Tri Marine International, whose local operations include a US purse seiner fleet and cannery, has confirmed that the US State Department reached a new agreement with Pacific island countries that now allows the company’s fleet and other US vessels based in American Samoa to access to their historic fishing grounds in the Western and Central Pacific under the South Pacific Tuna Treaty.

Since the beginning of the year the Pacific Islands Forum Fishery Agency (FFA), administrator of the Treaty, has declined to issue fishing licenses to the more than 30 US purse seiners — including Tri Marine’s ten US vessels based in Pago Pago — to fish in waters of Pacific Islands Parties (PIPs) nations after a default in treaty payments by the US, whose fleet late last year sought a reduction of fishing days due to difficult economic conditions.

More than two weeks ago, FFA submitted to the US State Department a proposal for an amended agreement, giving the US fleet what they sought but the final decision whether or not to accept the amendment rested with the American Tunaboat Association (ATA), which was reviewing the proposal.

Early this week, FFA says the proposed treaty deal with the US has been salvaged for the remaining months of 2016 and US vessels are to resume tuna fishing in the Pacific in a matter of days — but didn’t give specific details.

“We received official notice last week advising the terms of the revised proposal from the Pacific parties to the Treaty were accepted by the US but with a request for a slight change on the quarterly payment schedule,” said FFA director general James Movick in a statement this week.

That revision was submitted to Pacific Parties for approval, he says, as it does increase the difficulties that PIPs to the Treaty would face if the US fleet defaults on payments throughout the year “In agreeing to the revised payment schedule, the Pacific Parties are hopeful that the reduced number of fishing days and the more generous payment schedule will help to avoid that scenario,” Movick said. (No additional information from FFA on the ‘change to quarterly payments’ was available.)

He also noted that the lower number of fishing days reduces the required US payment commitment from almost US$90 million to about $US66 million annually.

ATA, which represents the US fleet in treaty negotiations, didn’t immediately respond to Samoa News inquiries, while Tri Marine — in a statement yesterday — confirmed the agreement has been reached.

“This is welcome news not only for our fleet and our business, but to the many families in American Samoa that depend on a tuna-based economy, including the 2,000 employees we aim to have working when we are at capacity at Samoa Tuna Processors (STP),” said Don Binotto, chief executive officer of STP and The Tuna Store, in the Tri Marine statement.

During the treaty impasse, Tri Marine says several of its vessels had to shift fishing operations to the Eastern Tropical Pacific — far from American Samoa. It also says that ATA had informed the Pacific countries that its members could not afford the $69 million price tag for 5,950 fishing days due to the rapidly declining value of tuna.

The cost to access the fish at that rate, ATA explained, didn’t make any sense, as the value of the catch would not cover the cost of fishing. Therefore, boats had to choose either to stay in port or to move to other fishing grounds.

While the ATA’s acceptance of the amended agreement from the PIPs was relatively swift, Tri Marine said it was not without concern from a number of vessel owners who worry they’ve already lost two months of fishing in 2016.

However, efforts are now focused on getting back to work and beginning the effort toward a longer-term solution for 2017 and beyond.

Tri Marine’s chief executive officer, Renato Curto said the company stands by its long-term position that the current treaty model is obsolete, “when island nations are dependent upon selling access rather than on the value of the resource itself for economic stability ...the model cannot adequately withstand fluctuations in market conditions that characterize the industry,” Curto said. “What we really need is control on fishing capacity. That’s the best way to stabilize the market.”

Throughout the treaty impasse, Tri Marine has been sourcing tuna from more distant waters and relying on raw material reserves held in its cold storages to meet production requirements at STP.

While Tri Marine is happy see the tuna boats return to American Samoa from nearby waters, Curto said, “there’s still a lot of work to do if we are going to find a long-term solution makes sense for all parties.”

FFA deputy director-general Wez Norris says that in moving forward, the “key will be flexibility,” adding that the treaty must be built on arrangements that as far as possible treat the US fleet consistently with other fleets.