HONOLULU  — The Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council concluded its three-day meeting Thursday. 

For the American Samoa longline fishery, the SSC said if the Council decides to change existing turtle-related gear requirements, the Council should ask the Pacific  Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) to use observer data to evaluate potential effects on turtle interactions and on target and nontarget catch, particularly silky and oceanic whitetip sharks. 

Members highlighted that environmental changes and other basin-wide factors can also influence turtle interaction rates, complicating comparisons of fishery performance before and after gear regulations were implemented.

Reexamining Fishing Access Around Rose Atoll

The Committee also reviewed possible changes to the Large Vessel Prohibited Area (LVPA) around Muliāva (Rose Atoll), which restricts large-vessel fishing between 12 and 50 nautical miles from the atoll.

Members noted the LVPA did not prevent the decline of American Samoa’s smaller longline fleet. 

The SSC said U.S. purse seiners are unlikely to fish around Rose Atoll because of the area’s small size, although purse-seine fishing there, if it occurred, could potentially affect species targeted by the small-boat fleet. Members pointed out that large longline vessels primarily target albacore and are unlikely to compete substantially with the target species of the small-boat fleet. 

The SSC also said the South Pacific albacore stock remains healthy even as vessel numbers, participation and catch rates in the American Samoa fleet have declined.

Electronic monitoring being implemented in the longline fleet in 2027 is expected to provide additional information for evaluating fishing activity.

Looking Beyond Pounds and Dollars

Other science presented during the meeting highlighted why the effects of fishery management cannot always be measured through commercial landings alone.

PIFSC’s American Samoa Fish Flow Project found seafood from small-boat, longline and purse-seine fisheries contributes an estimated 560,000 to 859,000 meals to the local community. Small-boat catch flows extensively through families, friends, community leaders and events, with sharing often taking priority over sales. Researchers said some roadside sales, gifted fish and other forms of distribution are incompletely captured by conventional fishery statistics. 

“The value of a gifted fish likely exceeds its commercial value,” SSC member Alister Hunt said, questioning how well commercial and recreational fishery statistics capture seafood sharing and its cultural value. 

The findings complement work by the SSC’s Social Valuation Working Group, which developed four domains for considering the broader value of fisheries: food security and sovereignty, cultural importance, social cohesion, and well-being and livelihood integration. The Committee endorsed the domains for Council review.

Setting Future Research Priorities

The SSC also completed its ranking of 15 regional fishery research priorities developed with input from the Council’s Advisory Panels and Fishing Industry Advisory Committee. The priorities focus largely on evaluating fishery closures, economic and market dynamics, improving data collection and addressing depredation. The SSC recommended the Council review and adopt the final rankings. 

The Committee also recommended 2027–2030 acceptable biological catches totaling 51,510 pounds for nine American Samoa bottomfish species and endorsed the terms of reference and reviewers for the upcoming independent review of the main Hawaiian Islands deep-seven bottomfish stock assessment.

The SSC provides advice to the Council, which will meet virtually Sept. 15-17, 2026, with host sites in Hawai‘i, American Samoa, Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. 

The Committee called for a deliberate, science-based approach as commercial fishing resumes in the NWHI. The SSC recommended forming a working group with Council and NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) staff to develop a bottomfish data collection plan. It also recommended the Council consider an experimental fishing permit (EFP) as the fishery reopens and said any longer-term permitting regime should have a clearly defined objective.

The NWHI bottomfish fishery had been closed to commercial fishing since 2010. Before closure, the area accounted for about half of Hawai‘i bottomfish management unit species landings and supplied local markets with species specifically caught there. As fishing resumes, SSC members emphasized the need to design data collection carefully to support future spatially explicit assessments. 

“An EFP may not be the quickest way to fish, but it may be the right tool to collect data at the start,” said SSC member Shelton Harley. He added that the long period with little fishing creates an opportunity to learn more about natural mortality and growth rates. 

Scientists Support Removing Outdated Swordfish Restriction

As part of its review of actions identified under the federal Executive Order on “Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness,” the SSC agreed there is no scientific basis to retain the swordfish retention limit in the Hawai‘i deep-set longline fishery. Members noted that other sea turtle mitigation measures have been implemented, circle hooks are mandatory in the fishery and the fishery will have full electronic monitoring implementation. 

The current rule limits an unobserved deep-set vessel north of the equator to 25 swordfish per trip when using circle hooks and 10 with other hooks. The restriction originated when the Hawai‘i shallow-set swordfish fishery was closed under a court order more than two decades ago, with the intent of preventing vessels engaging in deep-set fishing from transitioning to shallow-set fishing while at sea. Since the limit was last modified in 2012, deep-set vessels have averaged fewer than five swordfish per trip. 

For two other Seafood Executive Order priorities, the SSC identified analyses needed to inform the Council’s management decisions. 

For the Hawai‘i shallow-set fishery, PIFSC reported that it is developing a model to estimate loggerhead and leatherback turtle interactions with and without trip limits, with the results to inform updated population assessments. The Committee asked Council and PIFSC staff to coordinate with its protected species working group before the December meeting for updates and continued discussion of the technical analyses that will inform Council decision-making.

How to Join
 In Person: (Host Site)
    •    Tedi of Samoa Building Suite 208B, Fagatogo Village, American Samoa
Online: Via Webex: https://tinyurl.com/208CouncilMtg

Event password: CM208mtg

Agenda & Documents: www.wpcouncil.org/event/208th-council-meeting