Governor:federal laws threatening tuna industry

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In remarks to the US Coral Reef Task Force meeting today, Governor Lolo Moliga underscored the importance of coral reefs as basic life sustaining assets for food security and protecting land based resources.

The governor said American Samoa has had its share of reef degradation and deterioration caused by biological and self induced attacks.

He said the crown of thorns is the number one biological predator which is continually invading and destroying our reef systems.

In addition plastics, foam, oil spills, global warming, erosion, and illegal fishing methods which are causing ocean acidification levels to rise, pose the greatest threat to the sustainability of our reef system.

Speaking on the theme of the 40th meeting of the USCRTF: “Natural infrastructure building capacity and disaster preparedness he said this is most appropriate particularly for American Samoa.

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The governor said what we need to do is obvious:Keep our reef system healthy and build its resiliency capacity.

He referred to fishing vessels marooned on our reefs and said, “We lack financial resources to remove them as boat owners have claimed bankruptcy.”

Lolo continued, “While we see the value of aggressive enforcement by the US Coast Guard of environmental laws to prevent this type of incident. We also see the loss of economic activity because fishing vessels would relocate to our closest neighbor.”

The governor told the task force about the threat posed to our tuna industry because of tough federal environmental laws.

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