American fishing companies will have access to some of the most tuna-rich waters in the world until 2023.

Negotiators from the U.S., island nations and American fishing companies agreed to a new South Pacific Tuna Treaty on Saturday in New Zealand that reduces the number of days that U.S. boats can fish but also gives them the option of buying as many fishing days as they need, instead of a set amount per the previous agreement.

The U.S. State Department announced in January it would pull out of a treaty for a vast area of the Pacific Ocean — source of 60 percent of the nation’s canned tuna — after some American boats said they could not pay fees owed to a cluster of Pacific island nations.

“(The new treaty) gave us pretty much what we hoped for,” said J. Douglas Hines of the Global Companies, a group of three Nevada-based firms with offices in San Diego. “This is behind us for now.”


Although negotiations are officially over, the deal still needs final approval from the nations’ governments. Most people involved in the negotiations do not predict any issues because representatives have already signed off.

For the U.S. consumer, the deal means more tuna will come from boats that are subject to strict U.S. labor and sustainability laws. It is not expected to affect price.

A 40-boat U.S. fleet will be limited to 3,500 days of fishing a year, but won’t be tied down to paying for a certain number of days. American boats had originally agreed to pay nearly $69 million for 5,959 fishing days in 2016. It ran into problems when the price for tuna dropped and some American operators said they couldn’t pay the full amount.

The Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency, a Solomon Islands-based intergovernmental agency charged with administration of the treaty, celebrated the agreement.


“The sense of achievement and relief that regional cooperation has delivered a deal many doubted could be achieved, definitely tops a very long, often frustrating, and sometimes torturous negotiations process for the Pacific,” said agency Director-General James Movick in a news release.

The agency acknowledged the new agreement could be up to $20 million less than what they would have received under the former deal. However, it said fewer days for American boats meant its rate of return for each fishing day has never been higher. Presumably, it can sell extra days, which are limited to maintain the tuna population’s sustainability, to other foreign fleets.

Subtracting foreign aid (which the agency includes in its calculations), the Pacific nations would have received $11,579 a day under the previous 2016 agreement. Under the new terms, it will get $14,000.

However, while the agency said it can earn up to $49 million a year from the U.S. under the new terms, the American Tunaboat Association said that number is closer to $40 million.


A U.S. State Department official said the government was very pleased the parties had reached an agreement in principle for the next six years.

“We look forward to continued and even closer cooperation with the Pacific Island Parties with the success of these negotiations,” the official said.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, introduced legislation in Congress in January to cut $21 million in foreign aid to 15 of the countries involved in the treaty. That legislation will be dropped once the deal gets final approval, said Joe Kasper, Hunter’s spokesman.

Among the countries that would have lost aid were Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.


“It demonstrated, I think, that this economic assistance money is not going to just be a given every year, regardless of whether we have a treaty,” said Brian Hallman, executive director of the San Diego-based American Tunaboat Association, of Hunter’s legislation.

Hallman said it may be possible for American boats to get additional fishing days, at considerable cost, through agreements with individual Pacific island nations. When approved, the new treaty will take effect on Jan. 1, 2017.

The tuna industry once made up the third-largest industry in San Diego, employing at least 40,000 people 50 years ago in catching, canning and marketing tuna. The industry moved away from California in the 1980s because of environmental restrictions and other factors, and since have sourced their product from all over the world.

phillip.molnar@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1891 Twitter: @phillipmolnar