StarKist: Critical Time for Canneries, NOAA Urged to Act

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The parent company of StarKist Samoa, StarKist, StarKist has underscored the importance of the US flagged purse seiner fleet that direct deliver to its local plant.

StarKist Vice President Michelle Faist said, StarKist is highly dependent on the U.S. flagged purse seine fleet making direct delivery of fish to our cannery.

She commented, “Without a reliable and reasonably priced fish supply, our plant cannot operate efficiently.”

Faist told KHJ News, “This is another example of how it is progressively more difficult for American Samoa to compete with other manufacturing locations where costs related to labor, fish supply and energy are substantially lower.”

The cannery official commented that the closure of the high seas, US Exclusive Economic Zones, and other traditional fishing grounds to the US fishing fleets has disrupted StarKist’s fish supply and that negatively impacts their business.

Faist said, “This is a critical time for StarKist Co. and we urge the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the State Department to resolve the ongoing disputes and unfair restrictions on fishing grounds.”

In October, Regional Administrator, Pacific Islands of the US Fish and Wildlife Services, Michael Tosatto said the federal agency was not ready to rule on a request to exempt US tuna boats that deliver half of their catch to the local canneries from the ban on fishing in high seas areas of the Western and Central Pacific Ocean.

Instead NMFS was gathering quantitative data to establish the extent of the impact of the fishing ban on the local canneries and the American Samoa economy before it issues a decision.

It’s that decision that is now being eagerly awaited but boat owners, the canneries, and American Samoa Government.

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