November 4, 2016 — PAGO PAGO, American Samoa — Local attorney Marie Alailima says the federal agencies involved in fisheries “continue to ignore” the call from local traditional chiefs, government leaders and residents of American Samoa for meaningful discussions in issues impacting the territory’s resources.
Alailima made the observation in her Oct. 27 comment letter to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration opposing the way NOAA’s National Marine Fishery Service (NMFS) sought public comments, with only one local public hearing held on a proposed regulation for aquaculture program in American Samoa.
She joins Commerce Department director Keniseli Lafaele and Shipyard Service Authority chief executive Moefa’auo Bill Emmesly — both have lodged strong objections in the way NMFS sought public comments and have called for a delay in making any final decision on the NMFS proposal.
In her letter, released yesterday through the federal portal [www.regulations.gov], the local attorney says “no further action” should be taken on NMFS and Western Pacific Fishery Management Council’s intent to prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) to analyze the potential environmental impact of a proposed Pacific Islands Region (PIR) aquaculture management program and alternatives.
The PEIS is intended to support offshore aquaculture development, including appropriate management unit species for aquaculture, reasonably foreseeable types of offshore aquaculture operations, and permitting and reporting requirements for persons conducting aquaculture activities in Federal waters.
She cited various reasons, why no action should be taken and included the fact that notice of Sept. 8’s public meeting in American Samoa was made electronically, but such medium of notification, including in the case at hand — the sending of notice by electronic emails to a “select few” — “erroneously presumes notice through email, the federal register online, through announcement of public hearings on NOAA agency websites is a means readily accessible by the majority of the American Samoa population.”
Alailima argues, “It also erroneously presumes that the subject matter or import of such public meetings can be readily understood from such online notice by a population [that] for the most part lacks access to computers and is still transitioning into fully embracing American culture, its language, its federal procedures, legal institutions and concepts.”
Greater responsibility for providing the American Samoa population with meaningful notice and opportunity to comment must be considered by NMFS and other NOAA agencies, inclusive of all further steps involving the present proposed action, she said.