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Jones questions agency integrity on sturgeon |
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Walter B. Jones (NC-3) is raising troubling questions about the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) handling of comments and scientific data on Atlantic Sturgeon submitted by various state fisheries agencies, fishing associations and the public. NMFS is currently reviewing a proposed rule to list multiple East Coast population segments of Atlantic Sturgeon as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. This comes despite the fact that the agency has never conducted a single stock assessment on any Atlantic Sturgeon population segment proposed for listing.
Before the public comment period on the proposal closed Thursday, February 3rd of this year, the states of North Carolina and Virginia along with several fishing organizations submitted new, detailed scientific data documenting the presence of more Atlantic Sturgeon, and particularly more large, mature fish, than previously thought to exist. But on February 8th, just two working days after the comment period closed, NMFS publicly stated at a Sturgeon Workshop that the final rule on the Sturgeon listing proposal had already been circulated for peer review. The agency announcement calls into question whether it took the time to analyze and incorporate the new scientific data into their decision-making, which it is required to do by law. Read the response from Eric Scwaab to the letter on sturgeon, dated April 11, 2011.
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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."
