Bordallo lauds Obama move to expand ocean sanctuaries, fight illegal fishing

Delegate Madeleine Z. Bordallo (D-GU) issued the following statement yesterday regarding President Obama’s proposal to create the world’s largest marine sanctuary in the Central Pacific and the presidential memorandum to direct federal agencies to develop comprehensive policy and programs to combat illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing and particularly seafood fraud.

The President’s announcement was made during Secretary of State John Kerry’s “Our Ocean” conference on June 16 and 17, which brought together stakeholders from more than 80 countries to focus on three major threats to oceans—overfishing, marine pollution, and ocean acidification.

“I applaud President Obama for his continued efforts to protect and preserve our oceans and ocean ecosystems for future generations. It is important that the United States demonstrate international leadership in ocean protection. We share our oceans with many nations, and it will take our collective leadership to tackle the challenges we face. Our efforts build off what Palau and Kiribati, among other nations, have done to protect their ocean resources.

“I understand that the Administration intends for public input as they finalize actions on expanding the Central Pacific marine sanctuary. It is important that this input clearly and accurately reflects the expansion’s impact on the Pacific’s island communities, particularly our commercial and recreational fishing communities. I urge transparency and the engagement of local jurisdictions and impacted Pacific nations in the decision-making process, and ask that the Administration ensure that our island and fishing communities’ concerns are adequately taken into consideration during the public process.

“I also commend the President for his focus on fisheries protection, as outlined by his memorandum establishing a multi-agency task force and comprehensive framework to combat, illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing and seafood fraud. Illegal fishing is a threat to our economic security and the social infrastructure of fishing communities like Guam’s. However, I encourage the IUU task force to also address strengthening the capacity of, and increasing resources for, enforcement against perpetrators of illegal fishing. Focusing on seafood fraud is important, but more can be done to stop this fraud from the beginning. Given the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean, I hope more thought is given to how to leverage the military’s maritime domain capabilities to identify IUU fishing followed up with robust Coast Guard enforcement.” (PR)