Tautai O Samoa Longline & Fishing Association has expressed support of the US National Marine Fishery Service proposal to allow the US flagged longline fleet to fish in portions of the Large Vessel Protected Area (LVPA), while additional opposing comments — including one from New Zealand — have been lodged with NMFS.

The Western Pacific Fishery Management Council had recommended that large, federally permitted US longline vessels be allowed to fish in the LVPA, which extends seaward approximately 30-50 nautical miles offshore from the islands of American Samoa.

In a Sept. 7 letter to NMFS Pacific Islands Regional office in Honolulu, Tautai president Christinna Lutu-Sanchez says the association appreciates the recommendation by the Council and committees to the NMFS for the proposed amendment, which will “improve the viability of American Samoa’s longline fishery.”

She is hopeful that the data obtained will assist NMFS and the Council to better manage this fishery. Additionally, the association is grateful to NMFS for providing data to decision makers so they have facts instead of listening to false claims on what is actually happening in American Samoa.

“Even though it has been several years since our initial plea for help, we are encouraged that there are administrators or officials that have considered the reality of the fishery and this has given us the hope that this fleet has a chance of surviving,” she wrote.

Another supporter of the proposed LVPA amendment came from businessman Carlos Sanchez, who — along with his wife Lutu-Sanchez — owns and operates a US longline fleet based in the territory.

In his comments submitted last week, Mr. Sanchez argued that the Council’s recommendation to open up a portion of the LVPA, is “based on numerous factors including scientific data and real results on the state of the fishery in American Samoa.”

Another supporter is Jeff Kohlhaas, who wrote to NMFS on behalf of the Apia-based Samoa Marine Electronics. “We are a small marine electronics repair and sales business who depends entirely on the commercial fishing boats who [sic] are based in Pago Pago,” he said. “Without the fishing vessels in Pago Pago, we will have no customers and be forced to close. Please keep in mind this not only affects the fishing boat owners and crews, but also all of the other small businesses and families who support the vessels,” he added.

OPPOSITION

Opposition to the proposal has mainly come — so far — from recreational fishermen. The latest one was filed last Friday by Russ Cox, who cited reasons, such as depletion of fish stock. He explained that pelagic fish, by nature, feed on smaller bait fish that drift in oceanic currents and pay no heed to either economic or protected area boundaries.

“A better proposal would be to extend the [LVPA] exclusion zone [from 50] to 75 miles, as this would increase fish stocks for everyone fishing inside AND outside of the exclusion zone,” he suggested.

Cox went on to say that when this proposal was first brought to light, the vessel owners’ arguments for reducing the current limit was travel costs due to increasing fuel prices. “The fuel prices have, since then, dropped dramatically and can no longer be a factor in their argument,” he said.

Cox also says that longliner crews sell by-catch and flood the local market, driving fish prices down, making it extremely unprofitable to sell fish for the local alia fishing boats that are crewed by American Samoan fishermen.

He says the alia fishermen struggle to pay for fuel and a lot of the safety equipment has to be given to them as there is no money left to purchase flares, lifejackets, VHF's and EPIRBs (also known as emergency beacon locators)

This year, Cox says he has been fishing in Costa Rica as well as neighboring Samoa. “After seeing first hand how large commercial fishing vessels can decimate a fishing ground for locals, I do not want the same to happen to American Samoa,” he said.

In comments submitted Tuesday this week, Angus Hume of New Zealand asked NMFS to keep the current closure zone in place. He said he ships a sport fishing boat to American Samoa every year to participate in the annual fishing tournament, and stays for about two weeks. Additionally, between 6 and 12 boats from New Zealand do the same thing.

“Currently the fishing [in American Samoa] rates right up there with anything in the Pacific, [and] the key reason that we keep returning year after year,” he wrote. “Most of our fishing is tag and release, keeping only the small number of fish we plan to eat.”

Hume then revealed some interesting statistics on how much money boats from New Zealand pour into the local economy every year from the fishing tournament. Hume said his crew would spend between US$15,000 and US20,000 per trip on accommodation, fuel, meals, shopping, entertainment and food.

Combined, all the NZ boats would spend upward of US$150,000 per year, he said, adding that one of the reasons “we spend the money to ship our boats to American Samoa is it still offers the chance to catch tuna on a regular basis, along with such a wide variety of other species.”

“No doubt protecting the fishery from commercial pressure has been the key reason the quality of the fishery remains,” he said. “We know only too well in New Zealand what commercial pressure can do to a fishery, with yellowfin almost gone completely from our waters.”

Hume argued that removing the LVPA exclusive zone would put enormous pressure on the inshore banks that generally hold the volume of fish, something which is very hard to see being sustainable. Exclusion zones no doubt play a part in helping protect the sustainability of future fish stocks not only inshore but outside the exclusion zones, he pointed out.

“While the long liners may be targeting albacore primarily, all species would be caught in significant numbers. No means of fishing stops this,” he said. Additionally, fuel prices have been decreasing and the suggestion that the longliners current fishing grounds are over fished clearly points to what would happen very quickly to the inshore grounds.

“We enjoy coming to your beautiful country and hope to do so for many years to come. You have a very special fishery that rivals anything in the Pacific, please recognize this and protect it before it is too late,” he added.

All comments on the LVPA amendment proposal are available online at federal portal (www.regulators.gov)