Western Pacific Council considers fishing regs for monument

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At its 169th meeting, March 21-23, 2017, in Honolulu, the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council will consider fishing regulations in the monument expansion area from 50 to 200 nautical miles (nm) around the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

Director of Marine and Wildlife Resources Vaamua Henry Sesepasara is attending the council meeting along with Archie Taotasi Soliai and Christinna Lutu Sanchez.

President Barack Obama under authority of the Antiquities Act proclaimed this vast area on Aug. 26, 2016.

This week the  Council will consider the results of public scoping meetings that were held in December 2016 to determine what information is available as the first step in the process of analyzing alternatives and recommending management regulations.

The presidential proclamation directs the Secretaries to prohibit commercial fishing activities and anchoring on any living or dead coral.

It also allows the Secretaries to permit for non-commercial fishing and the exercise of Native Hawaiian traditional, customary, cultural, subsistence, spiritual and religious practices if consistent with the care and management of the monument expansion.

However, fish harvested either in whole or in part cannot enter commerce through sale, barter, or trade, and the resource must be managed sustainably. inn

On Sept. 23, 2016, the National Marine Fisheries Service sent the Council a letter requesting recommendations for amending the Hawai‘i Archipelago and Pelagic Fishery Ecosystem Plans to establish appropriate fishing requirements for the expanded monument area.

A similar process occurred in 2009 after the designation of marine national monuments for the Pacific Remote Islands, Rose Atoll (American Samoa) and Marianas Trench.