Washington, D.C. — Congresswoman Uifa’atali Amata has written President Biden in opposition to expansion of the Pacific Remote Islands National Monument, and strongly supporting Governor Lemanu P.S. Mauga’s concerns, and the clear need for more study, advice, and local input before the administration contemplates any such action damaging the local economy.

She has consistently questioned the dramatic reduction of available fishing waters since 2009, and believes the impacts over recent years have borne out those concerns.

The Congresswoman urged the administration to seek thorough local input and advice from Pacific territories, saying that American Samoa, as it is thousands of miles from Washington, D.C., “is as rural a community can be in the United States and is traditionally built around a fishing-based culture,” before noting that PRIMNM “removed fishing operations from a U.S. EEZ area that was once the size of California and is now four times that!”

She raised the concern of unfair subsidized competition as “thousands of foreign fishing boats, predominantly Chinese, surround that PRIMNM border and often encroach and illegally fish upon it.”

Further, she asked, “why are we even contemplating removing American Tuna resources from the global food supply at a period of record high inflation?”

In closing, Congresswoman Amata highlighted the “untenable” financial impact and lost jobs of the 20 percent reduction in the fleet, resulting in 70,000 tons less tuna, while other nations are collecting up to $2 million annually per American vessel due to the closure of these waters.

The letter was copied to the following: The Hon. Lemanu Peleti Mauga, Governor of American Samoa; The Hon. Eleasalo Ale, Lt. Governor; The Hon. Tuaolo Manaia Fruean, Senate President, Legislature of American Samoa; The Hon. Savali Talavou Ale, Speaker of the House, Legislature of American Samoa; Director Taotasi Archie Soliai, American Samoa Dept. of Marine & Wildlife Resources; The Hon, Gina Raimondo, Secretary of Commerce; The Hon. Deb Haaland, Secretary of Interior; Deputy Assistant Sec. Keone Nakoa, OIA

Director; Julie Chavez Rodriguez, White House Intergovernmental Affairs; Chair Brenda Mallory, CEQ White House; Director Kitty Simonds, WPFMC; Administrator Richard Spinrad, NOAA.

Click on attachment to download the full text of the Congresswoman’s letter to President Biden.