See the trailer, join the mailing list, and learn about the campaign to save the world’s seafood. The End of the Line.
The Struggle Over Fish
There is much noise these days about seafood, in part thanks to the U.K. release of the film, “End of the Line,” about just how seriously threatened sea creatures are. There’s also the clamor, on both sides of the Atlantic, about Nobu refusing (thus far; stay tuned) to take bluefin tuna off its menus.
Now a U.K. survey shows that 90 percent of diners want restaurants to put sustainable fish on their menus (and are willing to pay more for it) even though the vast majority of those people don’t currently bother to choose fish from sustainable sources. In other words, make the merchants responsible.
I’m not certain this is how it’s going to play out. I’m all for seafood restaurants and fishmongers carrying only sustainable fish (and I recently had dinner with the CEO of Red Lobster to discuss this, and will report on that soon), but I think it’s also up to consumers to know enough to refuse to buy certain fish because they’re threatened (or, for that matter, because they’re farmed in unsustainable ways).
Feds to investigate NMFS enforcement tactics
The inspector general of the federal Department of Commerce this week began planning its investigation into the enforcement practices at NOAA fisheries — a probe requested in contrasting forms by the Massachusetts congressional delegation and the U.S. administrator for oceans and fisheries.
The state’s delegation proposed an intense, concentrated probe into prosecutorial behavior against fishermen in the northeast; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief Jane Lubchenco suggested a broad, nationwide focus instead.
The chief of staff for Inspector General Todd Zisner said yesterday it was too early to say for sure what the scope of the probe would be but she did say the IG would do what he thought was needed.
Read the story in full in the Gloucester Daily Times
Senator Olympia Snowe on value of oceans in national economy
In a Senate Commerce Committee hearing examining the role of oceans in our economic future, U.S. Senator Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) today extolled the present and future contributions of oceans to our national economy, from renewable energy to the fishing industry. Currently, the world’s oceans face numerous threats to their productivity and viability, including the looming threat of climate change.
"As coastal counties contributed forty-two percent of the U.S. economic output in recent years, it is clear that oceans truly hold the key to our economic future," Senator Snowe said. "Yet with growing environmental and economic threats to its viability, we must take stock of our ocean resources and examine the ways we can continue to utilize the goods and services our oceans provide for while strengthening our efforts to protect them. Increasing our investment in programs within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, such as the Integrated Ocean Observing System, would bolster our understanding of marine ecosystems and lead to new, more productive, and more sustainable use of our ocean space."
Senator Snowe emphasized the importance of developing offshore renewable energy, particularly offshore wind which is the most commercially viable source of offshore green power. Last Friday, Senator Snowe joined Governor of Maine John Baldacci and her colleagues in the Maine delegation in a meeting with Secretary of energy Steven Chu to express their support for establishing a deepwater offshore wind energy research and development center at the University of Maine.
OPINION: World’s biggest fish are dying by Ted Danson
Today, Monday, June 8, we recognize the first U.N.-sanctioned World Oceans Day. The event comes after years of pressure from conservation groups and thousands of activists who clamored for everyone to know and understand what’s happening in our oceans.
I became an ocean activist in 1987. It was the fifth year of "Cheers" and my family moved into a neighborhood that was on the water, in Santa Monica, California. One day I took my daughters to the beach to go swimming, but it was "closed" and I couldn’t answer my daughter’s question why.
That’s really how it started. That and "Cheers" was paying me a lot of money and I felt I had better be responsible with it. So, I started to get involved.
Trade Leaders Call for Fisheries Subsidies Reform on World Oceans Day
Key trade officials marked the occasion of the first World Oceans day by calling for reform of global fisheries subsidies. Pascal Lamy, director-general of the WTO, and US Trade Representative Ron Kirk released separate statements recognising both the threat of overfishing and the role that subsidies play in contributing to the problem.
Lamy stressed that the US$16 billion in worldwide fisheries subsides are having a harmful effect on the world’s oceans. But he insisted that sustainability can be achieved through negotiations at the WTO.
”WTO members are now negotiating to reform these subsidies programmes so that the fishing becomes a sustainable industry and so that we can fully appreciate our oceans’ bounty for generations to come,” the director-general said. “A deal in the WTO now, would mean richer oceans for the future generations.”
Lubchenco pushes ‘catch shares’; Rothschild supporters write Kennedy & Kerry; CFA president lobbies Congress
National oceans and fishing administrator Jane Lubchenco promoted "catch shares," the commodification of wild stock into negotiable rights, as the key to healthy future fisheries.
The topic and system of fishery management is at the top of the working agenda — at different stages of implementation and for different reasons — in both New England and Alaska.
Those regions also happen to be the bases for the two candidates for Lubchenco’s appointment to be chief steward of national fisheries, the position of National Marine Fisheries administrator.
Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.
Read letter from Rothschild supporters to Senators Kennedy and Kerry.
The fishy message of The End of the Line
You know the script by now: it’s a documentary, with a campaign attached, about an environmental problem, ideally with a Hollywood voiceover and the simple (or simplistic) message that humans are screwing up the planet. If we don’t Do Something very soon, it will be too late and we’ll simply have to repent at our leisure while disaster befalls us.
We’ve had An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore’s tendentious Powerpoint presentation about global warming (ex-vice president Gore is as good as Hollywood for these purposes); we’ve had The Eleventh Hour, co-written and fronted by Hollywood A-lister Leonardo DiCaprio; then there was A Crude Awakening, which lacked the Hollywood razzmatazz, but spiced things up by adding the threat of resource war to the prospect of civilisation slamming into a brick wall called ‘Peak Oil’ (see A fit of peak, by Rob Lyons).
Now, we have The End of the Line, a film version of Daily Telegraph journalist Charles Clover’s book about the threat to the world’s oceans and future food supplies from overfishing. It opens with shots of a colourful ocean scene, while Ted Danson delivers a portentous voiceover about how these fish are lucky to be ‘protected from the most efficient predator the oceans have every known’. No prizes for guessing that he ain’t talking about Jaws; he’s talking about us.
Senator Snowe Backs Coast Guard Authorization Bill
Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmospheres, Fisheries, and Coast Guard Senator Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) today announced her support for the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2009, bipartisan legislation to authorize funding levels for fiscal years 2010 and 2011.
“The rapidly growing maritime transportation system, expanded coastal development, increased energy demands, and the constant pressure on our vital marine resources challenges all of us in government to be protective stewards of the public’s interests,” said Senator Snowe.
“This legislation will provide the Coast Guard with the critical tools needed to modernize and improve its service to the public while ensuring the dedicated Coast Guard men and women faithfully serving our country have the resources and authorities needed to protect our mariners, our fisheries, and our vital marine environment.”
A national vision is needed before our nation’s oceans are opened to large-scale ocean fish farming
Americans are eating more and more seafood. It’s not surprising: Seafood tastes great and is generally heart-healthy. But after decades of mismanagement of our wild-capture fisheries, much of what we eat is no longer caught in U.S. waters. The bulk is imported from overseas, and much of that is farmed – a process called aquaculture. Open-ocean aquaculture is fish farming in large cages well offshore. While some forms of aquaculture, such as farming shellfish, are environmentally low risk, others, such as salmon farming, have a proven track record of environmental problems. It’s shocking to know that despite the growing demand for farmed fish, there are no national standards to address the numerous risks.
Because the federal government has yet to act, regions are putting forward their own plans, setting a dangerous precedent. In spite of vast public opposition across the US, the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council became the first fishery council to approve open-ocean aquaculture in federal waters in January 2009. If the plan is approved, it will pave the way for industrial aquaculture operations in the federal ocean without national environmental, socio-economic, and liability standards to ensure a sustainable future for US fish farming. Should the Secretary of Commerce approve this plan, what is to stop a second fishery Council from instituting even weaker standards in their own area? This issue is not unique to the Gulf of Mexico. Just last month, Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute announced its plans to build a massive fish farm off San Diego in southern California.
All Americans should be concerned with this type of piecemeal expansion of aquaculture. Vast amounts of small, wild fish must be caught to feed the farmed fish, adding to the stress on our already-taxed oceans. And the use of open-net pens allows concentrated fish waste and chemicals to flow directly into the ocean. Net pens are also prone to escapes, allowing farmed fish to interbreed with wild populations and spread disease to wild fish. To ensure these concerns don’t occur here in the U.S., a precautionary plan needs be developed now, before there is a substantial aquaculture industry that becomes difficult to redirect. Indeed, the Pew Oceans Commission, chaired by Leon Panetta and President Obama’s choice to head NOAA, Dr. Jane Lubchenco, have called for such a coordinated federal framework with strict standards before open-ocean aquaculture proceeds.
Read the complete story at The Hill.