American Samoa's governor is exploring the option of a 250,000 US dollar annual fee for fishing vessels which register the territory as their home port.
Togiola Tulafono says many of these vessels don't contribute to American Samoa's canneries or its economy.
He claims one of the reasons Samoa Packing is leaving is due to a federal law that allows vessels to register America Samoa as their home port without contributing its economy.
The governor says these vessels are taking their catches to foreign countries, to be cleaned and loined, before taking them to the U.S.
He says having the vessel home port in American Samoa makes it easy for them to hire foreign fishermen and fish in the U.S. exclusive economic zones, which include American Samoa.
Togiola says the law was to benefit American Samoa but has instead added to the demise of the territory's cannery industry.
According to the governor, there are close to 30 vessels registered with American Samoa as their home port, with only about four or five of these vessels actually unloading their catch for local canneries.
