The US flag purse seiners have received notice from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that they must stop fishing in the high seas and in US waters as of June 15th, according to the American Samoa Fisheries Task Force, in a statement released yesterday to Samoa News.

The local task force is asking that NOAA reconsider its decision as it was done without consultation with the Territory and will have a profound negative impact on the local economy’s mainstay — the canneries.

“Fishing boats based in American Samoa will now have to transfer their fishing operations to other fishing grounds further from American Samoa,” the ASFTF said in its statement, dated June 18, 2015. “This will reduce the supply of tuna to the canneries if the fishing grounds are too far away from the Territory making it uneconomical for the boats to bring the fish back.”

“Unfortunately, the policy decision by NOAA and the State Department to limit fishing on the high seas and US waters was done without consulting the Territory. And there was no way the US Government was to know that Kiribati would, for all intents and purposes, close their waters to US flag purse seiners,” it states.

Governor Lolo Matalasi Moliga has requested Congresswoman Aumua Amata to confirm with NOAA that they should make a ruling to exempt the American Samoa based purse seiners from the limitations of fishing in the high seas or the US waters (outside American Samoa 50 mile LVPA) for those boats with fisheries endorsements as they are vital to the continued operation of the canneries in the Territory.

“Importantly, American Samoa is a small island developing territory and, as such, has been exempted from any limitations of fishing on the high seas by the Western and Central Pacific Fishing Commission,” the ASFTF points out.

It stated, “in a meeting with NOAA's Assistant Administrator Eileen Sobeck on June 12th, Tri Marine's COO Joe Hamby urged NOAA to take decisive action to prevent an interruption in tuna supplies to the canneries. He confirmed to NOAA that exempting the US flag American Samoa based boats from high seas limitations will have absolutely no impact on conservation.

“Our boats will continue to fish. We will not reduce our fishing effort. The issue is where will they fish? They can catch the fish in the high seas near to American Samoa or in the EEZ's of island states far from the Territory,” said Hamby.

The purse seiners based in American Samoa have historically depended on fishing in three main areas: Kiribati, the high seas and US waters.

In 2013, as the U.S. government decided to limit the number of fishing days in the high seas and in US waters for the US tuna purse seiner fleet, it did not realize the importance of these fishing grounds to American Samoa's tuna industry.

This limitation did not have an impact during 2014 because the boats were able to fish in Kiribati where they fished a total of 4,313 days. However, at the end of 2014 Kiribati unilaterally declared that US purse seiners would only be allowed to fish a total of 300 days in Kiribati waters starting in 2015. This forced the boats into the high seas and, for those boats with US fisheries endorsements, into US waters.

The American Samoa Fisheries Task Force was established by the governor to protect and sustain the competitive advantage of the two canneries. Its members include representation of both StarKist Samoa and Samoa Tuna Processors Inc. as well as the Port Administration director Taimailelagi Dr. Claire Poumele; Marine and Wildlife Resources director Dr. Ruth Matagi-Tofiga; Commerce Department director Keniseli Lafaele; Taulapapa Willie Sword of Pacific Energy and Solip Hong, president of KS Mart. It reports directly to the governor.

BACKGROUND

Samoa News reported at the beginning of the week that a U.S. federal report says that it’s likely that the high rate of purse seiner fishing in the Effort Limit Area for Purse Seine (ELAPS) is due to decreased number of fishing days available to the U.S. purse seiner fleet in the Kiribati exclusive economic zone (EEZ). (See Samoa News, June 16, 2015 issue for details)

Last month in May, NOAA issued a public notice on the interim rule, which establishes a limit for calendar year 2015 on the fishing effort by U.S. purse seiner vessels in the U.S. exclusive economic zone and on the high seas (the two combined areas are referred to in U.S. regulations as Effort Limit Area for Purse Seine or ELAPS) in accordance with the Convention on the Conservation and Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean. (See Samoa News edition June 10 for details)

NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service further issued an impact review report on the implementation of the interim rule. The impact review looked at, among other things, the likelihood of the fishery being closed in the ELAPS in 2015.

Based on preliminary data available to date, NMFS expects that 1,828 fishing days could be used in the ELAPS by June or July of 2015, adding that the relatively high rate of fishing in the ELAPS so far in 2015 “is likely related to the very limited number of fishing days available to U.S. purse seine fleet in 2015 in the Kiribati” EEZ.

Moreover, effective January 1, 2015, Kiribati prohibited commercial fishing in the Phoenix Islands Protected Area — a large portion of the Kiribati EEZ is around the Phoenix Islands.

(Fili Sagapolutele contributed to this story)