October 18th, 2016 — Seafood News — Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WestPac) will propose changes to fishery regulations to accommodate an expanded marine monument designation and also made no changes to the 2017 Pacific longline bigeye tuna catch.

WestPac agreed to produce a draft of amendments and regulations to the Hawai’i and Pelagic Fishery Ecosystem Plans (FEPs) to accommodate provisions of the August 26th Presidential Proclamation that expanded the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.

The Obama Administrations designation expanded the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument to encompass the entire 200-mile US EZZ around the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

An MPA designation means commercial fishing is banned in protected waters, though regulations can allow for non-commercial fishing, like subsistence practices.

“The impacts to the Hawaii fishing and seafood industries and indigenous communities as a result of monument expansion are considerable,” said Council Chair Edwin Ebisui Jr. “The Council will write to the President about these and request the Department of Commerce to mitigate them.”

The Council will solicit public input on the draft FEP amendment and draft regulation options through statewide meetings to be held prior to the Council’s next meeting in March 2017.

The Council will also ask the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to analyze various impacts of the monument expansion, which closed commercial fishing in approximately 61 percent of the US EEZ around the Hawai’i Archipelago. Among these is the change in longline effort around the main Hawaiian Islands in relation to changes in troll caught yellowfin tuna.

Meanwhile, WestPact recommended no changes for the 2017 longline commercial bigeye tuna catch.

This means the longline limits for the bigeye tuna catch will remain at 2,000 metric tons for the US Participating Territory.

Additionally, the Council also authorized the Territories of American Samoa, Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marina Islands (CNMI) to allocate up to 1,000 mt of their limit to US fishermen through specified fishing agreements as authorized under Amendment 7 of the Pelagic Fishery Ecosystem Plan for the Western Pacific Region.

WestPac says the transfer amendment provides the Territories with funding for fisheries development projects in their respective Marine Conservation Plans.
“The transfers also help to stabilize Hawai’i’s local fresh tuna market,”said Council Executive Director Kitty M. Simonds.

The amendment was actually invoked this month to extend the bigeye tuna season for the US sector in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.

“It was a lot of work for the agency, but leaving 250 metric tons of bigeye in the water with 30 boats unable to fish was a significant hardship on 20 percent of the Hawaii fleet,” said Hawaii Longline Association President Sean Martin in our story about the quota transfer.

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