James Finete on AW41

RE: 0648-AW41 To the National Marine Fisheries Service and National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration Re: 50 CFR Part 300, RIN 0648-AW41, South Pacific Tuna Fisheries; Establishment of Limits on Entry or Effort in the Purse Seine Fisher in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean: In response to your request for comments on the proposed rulemaking in the above-referenced matter, the most reasonable, fair and implementable criteria and procedures for managing the tuna fisheries in the South Pacific would take into account the following: 1. The origin of the pursue seiners' hull; 2. The history of good-standing participation in the existing and pre-existing treaties; 3. The ownership level of the applicant; 4. The record of fish landings (unloadings) or transhipments via United States controlled ports such as American Samoa, Guam and Puerto Rico; and 5. The history of compliance with relevant United States treaties and United States Coast Guard regulations. Criteria One should be whether the applicant vessel was built in an American port. This ensures that the vessel was built according to the highest standards and safety protocols. Additionally, this will also encourage future applicant's to build their vessels in the U.S. rather than at foreign shipyards. This will discourage foreign applicants from building substandard vessels or using out-of date vessels to take precious participant slots from Americans. Criteria Two should be history of good-standing participation in the Treaty. The past participation in the Treaty has seen various owner/operators come and go, but a select few have consistently participated in the Treaty. These owners have spent considerable time, money and resources complying with and participating in the Treaty. They have financed vessels, refitted and maintained them, employed experienced crews, and contracted with canneries for the delivery of tuna. Not awarding renewal of licenses to these vessels would invite disruption of fish landings and in turn cause instability in the tuna market. These applicant's can be trusted with continued, uninterupted participation. Criteria Three combines the American interests encouraged in Criteria One with the stability maintained by Criteria Two. United States citizen ownership AND operation in the vessel should be a strong factor in deciding whether to award a license. The United States has a compelling interests in awarding licenses to those applicants whose profits stay in the Unites States and whom it can regulate beyond awarding or suspending licenses. Those applicant's who can establish both U.S. Ownership (with 100% ownership given higher priority and then consideration given on a sliding scale) and operation by U.S. citizens should naturally be accorded better consideration for a license than foreign applicant's. This also serves to limit and better manage the applicant pool. U.S. ownership and operation inherently provides a stable, well-defined group of applicants. Before a license is issued to an applicant that applicant must establish ownership and control requirements mandated under the American Fisheries Act of 1998, 46 CFR Section 356, et al., Section 356.13, Section 356.47 and 46 U.S.C. chapter 31322, and all relevant chapters and codes pertaining to ownership and operational requirements for fishing vessels. Criteria Four should be record of fish landings at U.S. ports. It makes no sense to award licenses to applicants who either have a history of delivering the tuna to foreign markets or who have no history of U.S. port landings. To control tuna supplies in the U.S. market as tuna landings are potentially limited through articial fishing restrictions the U.S. government should ensure that the tuna caught under the Treaty is delivered to U.S. markets. Delivery to U.S. canneries benefits U.S. owned and operated labels. Further, delivery to U.S. markets is in the best interests of the U.S. Government when considering the canneries are located in U.S. territories. For example, the two tuna canneries (StarKist and Samoa Packing) export several hundred million dollars worth of canned tuna to the United States every year. Foreign vessels would be more inclined to conduct landings in foreign ports and the tuna would most likely reach foreign lands. This would severely impact the supply of tuna to the Unites States and would cripple the economies of the U.S. territories which are built on canneries. Any significant disruption in the economy of these territories may significantly increase the federal aid or transfer payments to territories such as American Samoa and Guam. Tuna fishing and transshipment are important to the economies of American Samoa, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and Guam. In American Samoa, the tuna canneries and the goods and services purchased by the fleets are the major sources of private sector economic activity. In Guam, transshipping and providing goods and services to tuna boats one of Guam's few options for economic diversification. Criteria Five acknowledges the importance the U.S. Government should place on applicants complying with all applicable laws and treaties governing tuna fishing and vessel operation on the high seas. Those vessels with the best compliance records should be given greater consideration than those with a poor record or an unknown history of compliance with laws concerning fishing in the high seas, particularly when this Treaty pertains to those vessels that exceed 165 feet in registered length, 750 registered gross tons (as measured under 46 U.S.C. chapter 145), or that have engines which exceed 3,000 horsepower. These Criteria enumerated above insure that U.S. interests are preserved while stability and accountability are both awarded and encouraged. Very Truly Yours, James P. Finete Attorney At Law