Am Samoa’s fishing industry damaged to the tune of $54M just this year

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A drop in the number of purse seiner fishing boats calling into American Samoa, as a result of conservation and management measures (CMMs) imposed by a regional fishing commission has caused a “loss of about $54 million so far this year,” as well as the negative impact on the cannery, according to Gov. Lemanu Peleti Mauga.

The governor made the revelation — describing “the severity of the economic damage being inflicted on American Samoa” in a Sept. 6th letter to Jung-Re Riley Kim, chairperson of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, which released the governor’s letter and many other documents made public prior to the Commission’s 18th Regular Session from Nov. 29th to Dec. 7th.

In his letter, the governor explained that American Samoa is a small island developing territory, whose economy is based on tuna, and that the tuna industry provides 83.8% of local private employment and accounts for 99.5% of exports. Furthermore, 54.4% of the territory’s population lives in poverty.

“Unfortunately, our economy is suffering due to the unintended consequences of the current CMM. We are losing our American Samoa tuna purse seiner fleet for two reasons,” the governor wrote to the Commission chairperson.

The first reason is “reflagging”, with the governor pointing out that boats are changing flags in pursuit of better economic and operating conditions. He noted that in 2015 there were 40 U.S flag purse seiners operating in the western and central pacific region but now there are only 14.

Lemanu said 20 boats have changed flags since 2015, mostly to Pacific Island Countries that exempt their fleets from CMMs, such as fishing aggregating device (FAD) closures.

The second reason, according to the governor, is “fishing economics”. He said boats are fishing further from American Samoa in waters where they don’t have to pay for access and where they are not subject to FAD closures.

“These more distant fishing grounds make it uneconomical to return to American Samoa to unload their catches,” the governor explained. “This not only severely impacts the supply of tuna to our canneries but also damages our tuna dependent economy.”

To give the chairperson “some appreciation for the severity of the economic damage being inflicted on American Samoa so far this year,” the governor said that, “we have seen a 38% reduction in purse seiner calls at Pago Pago.”

“As each of these calls represents about $400,000 in local purchases, our economy has lost about $56 million so far this year, not to mention the negative impact on our cannery,” the governor declared.

Lemanu delivered a clear message for the Commission, arguing that “the current measure is seriously unfair for American Samoa” and that the “measure is NOT working well” and needs to be changed.

“At the very least, the measure should recognize a FAD exemption to the American Samoa based U.S flag purse seiner fleet,” he said.

The governor suggested that in developing a new tropical tuna CMM, the Commission needs to fully recognize the special requirements and interests of American Samoa as a small island developing (SID) territory, which is highly dependent on the regional tuna resources.

In conclusion, the governor implored the chairperson and the Commission to “take these negative impacts on the American Samoa people and economy into consideration as you deliberate” during the Tropical Tuna Measure Workshop in September and the 18th Regional meeting.

The governor’s letter is copied to Alexa Cole, the U.S. Head of Delegation to the Commission and Marine and Wildlife Department director, Taotasi Archie Soliai, American Samoa’s Head of Delegation to the Commission.

See in depth report on the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission produced by Honolulu Civil Beat elsewhere in this issue.

Information and documents on the 18th Regional meeting is on the Commission’s website: www.wcpfc.int].