SavingSeaFood - TAKE PART by PARTICIPANT MEDIA: If One Scientist Says So, Is Overfishing Really Over?

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TAKE PART by PARTICIPANT MEDIA: If One Scientist Says So, Is Overfishing Really Over?

Take Part, an online media project of Participant Media, is urging readers to take action based upon former NOAA cheif scientist Steve Murawski's comments that overfishing will not occur in U.S. waters this year by downloading the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch application.

According to their website, Participant Media was born in January 2004 when Founder Jeff Skoll assembled a team of entertainment industry executives who shared his interest in creating quality entertainment about meaningful issues; together, the team built an environment to foster storytelling that engages the audience, generates awareness of topical and interesting issues and inspires individuals to take action.

The following year, Participant's debut slate of films, North Country, Syriana, Good Night, And Good Luck and the documentary Murderball, received a total of 11 Academy Award® nominations and one Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for George Clooney’s performance in Syriana. The company's many social action efforts for these films included a program for North Country that provided support for organizations and advocacy efforts, which resulted in the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act.

Participant was responsible for a worldwide phenomenon with its 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth, which went on to win two Academy Awards® for Best Documentary and Best Original Song and become one of the highest-grossing documentaries of all time. Participant's social action campaign directly resulted in more than 28 thousand downloads of our online guide on how to reduce oil dependence, nine countries incorporating An Inconvenient Truth into their curriculum for high school students and the offset of over 106 thousand tons of CO2, and indirectly resulted in four bills on climate change being introduced in Congress. Global warming was now part of the international conversation.

This particular Take Part item by Jon Bowermaster links to an action item that sites the widely-challenged assertion that the oceans will be empty of all but jellyfish by 2048, stating "If current commercial fishing practices continue unabated, scientists have estimated that there could be no fish left in our seas come 2048. Yes, that's in your lifetime."

The contention of Steve Murawski, NOAA’s recently retired chief scientist, is that by the close of the current fishing year, which ends April 30, federal statistics will show that New England fishermen will have taken fewer than the allotted fish in all but one stock (winter flounder). The same, according to Murawski, is true in other regions, from the South Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico; credit is being given to the new laws as well as more awareness of overfishing among both fishermen and consumers.

Before uncorking the champagne—and before the Barney Frank brigade acquires any resignations—it’s worth noting that the stats Murawski cites represent a single year. That year comes on the heels of a century during which U.S. fishermen have badly overfished every region.

Led by Senator Barney Frank (D-MA), northeastern politicos including U.S. Senator John Kerry and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and dozens of state representatives jumped on Murawski’s comments as leverage against the Obama administration's tough catch-share laws. In particular, the rhetoric has denounced marine biologist Lubchenco, who has been tagged by her opponents as “an environmental activist scientist.”

Commerce Secretary Locke sent a letter last week to Governor Patrick vowing that the federal government would not back down on catch shares, despite a study by marine scientists at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth that the strict laws were “delivering a body blow” to the local fishing industry.

In a 30-minute radio interview, Frank said he felt “betrayed” by the decision and vowed to take the fight to the White House. He and others have been agitating for Lubchenco’s resignation since last summer.

Read the read complete story from Take Part.

MELISSA WOOD, NATIONAL FISHERMEN: Meting out the meager

May 22, 2012 - Listening to the New England Council's Groundfish Advisory Panel talk about how that industry is going to pay for monitoring costs is kind of like trying to figure out how to pay your bills when you've just lost your job. Though monitoring is important keeping costs down is critical. As Panel Member Gary Libby pointed out, "If we had 100 percent monitoring we probably wouldn't have an industry."

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