The world’s only multilateral tuna fisheries treaty has achieved a 2025 milestone and is headed for a final vote before it becomes law in the United States.
Since 1998, the U.S Tuna Treaty, as it is usually known in the Pacific, has provided negotiated access for U.S tuna fishing fleets to operate across the EEZs of the Pacific FFA members.
It’s unclear whether the latest version reflects the commitments negotiated between the Pacific and the Biden Presidency, supporting last year’s MOU signing in Suva. That agreement committed to USD$600m over ten years (US$60m annually), and a USD$10m fund for climate-related support.
Today, U.S Congresswoman Uifa’atali Amata’s office confirmed her pivotal role in the latest news of the Treaty, which is represented in the region by the Forum Fisheries Agency, FFA.
Radewagon has welcomed bipartisan passage by the U.S. House of Representatives of the bill she sponsored, with Hawaii Congressman Ed Case (D-HI) as the original cosponsor, the South Pacific Tuna Treaty Act, H.R. 531.
According to an official statement from her office, the bipartisan legislation provides congressional direction to fully implement the South Pacific Tuna Treaty, which has been diplomatically negotiated among the U.S. and 16 Pacific Islands nations.
Amata’s bill was passed by the House in 2024 but had not yet passed the Senate as the 118th Congress closed out later that same year. In contrast, in the current 119th Congress, the House is passing the bill much earlier in the two-year Congressional session.
“As the representative of the beautiful islands of American Samoa in the South Pacific, a marine economy which depends on fishing, I welcome broad support in Congress for implementing our treaty with our regional friends and neighbours in the South Pacific,” said Congresswoman Amata.
“This bill implements U.S international diplomacy to help ensure that our tuna agreements improve operations and flexibility for our fleet – America’s last true distant water fishing fleet. I especially appreciate working with Chairman Bruce Westerman and Congressman Case on this priority.”
Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) said, “Not only does this bill provide regulatory certainty for fisheries, but it also formalises what is currently a Memorandum of Understanding, further cementing the strength of the South Pacific Tuna Treaty. I thank Rep. Radewagen for her work on this important piece of legislation.”
The bill amends the South Pacific Tuna Treaty Act of 1988 to reflect the amendments to the Treaty adopted in 2016. In 2022, the Senate provided overwhelming bipartisan support for advice and consent to ratification, and Amata’s bill completes this longstanding effort, moving into statute what has been operating under a Memorandum of Understanding, and resolving restrictions. The Treaty officially stabilises high seas fishing days and codifies access to various island nations’ EEZ waters.
Last year, the bill was examined in a legislative hearing by the Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries, on which Amata serves, which heard expert testimony including from William Gibbons-Fly, Executive Director, American Tunaboat Association, who emphasised the last true “distant water fishing fleet” under the U.S flag operating from Pago Pago Harbour, as “multi-generational, family-owned businesses with a long and storied history as an important part of the U.S fishing industry.”
Expert testimony in 2024 noted that the U.S tuna purse seine fleet has been reduced in a few years’ time from 34 vessels to 13 vessels, due to numerous severe economic challenges from increased regulation, reduced access, and more competition especially from Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing.
This year, the House moved the bill forward promptly as it had already been through a detailed bipartisan examination. It requires passage by the Senate to be signed into law