PNA: US rule attempts to evade conservation measure

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The chief executive of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement has said that a new US government fishing regulation that went into effect in May violates a conservation measure for high seas fishing approved last year by the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC)

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service issued rule 2016-0038, which provides the US purse seine fleet with a limit of 1,828 days for the western Pacific high seas area. It went into effect on 25 May.

However, WCPFC’s Conservation and Management Measure 2015-001 sets fishing limits for each flag state’s fishing fleet. The United States purse seine fleet was limited to 1,270 fishing days on the high seas by CMM 2015-001.

The US government is combining 558 fishing days from its exclusive economic zones in American Samoa and Guam with the WCPFC limit of 1,270 to increase to 1,828 the number of days American purse seiners can fish on the high seas.

“By issuing this new rule, the United States is saying it can take the 1,270 day limit by the WCPFC and combine it with its American Samoa and Guam days to fish anywhere,” said Dr Transform Aqorau, PNA CEO.

“This is a superpower abusing a measure agreed to in December 2015. They are trying to find ways to evade limits set by the WCPFC, and to avoid application of the Vessel Day Scheme by fishing outside of Pacific island nations’ waters.”

This US announcement comes as the US government and its purse seine industry are struggling to negotiate an extension of a fishing treaty that has governed US-flagged vessel access to the western Pacific since the late 1980s. The US announced earlier this year its plan to withdraw from the treaty in January 2017 and ongoing negotiations have failed to result in a new agreement. The next negotiating session is scheduled for later this month.

“We should be less accommodating of the US fleet in these treaty negotiations because of their apparent intention to evade WCPFC conservation rules,” said Dr Aqorau. “We would be better off without a treaty.”