Splash!
WPRFMC Sustainable Fisheries Fund
The Hawai‘i online news outlet Civil Beat claimed that money from the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council’s Western Pacific Sustainable Fisheries Fund has been spent in secrecy and with little accountability.
The Council’s dealings prompted U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz to request an accounting in last year’s appropriations bill. Civil Beat quoted Sen. Schatz as saying, “We just couldn’t lay eyes on what the money was spent on. We came to the conclusion we needed a robust accounting.”
The sustainable fisheries fund gets money from fines from foreign vessels caught fishing illegally in U.S. remote Pacific territory waters. Money also comes from Hawai‘i longliners buying U.S. territory unfilled tuna quotas.
In 2010, the Spanish purse seiner was caught illegally fishing off Howland, Baker and Jarvis islands. The
