Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Tri Marine International is calling for the inclusion of American Samoa’s tuna industry in any analysis the federal government conducts pertaining to the full impact of the purse seiner fishery in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO).

Tri Marine’s call was made by the company’s chief operation officer, Joe Hamby in a comment letter submitted Wednesday to the US National Marine Fisheries (NMFS), which issued in August a Notice of Intent to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) for the purse seine fishery.

Deadline for public comments submission has been extended by NMFS to the end of this month following requests from Tri Marine and others.

“To consider the full impacts of this [purse seiner] fishery, any analysis by NMFS will have to include those on the tuna industry of American Samoa,” Hamby wrote. “That economy is highly dependent on tuna processing and the US flagged purse seiners that deliver tuna to the canneries there.”

“If the fishery is closed, that economy will obviously suffer tremendously,” Hamby said and he echoed long standing concerns from local officials over fishing ground restrictions which have impacted the US purse seiner fleet, with many of them no longer calling into the Port of Pago Pago, resulting in less fish delivery for the cannery and less money for the local economy.

In the notice, NMFS said it seeks to produce the EIS that will account for “the broad range of management measures foreseeable” under U.S. regulations to implement the South Pacific Tuna Treaty, decisions of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) “and other US law.”

Furthermore, this EIS will address all U.S. tuna purse seine fisheries within the area of application of the Convention on the Conservation and Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the WCPO. (Details of the IES can be found online at <regulations.gov>)

Regarding the allocation of fishing days or quotas, either under the South Pacific Tuna Treaty or in connection with WCPFC management measures, Hamby said “Tri Marine favors an industry-led, commercial approach with days or other fishing rights allocated by vessel, and with vessels having the right to trade their days or quotas with other vessels within the US flagged fleet.”

“One point of clarification, this approach should include fishing rights in the US EEZ, but obviously, those rights should be reserved for fishing vessels with US Fisheries Endorsements,” he said.

According to Tri Maine, the US purse seine fleet operating under the South Pacific Tuna Treaty and within the fishery management regime of the WCPFC is one of many purse seine fishing fleets operating in the WCPO.

Hamby points out that the US fleet fishes in competition with other fleets, and unlike its competitors, has to comply with a multitude of US laws and a culture of compliance and enforcement - such as federal Endangered Species Act, Marine Mammal Protection Act, Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act as well as applicable US Coast Guard regulations, and applicable US Environmental Protection Agency regulations.

“With more regulations and operating within a more effective enforcement environment, the US purse seiners have a significant economic disadvantage compared to their non-US flagged counterparts,” he said.

“Therefore, there is a powerful economic argument to change flags, especially to Small Island Developing States (SIDS) which are exempt from some of the more important WCPFC management measures,” he noted.

“The US effort in this purse seine fishery is only 14% of the total.  So, to properly evaluate its impacts, NMFS will have to scope their analysis to include the entire purse seine fishery in the WCPO, not just that of the US boats.  This effort seems redundant to those of the WCPFC,” he said.

While any attempt by NMFS to confirm the current and possible future authorization of the fishery "is admirable, it will be pointless, a waste of valuable NMFS time and energy, unless the intent is to impose the findings and consequential limitations on the entire fishery, not just the US flagged vessels and to only analyze those fishery management measures that will in fact be adopted under the Convention,” said Hamby.