The case of a foreign longline fishing vessel caught with “some shark parts” on board the vessel has been turned over to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration law enforcement unit, says Va’amua Henry Sesepasara, director of the Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources.

The case was revealed by Va’amua at last week’s three day meeting of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council in Honolulu during American Samoa’s presentation on fisheries dealing with the area of enforcement in which DMWR’s enforcement unit works with its federal fisheries law enforcement partners.

Va’amua told the meeting that recently, a longliner came in port and “our enforcement officers boarded the vessel and discovered some shark parts on the vessel.” He said the matter was then referred to the Attorney General’s Office.

And, the advice from the AG’s Office is that since the vessel fished outside of territorial waters, “we should refer the matter back to NOAA enforcement unit. So they’re handling that now,” said Va’amua, who noted that, “we have a joint enforcement agreement with… the National Marine Fisheries enforcement unit.”

American Samoa’s presentation also included an update on the territory’s revised shark legislation. The Council’s representative based in the territory, Nate Ilaoa, explained that “American Samoa has a total ban on any shark possession and it doesn’t match the federal law which allows landing the whole shark.”

The revised shark legislation, seeks to mirror federal law and the draft review of the measure has been approved, but it “needs to be publicly noticed and depending on how many comments are received from the public, there may need to be a public meeting held,” he said.

By local law, if five or more comments are received from the public, the DMWR is required to post a notice and hold a public meeting on the revision of the code.

As previously reported by Samoa News, federal law bans shark fining but federal legislation — Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act — introduced three weeks ago in the US House makes the possession, sale, and purchase of shark fins illegal acts in the United States.