{"id":377244,"date":"2022-10-07T06:06:29","date_gmt":"2022-10-06T20:06:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=377244"},"modified":"2022-10-07T06:06:29","modified_gmt":"2022-10-06T20:06:29","slug":"amata-welcomes-administration-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/amata-welcomes-administration-response\/","title":{"rendered":"Amata welcomes administration response"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>
Amata<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WASHINGTON, D.C.\u2014Congresswoman Uifa\u2019atali Amata is welcoming a response from the Biden Administration stating that the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument (PRIMNM) will not be expanded. In a response letter to the congresswoman\u2019s earlier inquiry, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Director Martha Williams said the administration is not considering an expansion to PRIMNM.<\/p>\n

Williams said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), part of the Department of Commerce, and the FWS, part of the Department of the Interior, are co-leads in preparing the Monument Management Plan (MMP) for the PRIMNM.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs part of this ongoing MMP effort, FWS is not considering additional or potential expansion of the PRIMNM beyond what has already been implemented by Presidential Proclamations 8336 and 9173,\u201d states the FWS reply.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those presidential proclamations created PRIMNM then tripled it in size, placing over 495,000 square miles of the Pacific off limits. In her June letter to President Biden, Amata urged the administration to seek thorough local input and advice from Pacific territories, saying that American Samoa, as it is thousands of miles from Washington, D.C., \u201cis as rural a community can be in the United States and is traditionally built around a fishing-based culture,\u201d before noting that PRIMNM \u201cremoved fishing operations from a U.S. EEZ area that was once the size of California and is now four times that!\u201d<\/p>\n

Amata\u2019s letter to NOAA Fisheries\u00a0<\/strong>
\nIn other fishing news, on Wednesday, Amata also wrote the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), also known as NOAA Fisheries, to oppose a proposed rule, in support of Gov. Lemanu P.S. Mauga\u2019s concerns that the rule could result in new restrictions for the U.S. fleet. [Proposed Rule and Request for Comments for \u201cInternational Fisheries; Western and Central Pacific Fisheries for Highly Migratory Species; Fishing Restrictions in Purse Seine Fisheries and 2022 Longline Bigeye Catch Limit\u201d; 87 FR 55768 (NOAA-NMFS-2022-0082; September 12, 2022) (\u201cProposed Rule\u201d).]<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s Sept. 22 letter clarifies American Samoa\u2019s concern: \u201cKnowing that this rule will separate U.S. EEZ days from WCPFC high seas days, and that that separation will likely result in closing the high seas where American Samoa\u2019s US flag purse seiners operate, thereby reducing the tuna supply to our economy, I cannot support this action being proposed by NOAA,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Amata\u2019s letter emphasizes, \u201cAs a representative of a district which is heavily reliant on fishing, I believe this rule would have a negative impact not only on the territory of American Samoa and our own economic stability, but on the rest of the United States fishing industry. I am concerned that NMFS\u2019s proposal will contribute to the economic distress currently faced by my district due to the ongoing decline of our purse-seine fleet.\u201d<\/p>\n

She notes, \u201cThe rule is unnecessary for compliance with the United State obligations under the WCPFC and hinders the negotiating position of the U.S. industry in critical international access. Furthermore, it is frankly not supported by any scientific reasoning nor does it further any goals of environmental protection or fish stock conservation.\u201d<\/p>\n

She agreed with the concerns about the rule expressed by Gov. Lemanu, as well as the American Tunaboat Association. \u201cThis proposed rule as written is not good for American Samoa and for American fisherman,\u201d she concluded. (PR)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, D.C.\u2014Congresswoman Uifa\u2019atali Amata is welcoming a response from the Biden Administration stating that the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":377246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-377244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}