US tuna boats express concern over bill

Dionisia Tabureguci  
It hasn’t been a fine weather for fishing lately for US tuna boats scouring American Samoa waters for a good catch.

Tuna politics had been a bit of a rough sea following the proposal by Faleomavaega Eni Hunkin, American Samoa’s representative to the US Congress, to introduce changes that will see them sharing fishing space with foreign fishing boats. It is as an outlook US tuna boat owners are not comfortable with.

Last month, the US Tunaboats Owners Coalition (USTOC) publicly denounced Faleomavaega’s move in a two-page press release, saying the move will not auger well for American Samoa’s fishing sector and its fledgling boat building industry.

The two industries complement each other in that under the territory’s law, US flagged tuna boats built in American Samoa qualify for US fishery endorsements which have exclusive rights to fish in waters off the remote islands north of American Samoa.

However, the success of a new bill being pushed in the US Congress by Faleomavaega will mean that Pago Pago-built tuna boats will no longer enjoy this privilege.

“A key attraction for investment in the islands’ shipbuilding industry is that all tuna boats built in Pago may apply for a US fishery endorsement and have the exclusive right to fish in the EEZs of the remote Pacific islands areas,” said USTOC chairman Joe Finete. 

“Giving away US fishery endorsements to foreign built boats will nullify the most important investment incentive for the American Samoa shipbuilding industry.” 

The remote areas under the spotlight here are Baker, Howland, Jarvis, Johnston, Kingman Reef, Palmyra Atoll and Wake Island—all uninhabited islands north of Samoa.  

It is the EEZs (Economic Exclusive Zone) of these islands that are currently off limits to non-US built boats.
But in September last year, Faleomaveaga introduced a bill which allowed foreign built tuna boats to also fish in those areas.

USTOC is claiming the bill bypassed necessary procedures and was quietly inserted into the US Coast Guard Funding Bill, passed in the US House of Representative in April and pending before the US Senate, when this edition went to press. 

In the months that followed the April passage of the Coast Guard Funding Bill, letters were flying to and from Faleomaveaga, the US tuna boats stakeholders and the Western Pacific Fisheries Management Council (WPFMC), which oversees fishing in the Western Pacific. 

Faleomaveaga, in a letter to WPFMC and in response to a correspondence sent to him in June by the American Tunaboat Association, a separate organisation from USTOC, reasoned that the move to open up waters in American Samoa’s remote islands was driven by concerns over the ability of US tuna fishing fleet to supply the canneries. 

“Over the decades, the boats have gotten old, the price of tuna has gone down, gas prices have gone up and our fleet has dwindled down from about 35 boats to 14, and this raises serious questions about where our canneries are going to get their fish,” Faleomaveaga wrote.

“Given that American Samoa’s private sector economy is more than 80 percent dependent on our two tuna canneries, I have been working with the South Pacific Tuna Corporation (SPTC), a US company in partnership with a Taiwanese company, to increase the number of tuna boats in our fleet.

“According to the US State Department, the US  is allowed up to 40 vessels to fish in the Western Pacific Tropic, and we are hopeful to increase the US tuna fishing fleet from 14 to 24 vessels within the next  two years.”
Faleomaveaga further wrote: “Since US  shipyards have not built a new tuna vessel in the past 30 years, our new vessels are being built in Taiwan.

Although the vessels are being built in Taiwan, these vessels are US boats and are licensed to fish in the South Pacific Tuna Treaty area.

“As I stated earlier, some 20 years ago the State Department negotiated an agreement between the United States and 16 Pacific Islands States commonly referred to as the South Pacific Tuna Treaty. 

“Under this treaty, US tuna fishing vessels, no matter where they are built as long as they are US flag, which includes our new boats, can fish in the EEZs of these 16 Pacific Islands States. The treaty also provides for our old US-tuna boats built in the US to fish in the EEZs of American Samoa, Guam, CNMI, Jarvis Island, Howland Island, Baker Island, Kingman Reef, and Palmyra Atoll.

“While I support our old and new US tunaboats fishing in the uninhabited areas of Jarvis Island, Howland Island, Baker Island, Kingman Reef, and Palmyra Atoll, I do not support old or new boats fishing in American Samoa’s EEZs.

“The new US boats built in Taiwan have agreed not to fish in our EEZ and have supported the legislation I have introduced which would allow the new boats to fish in the uninhabited areas of Jarvis Island, Howland Island, Baker Island, Kingman Reef, and Palmyra Atoll but would close off the waters of  American Samoa, CNMI, and Guam.”

In essence, according to USTOC official Manase Mansur, this will see Taiwan built boats sharing space with US built boats in the EEZs of American Samoa’s uninhabited islands. The fact that Faleomaveaga did not want any fishing done in the EEZ of the main island was not much of a concern to the USbuilt boats. You have to understand that it is just a small area when you’re talking about EEZ around Samoa,” Mansur told ISLANDS BUSINESS.

“The areas where most tuna are found are on these islands north of Samoa. That is the prime area where much of the tuna is caught from.”

In a letter dated June 26, 2006 and sent to Togiola Tulafono, governor of American Samoa, USTOC rubbished Faleomaveaga’s claims about the status of US fishing fleet. 

“Contrary to the delegate’s (Faleomaveaga) arithmetic, most of the 40 US licenses to fish for tuna under the South Pacific Treaty have been issued. 

“There are currently 26 boats in the US tuna fleet and at least another eight are expected to join between now and next year. There is a real opportunity for new US built tuna boats.  As your Economic Advisory Council recently reported, a ship repair and building industry has the potential to create new high paying jobs and expand American Samoa’s economy,” wrote USTOC president Finete.

“Also contrary to Faleomavaega’s assertions, virtually all of our Pago-based boats deliver our tuna fish to American Samoa canneries. Regrettably, the newest licensed tuna boats in the fleet, not based in Pago, have been catching fish all year, and to our knowledge, have not brought any fish to the canneries in Pago or employ any people from American Samoa, especially since they have contracts elsewhere and would be free to transship their fish to a mother ship or ignore our labor and environmental standards.”

All eyes are now on the progress through the US Congress of the US Coast Guard Bill and if it emerges unscathed in its current form, the waters off the uninhabited islands of Samoa will suddenly be a crowded fishing ground.