American Samoa tuna fishing industry “is almost gone”
Guest speakers at the American Samoa Chamber of Commerce meeting last night, Hyong Park and Frank Barron, both long serving members of the purse seiner and longliner fishing industries provided a sobering but realistic view of American Samoa’s fishing industry. “It’s almost gone”, remarked Frank Barron. The GM of Purse Seiner Services cited several reasons why the long term future of purse seiner fishing vessels in American Samoa is coming to an end. “The cost is fishing in Pacific waters is driving boats out of business”. He noted that the cost of fishing licenses had risen from $100,000 annually to $1.8 million in some instances. Fishing in neighboring island home waters costs $15,000 per day with no guarantee of a catch. >click to read<11:57
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