Grace Napolitano: “Our bipartisan amendment gives United States-flagged tuna vessels in the western Pacific Ocean the option of using Guam…”

“Our bipartisan amendment gives United States-flagged tuna vessels in the western Pacific Ocean the option of using Guam in addition to American Samoa as their annual required port of call in order to meet U.S. maritime regulations. This amendment would save the U.S. tuna industry millions of dollars and thousands of man-hours that are needlessly wasted being forced by the U.S. maritime regulations to travel 2,600 miles out of their way to make port visits. The background is that the 2006 Coast Guard Authorization Act allowed U.S.-flagged tuna vessels in the western Pacific to use internationally licensed officers. {time} 1240 The international officer provision was created because maritime officers in the western Pacific are primarily from western Pacific nations. U.S. maritime unions were not opposed to the provision. In order to meet the requirements of that provision, the bill has required tuna vessels to make an annual port call in American Samoa, some 2,000 miles away. In 2006, the tuna fleet in the region was very small at 12 boats. American Samoa had a market to process the fish for those boats. Since 2006, however, the tuna fleet in the western Pacific has grown to 38 vessels. Mr. Chairman, approximately 25 of those vessels supply fish to western Pacific processors and then ship the fish product to California, to Georgia, to Illinois, to Puerto Rico for canning. These canneries provide thousands of U.S. jobs.…”