bill would require fishing boat owners who want a commercial license in Hawaii to provide state officials with a copy of employment contracts held with every fisherman on board before the license is granted.

Without those contracts, there’s no way for state officials to check whether fishermen are getting what they were promised or if an investigation should be launched about possible human trafficking, said Rep. Kaniela Ing, who introduced the proposal.

“I think we’ve learned through decades of democracy that industry self-policing doesn’t usually work,” Ing said.

The bill passed the House Committee on Ocean, Marine Resources and Hawaiian Affairs Tuesday and it goes next to the Judiciary Committee.

Ing’s proposal calls for keeping records of employment contracts with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, which issues fishing licenses.

Read the full story at the Hawaii Tribune-Herald

HAWAII: State may be breaking law in accommodating foreign fishermen

February 10, 2017 — They work without most basic labor protections just a few miles from Waikiki’s white sand beaches, catching premium tuna and swordfish sold at some of America’s most upscale grocery stores, hotels and restaurants.

About 700 of these foreign fisherman are currently confined to vessels in Honolulu without visas, some making less than $1 an hour.

Hawaii authorities may have been violating their own state law for years by issuing commercial fishing licenses to thousands of foreign workers who were refused entry into the country, The Associated Press has found.

Under state law, these workers — who make up most of the crew in a fleet catching $110 million worth of seafood annually — may not be allowed to fish at all, the AP found.

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

HAWAII: Air Force wants to test more weapons in Kauai waters

February 6, 2017 — The waters off Kauai’s Pacific Missile Range Facility have been used for military weapons tests for more than fifty years, but some are troubled by one of the military’s most recent requests.

In December, a Florida-based Air Force squadron asked for a permit that would allow continued testing of long-range missiles whose explosions are documented to have debilitating effects on dolphins and whales.

“These marine mammal populations off Kauai are already being barraged by military training activity,” said David Henkin, an attorney with Earthjustice, an environmental activist group. “There are very specific populations of marine mammals that only live around Kauai, so if we harm those particular individuals, we run the risk of harming the population and losing that very important component of our environment.”

Officials say this is the second permit request by the squadron, which completed a one-day training mission where nine weapons were released last October.

Read the full story at KFVE