November 25, 2023 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:

Scientific advisors to the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council will meet Nov. 28-29, 2023, to provide advice and comments on the proposed Pacific Remote Islands (PRI) sanctuary, uku essential fish habitat (EFH) revision for the Hawai‘i Fishery Ecosystem Plan (FEP), U.S. territorial bigeye tuna catch and allocation limits, and other topics.

The Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) meeting will be held remotely via web conference. The full agenda, background documents and instructions for connecting to the meeting and providing oral public comments are available at www.wpcouncil.org/event/150th-scientific-and-statistical-committee.

National Marine Sanctuary in PRI

The SSC will be reviewing the available scientific information and discussing whether the existing fishing regulations in the Pacific Remote Islands (PRI) are sufficient for a proposed national marine sanctuary. The SSC may provide recommendations to the Council regarding: 1) whether existing regulations provide comprehensive and long-lasting protection for the PRI, and 2) whether there is science to show conservation benefits that justify further fishing prohibitions. The proposed sanctuary overlays the current PRI Marine National Monument and would create duplicative management regimes, which is a waste of taxpayers’ hard-earned income. 

In September 2023, the Council preliminarily found that the existing fishing regulations under the current structure may already meet the goals and objectives of the proposed sanctuary, in alignment with the SSC’s recommendation. The Council will consider additional information at its December meeting before taking final action on the fishing regulations. The final decision is due to NOAA by Dec. 20, 2023.

In March 2023, President Biden directed the Secretary of Commerce to consider making the PRI Marine National Monument and additional areas within the U.S. exclusive economic zone into a national marine sanctuary. On June 23, the Council received the official sanctuary proposal, which requested the Council’s assistance in formulating fishing regulations.

The Council has been putting fishing regulations into place for the PRI FEP since 1986, such as requirements for permits and reporting on protected species interactions and bycatch, gear restrictions and vessel limits. There are additional fishing regulations for the Monument that prohibit commercial fishing within 0-50 nautical miles around Howland, Baker and Jarvis Islands and Palmyra Atoll, and 0-200 nm around Johnston Atoll, Wake Island and Kingman Reef.

Hawai‘i Uku EFH Revision

The Council is taking final action to refine EFH designations for main Hawaiian Islands (MHI) uku (grey snapper) in its Hawai‘i Archipelago FEP. The SSC may provide recommendations to the Council on the appropriate use of new data in revising existing EFH.

The Magnuson-Stevens Act defines EFH as waters and substrate necessary for fish spawning, breeding, feeding and growth to maturity. EFH for uku was initially designated in 2009 and revised in 2016. Two new models reviewed in 2022 redefined uku EFH around Hawai‘i, and were recognized as the best scientific information available by the Western Pacific Stock Assessment Review process and the SSC.

At its June meeting, the SSC recommended using Level 1 model data (presence/absence) for refining uku EFH in the Hawai‘i FEP and discussed data inputs, especially for regions with high commercial uku catch like Penguin Bank. The SSC’s input will guide the Council in determining EFH for uku in Hawai‘i, with the goal of ensuring compliance with regulatory guidelines, supporting economic and social benefits, and ensuring the long-term sustainability of the MHI uku stock and habitat. The refined models will be considered by the Council at its December meeting, following recommendations from the SSC.

Bigeye Tuna Management in the Pacific

At its December 2023 meeting, the Council will consider taking final action on the specification of the 2024-2026 bigeye tuna limits for U.S. territories and catch transfer limits under the Pacific Pelagic FEP. The SSC will discuss a 2023 stock assessment that indicates the bigeye tuna stock in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean is not subject to overfishing and catch amounts could be significantly increased without posing a risk of overfishing. The SSC may provide advice to the Council regarding the catch and allocation limits based on the new information.

The SSC members will also discuss and may provide input to the Council on several presentations on its Inflation Reduction Act proposal and research priorities for the next few years.

Recommendations made by the SSC will be considered by the Council when it meets virtually Dec. 11-12, 2023, with host sites at 1164 Bishop St., Ste. 1400, Honolulu, HI; Cliff Pointe, Tedi of Samoa Bldg. Ste. 208B, Fagatogo Village, American Samoa; 304 W. O’Brien Dr., Hagatna, Guam; BRI Bldg. Ste. 205, Kopa Di Oru St., Garapan, Saipan, CNMI. Instructions on connecting to the web conference, agendas and briefing documents are posted at www.wpcouncil.org/event/197th-council-meeting.

October 24, 2o23 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:

“We cannot survive the current policies and actions by the DOC, especially if the [Pacific Remote Islands, PRI] sanctuary is implemented,” said Western Pacific Fishery Management Council Chair Will Sword at the Oct. 11-13, 2023, Council Coordination Committee (CCC) meeting in Alexandria, Virginia. In a discussion on the process for establishing fishing regulations in national marine sanctuaries, Sword depicted the plight of American Samoa in the face of a proposed sanctuary in the PRI.

“This administration’s EOs [Executive Orders] on equity and environmental justice goals are rubbish if this sanctuary proposal becomes a reality for there will be no commercial fishing,” said Sword. “Without our cannery, we become useless to this great country; our underserved fishing community suffers, for fishing is our culture!”

American Samoa’s economy is solely dependent upon a tuna cannery located in Pago Pago which accounts for 99.5% of exports and 84% of the territory’s private employment. The cannery relies on the fish caught in the PRI by the U.S. longline and purse seine fleets and any loss of the fish from this area is expected to have significant impacts on American Samoa.

At the CCC meeting, John Armor from the NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (ONMS) described the existing fishing regulatory language and showed a flow-diagram outlining what NOAA considers to be the Council’s role in decision-making. The CCC questioned the compressed timeline for sanctuary development compared to past practice and suggested that ONMS consultation should occur earlier and more often in the process.

The proposed PRI sanctuary was in response to President Biden’s direction to the Secretary of Commerce on March 21, 2023, to explore its establishment as part of his administration’s goal to conserve and restore at least 30% of the country’s lands and waters by 2030. A National Marine Fisheries Service data analysis presented at a recent workshop in American Samoa demonstrated there is no added conservation benefit of the proposed sanctuary.

In his remarks, Western Pacific Council Chair Sword noted, “This top-down approach to regulating fisheries is wrong. It is completely opposite of the [Magnuson-Stevens Act] process where the bottom-up approach is mandatory.”

The CCC meeting brings together representatives from all eight regional fishery management councils and NOAA to discuss issues of relevance to all councils, including issues related to the implementation of the MSA. More information on the CCC is available at www.fisherycouncils.org. For more information on fishing regulations and the proposed sanctuary, visit www.wpcouncil.org/marine-spatial-management.

October 10, 2023 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:

The Council and the Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority convened an informal meeting last week to discuss longline fishery management components of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission conservation and management measure for tropical tunas. Held at the WCPFC headquarters in Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia, workshop participants included individuals from the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA), Parties of the Nauru Agreement (PNA), other Pacific Island countries, USA, Taiwan and Korea. 

 The workshop was the third held this year by the Council and MIMRA focusing on longline provisions with the WCPFC’s marquee tropical tuna measure, which expires at the end of the year. The WCPFC is meeting in December 2023 in Rarotonga, Cook Islands to negotiate a new tropical tuna measure, which covers key tuna stocks of skipjack, yellowfin and bigeye. Nearly 60% of global tuna supply is covered under the WCPFC’s tropical tuna measure.

 The latest 2023 Pacific Community (SPC) stock assessment for bigeye tuna showed that under recent catch levels, as well as greater levels of exploitation, the bigeye tuna stock is projected to increase. At the workshop, SPC staff discussed projections that forecast stock biomass depletion levels and associated risks of breaching biomass sustainability limits under varying longline catch and purse seine effort scenarios. The bottomline is that there is room to increase longline catches and allow some decreases in purse seine fish aggregating device (FAD) closures while still meeting WCPFC conservation objectives.

 Supported by scientific evidence, for the past several years the United States has proposed at the WCPFC’s annual meeting to increase its bigeye tuna longline limit without success. The existing United States’ bigeye longline limit is caught in its entirety by the Hawaii-based longline fishery and is reached every year by October and often earlier. The U.S. longline limit is based on a single year (2004) as its baseline and has never been commensurate with the the Hawaii longline limited-entry permitted fishery’s capacity. The federally managed Hawaii-based longline fleet is the State’s largest food producer and an increased U.S. longline bigeye limit supports Hawaii’s food self sufficiency and resiliency objectives. The Hawaii based-longline fishery lands premium ice-chilled seafood principally for Hawaii and domestic markets and is subject to unmatched monitoring and protected species mitigation measures. At a minimum, the WCPFC at its meeting in December should consider increased longline bigeye limits for highly monitored and comprehensively managed fishing fleets such as the Hawaii longline fishery.

 

WCPFC Member Nations Consider Limiting High Seas Fishing Effort

While the United States considers closing additional federal waters in the Pacific to fishing through domestic development of a National Marine Sanctuary, existing international arrangements limit fishing on the high seas. The WCPFC, at its September 29-30 workshop, discussed further limiting high seas fishing for purse seine vessels, which is the gear responsible for nearly 70% of global tuna catch. Pacific Island countries support high seas fishing restrictions as a means to drive fishing effort into their exclusive economic zones (EEZs) to collect access fees for their local island economies. In addition, the high seas could potentially be limited through the Intergovernmental Conference on Marine Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ), which was adopted earlier this year.

 With the high seas subject to futher potential restrictions, prohibiting all commercial fishing within the proposed Pacific Remote Islands National Marine Sanctuary would unnecessarily harm U.S. tuna fleets and negatively impact American Samoa’s tuna dependent economy.

 

 America Samoa Seeks Privileges for SIDS and Participating Territories

Council member Taotasi Archie Soliai from American Samoa made an impassioned plea to WCPFC members at the workshop, particularly fellow Pacific Islanders, to recognize fishing vessels that are integral to the territory’s economy to be granted privileges given to Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and Participating Territories. 

 American Samoa is seeking to have U.S.-flagged purse seine vessels that supply the cannery in Pago Pago be exempt from high seas limits and seasonal FAD closures. Other Pacific Island nations have utilized this exemption to optimize their fishery production. 

 Addressing the Commission, Soliai said, “The highest priority for American Samoa is to gain full recognition of the disproportionate burden we have borne as a SIDS / Participating Territory, and to maintain a reliable supply of tuna for processing in our one remaining cannery.”

 The WCPFC is an international commission responsible for managing highly migratory species fisheries in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean. The WCPFC is comprised of 26 member countries and seven Particiating Territories, including the United States and American Samoa, CNMI and Guam.

September 20, 2023 — The following was released by Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:

Existing fishing regulations which govern the U.S. exclusive economic zone (EEZ) around the U.S. Pacific Remote Islands (PRI) may be sufficient for the proposed national marine sanctuary, said the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council. At its meeting yesterday, the Council reviewed data on current fishing in the PRI and the multitude of fishing regulations that govern the area. It concluded today that the regulatory scheme in place may already satisfy the proposed goals and objectives presented by NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (ONMS).

The NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center shared data with the Council that showed the impacts of existing fisheries are well below measurable and objective thresholds established by NOAA. These thresholds relate to various requirements in the Magnuson-Stevens Act, Endangered Species Act and other applicable laws. “The current fishing effort in the PRI will not affect the habitat or species that a sanctuary may be concerned about – the data shows that,” said Taotasi Archie Soliai, Council vice chair from American Samoa.

Chair Taulapapa Will Sword, also from American Samoa, equated increasing regulations on the fisheries to a slow ratcheting that has constrained the fishery so much that it will end with a “death by a thousand cuts.” Sword emphasized the increases in fuel prices, the cost to fish in foreign EEZs, and changes in the local economy provide more than enough challenges for the U.S. longline and purse seine fisheries. The Chair futher quoted American Samoa Governor Lemanu’s favorite proverb, “Aua le naunau i le i‘a ae ia manumanu i le upega,” or “Don’t be so hardpressed on the catch, but be mindful of keeping the net safe and secured for another day.”

“The question is ‘who benefits from spatial closures?’” said Soliai. “China, Japan and Chinese Taipei. The results from these cumulative impacts are that U.S. purse seiners will reflag to other countries, vessels fishing further east in the Pacific will not land their catches in Pago Pago, and ultimately no fish for the cannery will lead to its shutdown.”

Council Executive Director Kitty Simonds noted, “The discussion so far has been on the process. The bigger picture is that the United States is managing U.S. fisheries in our region with monuments and sanctuaries. It is federal overreach.”

At a workshop last week, several government departments described economic impacts from a sanctuary, including the American Samoa Power Authority (ASPA) and the Department of Commerce. Officials highlighted that canneries are a major economic driver for the territory, with StarKist Samoa contributing more than $7 million in electric revenue in 2022. When the Chicken of the Sea cannery closed in 2009, ASPA took a hit of more than $5 million per year. This closure led to a loss of more than 2,000 jobs, causing a negative ripple effect throughout the local economy.

The Council also recognized that a goal of the proposed sanctuary to support cultural heritage and fishing is central to the culture of Pacific Island communities. “Fish is important to our cultures, we need to have it to practice it,” said Chair Sword. Vice Chair Soliai added there was a lot of emotion at the workshop and on a StarKist cannery tour, and that it was good for NOAA to “feel the heartbeat” of the people of American Samoa and “the emotion that poured out through song and tears.”  

The Council will continue discussing the issue with the National Marine Fisheries Service and ONMS to determine if additional regulations may be necessary. After the current scoping phase concludes, ONMS will consider the data gathered and develop proposed sanctuary designation documents including a draft Environmental Impact Statement. The Council requested that ONMS provide an opportunity to review the Statement prior to public release to ensure that the alternatives are aligned with the Council’s fishing regulations.

September 13, 2023 — The following was released by Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:

The Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) today reviewed options to sustainably fish for American Samoa bottomfish species caught in federal waters 3-200 miles offshore from 2024 to 2026. In their discussion, SSC members took into account a 2023 NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center bottomfish stock assessment for nine shallow- and deep-water species and an analysis completed in August that quantified the scientific uncertainties in the assessment. 

The SSC determined setting individual acceptable biological catch limits for the managed species aligned best with the information in the stock assessment. Members pointed out that choosing an aggregated limit could lead to the same issue that occurred in 2019 when a previous assessment of the bottomfish complex indicated it was overfished and undergoing overfishing. 

The SSC also weighed in on accountability measures for the bottomfish fishery. Members agreed in-season monitoring using the creel survey would be challenging due to the data uncertainty. The SSC determined if the fishery does exceed the catch limit, then a post-season overage adjustment based on a three-year average would even out natural fluctuations between fishing years. To compensate for the overage, the Council could then recommend reducing the catch limit for the following time period.

Domingo Ochavillo, American Samoa Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources representative, noted there is a general declining trend in the bottomfish fishery due to the high cost of operations and lingering impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic. “Many highliners have left the fishery—with the high cost of fuel, fish are expensive to eat,” he said.

The SSC also discussed the need for a pre-implementation program for electronic monitoring (EM) in Pacific Island longline fisheries, including the benefits and drawbacks for use in the Hawai‘i deep-set or shallow-set longline fisheries, or the American Samoa longline fishery. The three fisheries have different levels of participation, percentage federal observer coverage and gear setting requirements (day vs. night). Considering these factors, the SSC supported the Council proceeding with a hybrid approach of the Hawai‘i deep-set and shallow-set longline fisheries. Further, the SSC supported the program’s primary goal to be protected species monitoring and estimation, with a secondary goal of monitoring discards. 

EM is intended to supplement, not replace, human observer coverage, which is still needed to obtain biological samples at sea, among other on-board duties. EM is expected to become more widespread in the future, especially for tuna fisheries. SSC member Shelton Harley is now the chair of the intersessional working group on electronic reporting and monitoring for the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission. Harley commended the pre-implementation program document and stated that it provides a clear framework to successfully roll out EM in Western Pacific fisheries.