ANNUAL STOCK ASSESSMENT AND FISHERY EVALUATION REPORT: AMERICAN SAMOA ARCHIPELAGO FISHERY ECOSYSTEM PLAN 2019 Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council 1164 Bishop St., Suite 1400 Honolulu, HI 96813 PHONE: (808) 522-8220 FAX: (808) 522-8226 www.wpcouncil.org The ANNUAL STOCK ASSESSMENT AND FISHERY EVALUATION REPORT for the AMERICAN SAMOA FISHERY ECOSYSTEM PLAN 2019 was drafted by the Fishery Ecosystem Plan Team. This is a collaborative effort primarily between the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WPRFMC), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)-Pacific Island Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC), Pacific Islands Regional Office (PIRO), Hawaii Division of Aquatic Resources (HDAR), American Samoa Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources (DMWR), Guam Division of Aquatic and Wildlife Resources (DAWR), and Commonwealth of the Mariana Islands (CNMI) Division of Fish and Wildlife (DFW). This report attempts to summarize annual fishery performance looking at trends in catch, effort and catch rates as well as provide a source document describing various projects and activities being undertaken on a local and federal level. The report also describes several ecosystem considerations including fish biomass estimates, biological indicators, protected species, habitat, climate change, and human dimensions. Information like marine spatial planning and best scientific information available for each fishery are described. This report provides a summary of annual catches relative to the Annual Catch Limits established by the Council in collaboration with the local fishery management agencies. Edited By: Thomas Remington, Contractor & Marlowe Sabater and Asuka Ishizaki, WPRFMC. Cover image: credit to Clay Tam This document can be cited as follows: WPRFMC, 2020. Annual Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation Report for the American Samoa Archipelago Fishery Ecosystem Plan 2019. Remington, T., Sabater, M., Ishizaki, A. (Eds.) Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council. Honolulu, Hawaii 96813 USA. 141 pp. + Appendices. ii The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council acknowledges the valuable contributions of the following Plan Team members and others for drafting sections of this report: American Samoa Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources: Domingo Ochavillo. NMFS Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center: Ivor Williams, Felipe Carvalho, Joseph O’Malley, Michael Parke, Thomas Oliver, Melanie Abecassis, Frank Parrish, T. Todd Jones, Minling Pan, Justin Hospital, and Kirsten Leong. NMFS Pacific Islands Regional Office: Brett Schumacher. The Council also acknowledges the staff of the NMFS PIFSC Western Pacific Fisheries Information Network (WPacFIN) for providing the technical support to generate the data summaries. The Council would like to thank the following individual for their contributions to the report: Samuel Kahng. iii This page was intentionally left blank. iv Annual SAFE Report for the American Samoa Archipelago FEP Executive Summary EXECUTIVE SUMMARY As part of its five-year fishery ecosystem plan (FEP) review, the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WPRFMC; the Council) identified its annual reports as a priority for improvement. The former annual reports have been revised to meet National Standard regulatory requirements for Stock Assessment and Fishery Evaluation (SAFE) reports. The purpose of the reports is twofold: to monitor the performance of the fishery and ecosystem to assess the effectiveness of the FEP in meeting its management objectives; and to maintain the structure of the FEP living document. The reports are comprised of three chapters: Fishery Performance, Ecosystem Considerations, and Data Integration. The Council will iteratively improve the annual SAFE reports as resources allow. The Fishery Performance chapter of this report first presents a general description of the local fisheries within American Samoa, focusing on the bottomfish management unit species (MUS), particularly bottomfish MUS (BMUS), accompanied by monitoring of ecosystem component species (ECS). The fishery data collection system is explained, encompassing boat-based creel surveys and commercial receipt books. Fishery meta-statistics for BMUS and ECS are organized into summary dashboard tables showcasing the values for the most recent fishing year and a comparison to short-term (10-year) and long-term (20-year) averages. Time series for catch and effort statistics are also provided along with annual catch limit (ACL) determinations. For 2019 in American Samoa, there were no instances of MUS exceeding their ACL because the only remaining MUS is the bottomfish multi-species complex, which did not have an ACL specified in 2019 due to information presented in the new benchmark stock assessment (Langseth et al., 2019) that was determined to be the best scientific information available. While there used to be coral reef ecosystem management unit species (CREMUS) and crustacean management unit species (CMUS) that were actively managed using ACLs, an amendment to the American Samoa Archipelago FEP in early 2019 reclassified most of the MUS as ECS except for bottomfish. ECS do not require ACL specifications or accountability measures but are still to be monitored regularly in the annual SAFE report through a one-year snapshot of the ten most caught ECS, complete catch time series of prioritized ECS as selected by the American Samoa Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources (DMWR), as well as trophic and functional group biomass estimates from fishery independent surveys. Other existing management measures still apply to ECS. The bottomfish fishery performance in American Samoa showed a slight decrease in 2019 relative to 10- and 20-year averages. Total BMUS catch was 11,093 lbs. estimated from the boat- based creel survey data, a 9% reduction from the short-term trend and 24% reduction from the long-term trend. BMUS catch from commercial purchase data totaled 1,402 lbs., which was a slight increase from the 10-year average (+4%) but notable decrease from the 20-year average (- 34%). Catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) for BMUS in 2019 was lower than 10- and 20-year averages for both metrics presented, pounds per trip and pounds per gear hour. There were 33 lbs./trip of BMUS harvested by bottomfishing, which was a 39% reduction from the short-term trend and 43% reduction from the long-term trend. The estimated 1.1076 lbs./gear hour of BMUS harvested by bottomfishing was a 14% decrease from the 10-year average and 31% decrease from the long-term average. There were 57 fishing trips that harvested BMUS in 2019, which was consistent with the 10-year trend but an 11% decrease from the 20-year trend. Total gear hours bottomfishing for BMUS were estimated to be 1,469, a 52% and 45% decrease from the v Annual SAFE Report for the American Samoa Archipelago FEP Executive Summary short- and long-term trends, respectively. Participation in the bottomfish fishery decreased in 2019, with just six unique vessels harvesting BMUS (a decrease of 45% and 54% from 10- and 20-year averages). There was an estimated average of three fishers per bottomfishing trip, consistent with historical trends. There was no recorded bycatch in the BMUS fishery in 2019. For the top ten landed ECS in American Samoa in 2019, available data streams showed that humpback snapper (Lutjanus gibbus) had the most catch in the creel surveys and ranked tenth in the commercial data, while the blue-banded surgeonfish (Acanthurus lineatus) had the most catch from commercial data. The second most caught species in the boat-based creel surveys was the redlip parrotfish (Scarus rebroviolaceus), while a generic group of unknown reef fishes was second highest in the commercial purchase data. Several other species had notable catch estimates in the creel survey data, including A. lineatus and Chlorurus japanensis. For commercial data, the striped bristletooth (Ctenochaetus striatus) ranked third. Many remaining top ten ECS from commercial purchase data were multi-species or family groups (e.g., Scarus spp. and emperors) due to how the species are organized during data collection. For prioritized ECS (i.e., those selected by DMWR) in American Samoa, 2019 creel survey catch estimates for three of the six species (Parulirus penicilatus, Octopus cyanea, and clams) were zero. Cernimugil crenilabis, Sargocentron tiere, and Epinephelus melanostigma were the only species with catch recorded in the boat-based creel surveys for the year. The catch for these species was much higher than their 10- and 20-year averages due to the large amount of zeroes in the time series for previous years. In American Samoa commercial purchase data, five of the six species had zero recorded catch. The only species with catch for 2019 was P. penicilatus, whose 2019 landings were 8% higher than its 10-year average but 12% lower than its 20-year average. An Ecosystem Considerations chapter was added to the annual SAFE reports following the Council’s review of its FEPs and revised management objectives. Fishery independent ecosystem survey data, socioeconomcis, protected species, climate and oceanographic, essential fish habitat, and marine planning information are included in the Ecosystem Considerations chapter. Fishery independent ecosystem data were acquired through visual surveys conducted by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program (RAMP) under the Ecosystem Sciences Division (ESD)