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.