Saving Seafood

Summary of Action Items for the 181st Meeting of the WPRFMC

February 7, 2020 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:

The 181st meeting of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council will convene March 10-12, 2020, at the Laniakea YWCA, Fuller Hall, Honolulu, Hawai’i. The Council will consider and may take action on the issues summarized below, including any public comments on them. Click here for a complete PDF version of the 181st Action Item Summary Memo.

  1. Specifying Annual Catch Limits for the Mariana Archipelago Bottomfish Fishery
  2. Options Paper to Amend the Bottomfish Management Unit Species in American Samoa and the Mariana Archipelago
  3. US Territory Longline Bigeye Catch/Allocation Limits
  4. Marine Conservation Plans for Guam, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and the Pacific Remote Island Areas/Hawai’i

Written public comments should be received by the Council’s executive director by 5 p.m. (Hawai’i time), Thursday, March 5, 2020, by postal mail, fax or email as indicated below. After March 5, it is the submitter’s responsibility to provide at least 40 copies of the written comment to Council staff at the Council meeting.

Read the full release here

2020 Public Scoping on Hawaiʻi Pelagic Small-Boat Fisheries

January 31, 2020 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:

The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council will hold public scoping meetings on Hawai‘i’s pelagic small-boat fisheries from Feb. 4 to 13 throughout the Hawaiian Islands. If you fish more than 3 miles offshore (i.e., beyond state waters) for open-water species (e.g., not bottomfish) and use any gear/method besides longlines, these meetings should be of interest to you.

Public scoping meetings provide fishermen and other interested members of the public an opportunity to bring to the Council’s attention those issues important to the management of their fisheries. The Council is currently assessing the effectiveness of the monitoring for the Hawai‘i pelagic small-boat fisheries. Data collected is used to develop annual reports on the performance of the fisheries and the status of the fish stocks that they catch. The Council uses these reports to determine management measures, research needs and fishery development projects to support. The meetings will provide more in-depth details on the process and provide an opportunity for you to give oral or written comments on your thoughts about issues regarding Hawai’i’s pelagic small-boat fisheries and management of them.

A summary report of the meetings will be provided to the Council at its 181st meeting on March 9-12, 2020, in Honolulu, where the Council may make recommendations for management as needed.

For the public scoping meeting schedule, see below or click here for the flyer. Additional information will be posted on the Council’s website at www.wpcouncil.org/hawaiismallboatfishery, so please check there for scoping materials. If you have questions, contact the Council at (808) 522-8220 or email info@wpcouncil.org.

Come be a part of the decision-making process for your fisheries!

Hawaiian swordfish catches to recommence after loggerhead-related closure

January 21, 2020 — The US state of Hawaii’s swordfish fishery is expected to land its first catch in nine months this weekend (Jan. 18-19), after closing on Mar. 19, 2019 upon reaching the loggerhead turtle interaction cap.

The fishery produces about 55% of America’s domestic swordfish and supplies 14% of the total US swordfish market.

“Without Hawaii swordfish, US markets will increase their dependence on foreign suppliers,” said Kitty Simonds, executive director of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WPRFMC), which manages the fishery.

“Our pelagic longline fisheries are well managed and rigorously monitored, and regulations are enforced. International fishery management organizations consider them model fisheries and have adopted many of the measures we developed. Our fishery targets the North Pacific stock, which is healthy…and avoids the troubled Eastern Pacific and South Atlantic stocks.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Hawai’i Swordfish Harvest Is Back after Nine-Month Hiatus – New Measures Will Aid Fishery and Protect Sea Turtles

January 17, 2020 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:

The Hawai’i swordfish fishery is expected to land its first catch in nine months tomorrow. This healthy fishery produces approximately 55 percent of America’s domestic swordfish and supplies 14 percent of the total US swordfish market.

“Without Hawai’i swordfish, US markets will increase their dependence on foreign suppliers,” said Kitty M. Simonds, executive director of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, which manages the fishery. “Our pelagic longline fisheries are well managed and rigorously monitored, and regulations are enforced. International fishery management organizations consider them model fisheries and have adopted many of the measures we developed. Our fishery targets the North Pacific stock, which is healthy (not overfished or subject to overfishing), and avoids the troubled Eastern Pacific and South Atlantic stocks.”

Some of these rigorous conservation measures include rules protecting sea turtles, gear restrictions and a cap on the number of sea turtles with which the fishery may interact. The fishery currently operates under an annual cap of 17 loggerhead and 16 leatherback turtle interactions and has 100 percent observer coverage. An interaction occurs whenever a sea turtle becomes hooked or entangled in longline gear, as recorded by the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) observer.

The fishery closed on March 19 last year after reaching the loggerhead cap and reopened on Jan. 1, 2020.

According to a 2019 biological opinion issued by NMFS, the Hawai’i shallow-set longline fishery for swordfish does not jeopardize the continued existence of loggerhead and leatherback sea turtle populations. Ninety-nine percent of turtle interactions in the fishery result in the turtle being released alive. The loggerhead turtle population, which nests in Japan, is growing at an annual rate of 2.4 percent.

The Council has developed amended measures, which were transmitted to the Secretary of Commerce on Wednesday for review and approval. The amendment, which could be effective as early as May 2020, would remove the loggerhead cap and have a leatherback cap of 16. The amendment includes a trip limit of five loggerhead and two leatherback interactions, after which a vessel would be required to return to port. If that vessel reaches the trip limit again, it could not fish for swordfish for the remainder of the year and it could interact with only five loggerhead and two leatherbacks total the following year.

Mike Lee of Garden and Valley Isle Seafood notes: “The Hawai’i swordfish fishery has a multimillion dollar impact to the local economy, which includes several wholesale seafood distribution companies. Hawai’i swordfish is a premium product with high levels of demand. Fishery closures disrupt market channels and leave our customers little choice but foreign imports.”

“For the last two years the fishery operated for about three months due to premature closure and generated around $1.5 million in landed value, said Eric Kingma, executive director of the Hawaii Longline Association (HLA). “By comparison, the fishery produced three times that revenue ($4.5 million) in 2017 and nearly $9 million in 2009. Additionally, closing the fishery forces swordfish vessels to convert to target tuna (ahi) with the risk that the bigeye tuna quota may be reached before the end of the year, when market demand peaks.”

The Lady Luck, the first vessel from the Hawai’i swordfish fleet, is expected offload around 35,000 pounds of swordfish at Pier 38 in Honolulu around 5 a.m. tomorrow, Friday, Jan. 17. The swordfish could appear on the auction floor around 9 a.m. For more information, contact Eric Kingma, HLA executive director, at (808) 389-2653 or eric.k.kingma@gmail.com or Asuka Ishizaki, the Council’s protected species coordinator, at (808) 522-8224 or asuka.ishizaki@wpcouncil.org.

FAST FACTS ABOUT THE US SWORDFISH FISHERY OPERATING UNDER HAWAI’I LONGLINE FEDERAL PERMITS

  • Major domestic fish producer – providing 55 percent of US swordfish
  • Major supplier to total US market including imports – providing 14 percent of US swordfish market
  • Ex-vessel (landed) value – $1.5 million in 2019 (Jan. 1 – March 19); $4.5 million in 2017; $9 million in 2009
  • Management measures – permit requirements, limits on vessel size and numbers, gear restricted to circle hooks and mackerel-type bait, limit on number of sea turtle interactions, required turtle handling tools, requirement to release turtles unharmed, mandatory protected species workshops, prohibited from operating within 50 nautical miles of the Hawaiian Islands
  • Monitoring – logbooks, vessel monitoring system, 100 percent observer coverage (NMFS approved, independent observer on each vessel on every trip)
  • Enforcement – closure of fishery if sea turtle cap is reached
  • Target stock – North Pacific swordfish, a healthy fishery that is neither overfished nor experiencing overfishing
    • Maximum sustainable yield (MSY) of the stock – 15,000 metric tons (mt)
    • Current spawning stock biomass – almost double spawning stock biomass at MSY
    • Current total catch by all fleets combined – about 11,000 mt or about 73 percent of MSY
    • US harvest – currently about 1,000 mt or 10 percent of the total harvest. In 2008, the US (i.e., Hawai’i longline fisheries) harvested 18 percent of the total catch.
    • Other major fleets harvesting the North Pacific stock – Japan (about 8,000 mt) and Taiwan (about 2,000 mt)
  • Foreign competitors in the US swordfish market
    • Brazil – targeting North and South Atlantic stock, the latter of which is overfished and experiencing overfishing
    • Mexico and Ecuador (including charter vessels from Spain and the European Union) – targeting Eastern Pacific stock, which is experiencing overfishing
  • Fleet size – currently 14 vessels of which five are based in California
  • Average vessel size – 65 to 70 feet (maximum allowable 101 feet)
  • Average target depth – 98 feet

US Pacific Territory Fishery Scholarship Applications Due March 2, 2020

December 10, 2019 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:

The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council and its Education Committee members are pleased to announce the availability of up to three undergraduate or graduate scholarships for the 2020-2021 academic year. These scholarships support the aspiration of American Samoa, Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands to build their capacity to effectively manage their fisheries and related resources through employment of their own people. Students with strong ties to these territories are eligible for scholarships that cover the cost of tuition and fees and some living expenses. However, for undergraduates, there is an expectation that the Free Application for Federal Student Aid will be completed early and Pell grants obtained so the relevant university’s Financial Aid Office can determine the amount of aid needed. Click here for more information and a complete scholarship application. Funding for the scholarships comes in part from the NOAA Fisheries Pacific Islands Regional Office and Pacific Island Fisheries Science Center. For further details, please contact Amy Vandehey at info@wpcouncil.org or phone (808) 522-8220.

Fishery Council clarifies local bottom fishery data

November 18, 2019 — “There is currently no reliable measure of individual number of fishermen in the American Samoa bottom fish fishery,” wrote Kitty M. Simonds, executive director of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).

“The Council is working with the American Samoa Government to improve the quality of fishery data,” wrote Simonds in a Nov. 12th letter providing the Council’s comment on the NMFS proposed List of Fisheries (LOF) for 2020. (The proposed list was published recently on federal portal www.regulations.gov seeking comments)

“Specifically, the Council provides clarification on the source of information used to revise the number of vessels/persons for the American Samoa bottomfish handline fishery from 1,092 to 2,095,” Simonds explained.

She noted that NMFS cites the Council’s Annual Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation (SAFE) report for the fishery participation data in the 2019 LOF, which resulted in the number of vessels/persons revised from the previous 17 to 1,092 in the 2019 LOF, and the subsequent revision to 2,095 in the proposed 2020 LOF.

Read the full story at Samoa News

Congresswoman Pushes US To Support Its Seiners

November 18, 2019 — “Fishing forms the backbone of our local economy,” said Republican Congresswoman, Aumua Amata Radewagen, speaking at the opening of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council’s (WPRFMC) 180th meeting in Pago Pago, American Samoa. Radewagen is a delegate for the U.S. House of Representatives from American Samoa. The sustainable future of the nations purse seine fishery was also the issue in Lt. Governor Lemanu Peleti Mauga’s speech in which he referred to the importance of fishing for the livelihood of the island.

Radewagen mentioned that US purse seiners pay annually up to USD 2 million per vessel to have access to foreign EEZ’s for fishing. Due to marine national monument regulations, these parts of US EEZ’s are now closed for purse seiners.

The seiner fleet provides skipjack and yellowfin tuna for the American Samoa-based cannery owned by StarKist Samoa Co. The fleet has exceeded the limit of fishing days in 2018 and therefore by US regulations, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) announced the closure on October 1, whereby US-flagged vessels have no access to the fishing grounds within the nations’ EEZ which also includes the waters around American Samoa.

The Congresswoman finds it her priority to get the lifting of the fishing closure within the Marine parks – which is still recommended by the US Interior Department – onto President Trump’s agenda. From her perspective, the latest negotiations for the South Pacific Tuna Treaty between the US and the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) nations went backward when 700 fewer fishing days were agreed.

According to a report by the American Samoa Department of Commerce, the Pago Pago cannery provides 25 percent of the territory’s jobs and effectively subsidizes the cost of freight and fuel to American Samoa. If it should shut down, it would be a USD 200 million loss annually to the local economy.

Actually, most employees of StarKist’s American Samoa processing plant are inhabitants of the neighboring country, Samoa, located 137 miles away from American Samoa.

US-flagged purse seiners are owned by US entities and a minority by foreign companies. Only the South Pacific albacore longlining fleet is in American Samoan hands. The reduction of that fleet – that targets albacore – to 13 vessels while China enlarged its fleet is something Radewagen is concerned about. In her view, the US should constantly be active and engaged in the Pacific region and monitor foreign actions that affect the domestic fleet.

Read the full story at Atuna

Western Pacific Council Urges NMFS Use New Model for Swordfish Fishery; Reference Point for Albacore

November 4, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council discussed changes related to the interaction of sea turtles in the swordfish fishery and the South Pacific albacore fishery when it met in American Samoa last week. Both require the National Marine Fisheries Service to agree with Council’s action to move forward.

The Council urged NMFS, on the Hawaii deep-set longline fishery consultation under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) consider all anticipated scientific information in the biological opinion. This should include the new model developed by the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center that evaluates the impacts of fishery interactions on the North Pacific loggerhead and Western Pacific leatherback sea turtle populations.

The Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee, prior to last week’s Council meeting, endorsed the new model as best scientific information available for evaluating the fisheries’ impacts. The results of the model for the shallow-set (swordfish) longline fishery showed no discernible impact of the fishery’s interactions on the population trend of loggerhead turtles over the next 100 years. For leatherbacks, it showed a small change in the long-term population trend, indicating that the population impact from the fishery would occur five years earlier at the end of the 100-year period.

The NMFS scientist noted the primary impacts to the leatherback population include directed fisheries and nesting predation where the turtles nest in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

The Council also urged NMFS to apply the model to the Hawai’i deep-set (tuna) and American Samoa longline fisheries so they may be considered in the ongoing consultations. It also recommended NMFS work with the Council to develop only necessary sea turtle protection measures under the ongoing consultations for the Hawai’i deep-set and American Samoa longline fisheries that are appropriate and practicable and ensure the sustainability of the fisheries.

Additionally, the Council will work with NMFS to evaluate the impact of any management actions for reducing turtle interactions on the economic performance and socioeconomic effects of the shallow-set and deep-set longline fisheries, including consideration of the effect on protected species being transferred to foreign fisheries should the U.S. longline fishery close.

Regarding South Pacific albacore tuna, the Council requested NMFS compile and evaluate the catches of albacore from Chinese-flagged longline vessels operating in the southwest Pacific and compare them to the catches and performance of the American Samoa longline fleet.

The Council also wanted to move forward on creating a reference point for South Pacific albacore. It requested NMFS and the U.S. delegation to the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission work with other international delegations to develop the reference point. It should include the catch per unit effort of small island developing states and participating territories to reach historical levels, in addition to a biomass target reference point.

Furthermore, they should also work with other international delegations to develop:

a) a harvest plan for South Pacific albacore to achieve its target reference points “soonest” and under 20 years; and

b) an allocation scheme for countries and cooperating members in which small island developing states and participating territories are exempt from annual catch reductions to reach the target reference point or that they can maintain catches commensurate with historical optimal levels. The allocation scheme must take into consideration charter arrangements and allocations should be accounted by fishing vessel registry, such that conservation benefits are not undermined.

This story was originally published on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

Interim Bottomfish Measure Addresses Overfishing, Allows American Samoa Fishery to Operate

October 25, 2019 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:

Fishermen from Tutuila and Manu’a islands concerned about the future of the Territory’s bottomfish fishery attended the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council meeting yesterday and today in Utulei, American Samoa. A recent draft stock assessment by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) indicates that the federally managed bottomfish complex in American Samoa is overfished and experiencing overfishing. It also indicates that the federally managed Guam bottomfish stock complex is overfished but not experiencing overfishing.

Brian Langseth, a stock assessment scientist with NMFS Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC), presented the 2019 draft assessment to the Council. The different outcome between the 2019 and previous stock assessments, he said, had to do largely with the way the data was filtered. The data is collected by the American Samoa Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources (DMWR) through creel surveys, in which DMWR staff interview fishermen about their catch and fishing trip. The Council expressed concerns about the robustness of the data from DMWR that was used in the assessment.

During public testimony, fishermen from Manu’a questioned the accuracy of the data used in the model. They said they haven’t been surveyed yet even though they fish principally for bottomfish due to cost and low availability of fuel as well as the small sizes of their vessels. Fishermen from Tutuila also questioned the data, noting that the creel surveys don’t capture the fishermen who return to port at night. One fisherman estimated that the creel surveys capture only about 5 percent of the catch. The fishermen also said the catch and catch per unit effort (CPUE) are affected by the wind and current conditions, cost of fuel and market demand. One fisherman shared that the boat owner may have only a $50 to $100 profit from a trip after fuel, ice and crew expenses. Fishermen noted that fuel costs have been high and the weather has been rough the past six months to a year. They stressed to the Council that the livelihoods of their families and communities depend on the ability for them to continue to fish.

Read the full release here