The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council which met in Pago Pago recently has offered American Samoa a number of recommendations on how to better manage its fishery.
The Council says local fisheries projects should be supported by building boat ramps as well as set up a cold storage facility in the Manu'a islands.
It also encourages communities to submit proposals providing domestic fishery development in American Samoa to the national economic stimulus programme.
The Council also took final action to recommend that purse-seine fishing on fish aggregation devices be prohibited in all US exclusive economic zone waters.
It was also recommended that scientific research on purse seine FAD fishing be conducted.
To ease interaction between green sea turtles and the American Samoa longline fishery, the Council recommended that the distance from each float to adjacent branch lines be at least 70 metres, and that 30-metre float lines be used to ensure that all hooks are deeper than 100 meters.
