A former Director of Marine and Wildlife Resources is emphatic that the court decision which vacates a rule by the National Marine Fisheries Service to allow longliners of 50 feet and over to fish within 12 miles from shore discriminates against American Samoans who own longliners.
Ufagafa Ray Tulafono was Director of DMWR when the Large Vessel Prohibited Area rule was put in place.
He said fishing by longliners was limited to 50 miles from shore to prevent gear conflicts and competition between the larger vessels and small alia.
But he observed that today only one alia is fishing in that zone and there’s no gear conflict or competition.
Ufagafa was speaking at the third and final community meeting by NOAA Fisheries to gather public comment for an environmental impact statement on the US Pacific island deep set tuna longline fisheries.
NOAA is also conducting similar meetings in Guam, CNMI and Hawaii.
Ufagafa said that at the time that the 50 mile closure for longliners was put in place, there were many alia actively fishing, but things have changed.
Play Audio Ufagafa
Ariel Jacobs, NOAA Fisheries Pacific Islands Regional Office’s Natural Resource Management Specialist facilitated the three scoping meetings which were held at the Office of Samoan Affairs, Laulii village and the final one last night at the NOAA compound at Lyons Park housing.
Play AudioAriel
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(ariel)
A DRFT environmental impact statement should be available in Dcember, For those unable to attend the scoping meetings, you can comment at: fpir.noaa.gov/sfd/pelagic_deepset_tuna_longline.
