July 2013

Fishing & Living™ Conduct a FIP Focused Site Visit to Pago-Pago, American Samoa Focusing on the Cook Island Albacore Fishery

The Fishing & living™ program is actively involved with Luen Thai Fishing Ventures in carrying out a Fisheries Improvement Program (FIP) on the longline Albacore fishery within the Cook Island EEZ waters. The Fishing & Living team carried out an information gathering trip to Pago-Pago, American Samoa, in order to identify the status of the FIP activities, the implementation of MSC requirements on the vessels and the involvement of the governments from both Samoa and the Cook Islands in the data collection and observer activities. While the fishery is conducted in the Cook Island EEZ, the unloading occurs in Pago-Pago.

Confirmation of the presence of circle hooks on all the LTFV vessels, turtle dehookers and training in the use of these of the crew, good observer coverage and detailed logbook completion were all found to be implemented to very high standards by LTFV.

The results of this trip lay the basis for planning and development of activities which will address the findings of the recently conducted pre-assessment and will be conducted throughout the duration of the FIP.

The trip report and FIP recommendations can be found here.

For further progress of the FIP, visit the Cook Islands fisheries Improvement Program page.