American Tunaboat Association (ATA) executive director Brian Hallman says that the U.S. fishing fleet being given the flexibility to negotiate directly with Pacific Island countries for the rights to fish in those island's Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) would be beneficial to the U.S. boats, but it’s “a complicated matter.”

A $90 million fishing treaty agreement — the South Pacific Tuna Treaty — signed in October this year between the U.S. and Forum Fisheries Agency’s 17-member countries drastically reduces the number of fishing days for U.S. vessels in the EEZ of these countries. The biggest concern is the huge reduction of fishing days in the EEZ of Kiribati.

ATA, along with the U.S State Department handled the Treaty negotiations — which go into effect next year — with the Pacific Island countries, on behalf of 40 U.S. fishing vessels.

Over the weekend, Dr. Transform Aqorau, who heads the Parties to the Nauru Agreement, (PNA) called for more flexibility for US tuna vessels in negotiating access to fishing grounds with island countries rather than being locked into the Treaty, according to Radio New Zealand International.

Aqorau says American Samoa’s canneries are greatly affected by the reduction of fishing days under the Treaty and he is urging for flexibility by the U.S. government so that fishing boats can negotiate on their own.

Asked if the federal government should be more more flexible and allow U.S. boats to negotiate fishing access to the EEZ of the FFA members countries, Hallman told Samoa News,  “this is a complicated matter.”

“The US/ Pacific Island Tuna Treaty provides that only vessels licensed under the Treaty may fish in the South Pacific. It is not clear that licensed vessels could not gain more access via additional arrangements, for example, with a bilateral agreement negotiated on behalf of the US fleet by ATA,” Hallman said yesterday from Apia, where he is attending the Western & Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) meeting.

Asked if having such flexibility would benefit the U.S. fishing fleet, Hallman replied, “yes, this kind of approach could provide for more flexibility and more access for US vessels, and should be addressed in the re-negotiation/ re-structuring of the Treaty, which we hope will begin early next year.”

Hallman went on to point out that the most important WCPFC issue affecting the US purse seine fleet, and the catch of tuna going to the canneries in American Samoa, “is probably the question of whether to establish more fishing restrictions on vessels that catch some bigeye tuna, either targeted or not, since this stock may be slightly overfished.”

He said, “The bigeye stock is already the subject of a stringent four year management program that was agreed upon last year. ATA's view is that new restrictions should not be added until the current measures can be evaluated.”