The CNMI, according to Department of Lands and Natural Resources Secretary Ignacio De la Cruz, submitted to the National Marine Fisheries Service the local marine conservation plan following the 142nd Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council Meeting earlier this year.
WESPAC, Dela Cruz said, recommended the approval of the CNMI’s conservation plan.
Last month, NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service regional administrator, William L. Robinson, informed Dela Cruz that the CNMI marine conservation plan submitted on Sept. 23, 2008 had been approved for a three-year period, from Oct. 6 this year to Oct. 6, 2011.
Dela Cruz, in an interview yesterday, said the CNMI conservation plan is composed of 11 projects that aim to establish a framework so that WESPAC can improve its abilities to realize the goals of the Magnuson Stevens Act.
These projects include commercial harvest monitoring system, subsistence and recreational fishing harvest monitoring system, data analysis on pelagic fisheries, by-catch interaction report, establishment of fishery management units for the Exclusive Economic Zone, foreign fishery management measures, foreign fishing revenue for the Puerto Rico dump closure, EEZ enforcement program, fisheries technology program, CNMI commercial fisheries baseline assessment, village-based aquaculture project, and the Northern Islands remote fishing station project.
The plan provides information on pelagic fisheries and specifically omits information on bottomfish and reef fish resources of the CNMI.
The plan targets the most marketable species for pelagic fleet which is skipjack tuna. Yellow fin tuna and mahi mahi are also easily marketable species but are seasonal.
The approval of this conservation plan is expected to be published in the Federal Register.
