To enable fisheries managers to comply with National Standard 8 (NS8), NMFS social scientists around the nation are preparing fishing community profiles that present the features and characteristics of such communities. PIFSC has published or is developing four such profiles: one each for Hawaii, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa.

This record describes, and links to a working paper produced through the Resource Management in Asia-Pacific (RMAP) Program based at The Australian National University in Canberra. The tuna resources of the Western and Central Pacific (WCP) are the world's largest and most valuable fisheries of their type and are of significant economic importance to the Pacific Island countries (PICs), through whose waters of national jurisdiction the tuna migrate. Two major concerns exist with the current governance of the fishery. First, PICs are receiving only a small share of the resource rents from the tuna fisheries. Second, current management structure of the fisheries will not ensure the long-term sustainability of the resources. The paper presents a simple model to argue for increased resource taxation as a means of raising tax revenues and improving sustainability of the resource. Such an outcome is only possible when a single policy-maker has the prerogative to set taxes so that the government acts as a Stakelberg leader in this game. Institutional mechanisms to engender cooperation between PIC governments and with distant water fishing nations (DWFNs) to achieve the espoused outcomes of the model are also presented.

From 1986 when the first NMFS observers were placed on domestic fishing vessels until the rollout of the re-engineered data model in December of 2007. Debriefed and validated observer data was maintained in the "Domestic" set of tables in the NORPAC database.

This dataset includes qualitative interview data aggregated and entered into an excel csv file. We collected data by observing virtual Council-hosted meetings and conducting virtual unstructured interviews from September 2020 to July 2021. Interviewees were selected either for A) their participation in the 2015-16 Hawaiʻi bottomfish commercial fishery data workshops, or B) their knowledge of, contribution to, or direct participation in Guam’s bottomfish fisheries, fishery operations and data collection, stock assessment science, and subsequent management. Participants were identified through the 2015-16 workshop attendee list (Yau 2018) and the lead author’s points of contact within the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WPRFMC), the Guam Division of Aquatics and Wildlife Resources (DAWR), and Guam and Hawaiʻi fishing communities. Additional participants were identified through participant referral. A total of 42 stakeholders were interviewed. Data from interviews and participant observations were coded to track themes that emerged from the data. Data were coded to capture and organize themes relevant to multi-stakeholder engagement processes and the relationship between bottomfish fisheries, science, and management.

The DMWR staff has also conducted shore-based creel surveys which also have 2 major sub-surveys; one to estimate participation (fishing effort), and one to provide catch-rate, species composition, and size frequency data. The amount of area covered by the surveys has varied over the years from just a central part of Tutuila to 3 separate routes on Tutuila plus sampling on the Manu'a Islands of Ofu-Olesega and Ta'u. There was a break in survey coverage for a number of years due to resource limitations, but surveys on Tutuila have been conducted again since about 2001. There has been some break in coverage over the years due to various hurricanes and a major tsunami, but generally speaking the surveys have been conducted routinely and in a fairly standardized manner. Not all areas of the islands are covered due to resource limitations. These data are considered confidential.

Since 1988, U.S. purse seine vessels have had access to fish in waters of some foreign Pacific Island countries under the South Pacific Tuna Treaty (SPTT). This fleet primarily targets skipjack and yellowfin tuna, but also incidentally catches bigeye tuna. U.S.A. purse-seine vessels fishing in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO) have been monitored by NOAA Fisheries under the SPTT since 1988. Logbook and landings data must be submitted as a requirement of the SPTT with 100% logbook coverage. Most SPTT-licensed vessels e-report their daily logbook data through a software system called Industry Fisheries Information Management System (iFIMS), and also submit copies of their catch and effort logbooks, their offloading logbooks, and cannery receipts to PIRO field staff in American Samoa. The WCPO fleet operates mainly in areas between 10 degrees N and 10 degrees S latitude and 130 degrees E and 150 degrees W longitude, with the majority of the fishing effort occurring south of the equator.

This dataset includes qualitative interview data aggregated and entered into an excel csv file. Data were collected between September 2017 and June 2018. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 29 male West Hawaiʻi small boat fishers, ranging in age from 19-75 years. The interview guide addressed four broad themes: participant relationship to fishing and fishing history; information sharing in the fisheries of Hawaiʻi Island; shark interactions and handling practices; and fisher perceptions of local fisheries management and science. More specific questions elicited data around the kinds of fishing circumstances and habitats associated with fisher-shark interactions, what experiences and values might influence fisher perceptions and behavior, and the kinds of sharks fishers encounter.

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) began placing observers on foreign fishing vessels operating off the northwest and Alaskan coasts of the United States in 1973, creating the North Pacific Foreign Fisheries Observer Program. Initially, observers were placed on vessels only upon invitation by host countries. In the early years of the program the primary purposes of observers were to determine incidental catch rates of Pacific halibut in groundfish catches and to verify catch statistics in the Japanese crab fishery. Later, observers collected data on the incidence of king crab, snow (Tanner) crab, and Pacific salmon, and obtained biological data on other important species. Following the implementation of the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976, which mandated that fishery observers be placed on foreign fishing vessels operating within the US 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) off the Alaska coast of the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska, observer coverage rapidly expanded. By 1986, the foreign fisheries that were not joint-venture were halted.

Marine fisheries provide food, employment opportunities, and income for millions of people who live near the coast. Unprecedented levels of catch threaten fisheries across the globe, while demand for seafood continues to climb. Effective fisheries management could ensure reliable food supplies and mitigate adverse socio-economic impacts on regulated fishing communities. Specifying management actions – particularly the resource extraction activities (dis-)allowed – can be highly contentious, in part because biological, economic, social, and political objectives of stakeholders are often in direct conflict. Disputes over conflicting objectives are typically central to disagreements about the right way to manage the fishery, but often more complex social conflicts can also fuel disagreements. The Conflict Intervention Triangle is a framework that can be used for understanding and addressing three types of conflicts: substance, relationships, and process, where the last two are social conflicts. All three types of conflict were present in open-ended responses on a recurring National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) survey of small boat fishers. To better understand the relationship between these types of conflict, we developed a fishery-specific dictionary that can automate categorization of fishers’ responses by topic and type of conflict. The use of the automated content analysis approach provided a nuanced snapshot of the major conflicts in the Hawaiʻi small boat fishery and revealed concealed conflicts that are often ambiguous and less easy to express. We discuss the performance of the methodology used in creating and applying the dictionary to fishery datasets as well as advantages and disadvantages compared to manual content analysis.

In 1990 the local government made it mandatory for local vendors to participate in this monitoring program and it is continuing. The Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources (DMWR) issues numbered books of Fish and Shellfish Receipt forms to all wholesale buyers of fish who resell fish to the retail market, either whole or prepared. This receipt has evolved over time to include fish sales imported by local businesses from other islands such as Tonga or Western Samoa. Vendors are required to complete an invoice for each purchase and record the fisher (or boat) selling the fish, along with the species category, method used, weight, and price for the fish purchased. Invoices are submitted to DMWR staff who enter the data into the data processing system. Generally speaking the fishing activities occur fairly close to the island of Tutuila as most of the boats that sell fish locally are small. There are some local sales of longline caught fish and these catches could have been made hundreds of miles from Tutuila as the longline vessels have a greater range of operation. These data are considered highly confidential.