Washington

A fishermen flotilla protested the waters of Vineyard Haven Thursday where President Barack Obama is vacationing. Watch the video from WCVB-5 Boston.                      

While welcome signs dot the little island of Martha's Vineyard, encouraging President Obama and his family to enjoy their vacation, the seas are not so friendly. A flotilla of New England fishing vessels — totaling about a dozen boats thus far — has converged just outside the Vineyard Haven Harbor. The floating protest is an appeal to the president to intercede with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, on the behalf of struggling fishermen who feel strict new federal regulations will devastate coastal communities and force them to leave their boats and their livelihoods.

Capt. Russell Sherman has fished for more than 40 years out of Gloucester, Mass., one of New England's best-known fishing communities. He's spent the last 26 years as Captain of the Lady Jane, a 72-foot dragger that supports a five man crew. He fears the new catch limits will put him out of business.

"We're interested in survival at this point," said Sherman. "We've been cut more than half in the last 10 years."

Earlier this week he made a personal plea, publishing a letter in the Vineyard Gazette with the support of the Northeast Seafood Coalition, calling on President Obama's leadership to save jobs and crucial commercial fishing infrastructure.

He says the "catch share" system has already forced some fishing crews to stay at port and lease their percentage of catch out to boats that are still struggling through a tough season.

"I spent the last weekend hustling, calling my friends to try and buy extra fish to keep my enterprise going and to keep my boys working," said Sherman.

Only he's not "buying fish" — just the right to go out and try to catch them.

"I've been in this business almost 40 years and it's something new to me to go out and have to purchase my opportunity and then there's no guarantee that I'm going to catch this purchase. I just went $50,000 down to ensure myself and my crew a living for the rest of the year."

It's a risk. Sherman is using his home as collateral and says his fellow fishermen are no better off.

"All of us are that way, we're all stretched out tight," said Sherman, who's hoping his long shot effort to grab the attention of the president, will help.

NOAA declined to comment on the protest.

Read the complete story from FOX News.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This supplication introduced the full-page ad that the Northeast Seafood Coalition ran on 8/24 in the Martha's Vineyard Gazette. The ad is in the form of a letter from Russell Sherman, the Captain of the fishing vessel Lady Jane out of Gloucester, MA.  The letter is elegant in its simplicity and comprehensive in its content.  Mr. Sherman sets forth the fishermen's desire to work with the government in rebuilding fishing stocks without destroying the industry in the process.

Read this article from The American Thinker Blog.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today, August 25, 2010, the Oil Spill Commission is holding a day full of hearings here in Washington DC. The Commission, charged with developing recommendations to ensure that the disastrous BP Horizon spill is never repeated, is hearing from a range of oil company reps and federal officials, with a few other voices sprinkled in here and there.

During testimony by Jane Lubchenco, the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Greenpeace activists held up a banner reminding the Commissioners and federal officials that safe offshore drilling is a pipe dream.

See the banner and read the complete story from Greenpeace.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Northeast Seafood Coalition has taken out a full page ad in today's Vineyard Gazette.  The ad is an open letter to President Obama from Russell Sherman, captain of the Fishing Vessel Lade Jane of Gloucester, Massachusetts.  The text follows:

Dear President Obama,

My name is Russell Sherman, and I am a life-long fisherman. Like New England fisherman before me have done for 387 years, I take my vessel, the 72-foot F/V Lady Jane from the port of Gloucester, Massachusetts, into North Atlantic waters to bring back cod, haddock, flounder, and other groundfish for America’s table. I hope that while you’re in New England, you and your family are enjoying a few meals of our fresh catch — there’s none better tasting or healthier in the world.

Mr. President, my fellow fishermen and I need your leadership. We are small businessmen and women who want to continue the profession we love. We have worked hard over the past 16 years to rebuild groundfish stocks. Today, some stocks are fully rebuilt, and most others are expected to rebuild in three years, by 2014. According to federal forecasts, a fully rebuilt fishery will yield a sustainable catch nearly five times current landings.

At a time when we should be hopeful about the future of our businesses, we are desperate instead. We are being driven from our work and the fishery we have helped to rebuild. Ironically, what’s putting us out of work are the rules to rebuild the fishery. The most recent version of these rules — effective on May 1, 2010 — impose very low annual catch limits on stocks for the next three years, and at the same time institute a
“catch share” system.

Take my case. Under the 2010 rules, my permit allows an annual catch of only 60,000 lbs of groundfish. At an average price of $1.50 a pound, that’s an annual gross of $90,000, or about one-quarter of my business’ gross income last year. I simply cannot run my business and support my crew of four — each with a family — on only $90,000 a year.

My business is only one of hundreds facing extinction. While there will be a small handful of “winners” under these new rules, the vast majority of us will be losers. And when we “losers” are forced out, jobs will be lost, coastal communities gutted, and crucial commercial fishing infrastructure gone forever. Is this the way to rebuild our storied, centuries-old groundfish fishery?

I belong to an organization called the Northeast Seafood Coalition, a New England-wide organization of 255 small, entrepreneurial fishing businesses and allied support businesses that participates in the public process. The Coalition has tried to bring this matter to the attention of your Department of Commerce. We have tried to offer constructive solutions to the challenge of rebuilding fisheries without at the same time destroying them. But our efforts have fallen on deaf ears.

MR. PRESIDENT WE NEED YOUR HELP

Mr. President, we desperately need your leadership. We ask that you please direct your Department of Commerce to listen to us and work with us. We know that we can meet this challenge by working together.

Sincerely yours,
Russell Sherman, Captain, F/V Lady Jane Port of Gloucester, Massachusetts

 

See the ad in the Vineyard Gazette here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jane Lubchenco, the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, received an all-business, New York reception when she met with members of Long Island’s commercial and recreational fishing industries last Thursday in Hampton Bays. 

The complaints and calls for emergency action, though voiced articulately and with due respect, were delivered to the administrator high and hard, none harder than those pitched by Senator Charles Schumer. The seriousness of the occasion was marked by the appearance of Warren Carter, who blamed the policies of the enforcement wing of the National Marine Fisheries Service, a NOAA agency, for causing his partner’s suicide.

“This is an emergency meeting. Everyone here is an environmentalist,” were the words with which Mr. Schumer chose to open the session held at Oakland’s Restaurant beside the Shinnecock Inlet entrance.

The statement was as much a directive as a call to order, and was meant to abolish any idea that this was to be a meeting between those bent on raping the sea, and those called to protect it.

Read the complete story from The East Hampton Star.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hampton Bays – The Long Island fishing community was recently granted its first opportunity to meet personally with the woman in charge of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Dr. Jane Lubchenco.

About two dozen representatives of the New York fishing industry including representatives from the recreational fishing sector were invited by Sen. Charles Schumer to participate in the meeting with Dr. Lubchenco which took place August 12 at Oakland's Restaurant overlooking Shinnecock Inlet in Hampton Bays.

"It was an appropriate location seeing as how the docks were loaded with boats which used to be out on the water fishing in previous summers," said Jim Hutchinson, Jr., Managing Director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance. "Then when you look out on the jetty which used to be lined with fluke fishermen this time of year and see only about five or six anglers, you know things are way off."

Read the complete story from Hamptons Online.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The text of Senator Schumer's letter follows:

Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council

Suite 201

800 N. State Street

Dover, DE 19901

August 18, 2010

Dear Members of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council,

I write to urge you to provide increased access to summer flounder and scup resources for the recreational and commercial fishermen of New York State. As you know, the Long Island and New York fishing industries are fighting through some of the toughest economic times we have seen in generations. High fuel costs, overly restrictive limitations on catch, and shortened seasons have threatened the very livelihood of many New York fishing professionals and the coastal businesses and communities they sustain. The vote you cast today on 2011 management measures for these two crucial fisheries will affect the fate of an industry, one that supports many jobs on Long Island and throughout the State.

Last Thursday, I hosted National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco for a meeting with Long Island recreational and commercial fishermen to hear firsthand the economic impact that inflexible fishing restrictions based on imprecise data are having on the local industry. At that meeting, I pressed Dr. Lubchenco to address inequities experienced by local fishermen with respect to limitations on the summer flounder and scup seasons. Along with the fishermen at that meeting, I announced my support for the Science and Statistical Committee’s recent recommendation that summer flounder and scup fisheries could potentially sustain a harvest increase of approximately 30% and 15 to 200%, respectively. I asked her to work with the Councils immediately to approve these recommendations.

Today, I implore you to grant the maximum increase in quota for these species that allows for both the continued health and rebuilding of the stocks and the greatest economic relief for New York fishermen. As the Council knows, these species are not overfished and overfishing is not occurring. Fishermen have patiently waited for these stocks to rebuild and were promised relief when they were healthy again. Now is that time.

Your support for greater access to these fishing resources means creating and saving jobs in New York State. As one fishing captain wrote to me yesterday, “We have complied year after year with the most restrictive regulations that could be imagined, losing over 75% of our Porgy

fishing business in the process. It is time for the tide to change. I am begging you for your help on behalf of the recreational fishing industry and the forty-five employees who work for me.”

Allowing New York fishermen the maximum access to the summer flounder and scup fisheries that the overall health of the stocks will allow will provide a well-founded shot-in-the-arm for our struggling fishing industry. I urge you to keep in mind the hundreds of jobs at stake as you may your decisions.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call Anne Fiala in my Washington office at 202-224-6542 or Gerry Petrella in My Long Island regional office at 631-753-0978.

Sincerely,

Charles E. Schumer

United States Senator

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In a press release the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said it was deeply saddened by the death of former Sen. Ted Stevens.

Those of us in the fishing world are familiar with Stevens for his role in establishing the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation Act in 1976, along with Sen. Warren Magnuson.

This legislation, enacted in 1976 and reauthorized most recently in 2006, extended our nation's boundaries on the seas to the 200-mile limit and created regional councils to empower area-specific fishery management the news release said.

Read the complete story from the Asbury Park Press.

 

 

 

 

 

 

By JENNIFER SMITH  jennifer.smith@newsday.com

HAMPTON BAY, New York – August 12, 2010 – From catch limits to skepticism over the way federal scientists count fish populations, Long Island fishermen had a number of bones to pick with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrator Jane Lubchenco on her first visit to the region Thursday.

About two dozen commercial fishermen, seafood dealers and representatives of the recreational fishing industry attended the Hampton Bays meeting, which was arranged by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.).

Speakers were civil but the mood was tense, a reflection of strained relations between regulators and Northeast fishermen in recent years. Some fishermen are wary of Lubchenco, a marine biologist, because of her past ties to organizations they say have an anti-fishing bent, such as the Environmental Defense Fund and the Pew Oceans Commission.

Many fishermen who spoke said they were struggling financially. They blamed strict rules driven by what they called inaccurate and outdated fish population data that does not reflect the current abundance of scup, summer flounder and other economically important species.

"Nobody wants to see overfishing," said Schumer, who was joined by Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton). "But they want to see the science done in a rational way that allows them to stay in business and let their children go into business."

Schumer and others also pressed Lubchenco to make amends for wrongdoing uncovered by a recent audit of federal fisheries police. The audit found heavier fines were imposed on Northeast commercial fishermen than those in other regions and that the agency spent the money on unauthorized cars, boats and travel.

 

Read the complete story in Newsday

 

Please note, Newsday is a subscription site