Saving Seafood

East Coast fishermen spar with federal government over cost of at-sea monitors

July 14, 2016 — Every year, the federal government spends millions monitoring New England commercial fishermen to ensure they ply their timeless maritime trade in accordance with the law.

Now, a judge is set to rule on who should foot the bill for the on-board monitors: the government or the fishing boat owners. The East Coast fishermen say sticking them with the bill would be the “death knell” for their  industry and is illegal on the part of the federal government.

Fishermen of important New England food species such as cod and haddock will have to start paying the cost of at-sea monitors soon under new rules. Monitors — third-party workers hired to observe fishermen’s compliance with federal regulations — collect data to help determine future fishing quotas and can cost about $18,000 a year, or $710 per voyage.

The Cause of Action Institute, a legal watchdog representing a group of East Coast fishermen, sued the federal government in December in U.S. District Court in Concord, N.H., seeking to block the transfer of payments from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to the fishermen.

“It is unlawful for NOAA to force struggling fishermen to pay for their own at-sea monitors,” said former federal judge Alfred Lechner, the institute’s president and CEO. “The significant costs of these regulations should be the responsibility of the government.”

The lawsuit was filed against the Department of Commerce on behalf of David Goethel, owner and operator of F/V Ellen Diane, a 44-foot trawler based in Hampton, N.H., and Northeast Fishery Sector 13, a nonprofit representing fishermen from Massachusetts to North Carolina.

It called the transfer of payments the “death knell for much of what remains of a once-thriving ground fish industry that has been decimated by burdensome federal overreach.”

“Fishing is my passion and it’s how I’ve made a living, but right now, I’m extremely fearful that I won’t be able to do what I love and provide for my family if I’m forced to pay out of pocket for at-sea monitors,” Goethel said when the suit was filed last December.

Read the full story at Fox News

Federal lawsuit over at-sea monitoring still a go

June 29, 2016 — Fishermen opposing the cost-shift of at-sea monitoring say they are moving forward with a federal lawsuit despite the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration concession that it will help pay for the cost of the monitors for New England fishermen.

The at-sea monitoring program analyzes the fishing area, as well as the catch and gear type, in order to monitor sector quotas. The Northeast Fisheries Science Center, the research arm of NOAA Fisheries, is required to collect scientific, management, regulatory compliance and economic data for fisheries.

Read the full story at Mainebiz

GLOUCESTER TIMES: A partial victory for fishermen

June 28, 2016 — New England fishermen got a piece of good news last week when the federal government agreed to pay for a large portion of the cost of its at-sea monitoring of the actions of the industry fleet.

But let us be clear — it is only a bit of good news. There is much more work to be done before the monitoring efforts can be considered fair to cash-strapped fishermen and successful from an information-gathering standpoint.

The at-sea monitoring program, run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, places observers on fishing vessels to record details of their catch and make sure government regulations are being strictly followed.

The program is far from perfect. The regulations are at worst byzantine and contradictory, and at best merely confusing. The quality and experience of observers varies greatly, and extra people on the deck of a fishing vessel can add to safety concerns in what is already a dangerous profession. And then there’s the cost — about $710 a trip, by some estimates.

For months, NOAA was insisting fishermen pay the cost of monitoring, which surely would have bankrupted some of the vessel owners. It would be like paying to have a state trooper sit in the back of your car to make sure you weren’t speeding.

Fishermen and their elected officials lobbied for months to get the federal government to pick up the costs, and last week NOAA capitulated. The agency will reimburse fishermen for up to 85 percent of monitoring costs.

Read the full editorial at the Gloucester Times

Sens. Collins, King Applaud Funding to Help Reimburse Maine Fisherman for At-Sea Monitoring Program

June 27, 2016 — WASHINGTON — U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King today welcomed an announcement from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that it will fund an estimated 85 percent of the sea days needed for the At-Sea Monitoring (ASM) Program for the current fishing year. Beginning July 1, groundfish fishermen covered by the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan will be reimbursed for their at-sea monitoring costs through an arrangement with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

“The At-Sea Monitoring Program is an important tool that helps us to responsibly manage Maine’s critical ocean resources,” Senators Collins and King said in a joint statement. “Maine’s hardworking fishermen shouldn’t bear an unfair financial burden in supporting the ASM program. We applaud NOAA for stepping up to help reimburse our fishermen, and will continue to fight for the Maine groundfish industry moving forward.”

Read the full press release at the newsroom of Sen. Collins

Fishermen vow to continue lawsuit about monitoring rules

June 27, 2016 — CONCORD, N.H. — Attorneys for fishermen who oppose a new cost imposed by regulators say they will continue with a federal lawsuit despite a recent concession by the federal government.

The lawsuit concerns the cost of at-sea fishing monitors, who are workers hired to collect data that inform catch quotas. The government shifted the cost of paying for monitors from itself to fishermen earlier this year.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said recently that fishing trips on or after July 1 may be eligible for reimbursement of monitoring costs.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Jersey Herald

In Shift, NOAA Says Fish Fleets Will Be Reimbursed For Monitoring Costs

June 24, 2016 — Deviating from plans that had caused an uproar, federal fishing regulators plan to announce Thursday that some of the fishing industry’s costs for groundfish monitoring will be reimbursed this year.

The at-sea monitoring program places regulators onboard vessels and in March the federal government started shifting the cost for the monitoring onto the fishing industry, according to Northeast Seafood Coalition Executive Director Jackie Odell.

“The fishery’s just not in a profitable place to be taking on this additional burden,” Odell told the News Service. She said, “There are some boats that are going out, but it’s a mixed bag.”

A memo dated Thursday from a National Marine Fisheries Service official sent to congressional offices and obtained by the News Service said the federal regulators anticipate federal funds can cover at-sea monitoring for about 85 percent of the days at sea for the current fishing year. The memo cautioned that the agency does not “expect this situation to recur in future fishing years.”

“Beginning July 1, groundfish fishermen will be reimbursed for their at-sea monitoring costs through an arrangement with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission,” the federal memo stated. “The arrangement will last until funds are expended, and is not expected to cover costs for the entire year or be repeated in the future.”

Read the full story from the State House News Service at WBUR

US offers fishermen help in paying monitors

June 24, 2016 — Over the past year, the region’s groundfishermen have argued that the federal government was jeopardizing their livelihoods by forcing them to pay for a controversial program that requires government-trained monitors to observe their catch.

On Thursday, after months of heated debates with fishermen, officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that they have found money to cover most of the observer costs for the rest of the fishing year.

NOAA officials said that a contractor they hired to place observers aboard fishing vessels failed to do so for about one-third of the total number of days that they were expected to accompany fishermen to sea. As a result, NOAA has enough money to cover an estimated 85 percent of the rest of the so-called at-sea monitoring program.

“That’s an estimate because it depends on how much fishing occurs over the year,” said Samuel D. Rauch, deputy assistant administrator for regulatory programs at NOAA Fisheries.

Groups representing groundfishermen, who have been required since March to pay hundreds of dollars every time an observer accompanies them to sea, have argued that the costs were too much to bear and would put many of them out of business. NOAA estimates it costs $710 every time an observer joins them, though most fishermen have negotiated lower fees.

But many groundfishermen, who catch cod, flounder, and other bottom-dwelling fish, have already been suffering from major quota cuts. NOAA last year, for example, cut the region’s cod quota by 75 percent.

“This will definitely lessen the economic burden on small, family-owned fishing businesses, and will allow time to address many logistical issues that have surfaced since industry payments began,” said Jackie Odell, executive director of the Northeast Seafood Coalition, an advocacy group for groundfishermen in Gloucester.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

NOAA To Reimburse 85 Percent Of Costs For Fishing Monitors

June 24, 2016 — The following is excerpted from a story published yesterday by the Gloucester Times:

NOAA Fisheries today said it will reimburse Northeast groundfishermen an estimated 85 percent of the 2016 sea days needed for at-sea monitoring, alleviating if only temporarily the burden of fishermen assuming the costs of the observer program.

In a reversal of its previous stance and statements, NOAA said any groundfish sector trip beginning on or after July 1 may be eligible for the reimbursement of at-sea monitoring costs through a program the federal fisheries regulator is developing with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

The agency also stressed the reimbursement program is temporary and unlikely to last beyond the 2016 fishing season but “preserves the the contract relationships sectors already have in place” with third-party at-sea monitoring providers.

Federal groundfish permit holders absorbed the costs of at-sea monitoring — estimated at an average of $710 per day per vessel —  on March 1 after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it had exhausted the funds budgeted for that program.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

NOAA to reimburse fishermen 85 percent for at-sea monitoring costs

June 23, 2016 — HAMPTON, N.H. — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will reimburse New England fishermen for 85 percent of the cost of at-sea monitors in 2016, U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s office announced Wednesday.

NOAA is expected to launch a program July 1 through the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission where fishermen will be reimbursed for costs they pay this year to the at-sea monitors, according to Shaheen’s office. Fishermen have said the costs, which began this year, are too much for them to pay and could sink their already weakened industry.

Shaheen’s staff said NOAA is paying for the reimbursement program through extra funds left over from the 2015 fiscal year and does not intend to cover costs for at-sea monitors in 2017.

At-sea monitors – third-party workers hired to observe fishermen’s compliance with federal regulations – must join commercial fishermen on 10 percent of their trips and cost fishermen an estimated $700 per day, officials have said.

NOAA paid for at-sea monitoring until May 1 when it began mandating fishermen cover the cost. The agency has received pushback from the fishing industry and New England’s congressional delegates who say it is unfair for fishermen to fund their own policing.

NOAA officials said they were withholding comment until Thursday.

Shaheen, D-N.H., said Wednesday she is happy fishermen will get relief this year from the costs. She and U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., have been vocal about their opposition to NOAA forcing fishermen to pay for the at-sea monitors.

Read the full story at the Portsmouth Herald

Northeast Fishery Observer Sea-Day Schedule Posted, Short-Term Reimbursement for Groundfish At-Sea Monitoring Available July 1

June 23, 2016 — The following was released by the Northeast Fisheries Science Center:

Today NOAA Fisheries published the 2016 Standardized Bycatch Reporting Methodology Annual Discard Report with Observer Sea Day Allocation and the resulting final 2016 sea-day schedule for our Northeast Fishery Observer Program.

This year we are able to fully fund our SBRM monitoring program and will use remaining funds to offset some of industry’s costs of the groundfish at-sea monitoring program.

Any sector trip beginning on or after July 1 may be eligible for reimbursement of at-sea monitoring costs though a program we are developing with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

Because this support is not likely to last for the entire year, this method preserves the contract relationships sectors already have in place with at-sea monitor providers.