Fish caught in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of Tokelau will supply Tri Marine International’s new $70 million cannery in Pago Pago set to open next January, according to an agreement signed between the two parties in Apia, Samoa. Samoa is hosting the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission meeting which closes this Friday.

The agreement comes more than two years after Tri Marine officials told reporters in Pago Pago that it's the company’s goal to make American Samoa the tuna hub of the South Pacific, for off loading and processing fish caught in the region.

THE MOU

The MOU, signed by Ulu o Tokelau Kuresa Nasau and Tri Marine, will increase the economic benefits of the tuna fishery for Tokelau, an “important neighbor” of American Samoa, the home of Tri Marine’s Samoa Tuna Processors Inc. facilities, which include the new cannery.

As Tokelau and Tri Marine have a shared interest in the sustainability of tuna fisheries, they have also agreed to enter into a long-term agreement to improve the overall management of Tokelau’s tuna fishery, according to a Tri Marine media statement released from Apia late Monday afternoon.

The arrangement will provide enhanced fishery monitoring and guarantee long-term access to affiliated fishing vessels.

Tri Marine’s managing director Phil Roberts, says the two parties have been working on this partnership for three years and it represents a mutual commitment to work closely together to sustainably manage and bring to market Tokelau’s tuna resources through Tri Marine’s large-scale tuna facilities in Pago Pago.

“We expect that through this arrangement there will be employment opportunities for Tokelau nationals to work on board Tri Marine’s fishing vessels, canneries and offices in the region and around the world,” he said in the statement.

Besides the new cannery, Tri Marine’s local operations include a locally based U.S. flagged fishing fleet and a cold storage facility. In the region, the company has other operations—including a cannery plant in the Solomon Islands. Overall the Bellevue, Washington based company has offices in 14 countries with 12 processing plants strategically located around the globe. 

Responding earlier in the day to Samoa News inquiries about the MOU, before the media release, Tri Marine’s chief operation officer (not CEO as first reported in Samoa News), Joe Hamby said that it has been the company’s sincere “desire to connect Tokelau’s well managed tuna resources to American Samoa where they can be value added and where Tokelau’s fishery managers can see the fish that has been caught in Tokelau’s EEZ.”

“This provides an opportunity to exercise the rights and obligations to monitor and control the fish being caught in their waters,” Hamby said via email from Apia. “This MOU allows Tri Marine to offer the market high quality tuna products made from locally caught fish that has been processed locally in support of local communities dependent on well managed South Pacific tuna resources for their livelihoods.”

The MOU advances Tokelau’s near-term goal of maximizing revenues from its tuna resources while also pursuing its long-term strategy of sustainably managing its fishery, said Tri Marine in a statement.

As part of the MOU, the Tokelau government will provide fishing access to longline vessels targeting both albacore and the tropical tunas which will supply Tri Marine’s new tuna processing plant in American Samoa.

Tokelau will also provide Tri Marine purse seine vessels with fishing days over and above what is provided under the South Pacific Tuna Treaty, if necessary. 

The $90 million Treaty was signed in October this year, between the federal government and the Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) and it allows some forty U.S. flagged vessels to continue to have fishing access in the EEZs  of FFA’s 17 Pacific member countries. Under the new deal, which takes effect in 2015, U.S. vessels have 8,300 fishing days in the FFA member's EEZs. Tokelau is a member of the FFA.

BACKGROUND

The MOU with Tokelau comes just over two years after Tri Marine officials told reporters in Pago Pago of it’s goal to have American Samoa be the hub of tuna operations and processing. Hamby said in an Oct. 2012 news conference that the company has been working hard trying to make its business stronger and “we identified some time ago, business within the islands is within the islands.”

“The tuna that is caught in the Pacific is around the islands and it makes all the sense in the world, that tuna caught in the islands is processed in the islands,” said Hamby, who added that some countries in the South Pacific don’t have enough land area to set up a tuna processing facility — places like Tokelau, Tuvalu or Kiribati — and some of them don’t have enough resources to process tuna economically.

“…here, in American Samoa, we have infrastructure, we have a fleet, we have people who can do the work,” he said. “So if we can work and partner with other [South Pacific] countries, for fish caught in their waters to be processed here, then American Samoa can became a regional hub.”

In the summer of 2011, representatives from the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) were in Pago Pago on a day visit, talking with Tri Marine officials.  Hamby said the meeting with the PNA  is part of the effort to attract other countries to work in partnership with American Samoa. He declined to give the status of the discussions at the time, saying that they were ongoing.