A regional fishery council is warning that the Biden administration’s plan to block off U.S. territorial waters in the Pacific would end American Samoa’s tuna canning industry.
Commercial fishing is currently allowed within 50 to 200 miles of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.
It's made up of Baker, Howland, Jarvis Islands, Johnston, Wake, Palmyra Atolls and Kingman Reef.
However, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration's proposal to expand the sanctuary would completely cover the U.S. exclusive economic zone.
That would prohibit commercial fishing by U.S. fishermen.
The Western Pacific Fishery Management Council said the action would force American Samoa-based tuna fishermen to fish farther away from Pago Pago Harbor.
They would have to transport their catch to Mexico and Ecuador instead of the Starkist Samoa cannery, which serves as the backbone of American Samoa's economy.
NOAA said the proposed new marine monument “would honor the ancestral, historical, and cultural connections to the Pacific Remote Islands and the surrounding open-ocean waters.”
In a news release, Kitty Simonds, the fishery council's executive director, criticized the contradiction between claiming to preserve cultural influences, while simultaneously abolishing fishing, which holds importance within the culture.
The council has until Dec. 23 to respond to NOAA's proposal.
