The National Marine and Fisheries Services is proposing a catch limit of 2,000 metric tons of longline-caught bigeye tuna for Guam, the Northern Marianas and American Samoa, in a bid to support the long-term sustainability of fishery resources of the U.S. Pacific Islands.

"Without this catch limit, these U.S territories would not be subject to a limit because, as participating territories to the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, they do not have a bigeye tuna limit under international measures adopted by the WCPFC," NMFS said in its filing recently posted on the Federal Register.

Based on this proposed action, NMFS would authorize each U.S. Pacific territory to allocate up to 1,000 mt of its 2,000-mt bigeye tuna limit to U.S. longline fishing vessels that are permitted to fish under the Fishery Ecosystem Plan for Pelagic Fisheries of the Western Pacific.

The Malasyan Government is committed to developing the tuna fish industry in the country as it can generate national income and is expected to earn MYR billion in returns by 2020.

Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry Minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek said hence, the industry must be taken seriously and to date, two ports had been registered as designated tuna ports', namely the Penang Port Deep Sea Wharf and Tanjung Lembung Port in Langkawi, Kedah, as it was reported by the Malaysian National News Agency BERNAMA.

"The government encourages tuna landings at the ports which have been registered with the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC)," he told reporters after the landing of tuna brought by the Malaysian cargo ship Kha Yang 333 to the Deep Water Wharf, here, today.

StarKist Co., has confirmed that its cannery operations in American Samoa will shut down for at least five weeks, beginning in the later part of next month.

Samoa News received reports late last month from industry sources and some cannery workers that the StarKist Samoa plant will shut down soon for a long period of time, but there was no firm date, and the shutdown is due to a project the company is working on.

A couple of cannery workers said they were told early this month that the shutdown would last four to five weeks, starting sometime next month.

StarKist Samoa, in a brief statement released yesterday afternoon through StarKist Co., officially confirmed that it will shut down operations from Saturday, Oct. 21st until Sunday, Nov. 26th. The StarKist Samoa plant is expected to re-open Monday, Nov. 27th.

American Samoa cannery StarKist Samoa is to make upgrades to reduce pollution and improve safety.

The company and its parent, Starkist Co, have reached a deal with the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Under the agreement, StarKist will pay a $US6.3 million dollar penalty and provide emergency response equipment to the American Samoa Fire Department for use in responding to chemical releases.

The European Union's import taxes are 24 per cent and they hope to eliminate them in the long term. The industry claims in Vigo standards on labour rights.

In recent years, the Galician canning industry has had to face the arrival of new players from South-East Asia, catapulted by their proximity to the raw material and lower labour expenses that have elevated Thailand as the largest canned tuna producer worldwide.

Around the appearance of these new competitors yesterday turned one of the presentations of the VIII World Tuna Conference, held in Vigo.

The prices for skipjack tuna in the canning hub of Bangkok, Thailand are continuing to firm, with deals done for delivery in September at around $2,100-$2,150/t per metric ton, four sector sources told Undercurrent News.

Three gave the level of $2,100/t with a fourth, from a fishing company, giving the slightly higher level.

This is up from around $1,970 in August but, unusually, still around $100/t behind the level being paid in Manta, Ecuador, the main canning hub in the eastern Pacific,  as previously reported by Undercurrent. This is causing skipjack to be shipped from the western Pacific to the east, sources said.

Australia will extend its Pacific Islands migrant labour programme and fly aerial surveillance missions to protect valuable Pacific fisheries, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said at the Pacific Island Leaders Forum.

The meeting, held in Apia, Samoa, brought 17 Pacific Island nations plus Australia and New Zealand to the negotiating table, Media reports on Saturday.

The new agreement helps tiny low-income Pacific Island nations by giving them access to Australia's large and developed economy, with migrant workers repatriating funds via overseas remittances.

The per capita gross national incomes of 11 countries in the region range from 1,540 dollars for the Solomon Islands to 13,496 dollars for Palau, according to World Bank figures, while Australian workers earn an average yearly salary of more than 64,000 dollars.