The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (Wespac), a federally sanctioned advisory body, has miscalculated its responsibilities and misserved its constituency by stubbornly persisting in a quest to allow sales derived from “culturally based subsistence fishing” within the proposed Papahanaumokuakea National Marine Sanctuary.
Wespac advises the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on fishing regulation. And in December 2022, Wespac recommended creation of a permit system to allow culturally based fishing within the sanctuary, which would overlay Papahanaumokuakea Monument Expansion Area, encompassing 582,578 square miles of Pacific Ocean and 3.5 million acres of coral reef — about 70% of the coral reef area under U.S. control.
To do this, Wespac made a finding that Native Hawaiian tradition included fishing trips to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. It also proposed that selling up to $15,000 of a catch be allowed, to recoup costs of this “cultural” venture.
But no matter how devoted to fishing and selling fish Wespac is at its core, its responsibilities also include taking facts into account, including the health of fishing stocks and in this case, history and culture.
Here, the Papahanaumokuakea Native Hawaiian Cultural Working Group opposed a permitting system, finding that a Hawaiian fishing tradition in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands was “nonexistent.” The two Wespac members representing Hawaii voted against the scheme, but were in the minority.
NOAA responded to the proposed cultural permitting in a Feb. 22 letter, stating bluntly that any proposed sale of fish “does not fulfill the purposes and policies of the National Marine Sanctuaries Act.”
Wespac opted not to budge from including sales of fish in the permit proposal, instead revising it to remove the dollar limit and require case-by-case approval from NOAA.
In voting to do this, some council members expressed concern about preserving cultural practices of all regions covered by Wespac, including American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the Pacific Remote Islands. And in waters where these practices have occurred, culturally based subsistence fishing and sales might be advisable.
Wespac’s actions regarding the Papahanau- mokuakea sanctuary, however, have only weakened its standing and reputation. That threatens the council’s influence on future federal decisions involving the Western Pacific.
