The American Samoa Governor, Togiola Tulafono, says the government is
working on a plan to develop fisheries in the territory where the public
can sell their catch to a cooperative, which would be responsible for
either exporting or selling it to other local businesses.
He said some local fishermen are selling their catches to the canneries,
who only take certain fish leaving the fishermen with other types of fish
to be sold to local stores.
He says that if and when the canneries depart the territory, the community can still fish and sell their catch to a co-op, like those established in other countries.
Togiola says one of the fishermen's concerns raised lately is the difficulty in finding a place to sell their catch, because they have to compete with other fishermen selling fish to local stores.
Togiola says there are a lot of local fishermen, and fish exports to
Hawai'i should be taken into serious consideration as part of local
economic development.