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[Public Notice] Vessel Monitoring System Regulations

PURSUANT TO SECTION 204 OF TITLE 24 OF THE CODE OF FEDERATED STATES OF MICRONESIA (FSMC)

This is to inform the general public that National Oceanic Resource Management Authority (NORMA), through its Board of Directors, hereby proposes to promulgate the Vessel Monitoring System Regulations. This public notice is made pursuant Section 204 of Title 24 of the Code of the Federated States of Micronesia.

The purpose of the VMS Regulations is to prescribe the legal requirements and responsibility for a fishing vessel operating within FSM or FSM Flagged to register in the Vessel Monitoring System (VMS). The VMS system is a tool that enables NORMA to monitor the position and activities of foreign and domestic fishing vessels for the purpose of effective management of fisheries. The regulations also require all fishing vessels operating in FSM or FSM flagged to install, maintain and operate a Automated Location Communicator (ALC) device which transmit information or data concerning the position, fishing, and other activities of the fishing vessel.

These regulations are necessary to implement Section 611 of Title 24 of the Code of the Federated States of Micronesia. The proposed Regulations are open for public’s view and comment beginning on the date of posting and ending on the 30^th day of posting. Extra copies of the proposed Regulations can be obtained from the Office of the Executive Director, NORMA. Any person interested in commenting on the proposed Regulations may do so in written submission to:

Eugene Pangelinan
National Oceanic Resource Management Authority
P.O. Box PS-122
Palikir, Pohnpei FSM 96941
Tel: (691) 320-2700
Fax:  (691) 320-2383
Email: feedback.regs@norma.fm

All written comments or submissions must be submitted to NORMA within the thirty (30) days after the posting of this notice. Written comments and submission must be submitted to NORMA during office working hours (8am to 5pm) from Monday to Friday working days.

The VMS Regulations are proposed to take effect forty days from the date of the posting of this Notice. Otherwise a different effective date will be noted on the certified copy of the Regulations to be filed pursuant to 17 FSMC Section 103(1).

NORMA ADOPTS PAPERLESS BOARD MEETINGS

PRESS RELEASE

FSM – The Board of Directors of the National Oceanic Resource Management Authority (NORMA) in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) is supporting new measures at the Authority to adopt new technologies to improve on its ever challenging work to manage FSM’s oceanic fisheries resources.

Board members and stakeholder meeting.

“We recognize that the technology exists today to improve how we do our business and make NORMA decision making more streamlined and efficient while at the same time, being environmentally friendly. Many of our counterparts in the fisheries industry are adopting new technologies to become more efficient in harvesting our valuable resources and we on the management side must keep pace or even be a step ahead to ensure sustainability of our tuna resources, especially through better management and use of technology and access to relevant information and data.” Says Mr. Roger Arnold, Chairman of the NORMA Board of Directors.

One of the first measures to be implemented involves the Board members as they are shifting to paperless meetings by fully utilizing the internet and laptops provided by FSM NORMA as part of its World Bank-funded PROP Project.  This helps with the Authority’s environmental goals as well as its effort to improve on information management whereby much of the Authority’s work and processes are being automated.

“The ability of staff to collect, process data and information and pass on to the Board can be greatly improved with these laptops,” says Executive Director Eugene Pangelinan, “and certainly more so when Board of Directors are from all four States of the FSM.  The laptops will be used during official NORMA meetings, removing the need to print hundreds of pages each meeting and for communicating with our Board on a regular basis and maintaining better records of our business transactions.

While the Board has been conducting paperless meetings for most of this year, the laptops will be issued at their next meeting during a negotiations meeting with bilateral partners.

FSM and Japan Sign New Ten Year Fishing Agreement

Colonia, Yap

At their annual fisheries consultations in Yap between the National Oceanic Resource Management Authority (NORMA) and Japan last June 21-27, 2017 in Colonia, Yap, a landmark ten year fishing agreement was reached between FSM and Japan. This is the second ten year agreement between FSM and Japan. The new agreement grants access to the FSM EEZ by Japanese fishing vessels on an annual or multi-year basis. Under the new agreement, NORMA and Japan must meet annually to negotiate the terms and conditions for fishing on an annual or multi-year basis and these terms and conditions would be implemented through memorandums of agreements with the three fisheries associations. Three memorandums of agreements were reached to license purse seine, longline and pole and line vessels over the next three.

The new agreement includes the requirement that all fishing vessels carry adequate insurance coverage in the event of maritime accidents in the FSM. In addition, the pole and line group will work to develop employment opportunities for FSM nationals to work on their vessels in the near future. The purse seine group already employs more than 50 FSM nationals on their vessels.  Implementing the longline vessel day scheme with Japan a priority for FSM. Incentives were built in to get more longliners to transship in FSM ports which could result in significant economic benefits. The agreed annual financial package between FSM and Japan annually is approximately $22.9 million for 2018 and 2019 respectively.

“FSM and Japan have enjoyed a very long and mutually beneficial relationship that spans decades and this new agreement marks a new era of fisheries relations with Japan. It again provides for greater economic cooperation between our two countries to achieve both our political and economic aspirations” say Roger Arnold, Chairman of NORMA”.

Pacific Beat: PNG fishing observer’s disappearance raises serious safety concerns for officers at sea

“Ministers and officials meeting in Queensland to discuss the future of the South Pacific albacore have been blown of course by the news that yet another Pacific fisheries observer has gone missing at sea.”

Read the full article from Pacific Beat.

FSM NORMA Donates World Tuna Day Skirt Proceeds to ECE

FSM NORMA
May 22, 2017

NORMA Executive Director Eugene Pangelinan, ECE Chief Arwelson Arpona and Representatives from the 5 WTD Participating ECE Centers.

An Outcome & Appreciation Ceremony was held on May 19, 2017 by the National Oceanic Resource Management Authority, during which Executive Director Eugene Pangelinan presented appreciation certificates to all involved in helping to make the FSM’s first World Tuna Day celebrations a success. The unofficial results of an event survey were presented at the gathering, which noted feedback in areas such as better timing, enhanced logistics and improved participation. The overall coordination of the event was reported in the survey as being excellent.

In official remarks, Executive Director Pangelinan expressed expectation that next year’s World Tuna Day event would be even bigger and better than this year’s event and that the Early Childhood Education Centers would continue to participate. Executive Director Pangelinan also indicated his shared hope with Vice President Yosiwo P. George, as expressed during his keynote address at the World Tuna Day Fair that, that as a way to improve on participation and timing of the event, efforts would be underway to work with the FSM Congress to make World Tuna Day an official FSM holiday. “We must improve on public awareness of this important resource. What better way to do that than to designate World Tuna Day as a legal holiday, so that everyone can participate in the celebrations?”

Among various contests held for World Tuna Day was a tuna-themed, locally tailored skirt or “urohs” competition. Submitted skirt designs were open to public viewing and judging by fair-goers, then auctioned live at the WTD fair. The live auction garnered $850, proceeds of which were divided equally among the five Pohnpei State Early Childhood Education Centers that participated in the WTD Fair and presented at the Outcome & Appreciation Ceremony. Accepting the certificates and donations on behalf of ECE were Mrs. Marmihner Pelep for Sapwalap ECE, Mrs. Rosalihna Rosario for ESDM ECE, Mrs. Arsenia Barnabas for Pehleng ECE, Ms. Dyna Amusten for Wone ECE and Mrs. Elise Ioanis for Wenik ECE. After receiving their donations, the ECE representatives presented a children’s song that they composed for their students for World Tuna Day, which referenced the importance of fish to our daily lives and how it is essential “from head to toe.”

Also present at the Outcome & Appreciation Ceremony were representatives from World Bank/PROP, FSM Vital Petrocorp, FSM Telecommunications, Conservation Society of Pohnpei, Pohnpei Department of Health Services, FSM Department of Foreign Affairs, Vice President’s Office, King’s Media Zone, Etscheit Enterprises, Jitters Coffee, Kaselehlie Press and volunteers from COM-FSM, all of whom contributed to a successful inaugural World Tuna Day Fair.

For more information or to participate in the World Tuna Day Feedback Survey, please contact the NORMA Office at (691) 320-2700, email Chief of Statistics, Compliance & Technical Projects Ms. Suzanne Lowe Gallen (suzanne.gallen@norma.fm) or visit the NORMA Facebook page.