by Ken Quintanilla

Guam - The island's fisherman are hoping the federal government can step in to help address several issues impacting the local fishing community. It was late last week when the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council wrapped up its four-day meeting in Saipan and Guam. And according to fishermen's co-op president Manny Duenas some of the issues has been going on for a long time like shark depradation. He says some fishermen are ready to call it quits.

"And when we go out fishing and we encounter a nice school of fishing or we go bottom fishing and we encounter more sharks and even more sharks every trip it gets quite costly for us and you add that on to the price of operating, some fishermen don't want to go out anymore and they're getting frustrated and they don't want to kill the poor creature for no reason and there's no one out there to make the playing field a little more level for everyone," he said.

Other issues include the increased cost of fuel and fishing supplies, the military and marine protected areas restricting fishermen's access to safe waters, and ongoing competition with fishermen from the Federated States of Micronesia. The next council meeting is set for June in Hawaii.