Coral reef. (Photo Credit: USFWS)

Marine monument expansion stirs controversy

UNITED STATES
Friday, September 12, 2014, 04:20 (GMT + 9)

Fisheries managers and commercial fishing industry representatives from the US Pacific Islands warn the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument (PRIMNM) expansion will harm US fishermen in the region.

This concern about President Obama's proposal was expressed by the delegation from the Pacific Islands -- including leaders from Hawai’i, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WPRFMC) -- at a meeting with White House officials.

Among the attendees to the meeting were the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) Counselor to the President John Podesta; Director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service Daniel Ashe, and Senior Advisor to the Undersecretary of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Christine Blackburn.

This meeting was described as “a frank discussion” by Arnold Palacios, CNMI Secretary of the Department of Lands and Natural Resources and WPRFMC chair, considering that “the Administration overlooked key local stakeholders and regional fishery managers in the original planning of the proposal, neglecting the needs and concerns of the region and its vitally important fishing industry.”

The arguments against the Monument expansion are centered on the fact that it disregards already effective marine protections, unfairly harms hard working American fishermen, and outsources domestic seafood demand to nations with poor records of environmental stewardship.

“Our current management systems are a global guide and a living legacy for responsible resource management. Our regulations are the strictest in the world,” stated Kitty Simonds, Executive Director of the WPRFMC.

Besides, those against the expansion argue that the size of an expanded Monument would be too large to enforce, likely leading to exploitation of the Monument by foreign competitors for illegal fishing, given that currently, 91 per cent of seafood consumed in the United States is imported, with up to one-third potentially sourced from illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing.

“This attempt at crafting an environmental legacy for our nation will ultimately prove to accomplish the opposite by disenfranchising our own fishermen and outsourcing domestic seafood demand to nations whose standards for environmental protections pale in comparison to our own,” remarked Sean Martin, of the Hawai’i Longline Association.

Furthermore, the delegates from the US Pacific Islands claim that the marine species for which protections are sought are highly migratory and will not gain protection where as it will mean substantial cost increases for fishermen, both in terms of fuel to travel further out to sea and for entry to other nations’ fishing grounds.

Representatives from the WPRFMC further explained that US Pacific Island fishermen are also being squeezed out of US waters by other existing marine national monuments, national marine sanctuaries, large fishing vessel exclusion zones and no-access military areas.

Nevertheless, the government officials attending the meeting reaffirmed their support for the Monument’s expansion without explaining their rationale.

For his part, Podesta stressed the fact that large marine protected areas are valuable to the nation’s conservation objectives. 

Related article:

- Obama wants to protect oceans and combat illegal fisheries

 
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