The CNMI and other US territories can now allocate their bigeye tuna quota to Hawaii.
This comes following a change in fishery rules approved by a United States agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The new rules allow the National Marine Fisheries Service to set a catch limit of 2,000 metric tons for longline bigeye tuna caught in the CNMI, American Samoa, and Guam.
The changes allow participating U.S. territories to sell part of their bigeye tuna quota to Hawaiian fishing vessels.
The CNMI can allocate 1,000 metric tons of that limit to eligible U.S. longline fishing vessels annually.
The rule came into effect last month.
