A review of the development of bottomfish fisheries in American Samoa

Itano, David

American Samoa consists of five high, vocanic islands and two atolls. The population centre is located on Tutuila and Aunu'u, which lie approximately 95 km to the west of Ofu, Olosega and Ta'u which make up the Manu'a Island group. Swains and Rose Atoll lie 280 and 360 km to the north and east of Tutuila respectively. The country maintains a semi-independent state which enjoying the benefits of full territorial status of the United States. The domestic commercial fisheries of American Samoa have evolved over the past 25 years through the efforts of several fisheries development and training programs. These have including boat building projects, low interest boat loan incentives, FAD programs and training in small raft navigation, marine electronics and outboard engine repair. Specific training and survey with fishing techniques have included deep-water bottom fishing (Mead 1978), bouke ami lift netting Tuna Programme 1984), lobster trapping (Chambers and Nunes 1975), live bait assisted trolling (Bryan and Lambert 1979), ika shibi fishing, palu ahi handling (Crook 1985), pipe bottom fish longlining (Makaiwi 1984), deep water shrimp trapping, dead bait trolling, vertical longlining and flying fish netting (Moana 1988), and his list is far from complete. Some of these techniques were readily accepted by local fishermen but most were quickly forgotten. Training in bottom fishing and the introduction of manually operated bottomfish handreels has gained the widest acceptance with the local fleet. The handreels were also quickly utilized in the pelagic troll fishery for skipjack and yellowfin tuna. The promotion of domestci bottom fishing in American Samoa has been so successful that some of the local bottom fish grounds have become significantly depleted. Some of these fishery development programs were active for periods of time adequate to note declines in catch effort and location and decreases in mean size of harvested fish. As previously, American Samoa has experienced several fishery development programs in the last quarter century. Many of these are identical to development programs in effect or proposed for other South Pacific countries and territories. This paper will attempt to recount the early development of the domestic bottom fishery in American Samoa as it relates to the country of the region will find this exercise useful in planning the rational development and management of their domestic fisheries.