Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — After more than a year of waiting, applications from people who applied for fisher grants under the CARES Act have finally been approved by NOAA and checks are being sent out in the mail. Checks should reach mailboxes before the end of this month.

This was the statement from the Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources (DMWR) director, Taotasi Archie Soliai before the House Agriculture and Marine Wildlife committee during yesterday’s hearing.

Taotasi, along with the head of the finance division, Perise Asafo appeared before the committee to answers faipule questions about what’s happened to the fisher grants under the CARES Act.

Several faipule asked Taotasi to explain the program so that they can also get a clear understanding about it instead of hearing different stories from various people.

Taotasi made it clear to the committee that the program was in place before he was appointed as the head of the department last year.

He explained that the DMWR with assistance from NOAA and the Pacific States Marine Commission received $2.5 million from the CARES Act to assist Samoan fishers affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

The financial assistance covers eligible businesses, fish dealers; fishing charters and fish processors. There was also a fifth category for subsistence fishers or cultural fishers and these are fisher people, who fish to feed and support their family — they do not sell the fish they catch for money.

Commercial applications were approved by NOAA on May 10, 2021. However, some of the commercial applicants did not qualify — including the cannery — because they were unable to provide one of the requirements, which was financial trend information to verify that a 35% or greater economic loss could be attributed to effects of COVID-19.

For the subsistence categories, there were technical errors that caused the delay and after fixing the errors, NOAA contacted their local partner (DMWR) last month to inform them that applications had been approved and checks for the qualified applicants were being sent through the mail.

“The good news is that people’s applications have been approved by NOAA and their checks should arrive in their mail box before the end of this month,” Taotasi explained.

The “bad news” according to Taotasi is that, not all the applications that were submitted were approved by NOAA. Taotasi said he understands that a lot of applications were denied because there were requirements our people did not meet.

Taotasi explained that there is a second round of grants totaling $2.9 million for American Samoa and his staff is working on a spending plan to submit to NOAA for approval on how to use these funds.

In order for people to apply for the second round, NOAA must approve DMWR’s spending plan.

According to Taotasi, applications and information on the second round will be publicized once NOAA approves their spending plan.

Several faipule acknowledged Taotasi for his service and effort to assist the community with these federal programs that benefit low income families.

Fagatogo faipule who is also a local fisherman, Rep. Vailiuama Steve Leasiolagi said that one of the reasons many commercial fishermen did not qualify in the first round was because they failed to verify that a 35% or greater economic loss could be attributed to effects of COVID-19.

Vailiuama said most of the local fishermen don’t have records of their income from the last five years. They are only interested in catching fish and selling it to earn money to feed their family and pay bills.

Rep. Avagafono Tuavao Vaimaga Maiava said that one of the things he noticed from the first round of this program was the lack of workshops and information given out to the public to inform them of the exact data and documents they must provide in order for them to qualify.

Rep. Titialii Kitara Vaiasu agreed. He said a lot of applications were denied by the staff at the front desk because the information were incomplete.

“It’s not the people’s fault — it was the fault of the staff because they failed to provide workshops for the people,” Titialii said.

Taotasi agreed. He said that when he arrived in his office or post, he advised the staff to take the program along with workshops to Manu’a. However, he said he learned from Manu’a representatives that only people from Ta’u applied for the program.

The program was never introduced in Ofu and Olosega.

Taotasi apologized to the committee and promised that he would make sure people in Tutuila, Aunu’u and the Manu’a islands will all get a chance to apply for the second round of this program.