U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter wants the U.S. State Department to step in to assist American tuna boats — many with ties to San Diego — that are shut out of a large area of the Pacific Ocean for the first time in nearly 30 years.
In a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, given to The San Diego Union-Tribune on Monday, Hunter writes that the U.S. government must act fast to help the tuna fleet.
Last week, administrators of the South Pacific Tuna Treaty — a 27-year-old accord among 17 nations governing waters in the western Pacific — refused to issue 2016 licenses on Jan. 1. It said American boats must pay millions of dollars in fees, they agreed to in August, to fish international waters.
Some of the tuna boat operators in the 37-boat fleet say a bad 2015 fishing season has left them unable to pay the first quarterly payment of $17 million.
“An extended prohibition against the U.S.-flag tuna fleet fishing in the treaty area may well bankrupt the fleet and jeopardize the thousands of American jobs it supports,” wrote Hunter, R-Alpine.
Hunter wrote that the American fleet catches roughly $300 million to $400 million in tuna in the area each year. About 60 percent of the nation’s canned tuna comes from the treaty area.
“While many of the U.S. Flag fleet are in position to pay for fishing days requested in August 2015,” Hunter wrote, “I understand there are some boat owners that are looking to purchase fewer days.”
Seven weeks ago, fleet operators asked to reduce the original 5,700 fishing days (split among all the boats) to 3,700 days in 2016.
So far, the administrators of the treaty, the Solomon Islands-based Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency, still insist that American boats pay what they agreed to in August, $67 million for the year. Also, the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service told the American fleet they needed to get out by New Year’s Day.
“While many of the U.S. Flag fleet are in position to pay for fishing days requested in August 2015,” Hunter wrote, “I understand there are some boat owners that are looking to purchase fewer days.”
The decision has significant impact to San Diego businesses. The Global Companies, a group of three Nevada-based firms with offices in San Diego, pulled its boats out of the water early last week. San Diego-based South Pacific Tuna manages the companies’ 14 boats, the most of any single owner in the fleet.
The Global Companies, which says it will pay its share of the fee to the international fishing agency, have contracts to provide tuna to San Diego-based Bumble Bee and Chicken of the Sea.
Money the U.S. fleet pays goes to many poor Pacific island nations that typically use it to fund basic improvements to fisheries, island infrastructure, education and other uses, The Global Companies said.
Hunter said in his letter he wanted the State Department to have inter-government discussions “at the highest levels” to resolve the issue.
Fifty years ago, at least 40,000 people in San Diego were employed catching, canning and marketing tuna. San Diego's downtown waterfront once was home to four canneries. The last, Van Camp Seafood, closed in 1984, costing 12,000 jobs....