While they applaud President Barack Obama’s new move to combat Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing and seafood fraud, the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (Council) contends that Obama’s proposal to expand the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument (PRIMNM) for conservation will in fact increase IUU and seafood fraud in the PRIMNM area.

The White House established in June this year the Presidential Task Force, charged with combatting IUU fishing and seafood fraud. The panel is to come up with recommendations for the implementation of a comprehensive framework of integrated programs to combat IUU fishing and seafood fraud that emphasizes areas of greatest need.

In applauding the establishment of the task force, the Council’s executive director Kitty M. Simonds says IUU fishing and seafood fraud are important issues that affect US fisheries and US seafood consumers.

She pointed out that the the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) is the nation's primary law dealing with fisheries, both domestic and international. Further, provisions of the MSA establish regional fishery management councils (FMCs), which hold specialized and regional expertise on fishery management and trade issues.

“We urge the Task Force to directly engage with the nation's eight FMCs to further develop recommendations on the framework to combat IUU fishing and seafood fraud,” Simonds wrote in the Council’s five page comment letter to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

UNREGULATED FOREIGN IMPORTS

Simonds explained that Hawai’i and American Samoa longline fisheries are among the best managed tropical longline fisheries in world. The Hawai’i longline fishery, for example, is often recognized as the gold standard in the region with respect to catch monitoring, observer coverage, protected species mitigation, and regional fishery management organizations(RFMO) compliance.

However, she says cheap, unregulated foreign imports of tuna compete directly with the highly monitored, comprehensively managed landings of the Hawai’i longline fishery. It is a real possibility that the imported fish products undercutting the Hawai’i longline fishery are derived from IUU sources, she noted.

“In our opinion, this major issue is affecting long-term continuity of the Hawai’i longline fishery. More specifically, operating costs in the fishery have risen dramatically in the last decade, while increases in ex-vessel fish prices have lagged behind substantially,” she said.

Furthermore, foreign IUU imports supplied at lower operating costs erode market channels that otherwise would have been supplied by the Hawai’i fishery.

“It is clear that the Hawai’i and American Samoa longline fisheries are competing on an un-level playing field for the US market with foreign fisheries targeting the same stocks,” she said.

FOREIGN NATION NON-COMPLIANCE

According to Simonds, the “most significant problem” is poor reporting and compliance with RFMO conservation and management measures at the national level, which subsequently translates to poor fisheries monitoring and compliance on the vessel level.

She said the problem is systemic on national levels as many countries have poor records of domestic implementation and enforcement of basic conservation and management measures such as catch reporting, protected species mitigation, Vessel Monitoring Systems, and observer coverage.

While there are bad actors at the vessel level in terms of IUU activity affecting fishery resources and markets, “we believe lack of adequate monitoring, reporting, and compliance on national levels is the major IUU problem in our region,” she said.

“The US government can do more to improve monitoring and compliance within RFMOs to address the IUU problem in our region,” she said and pointed out that the U.S. is among the world's largest seafood markets, and, as such, it should restrict seafood products from countries that have poor compliance records with RFMO measures.

PROPOSED MONUMENT EXPANSION

She also said that Obama’s proposed expansion of the PRIMNM will close the entire US exclusive economic zone (EEZ) to fishing in these areas, and will displace and negatively impact US fishing fleets — i.e., Hawa’ii longline and US purse seine fisheries.

Simonds notes that the US Coast Guard patrols the area only a few times per year. “Kicking out US fishing fleets from these areas will exacerbate IUU fishing in the area as US fleets often act as sentinels for the US Coast Guard by detecting potential foreign fishing violations,” she claims.

“Illegal foreign fishing in these areas, which has been successfully detected and prosecuted in recent years, will benefit from the potential monument expansion. US vessels will be fishing on the outside, while foreign vessels will be fishing on the inside,” she said.

The executive director said any impact on US fisheries from the proposed expansion of the PRIMNM will also lead to more reliance on foreign imports in the US seafood markets, potentially increasing seafood fraud. It is estimated 90% of seafood consumed in the US is from foreign imports.

“Alarmingly, there have been published accounts that up to 30% of the fish imported in the US are from IUU sources,” she said. “The Task Force should advocate for US fisheries to fill US markets as this will reduce reliance on seafood imports and reduce potential seafood fraud.”