US bill would even playing field for US tuna fleet in South Pacific

Lawmakers in Congress are considering a bill that would remedy differences between amendments made to the South Pacific Tuna Treaty in 2016 and current U.S. law, a change the American tuna industry claims is essential for its struggling South Pacific fleet.

First signed in 1987, the treaty grants American tuna purse-seine vessels access to the exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of 16 Pacific Island states and governs their operations in the South Pacific. The parties have struggled to update the treaty over the years – for example, in 2003, the parties agreed on several amendments, but they never went into effect.

After years of hard negotiations, which included a threat to withdraw from the treaty altogether, the parties settled on several updates to the treaty in 2016. However, those amendments are still not reflected in current U.S. law, and only some of the changes are in effect due to a memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and the Pacific Island states.

While the terms of the updated treaty were agreed to in mid-2016, then-U.S. President Donald Trump only introduced the amendments to the Senate in 2018. The amendments then sat waiting until 2022, when the Senate finally picked them up and ratified them in July 2022. However, the amendments are not self-enacting, meaning that the U.S. must separately update its laws to reflect the ratified amendments.

The South Pacific Tuna Treaty Act of 2023 is designed to do just that.

Introduced by U.S. Rep. Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen (R-American Samoa) and U.S. Rep. Ed Case (D-Hawaii), the bill would enact the 2016 changes into U.S. law.

“While we are operating under a memorandum of understanding, finalizing this legislation will enable us to fully implement the amendments to the benefit of our industry,” U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Fisheries Kelly Kryc said at a House Natural Resources Committee hearing 27 July.

“NOAA sees it as imperative for our ability to implement the amendments to the treaty,” Kryc said. “This treaty provides access to the most lucrative tuna fishing grounds in the world for the U.S. fleet and is a model for cooperation between the United States and the Pacific island states.”

The bill has also received strong support from the American Tunaboat Association, a trade organization representing the U.S. fleet.

“The 2016 amendments represent years of hard-fought negotiations to improve the operational conditions and flexibility for the fleet, some of which can only be realized after the necessary amendments to the implementing legislation are in place,” American Tunaboat Association Executive Director William Gibbons-Fly testified.

According to Gibbons-Fly, the biggest unresolved issue is a major fix to the ... 

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock / Peto Laszlo