Business
United States, Region Extend Fish Deal
US will now pay US$21m a year
The Pacific Islands and the United States in March extended by another 10 years a treaty which since 1988 has allowed United States purse seine tuna boats to fish inside the 200-mile exclusive fishing zones (EEZs) of most islands states.
The United States is committed to paying at least US$210 million in license fees for up to 45 United States vessels, the cost born mainly by the United States government and less so by vessel owners.
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Papua New Guinea’s rich fishing grounds will remain temporarily closed to the Americans. But for the first time the equally rich Solomon Islands fishery will be opened to them from June.
The extended treaty requires the United States to pay US$21 million annually, US$3 million more than paid under the treaty expiring in June, with the money shared by recipient islands states according to the amount of fish caught in their EEZs.
But a study indicates that market forces, competition, low tuna prices, rising costs of ageing ships, and the unwillingness of the latest generation of Californian tuna-fishing families to remain in the business, means that the United States purse seine fleet will have vanished from the Western Pacific by the end of the present decade, or be a fragment of the already greatly diminished size.
Another worry for American fishermen is the possible closure of two big tuna canneries in Pago Pago, American Samoa, which supply half the United States canned tuna market.
Now based at Pago Pago, the United States fleet would be hard put to stay in the region if the canneries closed—an event that would be a disaster also for the economies of American Samoa and neighbouring independent state of Samoa.
The Western Pacific is the world’s largest tuna fishery, currently yielding about two million tones a year.
Until recently about 20 percent was caught by United States vessels.
The study was conducted for the Pelagic Fisheries Research Programme of the Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research, University of Hawaii by fisheries experts Robert Gillett, Mike McCoy and David Itano.
While the extended treaty allows for 45 United States purse seiners, so-called because of huge purse-like nets used by them, the fleet is down now to under 30 vessels from a 1983 peak of 62.
The Americans began moving into the Western Pacific in 1979 to escape increasingly stiffer regulation by the United States in the eastern Pacific and the blocking of their access to South American fishing grounds.
By June 2002, the study shows, from a historic peak of 140, there were only 27 United States purse-seiners operating anywhere, of which about 25 were fishing in the Western Pacific.
The decline of the United States fleet began to set in hard from 1995 when Zee Enterprises in Guam became insolvent, Tinian operations closed and 11 United States vessels were sold, some to non United States buyers.
During 2001/2002 skipjack tuna prices were so low that many American boats stayed tied up in Pago Pago Harbour rather than fish at a loss.
The about 25 surviving vessels are on average 23 years old. A new ship would cost US$15 million to US$18 million to be built and would need a net costing from US$400,000 to US$600,000.
About three-quarters of the surviving fleet is owned by Californian “fishing families” involved in tuna fishing for at least two generations. Family members and relatives may be captain, officers and some senior crew.
The rest of the fleet is owned by TriMarine, the world’s largest trader in frozen tuna.
A great deal of uncertainty currently exists regarding the future of the United States purse seine fleet, the study comments.
The future is “clouded” by unresolved supply, marketing and trade issues.
“It appears that few of the next generation of vessel-owning families are entering the tuna business.” This may influence owners to leave the industry.
Over-supply of fish caused partly by the entry of new Asian and now possibly some European fishermen into the market has forced prices down, although Asian fishing companies have formed a cartel intended to force prices up by limiting fishing.
American owners can’t significantly lower their costs. The crew costs for a Philippine purse-seiner are only 20 percent of United States owners’ crew costs, while the American owners have to pay vastly higher insurance, galley and maintenance costs.
One advantage American owners have, however, is that few of their complex ships now carry debt, which helps for survival in times of tuna price slumps.
Another advantage, according to the study, is that while the elimination of the United States fleet would presumably mean the end of United States tuna treaty money for the Pacific Islands, the United States has a strong political interest in preserving the treaty, and thus the presence of some United States purse-seiners as a means of maintaining friends and influence in the region, is a means of strengthening the United States position in its role in international tuna fishing bargaining.
