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Kilili bill seeks fishing fees to go directly to CNMI treasury
Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) has drafted a bill calling for fishing fees to go directly to CNMI coffers as well as provide more transparency for Pacific islands on the fishing industry.
Sablan said he introduced the bill to “fine-tune fisheries policies.”
Sablan
He said the proposed “Fishing Economy Improvement Act, H.R. 1826” also gives indigenous people a greater role in fisheries management at both the national and international level and sends certain fishing fees directly to the Commonwealth treasury without any strings attached.”
“I drafted the bill after listening to hours of testimony during the last Congress on reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, our long-standing national policy,” he said.
Sablan said Magnuson is making America’s fishing industry and the fish stocks the industry depends on more sustainable, but could be improved—and there are areas of bipartisan agreement on how to do that.
The proposed bill requires that traditional Pacific island fishing interests have a seat on WestPac and on the international Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission.
“And certain fishing fees would go to the Northern Marianas, Guam, and American Samoa—rather than WestPac—for the local governments to use as they decide,” Sablan said.
Sablan’s proposed bill also calls for replacing human observers with electronic monitoring on some commercial fishing boats.
The purpose of which is “giving the public access to the inner workings of WestPac and other regional councils managing fishing,” Sablan said.
