Saving Seafood

Opinion

OPINION: Alaska’s Farm Bill promises to safeguard our oceans and fishing families

September 17, 2023 — I first came to Sitka in 1982, driven by a love for wildness. I took up fishing to earn college money, but it didn’t take long for me to realize that the well-being of Alaska’s wild, pristine environment is directly tied to the stewardship of local fishing communities.

My passion for Alaska’s oceans led me to become an advocate for sustainable fisheries. I still earn my living fishing, and I am now the executive director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association. My family’s livelihood, and that of others in our fishing community, is entwined with the long-term health of our oceans. We fish and live with deep respect for the natural world and our unique place on this earth.

It is with this connection to our state’s natural bounty and coastal families that I applaud Sen. Lisa Murkowski for introducing the Improving Agriculture, Research, Cultivation, Timber, and Indigenous Commodities (ARCTIC) Act for inclusion in the Farm Bill, to ensure Alaska is represented in this pivotal federal legislation. This bill is a win for local fishing communities, which is a win for Alaska’s environment.

Read the full article at Anchorage Daily News

Op-ed: Marine Stewardship Council: Urgent international collaboration needed to safeguard our ocean

September 13, 2023 — The Marine Stewardship Council is an international nonprofit organization that sets globally recognized standards for sustainable fishing and the seafood supply chain. Fisheries representing 19 percent of the world’s wild marine catch are engaged in its certification program.

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), the non-profit responsible for the world’s leading sustainable seafood eco-label, is calling on global leaders to recognize the vital role of sustainable fishing in delivering urgent progress to safeguard our ocean, livelihoods, and food supplies.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Opinion: Oceans are heating up. Who will protect the turtles, whales and fish crossing borders into cooler waters?

September 10, 2023 — It’s been a hot summer. The ocean has been hot too. Marine heat waves, or patches of warmer-than-normal sea surface temperatures, are making headlines because we’ve never seen anything quite like what’s going on in the ocean right now.

These heat waves will cause marine species to disappear in some areas and appear in others. Previous scientific research found that mobile marine species — including tuna, penguins and sharks — will shift toward the poles during heat wave events. But a new study published this week shows a much more complicated story of how mobile animals respond to marine heat waves and the costs and responsibilities this movement will carry for countries receiving these species.

An influx of leatherback turtles into a country’s waters may require shutting down or relocating fisheries to avoid entanglement in fishing gear; an influx of blue whales could necessitate speed reductions for cargo vessels to avoid ships striking the animals. When valuable species such as tunas cross borders, the influx nation may need to increase processing plant capacity, while the outflow nation may need to compensate their fishermen for lost revenue.

Waters around the world are seeing these elevated temperatures. A record-breaking marine heat wave is occurring in the North Atlantic, producing the warmest waters seen in the last 170 years. In the Gulf of Mexico, water temperatures off the coast of Florida have surpassed 100 degrees; off Baja California, an unprecedentedly warm ocean generated the first tropical storm to hit Los Angeles in 84 years. Normally, around 10% of the ocean surface is expected to be in a marine heat wave state, but the latest forecast predicts that up to 50% of the ocean surface will experience marine heat wave conditions by this fall.

For the report, my colleagues and I studied the effect of four major marine heat waves from recent years on 14 mobile marine species in the Northeast Pacific (bounded by Alaska, Hawaii and the West Coast of North America). We found evidence of species shifting their habitats in all four cardinal directions.

Read the full article at the Los Angeles Times

Op-ed: Seafood business action on human rights is essential

September 6, 2023 — Chris Ninnes is CEO of the Aquaculture Stewardship Council. Brad Spear is global policy director at Sustainable Fisheries Partnership. ASC and SFP are members of the Certification and Ratings Collaboration.

Around the world, seafood production supports more than 600 million livelihoods and feeds more than 3 billion people. Yet significant social responsibility challenges exist in the supply chains of wild-caught and farmed seafood products from around the world.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Support growing for offshore wind moratorium, by Sen. Vince Polistina

August 29, 2023 — Earlier this month, the Democratic state Senate president and Democratic speaker of the state Assembly released a joint statement echoing our calls for a pause on offshore wind development until more research could be done. Their statements read, in part: “There are still many unanswered questions about the economic impact these projects will have on ratepayers as well as potential impacts to one of our state’s largest economic drivers, tourism at the shore.” A reasonable and rational statement one would expect from their elected officials.

In doing so, the Democratic legislative leaders joined non-partisan, concerned citizens groups like Clean Ocean Action, Defend Brigantine Beach, Save LBI and others, who have called for a pause in the project. For the record, I released my own statement urging Gov. Phil Murphy to suspend the project all the way back in February — calling for a moratorium until scientists could be ascertain what was causing the unusual number of whale and dolphin deaths plaguing our region.

Shortly after I released my statement, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) conceded that New Jersey’s offshore wind farm development “is likely to adversely affect” whales and other marine mammals, while stopping short of solely blaming it for the deaths — copping to something many of us had long-since concluded based on the tragic scenes we had witnessed throughout the late winter and early spring.

Read the full article at the Press of Atlantic City

LORI STEELE: Safeguarding Oregon’s Sustainable Seafood Industry: DEQ urged to reconsider unachievable permits

August 21, 2023 — Oregon’s coast boasts the heart of our commercial fishing industry, renowned for its delectable, sustainable seafood that attracts nearly 30 million visitors annually.

The bustling waterfronts not only offer picturesque scenery but also serve as vital economic hubs, providing generational fishing families with a market to deliver their catch and distribute Oregon’s seafood nationwide and across the globe.

As proud stewards of the marine ecosystem, Oregon’s seafood industry has worked diligently for over a century to foster a sustainable environment, supporting thriving communities and vibrant coastal economies. However, our seafood industry now faces a critical challenge.

Read the full opinion piece at the North Coast Citizen

U.S. Offshore Wind: Throwing the fish and the fishermen under the bus

August 15, 2023 — Fish and fishermen are used to making their way in or on the water. But, in its rush to develop offshore wind, the U.S. Government is throwing both fish and fishermen under the bus.

The U.S. should learn from Europe, which is decades ahead in developing offshore wind. The first offshore wind farm in Europe was built 32 years ago. Since then, more than 116 offshore wind farms have been built. Europe was extremely slow in addressing the effects of offshore wind on the marine environment, but in the last decade or so they have been catching up.

In recent years, European scientists have developed and adapted various methods for qualifying changes to the marine ecosystem due to offshore wind development, beginning with establishing a baseline prior to construction. Surveys have been designed to examine stressors (physical presence and dynamic effects of turbines, acoustic, electromagnetic, etc.) and receptors (pelagic/benthic habitat, fish and fisheries, mammals, food chain, etc.), in many cases, establishing a grid covering the site of a future offshore wind farm and systematically surveying that grid, often extending the survey for some distance beyond its borders. In so doing, the scientists establish a critically important baseline of data that is needed to compare with data obtained when re-surveyed after an offshore wind farm is operational. In this way, it is possible to quantify the short, medium and long term effects of offshore wind on the marine ecosystem. It’s just common sense to do this.

Contrast this with the current U.S. approach. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the Federal agency that is the steward for all U.S. offshore properties, has repeatedly stated that they have no plans for requiring any offshore wind site to be surveyed prior to construction for the purpose of establishing a baseline of marine life. In so doing, the U.S. is simply failing to prepare for the potential effects of offshore wind on fish and fishermen, preferring to accept a highly uncertain outcome and ignoring important biological, ecological and socioeconomic effects of offshore wind development.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Leeman: Maine must hit pause on offshore wind turbines

August 2, 2023 — You wouldn’t buy a house without an inspection, so why would we fill the Gulf of Maine with wind turbine superstructures without understanding how they interact with the marine environment?

Offshore wind energy features too many unknowns to proceed at this point with widescale ocean industrialization. That’s why my organization, the New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association (NEFSA) has joined with partner organizations to call on state and federal authorities to reset our renewable energy policy.

The state of Maine is developing a floating offshore wind research array at a 15-square-mile site in the Gulf of Maine. NEFSA and its allies are asking state and federal authorities to delay any further development until experts have monitored and studied the research array. We should rescind the existing Gulf of Maine Call Area and conduct an environmental review for the Gulf of Maine before identifying any commercial wind energy areas.

I’ve been a fishing boat captain for over 20 years. I sailed out of New Bedford, Mass., and have scores of fishermen in my family lineage. From generation to generation, we have upheld a legacy of environmental stewardship and economic dynamism that has maintained the fishing industry in the Gulf of Maine while providing billions for New England’s economy. But every principle of stewardship and hard work we have upheld to preserve our maritime heritage is in jeopardy and could force our region into oblivion.

Read the full article at the Boston Herald

Should commercial fishing vessels go electric?

July 30, 2023 — While many of the sustainability initiatives for the commercial fishing industry are set to make a positive impact on the environment in the long run, going green is sometimes seen as just another cost by fishermen today. That’s why fishermen need to be at the helm, as their perspective is essential to consider when it comes to how safe, reliable, and affordable next-generation propulsion solutions will be developed. Especially considering the need to get ahead of requirements and mandates that could one day force some of these changes.

Those regulatory changes are something that Noah Oppenheim is especially focused on. The principal and founder of Homarus Strategies, his firm specializes in fisheries policy at all scales and levels of governance, ocean renewable energy issues, and navigating broad environmental regulatory frameworks.

Providing the financial and regulatory support for a smooth and cost-effective energy transition means approaching challenges with electrification and going green in terms of practicality, safety, and careful industry-led planning. A few organizations across the country that have been organizing efforts around fuel efficiency, emission reduction, and vessel electrification before it becomes a mandate for U.S. commercial fishing operations, from Alaska to Massachusetts to Maine.

“The fishing industry has a compelling story to tell, and vessels have primarily used diesel for generations,” Oppenheim said. “Though it is a very effective liquid fuel for reliable marine propulsion and companies will further investigate improving it, there is a need for this industry to get ahead of mandates. There are clear examples of when the fishing industry has had to or has been forced into requirements or to make changes that have not been safe, reliable, or cost effective and the results of this have weighed heavily.”

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Letters: Pleas for help from Louisiana shrimpers fall on deaf ears

July 26, 2023 — The Louisiana shrimp industry is in crisis; putting our 15,000 jobs and $1.3 billion industry at risk.

During the legislative session, hundreds of shrimpers, dock owners and processors marched on the State Capitol to call out unwanted competition from imported shrimp.

Louisiana plays a significant role in the U.S. shrimp market, accounting for 25% of the nation’s demand. But imports from Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Ecuador are flooding U.S. markets, resulting in distressed prices for our product.

Absent an outright ban or a cap and control mechanism on imported shrimp, it becomes increasingly challenging to sustain our livelihoods. Additionally, imports raise concerns about cheap foreign labor practices and potential health risks.

Expanding testing and enforcing country-of-origin labeling are common sense solutions to ensure consumer safety and awareness. But our pleas for assistance to our federal and state lawmakers continue to go unanswered.

To add insult to injury, we face another threat by Louisiana’s recreational and for-hire charter fishermen who have suggested there need to be arbitrary and scientifically unsubstantiated limits on commercial fishing, including shrimping and Gulf menhaden fishing, to reduce incidental bycatch of speckled trout and redfish.

While conservation efforts of these stressed species are important, singling out the commercial fishing sector without addressing the root causes of reckless overfishing by the tens of thousands of unmonitored anglers off Louisiana’s coast is misguided. Louisiana’s commercial fisheries follow sound fisheries management practices.

We are heavily regulated, guided by science and sustainability. We will not allow others to selectively shift blame to us when they need to do more to preserve and protect their catch.

Failure to address these challenges will have far-reaching consequences, potentially resulting in the loss of not just our industry but a cultural heritage deeply intertwined with our coastal communities.

ACY COOPER

president, Louisiana Shrimp Association

Read the full article at NOLA.com