A NMFS decision to initiate the process to uplist loggerhead turtles from "threatened" to "endangered" is scheduled to occur on Monday, March 8. FSF sent this letter to NMFS Administrator Eric Schwaab.
Congressmen Walter Jones and Barney Frank discuss the IG report on NMFS enforcement
Each week, on WBSM in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Bob Vanasse of Saving Seafood joins host Phil Paleologos to discuss issues related to the fisheries with news-making guests.
Congressman Walter Jones (R-NC) and Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) discuss the latest fishing industry news with Phil and Bob – including the U.S. Commerce Department's Inspector General report on the shredding of documents by Dale Jones, the chief of law enforcement at NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service.
[click here and listen to the show now]
New York Fishermen March in Washington
To hear participants tell it, the 5,000 or so commercial and recreational fishermen who descended on Washington, D.C., last week were united in their belief that federal fishery managers were regulating them out of business using bad science, or no science, to justify it.
The rally, held on the steps of the Capitol Building on Feb. 25, was organized by the Recreational Fishing Alliance and other organizations. It drew fishermen from up and down the East and West Coasts as well as from the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska. Starting from the Viking Fleet dock in Montauk, two Hampton Jitneys rolled the length of Long Island picking up fishermen as they went.
The rally also drew a number of sympathetic legislators from both parties. Among them were Representative Tim Bishop, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and Senator Charles Schumer, all Democrats from New York; Representative Frank Pallone Jr. of New Jersey, a Democrat, who spoke on behalf of the fishermen; Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, also a Democrat, and Senator Scott Brown, also of Massachusetts, a Republican.
Boyd, Lemieux Fight to Protect Florida Fishermen
U.S. Congressman Allen Boyd (D-North Florida) introduced legislation in the House of Representatives to protect the jobs of Gulf Coast fishermen and enhance the economic benefits the local fishing industry brings to Gulf Coast communities. Boyd’s legislation, the Gulf of Mexico Red Snapper Fishery Protection Act, would require the federal government to submit a detailed analysis on the number of red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico prior to proposing any reductions in the number of days red snapper are able to be fished.
“Our local fishing industry serves as an economic engine for countless Gulf Coast communities, and it is unconscionable to think that these communities are being adversely affected by decisions based on faulty assessments or inaccurate data,” said Congressman Boyd. “This legislation will ensure that our fishermen’s jobs are protected from any unjust future closures and that the economies of our local coastal communities are never again put in jeopardy because of outdated or incomplete information.”
“Our commercial and recreational fishermen depend on the ability to fish, and closing fisheries using inaccurate information is a direct affront to our livelihood,” said Bob Jones, executive director of the Southeastern Fisheries Association. “Congressman Boyd has been an unwavering advocate for our community, and this bill is just the latest example of his commitment to protecting the rights of fishermen in our district. I’m proud to have him fighting on our behalf in Washington and told him he has the full support of our members.”
VIDEO: The way fishermen’s catch is regulated is about the change.
Local fishermen have been fishing with a system that gives them a certain number of days each year to get their work done.
Now, the push is on by some government agencies to have them fish in a “sector” program one that gives each boat a specific part of a grid in the ocean to fish.
Either way, there’s still a limit on the fish they can catch.
Whether it’s with the “Days At Sea” program, or the “Sector” program, many fishermen said neither is relevant until the science of counting the numbers and kinds of fish that are really out there gets better.
IG: NOAA’s chief cop shredded documents in November
Dale J. Jones, whose decade as the head of federal fisheries law enforcement has produced a dossier of alleged heavy-handed practices against the fishing community, authorized a mass document-shredding operation last November while under scrutiny by the U.S. Commerce Department inspector general's office, a federal committee chairwoman charged yesterday.
The shredding came to light during the second of two separate House oversight subcommittee hearings into the findings in the yet-to-be-finalized report of Inspector General Todd Zinser.
The revelation of the destruction of documents was made by Madeline Z. Bordallo, D-Guam, who chairs the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Insular Affairs Oceans and Wildlife. Her statement came at the start of a two-hour hearing — a day after another House panel had grilled Jones and oceans chief administrator Jane Lubchenco about NOAA enforcement wrongdoing in another hearing in Gloucester's City Hall.
NY Times: Lawmakers Want NOAA’s Law Enforcement Chief to Quit in Wake of Scandal
Dale Jones authorized the destruction of more than 100 files at law enforcement headquarters in Silver Spring, Md., during the investigation of his department last year, according to Commerce IG Todd Zinser. The allegations came to light yesterday during two hearings in the House and Senate on fisheries enforcement.
"It was not authorized by me, and when I informed NOAA leadership of what we found, they did not say they authorized it either," Zinser said of the shredding. "I was surprised by it. What came to my mind is, I wonder what the office of law enforcement would do if a fishing company they were investigating had done the same thing?"
Zinser is conducting a new investigation of Jones' actions, which he said should be completed within one month. He said that Jones has told him the document destruction was a routine attempt to clear away old files and had been planned for more than a year.
NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco said she would hold off on personnel action until the new investigation is complete — the course of action Zinser recommended to her. But she said she is "quite concerned" about the document destruction, which she just learned of Monday.
"I do think it does not look good," Lubchenco said yesterday.
Jones's office was already under fire after the IG found "systemic, nationwide" issues plaguing the fisheries enforcement program.
The report from the IG in January said law enforcement officers have created a "highly charged regulatory climate," especially in the Northeast, with strict enforcement of complicated laws that commercial fishers find hard to follow. Ninety percent of NOAA's law enforcement staff are criminal investigators, even though most fisheries' infractions are misdemeanors.
An investigation more than 10 years ago found similar problems with NOAA fisheries enforcement, but the problems persisted. Lubchenco said she could not comment on why, since that report came before her time.
Senate Oceans and Fisheries Subcommittee Chairwoman Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) encouraged Lubchenco to dig deeper to investigate the response, or lack thereof, to the last report — a recommendation Lubchenco said she would take to heart.
"I think you'll find that the same issues why those recommendations were not implemented will be the same reasons why these won't be, as well," Cantwell said. "We don't want to do another report in a few years and find the same issues. These are cultural barriers in an organization that need to be broken down. Until we find out what those are, we cannot move forward."
The most recent investigation came at Lubchenco's request after she heard complaints from fishers and lawmakers about fisheries enforcement. Zinser said he thinks she will fight to address the problems, noting that she could have called for a lower-key internal NOAA audit, but took the issue to him.
"It was my view then and continues to be that [Lubchenco] wants to know the underlying problems and fix them," Zinser said.
A Move to Save the Bluefin Tuna
The Atlantic bluefin tuna is considered a delicacy from Osaka to Omaha; at Tokyo's venerable Tsukiji fish market, a single giant blue tuna can fetch up to $100,000 in auction. But the sheer popularity of the fish among consumers of sushi and sashimi has caused populations of the bluefin tuna to plummet, with its total numbers down more than 80% since 1970. We are literally eating the bluefin tuna to death.
But there may still be hope for the species. On Wednesday the Obama Administration announced that it would support a proposed ban on international trade of the Atlantic bluefin tuna at the upcoming meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Doha, Qatar. The decision, for which conservationists had long been lobbying, could pave the way toward the most wide-ranging protections ever put in place for a major commercial marine species. "This announcement could be a real turning point in the fight to protect the tuna," says Susan Lieberman, director of international policy at the Pew Environment Group and a veteran of the CITES process. "This will help ensure the future of this endangered fish."
Protection for tuna was initially proposed by Monaco late last year, and if the motion passes at the CITES meeting, the fish would be listed under the treaty's Appendix I. That would amount to a total trade ban, though countries would still be able to fish the tuna for their own markets. But given that about 80% of the worldwide bluefin tuna catch is eventually eaten in Japan — with the main fishing nations being Italy, France and Spain — a global trade ban should significantly reduce pressure on the fish population, which is now at less than 15% of its estimated historical high. "This step will help fix a management system that is broken," says Mark Stevens, senior program officer for fisheries at the World Wildlife Fund. "First of all, we have to stop the overfishing pressure."
Auction settles case with NOAA; admits no liability
"The problem it became was a business decision," Ciulla said. "It was not prudent to spend that much money on litigation."
The settlement marks a new course for NOAA law enforcement. The negotiations were taken out of the hands of Charles Juliand, who heads the Gloucester office, and Deirdre Casey, who built the case against the auction. Instead, the talks were removed to NOAA headquarters where Lois Schiffer was recently installed as chief counsel.
March on Washington focuses on need to loosen regs
Fishermen protest federal catch limits
Dare County fishermen – both recreational and commercial – gathered in the still-dark hours of the morning on Feb. 25 to board a bus heading to Washington, DC, where they joined approximately 5,000 other fishermen, seafood dealers and tackle shop owners from all parts of the country, including Alaska.
They met in the nation's capital to form a protest in hopes of catching the attention of Congress to demand relief from a federal law they feel will doom the fishing industry and end North Carolina's commercial fishing heritage.
Setting strict timeframes for rebuilding fish stocks that have been deemed overfished, the Magnuson-Stevens Act, re-authorized in 2007, has several provisions that if enacted, according to protesters, will reduce the number and types of fish allowed for both recreational and commercial use, and fishermen contend will result in significant harm to both the recreational and commercial fishing industries.
Observers and participants at the rally said this was an historic event with the presence of both commercial and recreational fishermen, usually competitors for fish stocks, standing side by side to protest the act.