Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — It was exactly three months ago yesterday — June 27, 2023 when the three governors from the U.S. territories in the Pacific region wrote directly to the U.S. President Joseph R. Biden.

 American Samoa Governor Lemanu P.S. Mauga, Guam Governor Lourdes Leon Guerrto and Governor Arnold Palacios of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, on March 27, 2023 penned their concerns to Biden, over the prospect of expanding potential fishery closures through designating a marine sanctuary within the full U.S. economic exclusive zones (EEZ) of the Pacific Remote Island Areas, which already includes a Marine National Monument.

Now this week, American Samoa is hosting the 195th Council Meeting of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, and one of the issues on the agenda for today — Wednesday June 28, 2023 is the “Pacific Remote Island Areas”.

Governor Lemanu at the opening of the council meeting yesterday said, “Speaking of the proposed National Marine Sanctuary, we have received the data report from the NOAA Science Centre that shows fishing effort and catch within Pacific Remote Island areas.

“This official dataset shows that the percentage of retained catch for the local purse seiner fleet in these waters was as much as 25% at one point. Most, if not all, of the fish caught in these waters is landed in the territory. More importantly, the fishing effort by the purse seiners has increased over the past few years and that increasing catch continues to benefit the local cannery.

“The misinformation that has been circulated by the proponents of this sanctuary is insulting and misconstrues the reality of the importance of these waters to our territory. This ‘fake news’ circulated by the Pacific Remote Islands Coalition fails to recognize that almost all the fish caught in those waters are landed here in American Samoa. It provides jobs, helps build communities and more importantly puts food on the table.

“The fishing effort and retained catch helps sustain our fragile economy. That may not be important to them, but for me and my people — that is very, very important.”

The three territorial leaders told President Biden, “We do not believe taking further action to fully close waters around the Pacific Remote Island Areas are necessary to fulfill the aspirations of your “America the Beautiful” Initiative.

“And further closures of waters around U.S. Pacific Islands would be devastating to the local tuna economy of American Samoa and deprived our Pacific Territories of economic development opportunities into the future.

The letter from the three governors also stated “Fisheries are the leading source of economic development that binds us to our neighboring Pacific Island nations. Further closures would be in direct conflict with your Administration’s Indo Pacific Economic Framework and be counter to principles of Equity and Environmental Justice as outlined in Executive Orders 13984 and 14008.”

The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WPRFMC) reminded NOAA earlier this month, “When the Pacific Remote Island Marine National Monument was expanded in 2014, President Obama recognized the importance of the U.S. tuna industries and agreed to maintain areas to be used for U.S. commercial fishing.”