Fishers and advisors on the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council are warning that current U.S. policies are hurting American fishers in the Pacific.<\/p>\n
Fishers voiced a litany of urgent concerns at the council\u2019s 198th meeting in mid-March, including the Biden administration\u2019s goal of extending sanctuary protections in the region and what they deemed as a growing threat of tuna imports.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the goal is to sustain fisheries, major changes need to be made today,\u201d Kaua\u2019I fisher Abraham Apilado Jr., a member of the Hawai\u2019i Advisory Panel, said. \u201cIf the goal is to kill off the fishermen and resources, then keep doing what you\u2019re doing because you\u2019re doing an amazing job.\u201d<\/p>\n
The council has\u00a0continued to oppose U.S. President Joe Biden\u2019s proposal\u00a0for a new sanctuary fully conserving 770,000 square miles around the Pacific Remote Islands\u00a0\u2013\u00a0a move the council\u2019s advisors say will hurt American fishers without improving conservation outcomes.<\/p>\n
Representatives from American Samoa argue that a sanctuary designation would be devastating to the region\u2019s tuna industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout the StarKist cannery, we cannot continue to sustain our cultural heritage and keep it vibrant,\u201d Council Chair Will Sword said. \u201cFurther disadvantaging our remaining 12 purse seine vessels in American Samoa affects our cannery.\u201d<\/p>\n
Foreign tuna producers also remain a top concern. Hawaii Longline Association Executive Director Eric Kingma said that despite a large supply of fish, imports have gutted any market for domestic products.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe market isn\u2019t there because of the huge amount of imported, subsidized, gassed tuna being \u2018dumped\u2019 into the market, and retailers are not adjusting downward during periods of high local supply of fresh tuna,\u201d Kingma said. \u201cNot only is this bad for the local consumer, but it\u2019s unfair to the Hawai\u2018i fishing industry. The subsidized foreign imports and retail price-gouging on fresh landed ahi is really hurting the Hawai\u2018i longline fleet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cape Fisheries CEO Joe Hamby echoed Kingma.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur purse-seine boats can\u2019t compete because it\u2019s not a level playing field,\u201d Hamby said. \u201cThe Seafood Import Monitoring Program is not working. U.S. fishers and processors should be protected by a duty on fish imports; seafood security is important. Fishing or processing, it\u2019s a matter of having the political will to defend against negative impacts to domestic producers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lawmakers in Congress are also considering adoption of\u00a0the South Pacific Tuna Treaty Act of 2023, a bill that would align U.S. law with changes made to the South Pacific Tuna Treaty in 2016. While a memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Pacific Island states has allowed some of the 2016 changes to enter into effect, there remains a gulf between the treaty\u2019s provisions and U.S. law.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we are operating under a memorandum of understanding, finalizing this legislation will enable us to fully implement the amendments to the benefit of our industry,\u201d U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Fisheries Kelly Kryc said at a hearing in July.<\/p>\n
The U.S. House\u2019s Natural Resources Committee\u00a0approved the bill in October 2023\u00a0but it has yet to receive a vote in the full U.S. House of Representatives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":3,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[177],"tags":[329,408],"region":[1912],"source":[1283],"country":[9267],"state":[],"city":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newss\/117014"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newss"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/newss"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newss\/117014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117015,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newss\/117014\/revisions\/117015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117014"},{"taxonomy":"region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region?post=117014"},{"taxonomy":"source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/source?post=117014"},{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=117014"},{"taxonomy":"state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/state?post=117014"},{"taxonomy":"city","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/city?post=117014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}