The American Samoa delegation to the Tuna Commission meeting has delivered strong statements in support of the US fishing fleet and the two canneries in American Samoa.
There are about 500 delegates attending the meeting in Nadi, Fiji and meetings are running from 8am up to 8 or 9 at night.
Head of delegation for American Samoa, Director of Marine and Wildlife Resources Dr. Ruth Matagi Tofiga, discussed how dependent our economy is on the tuna industry and why access to fishing grounds is vital.
There have been suggestions that an all out ban on fishing in the high seas should be considered to stem illegal unreported and unregulated fishing.
At this 13th session of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, delegates hope to reach agreement on what are referred to as harvest reference points.
Dr Matagi-Tofiga told the meeting, American Samoa’s economy is highly dependent on the two tuna canneries that support thousands of direct and indirect jobs.
She said American Samoa is a developing participating territory and like other SIDS (Small Islands Developing States), we have our own fisheries aspirations and face unique economic challenges.
“We have a small and vulnerable economy that is highly dependent on our tuna fisheries. We have our own longliner and purse seine fisheries that supply our canneries. A part of our purse seine fishery is integral to our economy, and it needs to be recognized accordingly. Those purse seiners have their own MCS (monitoring , control, surveillance) MSC certification and our canneries depend on them for supply of raw material.”
She asked that access for U.S. purse seiners to traditional fishing grounds be maintained.
Dr. Matagi-Tofiga told the meeting that American Samoa’s longline fishery is almost entirely dependent on the South Pacific albacore stock.
But in the past decade the local longline fleet has faced challenges.
She told the meeting,”Our longline fishery has gone through great changes in the last ten years. In the early to mid-2000s, the fishery was profitable. In 2014, the economics of the fishery became so bad that it was better to tie up vessels in our fleet than to go fishing. Over this same time period we have also lost our small scale artisanal longline fleet due to the poor returns from longline fishing.”
Dr. Matagi-Tofiga informed WCPFC members, American Samoa is interested in measures that result in increased albacore catch rates and improved economic conditions for our domestic fleets.
She said, ” We want our fleets to return to levels we once experienced and we continue to have aspirations to develop our domestic fleets in a sustainable and responsible manner.”
At the same time, she said American Samoa is aware of the rate at which economic circumstances can outpace management initiatives.
“In this regard, we would support an interim target reference point for albacore,” said the delegation leader.
