June 6, 2023 — Members of locally-based, Tautai O Samoa Longline and Fishing Association, have joined ASG officials and others in the community in voicing their opposition to the proposed sanctuary designation of the Pacific Remote Island Areas — a move that would expand Pacific Remote Island Marine National Monument.
“The closure of these fishing grounds will cause a trickle-down effect and have an impact that reaches farther than the proposed Pacific Remote Island Marine National Monument expansion,” wrote the group’s president Krista Haleck in a May 24 comment letter to the U.S National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
“The actions and impacts cannot be looked at in isolation,” said Haleck, who pointed out that the expansion of the already expanded Marine National Monument throughout the Pacific “will be detrimental” to the US Purse Seine Fleet and negatively impact American Samoa’s economy including the American Samoa-based U.S Longline fishing fleet.