The American Tunaboat Association (ATA) has mixed reactions to President Barack Obama’s revised expansion of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument (PRIMNM), while Congressman Faleomavaega Eni complained that the White House rushed the decision instead of being “more thoughtful of the process”, which affects the economies of American Samoa and other U.S. Pacific islands.

Tri Marine International, which has a locally based fishing fleet and is the owner of the Samoa Tuna Processors Inc., cannery, called the revised expansion a “partial victory” for American Samoa, but still has concerns over the loss of traditional fishing grounds.

Obama announced the revised expansion of the PRIMNM during Wednesday’s speech at the United Nations, while the expansion proclamation was signed yesterday, which was also the same day U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry made the official announcement at a UN event on sustainable fishing and marine protected areas.

According to the White House, the PRIMNM expansion will affect only three of the five main components of PRIMNM:  Wake Island, Jarvis Island, and Johnston Atoll and  will extend the current 50 nautical-mile boundary to the 200 nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

All commercial fishing as well as deep-sea mining of seabed minerals will be prohibited in the expanded zones, while recreational and traditional fishing methods will be permitted. The White House emphasized that 5% of the tuna catch by purse-seine fishing vessels occur at the edge of the EEZ and 95% of the catch by both purse-seine and long-line fishing fleets are caught outside areas that are considered for protection.  The 50 nautical-mile boundary will remain in effect for Howland and Baker Islands and Kingman Reef and Palmyra Atoll.

TUNABOAT GROUP REACTION

Responding to Samoa News request for comments on the revised expansion plan, ATA executive director Brian Hallman said the San Diego-based association “has a mixed reaction to the announcement, as we understand it. We are pleased that not all of the areas under consideration are going to be closed to fishing.”

“The fact that Howland and Baker Islands will remain open to the traditional purse seine fisheries is important,” he said yesterday. “We wish that Jarvis Island, where purse seine fishing has also occurred historically and which is closest to American Samoa, were open to fishing also. However, overall, we recognize the efforts made to ameliorate the impact of the Proclamation on the US purse seine fishery.”

TRI MARINE REACTION

Asked for comments to the revised plan, Tri Marine spokesperson Heidi Happonen said this “is a partial victory for the community of American Samoa and the American Samoa-based tuna fleet that fishes in the region.”

She said Tri Marine is grateful to the Obama administration, and especially the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), for listening to the concerns and ideas of Tri Marine and American Samoa as they deliberated on this issue.

“While we appreciate that we were given a voice in the discussion, as evidenced by the exclusion of Howland Baker and Kingman Palmyra from the expansion of the monument, we still have some concerns that the loss of traditional fishing grounds will negatively impact the availability of fish supply for the American Samoa tuna industry,” she said via email from Washington state yesterday.

She pointed out that tuna migration patterns fluctuate greatly and this decision makes the upcoming U.S. Tuna Treaty negotiations even more important. Further, Tri Marine is encouraged by the collaborative process and recognizes that the exceptions outlined in the PRIMNM “will help our business, and the Samoans who rely on continuous sustainable tuna for their livelihoods.”

“We look forward to ongoing engagement with government and regulatory agencies to make sure that our voice, and the voice of the American Samoan community, remains heard throughout the coming weeks and months as important decisions continue to be made that affect our business and our communities,” she said.

FALEOMAVAEGA'S REACTION

Faleomavaega says he appreciates the revised expansion plan and thanked the governor, the Fono and the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WPRFMC) for standing united in this issue which Obama “heeded our concerns and we have succeeded in protecting our tuna industry for now.”

However, Faleomavaega says he is “displeased that the White House rushed this decision just so Secretary Kerry could have a sound bite” at yesterday’s UN event— and he argued that given the seriousness of the issue, the Obama Administration should have been more thoughtful about this process. 

“This decision affects the economies of Hawaii, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Islands and Guam, and every stakeholder among us deserved to be heard,” he said in a statement yesterday morning.

While he believes in “conservation... and in conversation”, Faleomavaega says it’s unfortunate that the White House and State Department “really didn’t engage in a meaningful discussion with local leaders or Congress about this initiative.”

And this is the reason why he stands with U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who has introduced legislation to change the law so that no President will ever have the power to lock up millions of acres of public lands and waters without Congressional approval, Faleomavaega said.

The Congressman went on to point out that men and women from Hawai’i, American Samoa, Guam and CNMI “serve our nation in record numbers in the U.S. Armed Forces, and we deserve fair consideration.”

“In its rush for a sound-bite, the [Obama] Administration may have failed to consider that its expansion just might spell trouble later for the American tuna industry in light of an un-negotiated South Pacific Tuna Treaty,” Faleomavaega said.

“An un-negotiated treaty means less fishing grounds for our tuna boats and, environmentally, may lead to overfishing if Pacific Island nations open up fishing grounds to the highest bidders and if Asian and European vessels are given the green-light to do as they please,” he said.

If the Obama Administration is truly serious about conservation, then it would have made the renewal of the South Pacific Tuna Treaty “a higher priority than the expansion of PRIMNM,” he said. “

“I expect more and hope for more in the days ahead. But, at this time, I thank the Administration for doing its best to protect marine areas while promoting sustainable fishing,” he said.

As previously reported by Samoa News, a meeting on the tuna treaty was held in New Zealand from July 9-12 and ‘no deal’ was reached at the conclusion of American treaty negotiations with Pacific Island nations.

This leaves the United States tuna fleet without fishing access to the Pacific Ocean in 2015, although the State Department’s FYs 2014 and 2015 budgets has $21 million — for each fiscal yea r— allocated for the tuna treaty, also known as the Multilateral Treaty on Fisheries.

See yesterday’s edition on the WPRFMC response. Complete text of Obama’s proclamation is found on : www.whitehouse.gov