AFT Holdings said on Wednesday 3, July it had reached an agreement to sell eight of its 14 U.S.-flagged tuna purse-seiners, which it had previously operated in the Pacific Ocean through its subsidiary, the San Diego, California, U.S.A.-based South Pacific Tuna Corporation (SPTC).
SPTC did not immediately respond to a request from SeafoodSource to identify the buyers of the vessels but the company press release said the transfer will be complete “by the end of the year.”
As a result of the sale, “approximately 12 U.S. captains and their crew will be relieved of duty,” according to the company.
“Additionally, the San Diego-based office and management team will be reduced to support the downsized fleet,” SPTC said in its release.
The eight purse seiners being sold collectively harvested an estimated 70,000 tons of tuna annually, valued between USD 80 million and USD 100 million (EUR 80.9 million to EUR 88.6 million).
The company is aiming to sell of the remainder of the fleet and exit the tuna-fishing business entirely, SPTC announced in April 2018.
“Our fleet reduction is due in part to the U.S. government’s continued lack of support and the lack of interest in ratifying the 1988 South Pacific Tuna Treaty, renegotiated in 2016,” SPTC Executive Director J. Douglas Hines said in a press release. “Despite our efforts to work with the Trump administration, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has not reciprocated and continues its overly aggressive compliance and enforcement actions.”
U.S. compliance authorities “have made it virtually impossible for the U.S. distant-water tuna fleet to compete against the fleets from China, Korea, and Taiwan,” Hines said.
“Unlike foreign competitors who are strongly supported by their governments, the U.S. fleet faces policies by its own government that are non-supportive and essentially anti-industry and anti-trade,” he said.
Hines previously told SeafoodSource he believes U.S.-flagged vessels must “play to a different standard” than their competitors in the purse-seining fleet in the South Pacific. He also cited the U.S. withdrawal from the South Pacific Tuna Treaty and the rising cost of fishing days under existing access agreements as a factor in deciding to sell off the fleet.
“In the global priorities of the U.S. government, the Western Pacific has become an afterthought,” Hines said in his 3 July statement, echoing his earlier comments. “But as [U.S. President] Ronald Reagan recognized in 1988, the South Pacific Tuna Treaty is a critical step to ensuring American vessels and commerce continue to lead in the region and the world. The reduction of the U.S. fleet will be a devastating blow for the international policy community as well as the Western Pacific sustainable fishery ecosystem.”
SPTC retains six purse seiners in its fleet and the company said it will “continue to supply sustainably harvested tuna to its current customers with its remaining operations.”
“SPTC will continue to evaluate the opportunities and challenges for its remaining U.S.-flagged purse seine operations as it continues to operate the balance of its fleet, but with guarded hope,” it said.
Hines said with the withdrawal of the U.S. fleet from the Western Pacific, the United States’ influence in those waters will continue to decline as China, Korea, and Russia move to fill the vacuum.
“It is a sad day for us all after fighting all these years as we see the end of long legacy of tuna harvesting by U.S. interest[s],” Hines added. “However, we leave with pride of years of fighting to improve the region.”
Photo courtesy of South Pacific Tuna Corporation
