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Strong opposition to Tri - Marine petition for exemption

There is strong opposition from the partner and owner of two companies who own and manage 14 U.S. purse seiner fleets to Tri Marine International’s petition to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for an emergency exemption allowing US purse seiners that offload 50% of their catches at the local canneries to fish in the U.S. EEZ and at high seas.

 

J. Douglas Hines, partner and owner of Ocean Global LLC and Sea Global LLC, made the opposition public — on behalf of the 14 U.S. purse seine vessels owned or managed by his companies and eight additional purse seine vessels with whom they collaborate — in a May 27 letter to NOAA Assistant Administrator for Fisheries Eileen Sobeck.

 

Hines’ letter was in response to Tri Marine’s first petition for an emergency exemption dated May 12 to NOAA. A second letter, dated June 3 to NOAA National Marine Fishery Service Pacific Islands Regional Office, reiterates opposition from Hines, who is also the executive director of the San Diego based South Pacific Tuna Corporation.

 

“To be clear, 22 of the 37 licensed purse seine vessels fishing pursuant to the South Pacific Tuna Treaty in the western and central Pacific Ocean strongly oppose Tri Marine’s request,” Hines wrote to Sobeck.

 

According to Hines, the petition stems from the recent decision by Kiribati to dramatically reduce the fishing opportunities in their waters for U.S. purse seine vessels in 2015.

 

As a result, Tri Marine claims that the American Samoa based tuna vessels won’t be able to supply the two American Samoa tuna factories with raw material for processing, he said.

 

“We agree that the Kiribati decision is extremely harmful, but these impacts are not limited to the [American] Samoa based fleet and processors,” he noted. “Rather, this decision is harmful to the entire U.S. fleet and the US based industries that depend on their tuna supply.”

 

As a matter of record, “our 22 purse seine vessels have fished heavily in the EEZ of Kiribati for more than a decade. Kiribati’s refusal to allow U.S. vessels access to their waters beyond 300 fishing days harms the entire U.S. fleet, not just the small minority of vessels that currently land in American Samoa,” he pointed out.

 

He also said that the argument that American Samoa based fishing boats deserve special treatment because they only supply raw material to the two tuna factories on the island “is extremely misleading”.

 

He said StarKist Samoa, which operates one of these two factories, is wholly owned by the largest tuna company in Korea, Dongwon Industries, which has its own fleet of 36 fishing vessels that also supply raw product to their factory.

 

“These vessels are not part of the U.S. fleet and have their own access agreements with island nations under Korean authority,” he said, adding that StarKist Samoa also purchases fish from other foreign flag fishing vessels, such those flagged in New Zealand, who use their JV fleet in Kiribati.

 

“In contrast, most U.S. flag vessels cannot sell their catch to Dongwon, including the South Pacific Tuna Company vessels,” he said and pointed out that Tri Marine — the second cannery in the territory, has its own fleet of U.S. flagged vessels that will supply raw product to their facility once in operation, which is scheduled for late 2015, early 2016.

 

He said that it’s clear that the request for exemption for only those vessels with a contract or delivery commitment to offload in American Samoa “is designed to benefit one company — Tri Marine. To give that company a commercial advantage over all other U.S. purse seine vessels, while ensuring additional commercial subsidies, is simply unwarranted.”

 

He claims that many US flagged vessels are home ported in American Samoa but have not been able to sell a single ton of fish over the past year, as there is no market other than these two entities — the canneries.

 

“If this rule were to take effect, it would give the processors — Tri Marine and Dongwon — even greater trade advantage to control prices over the US Fleet and damage other processors operating in the US which provide employment and a fair product value to the US consumer,” he said.

 

Further, “we believe the request to require all U.S. purse seine vessels to land their catch in American Samoa as a condition of exemption... exceeds the regulatory authority of the NOAA Fisheries.”

 

And should the U.S. decide to go forward with a proposal, it would require approval from the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), he said, and noted that he does not believe WCPFC would endorse such a proposal and consider American Samoa as a stand-alone entity without US oversight considering the amount of subsidy currently provided to the Territory.

 

However, should NOAA decide to pursue such a course, Hines asked that the same opportunity be made available to the entire U.S. flagged fleet, with the intent of the operating vessel to ‘declare’ to provide up to 50% of their catch to American Samoa for processing, not just those calling in American Samoa that “are attached to a Foreign entity delivering to their controlled canneries.”

 

If NOAA decides to move forward with Tri Marine’s request “we would wish to seek congressional oversight on the impact of the Agency’s decision to grant commercial trade advantage to the benefit of foreign owned operations.”

 

“This is a material change from the direction of the Agency that would damage other US operations currently receiving tuna from these vessels and could also impact other fisheries, as the now special rights are only granted to a specific area,” he concluded.

 

In Monday’s edition, will look at what Hines has to say about American Samoa being considered a Small Island Developing (SID) Territory.