The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WPRFMC) is calling for an exemption for commercial fishing by U.S. vessels if the White House moves ahead with President Obama’s plans to create the world’s largest ocean protected area between Hawai’i and American Samoa, according to the Council in a press release and 10-page document responding to Obama’s proposal announced June 17.

The Council discussed Obama’s proposal during its meeting last week in Honolulu and also held a press conference on June 25, where executive director Kitty M. Simonds says the President’s “aspiration for a strong legacy concerning environmental issues is commendable”.

“However, his plan for the U.S. Pacific islands unfairly penalizes U.S. fishermen and seafood consumers who depend on this resource,” Simonds said. “U.S. fishermen, including those in the Pacific, already abide by the strictest fishing regulations in the world, and this plan, whatever that plan might look like, further inhibits their economic survival.”

Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources director Dr. Ruth Matagi-Tofiga, who is also the territory’s state-designated official on the Council, pointed out, “There’s not that much land as far as American Samoa is concerned— Tutuila, Manu’a, and Swains — so our ocean is our livelihood. So expanding this monument in Samoa, in American Samoa particularly, is very disheartening for my people.”

Paul Dalzell, a senior scientist with the Council, explained the impact the proposed plan would have on fisherman, saying that without these fishing grounds, fishermen will be forced further away to other locations, wasting time, effort, and valuable resources.

Dalzell also highlighted concerns that U.S fishermen will be forced to purchase access to foreign fishing grounds if barred from accessing their own waters, as President Obama’s proposal would require.

(A link to the archive video and transcript of the June 25 press conference was yesterday provided by the Council and is available on their website, along with other information: www.wpcouncil.org.)

In their news release yesterday, the Council said that its voting members from Hawai’i, American Samoa, Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands have analyzed Obama’s proposal.

“They have determined that it would provide no added conservation benefit to marine resources, but will economically harm the area's fishermen and those reliant on Pacific marine resources,” the statement said.

Noting that the President himself has declared that the United States "has largely ended overfishing in federally managed waters," the Council members are urging the Administration to continue allowing US fishermen into these areas.

The Council said the Obama Administration failed to consult them about the true economic and environmental impact of its plan to expand the reserve ocean areas in the Pacific.

The President’s proposal would enlarge the current Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument-established by President Bush in 2009 to encompass the full 200-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zone of seven US Pacific Island Possessions.

“However, the Council counters in its report that this expansion will ultimately be ineffective in reaching the Obama Administration's stated goal of combating threats to the ocean's health, like overfishing and ocean acidification caused by greenhouse gas pollution,” the statement says.

It also says that US fisheries are already required by the Magnuson-Stevens Act to eliminate overfishing, and the US boasts the strongest, most conservation-minded fisheries management in the world.

According to the Council, fishermen in the region are already subject to catch limits, vessel monitoring, observer requirements, and gear restrictions to ensure that they do not overfish the species they target nor endanger other species in the process.

The President's plan aims to aid marine species like tuna, seabirds, coral reefs, and sharks, but, according to the WPRFMC, it disregards the effective management plans already in place.

“Because the region's fish are highly migratory, the Council views the current, more focused international management approach as the most effective move to achieve the Administration's stated goals, and that the Marine Monuments are superfluous in stopping overfishing,” it says.

The Council also pointed out that the areas covered by the Marine Monument are important for the region's longline and purse seine fisheries, which were already pushed out of valuable fishing grounds with the original 2009 Pacific Islands Remote Marine Monument designation.

“Expanding the monuments will sever local fishermen's access to these resources and in turn strain the island communities that depend on the Pacific for their livelihoods,” it says.

In a 10-page detailed response to Obama's proposal — which includes data of fishing in the region — the Council provided some suggestions.

To support the US. Pacific Islands and the U.S. fishing industry and to reduce the nation’s seafood deficit and thus provide stronger food security of the nation, the Council calls upon Obama to exempt commercial fishing by US vessels in the US EEZ should any marine monuments be created or expanded and urges that the management of the fisheries remain under the Regional Fishery Management Council process with the Magnuson-Stevens Act given precedence.

The Council further supports amendments to the Antiquities Act to ensure that no more waters are taken from US fishermen in the Pacific Islands in the name of conservation and for the legacy of the President.  According to the Council, implementation of the Antiquities Act has been a long-running conversation between the Congressional and Executive branches.

“The US government should not enact a plan that further complicates an historic and economically vital industry,” the document said. “From a global to local perspective, the economic prosperity of American Pacific Islanders is a paramount responsibility for President Obama and his Administration.”

As it stands, current plans for this most recently proposed marine monument “will achieve the opposite by unfairly burdening commercial fisheries that already operate under the world’s most stringent regulations,” the Council said.

“Our government should seek to preserve the livelihoods of American fishermen and provide waters that exclusively serve and provide an advantage for the regulated US fishing industry in the global market,” it says.

“Working to fight illegal fishing and encouraging our own domestic fisheries in accordance with the regulatory guidelines by which they already abide is out best solution to maintaining the sustainable fisheries...” it says.

CANNERIES

The 10-page response points out that the US purse seiner fleet is currently facing record license fees under the South Pacific Tuna Treaty, which is negotiated by the US State Department. “This means the US Pacific Remote Islands offer needed, accessible fishing areas, especially for US seiners that operate out of American Samoa and predominately in the central Pacific,” it says.

“American Samoa’s limited economy is highly dependent on the tuna processing industry and any negative impact to the US tuna vessels that operate out of American Samoa will likewise have a negative impact on the American Samoa economy,” the report says.

Tri Marine International vice president of production, Dan Sullivan told Samoa News that US flagged purse seiners that are based in American Samoa fish in some of those areas included in Obama’s proposal.

“Closing them will therefore have an effect on their fishing operations. They will have to fish elsewhere. If fishing elsewhere reduces their catch, their deliveries to the canneries in American Samoa will be reduced,” he said.