Tri Marine International’s top senior officials have emphasized to the National Oceania and Atmospheric Administration the urgency of the current tuna supply situation for the local canneries due to fishing ground restrictions and closure of other fishing areas.

Tri Marine, whose local operations include Samoa Tuna Processors Inc. cannery and a purse seiner fleet, has a petition with NOAA seeking an emergency exemption to allow US flagged purse seiners that offload 50% of their catch at the local canneries to fish in the US EEZ and on the high seas — the two fishing grounds now closed until the end of this year.

Responding to Samoa News inquiries, Tri Marine spokesperson Heidi Happonen confirmed that the company’s chief executive officer Renato Curto and chief operation officer Joe Hamby last week visited NOAA in their Washington D.C. offices “to emphasize the urgency of the current tuna supply situation.”

“Due to the closure of the high seas and with fishing days for the Kiribati EEZ all used up, boats are moving to other areas that are quite distant from American Samoa,” she said.

And when boats are fishing farther away, it makes more economic sense for them to unload to reefer carriers or at canneries closer to those fishing grounds to maximize their fishing time and save on costs, she said.

“This means American Samoa is receiving fewer deliveries of fish — which is why the petition with NOAA is so urgent and important,” Happonen pointed out.

Asked if NOAA had hinted as to when they will issue a decision on the petition, Happonen said NOAA can't say anything about the petition to exempt American Samoa based purse seiners from the high seas closure at this time.

“Their process and their considerations are confidential. We therefore don't know the timing of the pending ruling,” she explained. “We continue to wait patiently, hoping that NOAA will act swiftly to provide the relief needed to sustain the tuna supply for the canneries.”

Meanwhile, Tri Marine’s environmental policy director Matthew Owens, in a letter last month to NOAA regarding the minimal impact on bigeye tuna expected from exempting the American Samoa purse seine fleet from high seas closure, said the long term sustainability of fisheries resources is imperative to the company business and “we support conservation measures that result in improved management of stocks we depend on.”

He said that since the US EEZ and high seas closure went into effect on Jun. 15, US vessels have shifted fishing efforts to neighboring areas. Furthermore there has been no reduction in overall effort on tuna resources.

He cited past Western and Central Pacific Commission science papers which state in part: “Area closures could even be counter-productive in some cases if fishing effort is simply displaced and the closure is used as a justification to increase fishing effort outside of the closed areas.”

He said the same study states that “closing areas to purse seine fishing without consideration of the fact of displaced fishing effort will not be effective for bigeye [tuna] conservation.”

Owen said it’s also important to note that nearly all bigeye caught by purse seiners is on fishing aggregated devices (FADs). He explained that the proposed emergency rule would not change the most important aspect of the existing measure for purse seiners and bigeye conservation — the 4-month FAD closure period.

“Therefore, the current shift of the American Samoa fleet from the high seas to other areas during the FAD closure has no conservation benefits,” he said.

“Given the limited environmental impact on the proposed emergency rule on the bigeye stock and the adverse economic impact on American Samoa without the emergency rule, we urge a positive outcome that better balances these considerations.”

“We also hope you consider that prohibiting access to the high seas when the FAD ban is in effect blocks US vessels from very important fishing grounds while having no positive outcome for bigeye,” he added.

Besides Tri Marine, many in the industry — as well as ASG — are waiting for the outcome of NOAA’s decision regarding the petition, which originated from the American Samoa Fishery Task Force.