Disappointment Over Failure Of Coastal Purse Seine Fishing Banff

Source: Samoa News

Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council is disappointed with the decision by the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to disapprove proposed Amendment 3 to the Fishery Ecosystem Plan for Pelagic Fisheries of the Western Pacific (FEP). The amendment would have prohibited purse seine fishing within 75 nautical miles (nm) offshore around American Samoa.

Amendment 3 would have extended the boundaries of the prohibited areas offshore an additional 25 nm specifically for purse seine fishing. The recommended additional prohibited areas were intended to prevent localized stock depletion by purse seine fishing, and to reduce catch competition and gear conflicts between U.S. purse seine vessels and American Samoa-based local longline and trolling fleets.

Responding to Samoa News inquiries on behalf of the Council, the agency’s communication officer Sylvia Spalding said the “Council has been advised of the disapproval” and the “Council [is] deeply disappointed by this decision of the NMFS.”

NMFS says that the Council’s recommendation found inadequate support in the scientific evidence presented to NMFS.

“The scientific evidence in the document included a significant decline of the combined annual troll catch rate of yellowfin and skipjack with the combined annual catch of skipjack and yellowfin purse seine catch,” Spalding said yesterday from Honolulu.

“But, other data, especially annual catches of yellowfin and skipjack by longline vessels, which were as large or greater than purse seine catches, showed no influence on annual troll catch rate of yellowfin and skipjack,” she said. “However, it may be that purse seine catches of yellowfin and skipjack reduce the availability of surface skipjack and yellowfin for trollers, while longliners do not.”
 
“Finding interaction signals in this type of data is usually very difficult as noted by other researchers but similar observations were noted for yellowfin catches by purse seiners around Kiribati and troll vessels operating from Tarawa, i.e., purse seine yellowfin catches within 60 nautical miles of Tarawa had a negative impact on yellowfin troll catch rates,” she explained.

She said the Tarawa study was part of a symposium organized by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on interactions between industrial scale and artisanal fisheries, i.e., fisheries in small vessels with manually operated gears.
 
“This is a problem not only in the Pacific but also in other oceans, especially the Indian Ocean where 50% of tuna production comes from artisanal fisheries,” she points out. “The conclusions from the studies reported in the FAO meeting were that impacts to artisanal fisheries became detectable with the increasing proximity of closeness to purse seine fishing. In the case of the Tarawa study this distance was about 60 nautical miles.”

“The amendment would not have prohibited all purse seine fishing entirely in the US EEZ around American Samoa but put in a buffer of 75 nautical miles, which would balance protection for the troll fishery while keeping some fishing opportunities for US purse seine vessels,” she noted.

She said the Council could resubmit the amendment “but I expect it would need a Council recommendation to do so and new information that provides additional support for the measure.”

She said the Council will formally communicate its disappointment to NMFS by letter and will discuss this at the next Council meeting.