US tuna boats in American Samoa are said to be losing $8-thousand every day the fleet sits, tied up at the dock. As we've reported, when US operators failed to make a payment due December 31st, the Pacific Forum Fisheries association lifted their licenses. Efforts to resolve the impasse continue, but as we hear from Neal Conan in the Pacific News Minute - that's not the only dispute involving Pacific Nations, Tuna and foreign fishermen.
Late last year, the European Union issued a routine announcement on a draft agreement with the Cook Islands that would bring Spanish purse seiners to the South Pacific for six years. Which came as a surprise in Rarotonga since earlier last year, 4,000 Cook Islanders - half the voting population, signed a petition to ban purse seiners and the government never mentioned that talks were underway.
Marine Resources Secretary Ben Ponia then described the 13-million dollar deal as the best fishing package so far, and emphasized that the Spanish fleet would target plentiful skipjack. Critics pointed out that the agreement only cites "tuna and tuna-like species," which covers almost everything. Don Beer, the president of the Cook Islands Fishing association, told Radio New Zealand that locals worry about the impact on dwindling stocks of both big eye and yellow fin tuna - known here in Hawaii as Ahi.
A suit filed by traditional chiefs and a local environmental group survived the government's attempt to have it thrown out of court, and now the government has apparently decided on another approach. Leaked emails show that almost 200-thousand dollars has been set aside for a lobbying campaign and for payments to local fishing clubs that an opposition politician described as bribes. It's not clear what effect, if any, the US dispute may have. Last year, the Cook Islands took in just over $5-million from American purse seiners.
