A seafood safety workshop set for next week that will benefit local restaurant and store owners is being sponsored jointly by the Honolulu-based Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WPFMC) and the local Commerce Department.

Scheduled for May 6-8, the workshop training will be conducted by Dr. John Kaneko, the Program Manager of the Hawaii Seafood Council, a non-profit organization.

All 25 slots allocated for the training have been filled and the attendees will receive certification in seafood safety, a certification which usually costs around $5,000 or more when taking the test in Hawai’i.

“This is something that is very beneficial to the participating local businesses as the training is being offered free of cost and having this type of certification will be an important achievement that signifies to consumers that those businesses have been trained to provide the freshest, highest quality seafood to their customers,” Nate Ilaoa, local coordinator for WPFC, told Samoa News yesterday.

Kaneko along with Nelson Aberilla of the Hawai’i-based United Fishing Agency are  conducting a fresh fish training workshop tomorrow with local tuna processors and vessel owners and operators at the Samoa Tuna Processors site in Atu’u.

The seafood safety and fresh fish training workshops were among the recommendations approved during the WPFC’s 158th meeting last October in Honolulu, where the Council directed its staff to “assist the American Samoa government to develop seafood safety and handling training programs and other marketing strategies to promote local seafood markets, which would benefit the local economy and enhance food security.”

Ilaoa said the recommendation was made by local Council members Taulapapa William Sword (Vice Chairman), Port Administration director Taimalelagi Dr. Claire T. Poumele, and Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources director Dr. Ruth Matagi-Tofiga.

He said the Council members from Hawaii, Guam, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and American Samoa voted unanimously to approve the recommendation. He also said the fresh fish workshop with the processors and vessel owners and operators as well as the seafood safety and handling certification are all paid for by the Council in response to recommendations from the local members.