Governor Lolo Moliga was on the program to deliver remarks at the opening of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council yesterday at the Lee Auditorium.
However he didn’t attend and his speech was read by Director of Marine and Wildlife Resources and Council member Vaamua Henry Sesepasara.
The speech detailed numerous challenges that American Samoa faces in its efforts to keep its fisheries viable.
The governor provided a list of potential solutions including:
- Continue the Internal Revenue Code section 30(A) Tax Credit (American Samoa Economic Development Credit);
- Ease fishing prohibitions for American Samoa-based US purse-seine vessels fishing on the high seas (i.e., beyond the US exclusive economic zone, generally 0 to 200 miles off American shores);
- Increase fishing days for US purse-seine vessels fishing in the US exclusive economic zone;
- Re-strengthen the U.S. Tariff provision Headnote 3(a), which provides American Samoa canneries with duty free access to the U.S. markets;
- Renegotiate international fishing treaties, and
- Revise the North America Free Trade Agreement.
Lolo recognized the Council’s efforts to support fishing infrastructure development and ongoing litigation over a final rule that would open a portion of the American Samoa Large Vessel Prohibited Area (LVPA) to American Samoa longline vessels.
The Council recommended creation of the LVPA in 2002 and an amendment to open a portion of it in 2015 to address changes in the fisheries and the need to meet national criteria for optimal yield.
Samuel Rauch III, NOAA Fisheries Deputy Assistant Administrator for Regulatory Programs focused on the importance of fisheries to the “fabric of our communities.”
He said it “defines who we are in many of our coastal communities.”
He lauded the Regional Fishery Management Council system’s strength in providing a forum for an open honest debate, which has been “phenomenally successful across the country.”
Rauch said Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross has repeatedly talked about the US seafood trade deficit and has asked NOAA for ways to address it.
