Washington

August 14, 2013 — The following was released by NOAA's Ocean Service: Read the Capitol Hill Ocean Week 2013 Summary Report

August 8, 2013 — U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski visited Petersburg this week during the height of a big run of pink salmon run. The seine fleet has been totaling around eight million pinks in recent two-day openings and processing companies are working to handle the catch. Both Murkowski and Senator Mark Begich are seeking to re-instate a special visa program that allows foreign students to work in Petersburg’s seafood processing plants.

That program, which was designed to be a cultural exchange, no longer grants the visa for foreign workers coming to the U.S. for food processing, including seafood. The Alaska Republican met with members of the fish processing industry and fishing fleet Wednesday morning. Joe Viechnicki spoke with her about concerns she heard in Petersburg.

Listen to the audio and read the story at KSFK

August 8, 2013 — Bottlenose dolphins have been dying off this summer at a rate rapid enough that marine life experts have taken steps to delve deeper to find the cause.

Since early July, 124 dolphins have been reported as dead or dying along shores from New York to Virginia. New Jersey’s beaches have seen xx strandings, the second highest number behind only Virginia with xx strandings.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries officials Thursday dubbed the deaths an Unusual Mortality Event, which the Marine Mammal Protection Act defines as unexpected, involving significant die-off of any marine mammal population, and demands immediate response.

The classification opens the group to more funding and other resources it needs to determine what’s causing these dolphins to die, Teri Rowles, National Marine Mammal Stranding coordinator, said in a teleconference.

Since the program launched in 1991, there have been 60 formally recognized Unusual Mortality Events, according to NOAA Fisheries.

Bottlenose dolphins, along with California sea lions and manatees, rank among the most common species involved in these events.

Read the full story at The Daily Record

August 5, 2013 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries Northeast Regional Office plans to host a telephone Town hall on Thursday, August 8, 2013 from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 pm EST to provide an overview of the application process and to answer questions from members of the public who are interested in applying for funding through this grant opportunity.

     To join the Telephone Town hall:

     Dial in Number: 1-888-469-1091

     Participant Password:  Grants

More information about the grant competition and the telephone town hall at NOAA Fisheries

August 2, 2013 — Kathryn Sullivan once walked in space as a pioneering female astronaut. These days, the oceanographer is sticking closer to Earth, as US President Barack Obama’s choice to lead the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Sullivan has been NOAA’s acting administrator since Jane Lubchenco left the post in February. On 1 August, Obama nominated her to be the permanent chief of the US$5-billion agency.

“I think it’s a great move,” says James Baker, who served as NOAA administrator from 1993 to 2001, and Sullivan was the agency’s chief scientist during part of that time. Baker says that Sullivan's experience with technology and satellites will be valuable. “That’s a big part of what NOAA does,” he says. “The satellite program is very expensive and always a big issue with Congress.”

Since returning to NOAA as its deputy administrator in 2011, Sullivan has overseen efforts to keep the agency’s ailing satellite programmes on time and on budget. She has also led the agency’s work to prepare for a probable gap in data from the series of polar-orbiting satellites that feed observations to NOAA’s computer weather models.

Read the full story at Nature

August 2, 2013 — As numerous Gloucester fishing vessels rest at the dock, with fishermen unable to cut a profit, NOAA announced Thursday a plan not to directly bail out fishermen but to fund projects that the agency expects to eventually rebuild the industry.

The $5 to $10 million in potential funds for the current fiscal year would allow the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to dole out awards that would mostly range between $30,000 and $250,000 for fishing-related projects.

City officials and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren are applauding the funding plan.

“I’m pleased NOAA is making this grant solicitation, which is an excellent chance for our ports to secure funding that will help the fishing industry innovate and modernize for the future,” Warren said in a prepared statement.

The money comes from a tariff on foreign imported fish. When the United States began increasing foreign fish imports around 1954, Congress voted to allot some 30 percent of tariff revenues to assisting the fishing industry, under legislation called the Saltonstall Kennedy Act, for then-senators Leverett Saltonstall and president-to-be John F. Kennedy.

In recent years, even with the United States now importing 92 percent of its seafood from foreign shores, those tariffs dropped straight into NOAA research. But NOAA’s Thursday announcement proposed injecting some of that money back into the harbor to be used in “carrying out projects related to U.S. commercial and recreational fisheries” in hopes of “rebuilding and maintaining sustainable fisheries practices.”

While the announcement lists off many potential projects surrounding aquaculture and harbor research, it also dips into examining the socio-economic impacts of measures like quotas on certain fisheries, and would encourage projects meant to expand the buying markets for local seafood.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times 

 

WASHINGTON — August 1, 2013 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) announced of a new federal grant opportunity through the FY 2013 Saltonstall-Kennedy Program. The following statement was released by the office of United States Senator Elizabeth Warren:

United States Senator Elizabeth Warren today applauded the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) announcement of a new federal grant opportunity through the FY 2013 Saltonstall-Kennedy Program, which can benefit the fishing industry in Massachusetts.

Senator Warren had previously urged NOAA's Acting Administrator Dr. Kathryn D. Sullivan to provide Saltonstall-Kennedy funding for these grants, and she has worked with Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) to increase the Saltonstall-Kennedy grants for FY 2014.

"NOAA's announcement of new grant opportunities through Saltonstall-Kennedy is great news for Massachusetts' fishing communities," said Senator Warren. "I'm pleased NOAA is making this grant solicitation, which is an excellent chance for our ports to secure funding that will help the fishing industry innovate and modernize for the future."

NOAA anticipates awarding between $5-$10 million in competitive grants focused on fisheries research and development projects, including cooperative research projects with industry. The grant announcement may be viewed here.

Read about the grant opportunity

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) — August 1, 2013 — When the National Park Service (NPS) announced it would utilize third party seafood ratings and certification programs to set guidelines for vendors offering seafood options within U.S. National Parks, the agency revived a debate surrounding the eco-certification of U.S. seafood. Tomorrow, NPS is meeting with NOAA in an attempt to reconcile concerns and ensure that its new sustainable seafood guidelines aren't detrimental to fishermen, processors, and consumers alike.

In June, the National Park Service (NPS) announced a new initiative to provide healthier and more sustainable food options in national parks across the United States. As part of the program, NPS created guidelines for “sustainable seafood,” stating that parks will “provide only [seafood options] that are ‘Best Choices’ or ‘Good Alternatives’ on the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch list, certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), or identified by an equivalent program that has been approved by the NPS.”

In response, John Connelly, President of the National Fisheries Institute (NFI), wrote a letter to NPS, in which he asked that the Agency reconsider their guidelines. He stated that “any fish caught in U.S. waters is already ‘certified sustainable,’ based on rigorous NOAA oversight and does not need additional certifications.” His point speaks to the strict conservation standards in the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA), which are enforced by NOAA.

The Seafood Coalition, an ad hoc group representing members of the seafood industry across the U.S., followed up with their own letter. In it they asked: “Why would the NPS limit its vendors to those whose products are deemed sustainable by outside interests while ignoring [NOAA’s] FishWatch, an existing and proven program?”

During a hearing of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski questioned NPS Director Jonathan Jarvis on this issue. She asked Mr. Jarvis if NPS had worked with NOAA, stating, “NOAA is the agency that makes the determinations of what is sustainable [seafood] within the country.” She concluded, “I want to make sure we’re not locking ourselves in to a standard here that is simply not the right standard.”

These serious concerns from the seafood community have caught NPS by surprise. In an interview with Seafood Source , NPS spokesperson Kathy Kupper apologized. She stated, “We didn’t mean to step on anyone’s toes. The people who worked on the [sustainable food] guidelines tried to find some easily-understood guidelines.” Ms. Kupper told Saving Seafood that NPS has set up a meeting with NOAA, but this meeting does not indicate that NPS is pulling back. “We are going forward with our standards,” she said. “We are not changing anything, we are looking at adding more.” The meeting is scheduled for Friday, August 2.

More than just ruffling feathers in the seafood industry, the NPS guidelines rekindled a longstanding debate on the meaning of “sustainable seafood.” And, as a government agency, the repercussions for what NPS deems “sustainable” carry weight.

In his letter, Mr. Connelly touched on the heart of this issue. He writes: “Why would [the Department of the] Interior and NPS require third party certification of seafood sustainability if Commerce [NOAA] were doing its job well?”

Or, in other words, if all U.S. species are by law managed sustainably, then there is no need to follow additional third party seafood certification guidelines for U.S. seafood.

The U.S. is widely considered a model of responsible fishery management. The MSA mandates NOAA must use the “best scientific information available” in setting regulations and ensuring compliance with the law’s strict conservation standards. Even fisheries that are recovering are under rebuilding plans that require fishermen to harvest only a quantity deemed sustainable by Federal managers. NOAA estimates that, as of April 2013, 33 U.S. stocks that previously experienced overfishing have been rebuilt.

Industry members question why, if all U.S. seafood is managed sustainably according to Federal conservation standards, third party recommendations are used for U.S. seafood at all.

But the groups that issue third party guidelines and provide certifications do not agree that management under MSA guarantees sustainable standards for commercial fishing. In addressing its view on the matter, the Monterey Bay Aquarium states , “when there is scientific uncertainty, we err on the side of conservation.”

This conservationist perspective can provide useful guidelines to careful consumers, but these ratings are unrealistic as a sole standard for sustainable fisheries. The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch ranks species instead of specific fisheries, which can lead to generalizations that prevent many sustainable fisheries from achieving a fair rating. For example, separate stocks of the same species are listed as one, sometimes causing a healthier stock to be rated lower. Also, gear types are evaluated across the board, regardless of location. This prevents any fishery that uses bottom-tending gear from achieving a “Green/Best Choice” rating, even if it is proven to have minimal environmental effects.

In comparison, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) provides more in-depth and specialized evaluations by certifying individual fisheries. But this program is costly, and many fisheries either cannot afford certification or believe their resources could be more beneficial elsewhere. The MSC program, which is intended to address international sustainability issues, has also faced criticism for being too complex and creating sustainability standards that are “moving targets .” MSC’s certification and recertification process can be inconsistent with NOAA’s established, specialized, and proven fishery management. In her discussion with NPS Director Jarvis, Senator Murkowski spoke to this point, saying, “The NGOs that you’re relying on [MSC], in my view, have a troubling record of meddling with, at least, Alaska fishermen’s fishery management.”

Ultimately, as NPS moves forward with its guidelines, the government agency sets a precedent for both seafood providers and consumers. U.S. fisheries following the rules set by Federal conservation standards should be recognized by all agencies on the Federal level. While there is use for third party ratings and certifications as indicators of sustainability, U.S. jobs and seafood producers suffer when inferior scientific reports from seafood guides and commissioned certifications create market barriers for sustainably harvested seafood products.

These discrepancies in third party ratings go deeper than different interpretations of “sustainability.” They reveal a serious disconnect between the ratings and realities of U.S. fisheries. Saving Seafood has compiled an investigative report that details key issues with the most popular seafood guides and the obstacles they can create for U.S. seafood providers.

Read the Saving Seafood investigative report on how third party ratings and certification programs can mislead retailers and consumers.

Read the 2012 story by Saving Seafood “Whole Foods Is Wrong Says Industry, Environmentalists, Scientists, Congress and Government Data”

 

SEAFOOD.COM NEWS (Seafoodnews.com) — July 31, 2013 — U.S. Senator Mark Begich helped move several pieces of legislation through the Senate Commerce Committee including bills that will eliminate pirate fishing practices, improve international fisheries stewardship, and ensure that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has the resources necessary to recruit and retain a strong workforce his office said in a press release.

"As a member of the Senate Commerce Committee and chairman of the Oceans Sub-committee, I work to make sure the committee focuses on Alaska priorities," said Begich. "As a result of today's committee meeting, Alaska is one step closer to better fisheries protection, more Arctic research and a having a 21st century workforce for ocean research."

Begich is the chief sponsor of two of the bills.

Following is a breakdown of the legislation Sen. Begich is involved with:

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioner Officer Corps Amendments Act: Begich introduced this bill to improve NOAA's ability to recruit and retain officers for the uniformed service which operates its research ships and aircraft, the NOAA Corps. New programs, such as educational loan repayment authority are paid for by savings generated elsewhere in the bill.

Pirate Fishing Elimination Act: The Pirate Fishing Elimination Act, with Begich as an original co-sponsor, implements a 2009 agreement to prevent illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. It authorizes the Secretary of Commerce to designate ports of entry for imports of seafood and requires ships importing seafood to submit advance information about their cargo. This bill was carried over from the last Congress and is a legacy of the work of former senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI.)

International Fisheries Stewardship and Enforcement Act (IFSEA): IFSEA, also originally co-sponsored by Begich, strengthens penalties under the Magnuson-Stevens Act and provides the Coast Guard and NOAA with additional authority for searches, inspections, shipment detentions, arrests, and subpoenas to enforce international fishery agreements. It strengthens provisions against pirate fishing, toughens penalties included in several international fishery agreements, and creates an interagency International Fisheries Enforcement Task Force to investigate pirate fishing activity.

Meanwhile Begich is an original co-sponsor of the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Amendments of 2013 bill that establishes a national Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) program to deal with HABs which are the cause of red tides and oxygen-depleted "dead zones" in the ocean.

This story originally appeared on Seafood.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission

July 26, 2013 — Deep-fried catfish served with a side of hush puppies and coleslaw has been a regional specialty for years and a cash crop for states in the Deep South. Now, catfish is at the heart of a dispute as the House and Senate prepare to work out their differences on a new five-year farm bill. The current bill expires on Sept. 30.

At issue is a little-known provision in the 2008 bill that established an office within the Agriculture Department to inspect catfish. But those inspection programs also exist at the Food and Drug Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration at the Commerce Department.

The Agriculture Department has traditionally inspected meat and poultry while the F.D.A. has inspected all other foods, including seafood.

Since 2009 the Agriculture Department said that it has spent $20 million to set up the catfish inspection office, which has a staff of four. The department said that it expects to spend about $14 million a year to run it. The F.D.A. spends about $700,000 a year on its existing office.

Despite the cost, the Agriculture Department has yet to inspect a single catfish.

Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, said the program reeks of wasteful government spending intended to help one special interest group, and he has vowed to “deep-fry” the catfish program.

Read the full story at the New York Times