Several Pacific island officials are opposed to President Barack Obama’s proposal to create the world’s largest marine sanctuary in the Central Pacific, which would greatly expand protected fishing areas.
Members of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council maintain that expanding the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument would do nothing to protect fish and could jeopardize the U.S. longline and purse-seine fishing industries.
"Further closures make no sense," said Ed Ebisui, the council’s vice chairman, at a recent news conference. "It does not serve our national interest."
The monument, established by President George W. Bush, currently protects seas out to 50 nautical miles around each of seven small, uninhabited islands: Howland, Baker and Jarvis islands; Johnston, Wake and Palmyra atolls; and Kingman Reef.
Under Obama’s proposal the boundaries would be expanded to the 200-nautical-mile extent of the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone, an action that would increase the monument’s size to nearly 782,000 square miles from almost 87,000 square miles. That would more than double the extent of the world’s marine sanctuaries.
Hawaii conservationists have welcomed a proposal, calling it a significant step toward protecting diverse habitats, stepping up sustainable fishing practices and preventing large-scale overfishing.
But council members, reacting to Obama’s June 17 announcement, said the areas proposed for expansion are critical to U.S. fisheries, including waters surrounding Palmyra, where Hawaii longliners sometimes catch 12 percent to 15 percent of their fish, including bigeye tuna.
Researchers say it could also crimp American purse-seine fleet fishing at Howland, Baker and Jarvis islands, reducing the catch brought in to American Samoa’s fish processing plants and forcing U.S. fishing ships to pay foreign governments for fishing rights elsewhere.
Council Chairman Arnold Palacios, who also serves as natural resources secretary for the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, said the United States has failed to live up to promises of supporting enforcement of fishing laws enacted six years ago with the Pacific Remote Islands Monument.
Palacios said his government already struggles to enforce protection of these fishing areas within a 50-mile radius.
Expanding it to 200 miles would be "very disconcerting," said Palacios.
Council member Ruth Matagi Tofiga, American Samoa marine resource director, said expanding the no-fishing zone is going to place a burden on her government.
"It’s disheartening," she said. "Our ocean is our livelihood."
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Kokua Line: June Watanabe is on vacation. Her column returns July 15.
