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Vigilance on Hawaii fishing boats urged
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Posted on Jan 12 2001
PAGO PAGO, American Samoa (PINA Nius) — American Samoa authorities should be vigilant about the 11 Hawaii-based fishing vessels that have registered to fish in local waters, warns Flynn Curren, of the Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources.
Curren, a marine biologist, told Samoa News that the local fishing community and other interested people must take it seriously that the door has been opened for these boats to return and use longline fishing methods at any time.
Of the 11 vessels registered locally, two are longliners.
“Even though these boats have so far shown little inclination to fish in our waters, the people should still stay warned and vigilant,” the marine biologist said.
“Although they don’t seem to be much interested now, we must still be careful because they have all registered to fish as longline fishing vessels,” he pointed out.
“Although only two of the 11 vessels are longliners, the other nine trawlers are all capable of being converted into longline fishing vessels,” Curren said.
The territorial fishing waters are regulated by the terms of the 50-mile Closed Zone (CZ) that is now in effect and the yet-to-be approved 200-mile Limited Entry Zone (LEZ).
The 50-mile Closed Zone is reserved only for small boats below 50 feet in size and is closed to all vessels bigger than that.
The 200-mile Limited Entry Zone will bar vessels that have not registered to fish within the zone, and the ones that have registered will have to conform to several protective regulations written into the fishing agreement.
These regulations would be designed largely at the initiative of the Territorial Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources.
