StarKist Samoa cannery has secured three fish deliveries for this month but there is no guarantee for future deliveries, according to StarKist Co., corporate spokesperson Michelle Faist.

StarKist Co., has also disputed certain claims made by J. Douglas Hines, partner and owner of Ocean Global, LLC and Sea Global, LLC against StarKist pertaining to the fishing fleet.

StarKist president and chief executive officer Andrew Choe last week informed the federal government that if no fish delivery was made to its StarKist Samoa operations by yesterday (Aug. 17) the cannery would close, putting 2,000 jobs at risk.

Choe made the revelation in a letter to the US National Marine Fishery Service, which was urged to quickly adopt Tri Marine International’s petition to allow the US purse seine fleet, which offload 50% of their catch in the local canneries, to fish in the now closed US exclusive economic zone and on the high seas.

He said the StarKist Samoa plant manager has advised that there are no current deliveries scheduled for the cannery and the earliest possible deliveries would be in the second half of August. (See last Friday’s edition for details)

Responding to Samoa News inquiries, Faist said yesterday that “StarKist has been able to negotiate three deliveries this month, but there remain no guarantees for future deliveries.”

Yesterday, StarKist Co., director of seafood procurement, Gary Gann submitted a new comment letter to  Eileen Sobeck, Assistant Administrator for Fisheries at NOAA, to correct “factual errors” made by Hines pertaining to StarKist.

To set the record straight, Gann said, StarKist does not own, manage or control any fishing vessels. “StarKist purchases their fish supply under spot contracts negotiated independently and at arm’s length with a combination of brokers, fishing companies and independent boat owners,” he said.

Hines has stated that StarKist Samoa purchases fish from other foreign flag fishing vessels such as those flagged in New Zealand and use their JV fleet in Kiribati.

In response Gann said StarKist buys approximately 80% of its light meat tuna from US flagged purse seine vessels, the vast majority of which are based out of American Samoa and regularly delivered to the StarKist cannery.

“Less than 10% of our light meat tuna is sourced from Dongwon and the rest is purchased from other foreign vessels,” he said. (South Korean based Dongwon Industries owns StarKist and StarKist Samoa.)

Hines has claimed that US flag vessels that are ‘home port’ in American Samoa have not been able to sell a single ton of fish over the past years as there is no market other than the two local canneries.

“This is not true. StarKist has been receiving fish from 20 US Treaty vessels — out of the 37 vessels in the fleet — and their portion of total deliveries to StarKist was 80.1% in 2014 and 77.6% in 2015,” Gann said.

In addition, while Hines commented that “many US flags vessels are homeport” in American Samoa, considering their usual operation, it is difficult to say that these 17 US vessels including Hines’ fleet use American Samoa as their home port or contribute significantly to American Samoa’s economy.

According to Gann, these 17 vessels normally operate in distant fishing grounds far from American Samoa and transship their fish from foreign ports to foreign buyers in places like Thailand and the Philippines.

“These vessels very rarely visit American Samoa,” he said. “That being said, StarKist Samoa would welcome Ocean Global LLC, and Sea Global LLC as regular or spot suppliers and we encourage Mr. Hines to contact us in that regard.”

“StarKist wishes to support the entire US tuna fleet including the vessels’ represented by Mr. Hines,” Choe said.

Regarding Hines’ claim that Dongwon has its own fleet of 36 fishing vessels that also supply raw product to the territory, Gann said there are only 13 purse seine vessels in the Dongwon fleet that are operating in the Pacific area at this moment.

Furthermore, the Dongwon fleet is operated completely independent of StarKist and their fish is delivered to the global tuna markets as well as their own factory in South Korea. “StarKist is only one of many buyers and... Dongwon provides less than 10% of StarKist fish supply,” he said.

Gann pointed out that StarKist is highly dependent on the US flagged purse seine fleet and without a stable fish supply “our plant cannot continue to operate efficiently.”

“The closure of the high seas, US EEZs, and other traditional fishing grounds to the US fishing fleet has disrupted our fish supply and places the future of our plant in jeopardy,” he said, adding that this is a “critical time” for StarKist, the US flag purse seine fleet and the people of American Samoa.

PUBLIC COMMENTS FROM CANNERY WORKERS

Meanwhile, several cannery workers have also written to NOAA in support of Tri Marine’s petition, which is a product of the American Samoa Fisheries Task Force.

Among the individuals supportive of the petition, is a husband who informed NOAA that his wife works at Tri Marine’s Samoa Tuna Processors cannery. “I won’t want my wife to lost [sic] her job and that is the reason why I support... Tri Marine petition 100%. She is the only provider for our family,” the commenter says.

Another person stated, “I have many families who work at the Samoa Tuna and Starkist, [and] the tuna factories is their main source of income [sic]. Please reconsider your decision and think about thousands of families who will suffer, thousands of children who will starve, thousands of those who won't have roof over their heads, all because they have no job. Let the purse seiners fish, let our people stay healthy and happy.”

Peleiupu Pene is an employee of Samoa Tuna Processors and has worked in the cannery for almost six years. “I am the provider of my family, I am able to put food on the table for my kids, buy their clothes and do whatever they want because of the cannery,” Pene wrote, and asked NOAA to grant the petition.

According to Pene, the majority of people in American Samoa work at the two canneries and they will all lose their jobs if the petition is not granted. “They (employees) will … suffer and they will be jobless” and they won’t be able to feed their families, Pene wrote and pointed out that when the Chicken of the Sea cannery shut down in 2009 hundreds of people lost their jobs.

Faasamoa Misionare wrote that she and her husband both work at the cannery “to put food on our table, take care of our kids, pay for their school tuition, buy their school supplies and uniforms. We are worried because if the canneries don't receive any more fish we will [for] sure lose our jobs and our families will suffered [sic]. Please help our canneries in that way no one in this territory will lose their jobs because of the purse seine [fishing] limitation by NOAA.”

Joy Taala say she works at Samoa Tuna Processors and that the canneries have operated for years in the territory. “Even when I was little, my parents were working at the canneries to provide for our family,” she wrote. “Now, as a mother myself and working here at the cannery, I have learned how important the tuna industry is to our small island and to our families.”

She said the current fishing limitation will not only affect the tuna industry, “but it will greatly affect our families as well; opportunities for our children to further their education, providing jobs for our uncles, aunties, cousins, sisters & brothers.”

“Our local fishing boats will not be able to deliver a sustainable amount of fish because of this limitation, which will result in reduced working hours for me here at the cannery or maybe the company will shutdown and I will lose my job,” she wrote. “Please, I need my job, my paycheck enables me to put food on the table, provide better education & better healthcare for my children. Please, help our people here in American Samoa.”