{"id":9891,"date":"2017-09-01T20:32:22","date_gmt":"2017-09-01T20:32:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.environment-hawaii.org\/?p=9891"},"modified":"2017-09-05T20:52:15","modified_gmt":"2017-09-05T20:52:15","slug":"noaa-says-wespac-member-cant-vote-on-fishing-rules-for-expanded-monument","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/?p=9891","title":{"rendered":"NOAA Says Wespac Member Can\u2019t Vote\u00a0On Fishing Rules for Expanded Monument"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Mike Goto<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It may make no practical difference. Votes by the appointed members of the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council (Wespac) have traditionally been unanimous. But at the council\u2019s June meeting, Elena Onaga of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of General Counsel announced that council member Michael Goto\u2019s ownership interest in the company that runs the Honolulu fish auction rendered him ineligible to vote on proposed options for fishing regulations within the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument expansion area.<\/p>\n

As the council took up the subject of potential non-commercial fishing options for the expansion area, Mike Tosatto, head of the National Marine Fisheries Service\u2019s Pacific Island Regional Office noted that Onaga had wanted to make a statement. She then told the council that her office had reviewed Goto\u2019s annual disclosure form, which all members must file. \u201cWe\u2019ve determined that council member Goto, as a partial owner of United Fishing Agency, Ltd., is required to recuse himself,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Onaga said his recusal was required under federal regulations that prohibit any \u201caffected individual\u201d from voting on any council decision that would have a significant and predictable effect on a financial interest disclosed in their report.<\/p>\n

A decision is considered to have a \u201csignificant and predictable effect\u201d if there is a close causal link between the decision and an expected and substantially disproportionate benefit to the financial interest of the individual, their spouse, minor child, partner, or any organization (other than the Council) in which that individual is serving as an officer, director, trustee, partner, or employee, relative to the financial interests of other participants in the same gear type or sector of the fishery, the regulations state.<\/p>\n

Goto\u2019s disclosure form notes that he has a greater than one percent ownership interest in the United Fishing Agency, Ltd., which runs the fish auction in Honolulu. The date of that interest began on October 23, 2015, according to Goto\u2019s form. The fisheries of interest include longline, trolling, and bottomfish. UFA is engaged in marketing with regard to these fisheries, according to the form.<\/p>\n

While Goto must recuse himself from voting on any proposed regulations for the monument expansion area \u2014 should the White House decide to keep the order establishing it intact \u2014 he may still participate in council discussions on the matter and even say how he would have voted.\u00a0Wespac decided at its\u00a0June meeting to defer voting on those regulations, given the ongoing federal review of monuments established by the\u00a0previous administrations.<\/p>\n

Tosatto has not yet responded to an email asking\u00a0how Goto — due to his interest in the fish auction — would benefit or suffer from whatever\u00a0non-commercial fishing regulations the council recommends. Whether NOAA will decide Goto’s interest in the auction will\u00a0require him to recuse himself from voting on other council matters relating to commercial fishing in Hawai`i remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

According to his disclosure forms, Goto did not have an ownership interest in UFA until days after Wespac\u2019s last meeting in 2015.<\/p>\n

At the council\u2019s meeting in March 2016, Goto did vote along with the rest of the council on a number of actions related to the fisheries UFA deals with: urging NMFS to expedite its rulemaking with regard to bigeye tuna quotas to ensure uninterrupted fishing by the Hawaii longline fleet, directing council staff to work with NMFS and the IATTC to \u201cevaluate impacts of management options that could provide relief to Hawai`i longliners while not resulting in overfishing,\u201d and to have council staff write to the president to explain the \u201clack of conservation benefit\u201d and the negative impacts an expansion of the Papahanaumokuakea monument would have on the Hawai`i fishery specifically and the U.S. seafood market more generally.<\/p>\n

And at the council\u2019s October meeting, he joined in voting to write the president to request that the ban on commercial fishing in the expansion area \u2014 which includes the waters between 50 and 200 nautical miles off the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands \u2014 be phased in. The letter was to also ask for \u201cother programs that would directly benefit those impacted from the monument expansion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goto voted for this shortly after hearing a presentation from NOAA general counsel Fred Tucher on when council members must recuse themselves. \u201cIf the interest or ownership level on the matter before Council is close to 10 percent, the Council members should speak to the attorneys in the room. The remedy is only recusal from voting. It is not disqualification from otherwise participating,\u201d Tucher is quoted in the meeting minutes as saying.<\/p>\n

Goto\u2019s 2016 and 2017 forms only note that his interest in UFA exceed one percent. Tosatto has also not yet responded to an inquiry about whether Goto’s interest exceeds 10 percent.<\/p>\n

— Teresa Dawson<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It may make no practical difference. Votes by the appointed members of the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council (Wespac) have traditionally been unanimous. But at the council’s June meeting, Elena Onaga of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[351],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eh-xtra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}