At its November meeting, the Council received a report from its SSC concerning final herring ABC advice, addressed management priorities for next year and made decisions related to fishery management plan measures for Atlantic herring, sea scallops, groundfish, monkfish, red crab and dogfish.
Catch share debate heats up nationally
The national debate over fishermen’s catch shares is about to begin in earnest.
A draft policy created by a special task force for Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is scheduled for release and three months of public comment on Dec. 10, NOAA spokeswoman Monica Allen said yesterday.
Lubchenco has made $18.6 million available for the development of catch share fishing cooperatives in New England, but according to Monica Medina, who chairs the task force, no national funding commitment from Congress has been obtained.
The original date for release of the policy was October, but Medina sought and was given an extension by Lubchenco.
Gulf Coast governors recently wrote to U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Lubchenco’s boss, objecting to the "direction and rapidity" of the movement to implement catch shares in the Gulf of Mexico.
Pew Environment Group organized two national teleconferences last month to urge the administration to move cautiously toward commodifying the ocean’s stocks.
A peaceful mass protest against the rush to catch shares was mounted in Gloucester — in the parking lot of the regional offices of the National Marine Fisheries Service — in late October. The demonstration drew more than 200 fishermen from as far away as northern Maine and Montauk, Long Island.
Meanwhile, Congressman Barney Frank, who represents New Bedford, has written to Lubchenco with concerns that conservative allocations could undercut the catch share roll out set to begin next May for part of the ground-fishing fleet.
Governors Rick Perry of Texas, Haley Barbour of Mississippi, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Bob Riley of Alabama wrote "Our concerns center on the potential negative impacts catch share programs could have on our states’ economies, as well as how such programs could restrict citizens’ access to fisheries resources that should be shared by all." The governors cited "negative impacts" from the red snapper catch share system, and said they are "concerned about negative impact from the pending program for Gulf grouper. Creating an exclusive harvesting right for a small group of commercial fishermen inherently marginalizes other users who do not have the same access privileges."
New Certificate Preserves Valuable European Market for U.S. Seafood
NOAA Fisheries signed an agreement in November with the European Commission to ensure that US seafood exports to the European Union, valued at more than $1 billion, will not be disrupted by a new EC regulation designed to block illegal fish imports.
The following is a release on the agreement from NOAA Fisheries: A new U.S. catch document, designed to attest to the legality of US fisheries products, will be required in addition to the health certificates, which already accompany all seafood exports. The NOAA Fisheries Seafood Inspection Program will issue the catch document for fish harvested on or after Jan. 1, 2010.
Europe is the number one destination for US seafood exports.
In 2008, the European Commission adopted this regulation establishing the requirement that all seafood imports be accompanied by a catch certificate that attests to the legality of the catch for fisheries products harvested on or after Jan. 1, 2010.
The EC’s intention is to prevent illegal, unreported, and/or unregulated fisheries products from being imported into EC member countries, which are currently estimated at $1.1 billion in value.
NOAA Fisheries recognizes the tremendous negative impact IUU fishing has on global fisheries and has been in close consultation with our European counterparts to develop an agreement on US compliance with the regulation. Illegal fishing depletes fish stocks and hurts the economies of nations and the livelihoods of people who depend on sustainable fishing.
The US agreement with the EC represents a significant achievement for NOAA in terms of preserving foreign markets, maintaining sustainable fisheries, and increasing the competitiveness of US seafood exports.
OPINION: Frank merits kudos for tackling Magnuson-Stevens
It’s interesting to note that, at an inside meeting with a handful of fishermen amid the Oct. 30 pro-fishing demonstration here, NMFS regional administrator Patricia Kurkul told them their best remedies were through the legislative process.
The move by Congressman Barney Frank to take a fresh look at and modify the Magnuson-Stevens Act — the core federal legislation that governs New England’s and all of America’s fisheries — is a step that deserves widespread support in Congress and far beyond.
Frank and other congressional leaders should re-acquaint members of the New England Fishery Management Council, NOAA and NMFS regulators and environmental hardliners — like the Pew Environment Group, which is already mobilizing its forces to block Frank’s push for reform — with Magnuson provisions that require consideration of the impact its regulations have on fishing communities.
Activists say fish deal hostage to WTO deadlock
GENEVA, Oct 29 (Reuters) – Proposals to rescue collapsing fish stocks by restricting fisheries subsidies are under threat because of the lack of progress in global trade talks, environmental campaigners said on Thursday.
The talks on fisheries subsidies are part of the World Trade Organisation’s Doha round to reform global commerce rules, which is showing few signs of movement despite an intensive work programme agreed by negotiators for the final months of 2009.
"We’re very concerned," said Michael Hirshfield, chief scientist at Oceana, a U.S.-based group that campaigns to protect the world’s oceans.
"We’re in a sense hostage to the broader negotiation," he told Reuters while in Geneva to lobby trade negotiators whose talks this week have been focused on fisheries subsidies.
Oceana Launches Six-Figure Ad Campaign at Start of Copenhagen Talks
Oceana, an international ocean conservation group, will launch a new six-figure advertising campaign on December 1, designed to influence policy makers arriving in Copenhagen for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 15), December 7 -18, 2009.
The advertising campaign will highlight the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to 350 parts per million (ppm) to avert a mass extinction of corals and likely declines in the countless marine species that depend upon them, this century.
To protect popular food species, such as oysters and lobster, and the economies that depend upon them, we will need to reach the goal of 350 ppm. The new advertising campaign includes three executions of a design based on the message: ‘The Price of Lobster in 2050: 350 parts per million.’ It will also include two additional variations: ‘The Price of Oysters’ and ‘The Price of a Dive Vacation,’ also following the 350 parts per million theme.
Oceana advertising campaign in Copenhagen
Because the changing chemistry of the ocean threatens all marine life, Oceana has invested in an advertising campaign to highlight the most urgent goal: reducing CO2 emissions to achieve atmospheric levels of 350 parts per million (ppm) or less as soon as possible.
The three advertisements that Oceana will display in Copenhagen, Denmark, throughout the entire United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meeting, are depicted here: (See them at Oceana.)
Ocean acidification will cost us dearly
Enjoy serving shrimp, oysters or crabs during your holiday meals? Then you should pay heed to the big climate change meeting coming up in Copenhagen. What nations decide there could determine if our ocean will continue providing tasty shellfish – or instead become part of a perilous chemistry experiment that could ravage valuable fisheries and coral reefs.
The problem, strange as it may seem, is that the ocean is doing a wonderful job of slowing down global warming. Every day, it removes nearly 30 million metric tons of carbon dioxide – the main warming gas – from the atmosphere. That’s nearly twice what U.S. power plants, cars and factories spew daily into the sky. So we owe the ocean a big thanks for putting a brake on climate change and giving us time to find solutions.
Unfortunately, that help comes at a steep price. When carbon dioxide in the air mixes with seawater, a chemical reaction creates a compound called carbonic acid – the same stuff that gives champagne its acidic zing. In the ocean, however, “acidification” is bad news for shellfish and corals. That’s because as acidification increases – and it is increasing rapidly – the process locks up the carbonate molecules these creatures need to build their shells and stony skeletons. It would be as if you started building a house, and then discovered that someone had locked away your bricks. Imagine trying to survive without reliable shelter or a full skeleton.
New Bedford scallopers fear rules would cut into profits 25 percent
Fishermen are projecting that this city’s booming sea scallop industry will take a 25 percent revenue hit in 2010 due to proposed cuts in the scallop harvest.
Regional fisheries regulators recently voted in favor of the cuts, which they argue are necessary to ensure that scallop stocks remain at sustainable levels and do not become subject to overfishing.
The New England Fishery Management Council chose a conservative method for calculating the sustainable level of scallop harvest for the 2010 fishing season, which begins March 1. As a result, fishermen will be allowed to harvest about 16 percent of commercially sized scallops.
With recent surveys showing the scallop stock is in good condition, fishermen say they should be allowed to harvest more of the shellfish.
With recent surveys showing the scallop stock is in good condition, fishermen say they should be allowed to harvest more of the shellfish.
"The council is taking a very, very conservative approach, and we don’t feel that it is justified," said Roy Enoksen, president of Eastern Fisheries Inc., a New Bedford company that operates the largest fleet in the industry with 23 scallopers.
"I think everyone in the industry would go along with this if they thought it was in the least bit necessary to preserve the stock," Enoksen said. "But we have a resource that is completely rebuilt and in very good shape."
The proposed cuts, which need final approval from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service, would do two things. First, they would reduce by one the number of scallop trips allowed into so-called access areas, or areas of the ocean that regulators periodically close to fishing so that scallop stocks can rebuild. In 2009, scallopers were granted five access area trips. The new rules would allow four such trips in 2010.
Read the complete story at The South Coast Today.
OPINION: Catch shares, and government ‘thievery’ of the commons by Carmine Gorga
How does the mind deceive us! Let me count some of its infinite ways.
It was a painter, Goya, who pinpointed the problem. He saw that "Dreams of reason produce monsters."
And it was my father who gave me the key to unlock some of the related mysteries. He offered this rule: "Every excess is a defect."
Private property is a very good thing. It was Saint Thomas Aquinas who made an exhaustive and convincing list of the benefits of private property. Very little has been added to that list — except an error.
The error consists in believing that the benefits of private property extend without limits, even to cover the privatization of common property.