Tag: wespac

Pacific Island Fisheries Managers Call for Balance in Conservation
25Sep By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Pacific Island Fisheries Managers Call for Balance in Conservation

Members of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (Wespac) participating in the 154th annual meeting of the American Fisheries Society in Honolulu from Sept. 15-19 are calling for greater balance in conservation and fisheries management in marine national monuments. Council members and advisors to the Council raised concerns during the meeting about expanding closed areas in U.S. Pacific waters, contending that Pacific Islanders are being forced to meet a national goal to protect 30% or U.S. lands and waters at great cost to their economies. During a session titled “Large Blue-Water Marine Protected Areas: Benefits and Costs,” a member of the council's Scientific and Statistical Committee challenged an October 2022 paper claiming that the 2016 expansion of Papaha...
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Wespac Committee Advances Bottomfish Rebuilding Plan
18Sep By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Wespac Committee Advances Bottomfish Rebuilding Plan

Members of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee have advanced a Guam bottomfish rebuilding plan, with a focus on balancing sustainable fishing opportunities with stock recovery goals. The Council announced in Honolulu on Sept.13 the committee’s recommendation that sets the annual catch limit (ACL) of 34,500 pounds, allowing for fishing to continue while ensuring the stock is rebuilt by 2031. The Scientific and Statistical Committee met in Honolulu during the second week of September. The Guam bottomfish fishery was declared overfished in 2019, which mandated the council to rebuild the Guam bottomfish stock in accordance with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the primary law governing marine f...
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Wespac Releases Report on Status of Western Pacific Region Fisheries
18Sep By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Wespac Releases Report on Status of Western Pacific Region Fisheries

The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (Wespac) on Sept. 11 released its 2023 Western Pacific Region Status of the Fisheries report, which highlights some of the changes in U.S. Pacific Island fisheries from 2021 through 2023. Bottomfishing in some parts of Hawaii was slow due to poor conditions potentially associated with the Kona weather pattern, according to the report, but fishers noted good recruitment with larger opakapaka around Oahu and abundant ehu and gindai fish around Kauai. University of Hawaii data showed a decrease in active commercial harvesters and trips, but landings of Deep 7 bottomfish species were up by over 8,000 pounds from the previous year to just over 197,000 pounds. American Samoa’s bottomfish fishery had a total estimated catch of 4...
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Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council Convenes in Honolulu
11Sep By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council Convenes in Honolulu

Members of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee are scheduled to convene in Honolulu Sept. 11-13 to address issues impacting fisheries management in the Pacific Islands. The seven agenda items include the Guam bottomfish rebuilding plan and the Guam bottomfish data for future assessments. The committee may provide recommendations on modifications to the bottomfish rebuilding plan and review projections to rebuild the stock by 2031, in alignment with the Mariana Archipelago Fishery Ecosystem Plan. The SSC is also expected to consider the Western Pacific Stock Assessment Review report on Guam bottomfish data and discuss how this data may be used in future stock assessments, including single-species and multi-model assessm...
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Wespac Set to Take Final Action on Deep 7 Bottomfish for 2024-27
28Aug By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Wespac Set to Take Final Action on Deep 7 Bottomfish for 2024-27

Final action on an alternative for the Main Hawaiian Islands Deep 7 Bottomfish fishery for 2024 through 2027 is on the agenda for the 200th meeting of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (Wespac) from Sept. 23-25 in Honolulu. Specific information on joining the meeting, instructions for connecting to Webex and providing oral public comments during the meeting will be posted on the council website at https://www.wpcouncil.org/event/200th-council-meeting. Remote participation is to be available via web conferencing. A benchmark stock assessment received by the council in March found that the fishery was not overfished and not experiencing overfishing. For now, the council’s preferred alternative is for an annual catch limit of 493,000 pounds, based on the ris...
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Wespac Plans Action on Bottomfish, American Samoa Marine Conservation Plan
29May By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Wespac Plans Action on Bottomfish, American Samoa Marine Conservation Plan

The Western Pacific Fishery Management Council (Wespac) is scheduled to meet at the Ala Moana Hotel in Honolulu from June 24 through June 26, to consider initial action on specifying annual catch limits on Deep 7 bottomfish and a plan for a new Marine Conservation Plan for American Samoa. The council’s Risk of Overfishing and SEEM (Social, Economic, Ecological and Management Uncertainty) working groups and Scientific and Statistical Committee evaluated the uncertainties in May and recommended a risk level to the council. Options before the council range from no action to specifying an allowable catch limit. The current conservation plan for American Samoa expires in July. The council is considering a Pacific Insular Area Fishery Agreement (PIAFA) to allow foreign fishing within t...
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Proposal to Extend Marine National Monument Would Impact Western Pacific Fisheries
27Mar By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Proposal to Extend Marine National Monument Would Impact Western Pacific Fisheries

Fishing community advisors attending the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (Wespac) meeting in Honolulu expressed concern over U.S. plans to extend the Papahanamokuakea Marine National Monument and potentially the Pacific Remote Islands with sanctuary regulations. They told the Fishery Management Council last week that such a move would result in fishing area closures and destabilization of foreign seafood imports on market dynamics. “The tuna industry is the only industry we have, the government relies on the canneries,” Gene Pan, an American Samoa Advisory Panel member, said. “You are stopping us from fishing, but not the Chinese. Without the people, there is no Samoa.” “Without the StarKist cannery, we cannot continue to sustain our cultural heritage and k...
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Wespac Science Advisors Endorse Hawaii, Guam Bottomfish Stock Assessments
20Mar By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Wespac Science Advisors Endorse Hawaii, Guam Bottomfish Stock Assessments

Science advisors to the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (Wespac) have endorsed two bottomfish stock assessments for the main Hawaiian Islands and Guam as the best scientific information available. The council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) accepted the stock assessments on March 14. The assessments found that main Hawaiian Islands deep-seven stock is not overfished and not experiencing overfishing and that Guam stock likely is not overfished and likely not experiencing overfishing relative to reference points. The SSC endorsed the 2023 benchmark stock assessment and recommended that the council initiate the process for setting an updated acceptable biological catch and specifying annual catch limits. The council noted that significant improvem...
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Wespac Science Advisors Caution Against Repercussions From Fishing Regulations
6Dec By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Wespac Science Advisors Caution Against Repercussions From Fishing Regulations

Science advisors to the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council (WPFMC, Wespac) are expressing concern about what they view as potential negative unintended consequences of adding more fishing limits in the U.S. Pacific Remote Islands (PRI). Wespac issued its comments in a Nov. 29 statement after the council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) was tasked with evaluating current fishing regulations in the PRI. SSC members reaffirmed their recommendation from the September meeting that existing regulations are sufficient to meet objectives of the proposed PRI National Marine Sanctuary. The SSC found no scientific evidence to support additional fishing regulations and cautioned that further limits on the U.S. fleet could have negative impacts on the region. SSC member...
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Wespac Scientific Advisors to Meet Regarding Proposed Pacific Remote Islands Sanctuary
29Nov By Fishermen's NewsNo Comments
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Wespac Scientific Advisors to Meet Regarding Proposed Pacific Remote Islands Sanctuary

Scientific advisors to the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WPRFMC, Wespac) are slated to wrap up a two-day meeting in Honolulu Nov. 29 regarding several topics, including the proposed Pacific Remote Islands (PRI) sanctuary. Also on the agenda is a call for advice on uku (blue-green snapper) essential fish habitat revision for the Hawai’i Fishery Ecosystem Plan, U.S. territorial bigeye tuna catch and allocation limits. The council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) meeting, scheduled for Nov. 28-29, is being held remotely via web conference. The full agenda and background documents and instructions for providing oral public comments are online at www.wpcouncil.org/event/150th-scientific-and-statistical-committee. The SSC was scheduled to review av...
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