The Western Pacific Regional Management Council in Honolulu approved last week a suite of fishery management measures targeting swordfish, tuna and other pelagic (open-ocean) species in waters surrounding the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and Hawaii.
The council voted to establish a 30-nautical mile longline closed area around the CNMI, which is different from the existing 50-nautical mile longline closure around neighboring Guam. The council said the decision takes into account an ongoing initiative to establish a domestic longline fishery in CNMI.
The council also voted to prohibit purse seine fishing in the entire U.S. exclusive economic zone, extending to 200 miles from shore, around the Mariana Archipelago (CNMI and Guam).
“While this fishery has no recorded history in the Mariana archipelago, the fishery has been expanding in the Pacific. It was noted that it would take a longline vessel 10 years to take the amount of fish that a purse seine vessel takes in one landing,†the council said.
Council decisions follow a two-meeting process. Final decisions are forwarded to the Secretary of Commerce for approval.
To revitalize American Samoa's limited entry longline fishery, which has been experiencing a decline, the council voted to develop a framework amendment to reopen the permit application process. Currently less than half of the 60 permits are being utilize.
Other issues approved include eliminating the minimum landing requirements for all vessel size classes (under current requirements, about 80 percent of the permits would expire in 2008; studying the legality of transferring American Samoa longline limited entry permits to Samoan nationals; and studying seasonal movement patterns and residence times of managed pelagic species in the American Samoa longline fishery.
Regarding the Hawaii-based longline fishery, the Council voted to develop a draft supplemental environmental impact statement and fishery management plan amendment that will analyze and possibly modify measures regulating the use of shallow sets to target swordfish. The Council plans to take full action on this topic when it meets in March 2008.
The Council manages fisheries in offshore waters surrounding Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the US Pacific remote island areas.
The Council consists of eight members recommended by their respective governors and appointed by the Secretary of Commerce, four designated State officials and four designated federal officials. They include Stephen Haleck, William Sword and Ray Tulafono of American Samoa; Manual Duenas and Alberto Lamorena of Guam; Frederick Duerr, Myrick Rick Gaffney, Sean Martin, Peter Young and Laura Thielen of Hawaii; and Benigno Sablan and Dr. Ignacio Dela Cruz of CNMI; Bill Robinson of NMFS; Bill Gibbons-Fly (U.S. Department of State), Jerry Leinecke (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service), and RADM Sally Brice-O'Hara (U.S. Coast Guard). For more information, contact the Council at www.wpcouncil.org, 808-522-8220 or info.wpcouncil@noaa.gov.