Saving Seafood

New dock for American Samoa longline fleet

May 8, 2020 — American Samoa’s longline fleet moves a little closer to having its own dock space today.

The long awaited ground-breaking for the extension of the Malaloa Marina is being held this morning in Pago Pago.

Governor Lolo Matalasi Moliga, representatives of the Western Central Pacific Fishery Management Council and the Silva Group contractors are scheduled to attend.

The new berthing area extends the current dock at the marina by 450 feet.

It will be used by the territory’s local longline fleet, which currently has no dedicated dock.

Read the full story at Radio New Zealand

PNA data offers a better understanding of drifting FADs

October 10, 2019 — In recent years, concern has been growing about bycatch of juvenile bigeye tuna by purse-seiners setting nets on drifting fish aggregation devices (dFADs). The main target of the purse-seiners is the more plentiful skipjack tuna, but as bigeye inhabit the same tropical seas, they are often taken as well.

The devices typically consist of a raft or buoy trailing a length of disused netting tied into the shape of a string of sausages, used to attract tuna – which like to gather under floating objects. Modern dFADs are equipped with a solar-powered GPS device and a fish finder to report their location and the amount of fish gathered under them. Support vessels manage the deployment and retrieval of the dFADs, so that fishing vessels can concentrate on fishing.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

EU, Pacific fish forum engage in first ever policy dialogue

June 24, 2019 — The first ever discussions between the EU and the 17 members of the Forum Fishery Agency (FFA) regarding the management of marine resources took place in Pohnpei, in the Federated States of Micronesia on June 21.

The two-day meeting was arranged under the framework of the Pacific-European Union Marine Partnership program (PEUMP), a four-year initiative that aims to reduce levels of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the region, as well as find trade negotiations to remove the need for fishery subsidies.

FFA director general, Manu Tupou-Roosen said: “This policy dialogue is important because it is an opportunity for FFA members and the EU to have an in-depth discussion on key issues relating to the sustainable management of tuna in our region, its importance for Pacific island countries, and our cooperation in the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission to tackle issues like IUU fishing.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Hawaii Tuna Fishermen Want Higher Quotas

December 4, 2018 — Hawaii’s longliners caught their quota for bigeye tuna early again this year. But that may not be an issue going forward if U.S. officials can negotiate a higher limit next week with an international fisheries commission.

Meanwhile, consumers can expect stable tuna prices for the holidays as the longline fleet continues to haul in a steady stream of fresh ahi to Honolulu’s fish auction.

The season for bigeye tuna, one of two types of fish known as ahi in Hawaii, was uninterrupted thanks in part to a quota-sharing agreement that lets the longliners fish beyond the internationally agreed upon limit for the U.S. in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean.

The Hawaii longline fleet of roughly 145 vessels, based in Honolulu, had a 2018 limit of 3,554 metric tons, which it hit Nov. 1.

But under an agreement with the Northern Mariana Islands, the longliners, as they have for the last few years, paid $250,000 into a fishery development fund and continued fishing for another 1,000 tons. The longliners were about 57 percent of the way through that extra allotment as of last week.

Read the full story at the Honolulu Civil Beat