The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WPFMC) is calling on the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) to “address severe funding shortfalls that threaten the future of fisheries management.”
However, the council’s calls are coming at a time when the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is reportedly planning to slash NOAA’s budget, which funds the council, by 27 percent for the 2026 fiscal year.
“If that cut is applied to the WPFMC, that’s going to significantly impact our operations because we are already operating at reduced capacity,” WPFMC Program Officer Mark Mitsuyasu said.
According to Mitsuyasu, the council, which works to monitor fish stocks and annually amend management plans for offshore Pacific Ocean fisheries, is currently functioning at around at least a 33 percent staffing deficit because of rising costs and no increases in funding over the past several years.
The staffing deficit has resulted in more time needed to process fisheries analysis and management plans.
“It’s like any organization, if you lose one-third of your people, it’s more difficult to operate,” Mitsuyasu said.
Unlike other organizations, though, some of the WPFMC’s biggest costs include traveling to the Pacific Islands to meet with and provide support to small-scale fisheries.
“If we have to cut the number of meetings we hold and go more virtual, that affects the communities’ participation, especially in more remote areas that often [comprise] subsistence fisheries,” Mitsuyasu said.
For larger communities, like American Samoa and the Hawaiian island of Maui, a lack of funding may hamper other efforts, such as providing climate-resilient infrastructure projects. Maui, for example, is still trying to rebuild harbors after fires affected large swathes of the island in 2023.
With limited funding, fishery management bodies will have to reprioritize their spending, Mistuyasu said, who added that this will lead to tough decisions on what to cut.
One example is a recent WPFMC initiative to implement electronic monitoring on all Western Pacific longline vessels by 2027. In order to carry this project out through the cuts, the council will have to determine what to put on the chopping block, with such options including the council’s scholarship program for territorial students, which funds education for students seeking a career in fisheries management.
“Funding is critical to developing young professionals who return to our islands to strengthen fisheries management,” American Samoa Director of Marine and Wildlife Resources Taotasi Archie Soliai, who is also a WPFMC member, said in a press release. “Without support, the future of our fisheries is at stake.”
Planning has been difficult, however, according to Mitsuyasu, due to the rapidity and inconsistency of Trump’s executive orders pertaining to regulation. The council is currently seeking clarity on an executive order referred to as the “10-1 rule,” requiring all agencies to “identify at least 10 rules, regulations, or guidance documents to be repealed” every time a new rule is put into effect.
What’s unclear, Mitsuyasu explained, is whether standard regulations, like setting annual catch limits, would trigger this new requirement. If that’s the case, the WPFMC would have to cut dozens of regulations to carry out their normal duties.
“We are struggling to identify how you define a regulatory action,” Mitsuyasu said. “If you read the executive order, it’s actually pretty broad, so we’re waiting for the National Marine Fisheries’ interpretation.”
While the deregulation order is causing confusion, the council expressed support for the Trump administration’s focus on reducing regulatory burdens faced by seafood industry stakeholders.
“These regulations hamper our ability to manage resources we have successfully stewarded for generations,” Guam Department of Agriculture Director Chelsa Muña said.
Stakeholders like Muña have long called for deregulation in the seafood industry, but there has been growing concern for the degree to which the Trump administration seems willing to slash the fishery management apparatus.
In early March, a letter sent to Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick signed by 170 fishing businesses and associations stretching from the U.S. states of Alaska to Maine, requested that the secretary “ensure the normal function of regional fishery management councils and the fishery management process so American fishermen can continue to work.”
