June 29, 2020 — We hope Peter Navarro has received his updated business cards. At a meeting in Maine this month with commercial fishermen, President Trump was told how his trade war has devastated the state’s lobster industry. Mr. Trump said he’d get his trade adviser working on it posthaste: “Peter Navarro is going to be the Lobster King now, OK?”
BEN MARTENS: Federal COVID response a missed opportunity to help Maine fishermen
June 26, 2020 — President Trump’s recent roundtable meeting with fishermen in Bangor was a unique opportunity to bring national attention to COVID-19’s catastrophic impact on fishing communities here in Maine and around the country. Most Americans are unaware of the devastation the crisis has inflicted on fishing economies, which support 40,000 jobs in Maine and 1.5 million jobs in the United States. The president’s visit put a spotlight on Maine’s fishermen for a brief moment during this time of crisis.
What resulted from this meeting was the opening of a national marine monument south of Cape Cod to additional commercial fishing, and the creation of a yet-to-be-defined fisheries task force. While significant, this action does not address the underlying economic challenge facing Maine fishermen because of the pandemic – the collapse of domestic and international demand for seafood.
Roughly three-quarters of the seafood consumed in the U.S. is eaten at restaurants. With restaurants closed or severely constrained, prices and demand have dropped dramatically – close to 70 percent for many New England species. As families struggled to find healthy, affordable food, fishermen were being told not to go fishing. Seafood is one of the healthiest food choices you can make for your mind, body and the environment. More access to heathy food should be our shared priority. Unfortunately, the pandemic has illuminated the cracks in our national food system, meaning that now is the time to invest in comprehensive solutions to protect local, sustainable seafood for our nation.
ROB MOIR: The Monument Watch and How Trump Took the Bait to Strengthen Protections of Atlantic Ocean Realm
June 16, 2020 — The trap had been set up by boisterous environmental groups arguing with fishermen. Not seeing the forest for the trees, or rather the school for the fish, President Trump stepped squarely into it. He opened the Northeast Canyons and Seamount Marine National Monument to commercial fishing while strengthening protections of the ocean park area.
Deeply unfair, it’s a terrible thing, said the president addressing fishermen in Bangor. A representative of the Maine Lobstermen’s Union said he was “a little disappointed” so much time was spent on a monument that “has nothing to do with Maine.” The monument is 140 miles Southeast of Nantucket. Of greater interest are the millions of dollars lost in lobster exports due to the China tariffs. A hardship they hold Trump responsible for.
Lobstermen sued the government while continuing to work the resource. Just when the window for lobstering by the fourteen vessels was closing, Trump decreed they may continue. He maintained the status quo. The actually taking of fish is directed by the National Marine Fisheries Service with advice from the fishery councils. The quotas for catching fish or lobsters did not change, just the rhetoric.
Trump spared the NE Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument the damage he inflicted on Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. Here, Trump took away from native American tribal nations, the twin buttes of sacred lands packed with ancestral Pueblo artifacts. He made these lands available, for a price, to cattle, mining, oil and gas drilling. The monument was broken into two parts. Bears Ears National Monument was reduced by 85%, down from 1.35-million acres. Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument was reduced to nearly half the size, down from 1.88-million acres. The resulting monuments now have a combined area of 201,876 acres. This is a reduction of 85% of monument acres.
SEN. ED MARKEY: Fighting for fishermen during COVID-19
June 15, 2020 — Our historic and robust fishing industry is among the hardest-hit sectors of our state’s economy, in the fourth month of this pandemic. The “Sacred Cod” that has hung in the Massachusetts statehouse since the 1700s has seen the fishing industry go through many crises, but this one has been unique.
Restaurants have shuttered and large export markets have been disrupted. Fishermen have lost access to critical points of sale and sources of income. With a decreased demand for fresh seafood, many boats sit idle in port. Meanwhile, boat payments are due and families need to be fed.
In the U.S. Senate, I have been fighting on a bipartisan basis alongside Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Alaska senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan to secure dedicated economic assistance for the fishing and seafood industries in COVID-19 economic relief packages. Thankfully, this bi-coastal effort got results. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, enacted into law on March 27, included $300 million in assistance for fishery participants and $9.5 billion for affected agricultural producers.
Maine Voices: Trump rights a wrong by reopening marine monument to fishing
June 10, 2020 — President Trump used the occasion of a visit to Maine last week to do right by an industry that hasn’t had much good news lately when he reopened to commercial fishing nearly 5,000 square miles of ocean south of New England that President Barack Obama closed in 2016.
Stay tuned. In the process of righting a wrong, Trump’s action, announced at a Bangor roundtable, has once again set hair on fire in the environmental community, tested the limits of presidential power and set the stage for litigation.
Obama created the area, known as the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, just a few months before he left office. He portrayed the monument, the only one in the Atlantic, as a hedge against climate change.
Spanning four canyons and three seamounts, the monument is home to cold-water corals, endangered whales and turtles and numerous fish species.
If Trump’s action was controversial, it should be seen as no less so than the process that created the monument. Fishing in U.S. territorial waters is managed by the National Marine Fisheries Service, which is charged with providing productive and sustainable fisheries based on the best available science. NMFS works with regional councils to ensure all stakeholders are heard and that its regulations have “ground truth.”
JESSICA HATHAWAY: What fishermen want: Process not politics
June 10, 2020 — I had the honor of being in the press pool for the presidential fisheries roundtable last Friday. When the conversation came around to the input from industry reps, there seemed be some confusion about whether the removal of commercial fishing restrictions in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts monument was going to benefit the people at the table.
With the exception of Jon Williams, who fishes red crab traps in the monument area, that’s not why they were there. The truth is, most of the panelists have never and would never fish in the monument area. Even if this declaration weren’t destined to be tied up in court, the oversight of this habitat area would revert back to the New England Fishery Management Council, which implemented protections in 2002 and extended them in 2015.
The panelists’ support was not based on their personal vested interest in fishing that area. Rather, it was a philosophical objection to the process of declaring marine monuments. So what’s all the fuss, anyway?
The Antiquities Act of 1906 gives the president the power to declare monuments on lands owned or controlled by the federal government.
The use of the act in marine environments is different because ALL of our ocean rights are controlled by government — state governments out to three miles and federal government from three to 200 miles. U.S. citizens cannot own water unless we own all the land surrounding and under that water. Otherwise, we can only own *access* to water.
JOHN FIORILLO: Offshore aquaculture has Trump’s backing, but that’s just the beginning
June 9, 2020 — When it comes to unprecedented moments in seafood industry history, May’s executive order from President Donald Trump is certainly near the top.
It’s not uncommon for US presidents to use executive orders to unilaterally pursue policy objectives, but that doesn’t lessen the significance or the potential of Trump’s “Promoting American Seafood Competitiveness and Economic Growth” decree as far as its impact on the seafood industry, particularly the US aquaculture sector.
While the order seeks to streamline fisheries regulations and promote more fair seafood trade, much of the value of this executive order will be determined by whether the United States evolves into the aquaculture powerhouse it has been threatening to become for nearly 30 years.
David Goethel: Living free and not dying in New Hampshire
June 4, 2020 — I was honored to sit down with NF Highliner and unrelenting fisheries advocate David Goethel recently to talk about the covid pivot and what fishermen are doing to keep their boats running.
“It’s certainly been interesting to watch what’s unfolded this year. First of all of course there’s far less groundfishermen than there used to be. There’s only six of us left in New Hampshire. We had over 100 in 2,000. Of those few people left, the coronavirus situation has put people into a rather unique position of having to move their product.”
Goethel is a longtime member of the Yankee Fishermen’s Co-op, which has downshifted from selling to major wholesalers to the public, primarily.
JOHN SACKTON: The Winding Glass: The Changing Face of Seafood Distribution
June 1, 2020 — Like so many other businesses, the core business of major U.S. seafood distributors has been upended by the COVID-19 pandemic.
We all know how restaurants, hotels and casinos, and amusement parks shut down. And foodservice seafood sales have fallen anywhere from 30% to 98%, depending on the type of venue and offering.
THE SEATTLE TIMES: New UW consortium will lead to a broader, deeper study of ocean health
May 28, 2020 — The University of Washington’s selection to host a new research consortium is a testament to the school’s well-earned reputation. It will help advance understanding of climate, ocean dynamics and marine ecosystems, building on the school’s track record of excellence in the field.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced last week that the UW will lead a new Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean, and Ecosystem Studies, which includes Oregon State University and University of Alaska Fairbanks. The designation comes with up to $300 million in funding for research into areas such as climate and ocean variability, the impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems, aquaculture and polar studies, in conjunction with the NOAA labs.
The selection is a testament to the UW’s research prowess: The commitment is nearly triple the last NOAA Cooperative Institute award to UW and formalizes longstanding collaborations among researchers along the West Coast.
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