Saving Seafood

Court Battle Continues Over Atlantic Ocean’s First-Ever National Monument

April 18, 2018 — Commercial fishing groups are joining in federal court to challenge the creation of the Atlantic Ocean’s first-ever marine national monument. But the federal government is now asking for the case to be tossed out.

At stake is the future of roughly 5,000 square miles off the coast of Massachusetts, called the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts.

President Barack Obama used the federal Antiquities Act to protect the zone in 2016. His office said it contained critical wildlife habitat.

The order stopped commercial fishing there, but did allow red crab and lobster fisheries a seven-year window to close up shop.

Read the full story at New England Public Radio

 

Trump Administration Defends Obama’s Atlantic Monument

April 17, 2018 — PORTLAND, Maine — The Trump administration on Tuesday defended an underwater monument off the coast of New England established by former President Barack Obama to protect marine life in the Atlantic Ocean and asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit from fishermen trying to eliminate it.

The fishing groups sued in federal court in Washington, challenging the creation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument by the Democratic former president in 2016. It’s a 5,000-square-mile area that contains fragile deep sea corals and vulnerable species of marine life, such as right whales.

The Commerce Department argues the president has clear authority under the federal Antiquities Act to establish national monuments. The federal government is defending the monument at the same time it’s reviewing its creation as part of President Donald Trump’s review of several monuments created by Obama.

Trump, a Republican, has ordered drastic reductions to some monuments, saying they were part of a “massive federal land grab” by previous administrations.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New York Times

Response due from feds in lawsuit to end Atlantic monument

April 10, 2018 — PORTLAND, Maine — The federal government’s response to a lawsuit from fishermen trying to eliminate former President Barack Obama’s Atlantic Ocean monument is coming due.

The fishing groups sued to challenge the 2016 creation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument. The monument is a 5,000-square-mile area off of New England and is the first monument of its kind in the Atlantic Ocean.

A federal court ordered the U.S. Department of Commerce to respond to the lawsuit by April 16. It was filed at U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

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

 

Atlantic marine monument suit can move forward

March 30, 2018 — Fishing organizations are set to proceed with their suit against the federal government to reopen fishing grounds in New England.

President Obama established the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Marine Monument, which included a blanket commercial fishing ban in an area that was already closed to some gear types under the New England Fishery Management Council’s jurisdiction.

The lawsuit has been held up since April 2017 by a Trump administration review of several national monuments created under the Obama administration. Recent filings at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia say the hold was lifted in mid-March.

The lawsuit argues that Obama never had the authority to establish the monument under the the Antiquities Act, given that the ocean is not “land owned or controlled by the federal government,” as the act stipulates.

In December, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke recommended making changes to marine national monument policies and proposed shifting the responsibility for controlling fishing within the monument to the regional fishery management councils.

“No president should use the authority under the act to restrict public access, prevent hunting and fishing, burden private land, or eliminate traditional land uses, unless such action is needed to protect the objects,” wrote Zinke in his recommendation.

Since Zinke’s official recommendations, no public action has been taken by the administration to address his statement.

Fishing industry leaders involved with the suit are ready to pick up where they left off.

“The Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association is optimistically encouraged, given the forward movement of the lawsuit,” said Beth Casoni, executive director of The Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association. “We are hopeful to regain the fishing grounds that were taken away from the fleet and to set a legal precedent through the court that will prevent any further draconian actions against the fleet.”

While lobster and deep-sea red crab fisheries were granted a 7-year grandfather period, all other commercial fishing was banned when the 5,000-square-mile monument was established in order to protect deep-sea corals and vulnerable species like North Atlantic right whales.

“To lose a big area that we have historically fished has quite an impact on quite a lot of people here,” Jon Williams, a New Bedford, Mass., crabber and a member of plaintiff group Offshore Lobstermen’s Association told the Associated Press.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

 

Public comment period on Pebble Mine starting soon amidst controversy

March 29, 2018 — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is opening a public comment period on the scope of the planned Pebble Mine in southwestern Alaska, and some lawmakers want the Environmental Protection Agency to pay attention.

The proposed copper and gold mine in Bristol Bay has been the source of controversy for several years as the fishing industry and other groups have fought against it, claiming such an operation could impact their operations and the environment.

The Corps plans eight meetings, scheduled from 9 to 19 April, to gather public comments and will also accept them online for 30 days starting on Sunday, 1 April. At the meetings, Corps officials will also give the public additional information about its process in developing the environmental impact statement. The draft statement is scheduled to be released in January, after which another public comment period will begin.

Bristol Bay is home to more than 50 million salmon, which produced an annual economic impact of USD 1.5 billion (EUR 1.21 billion). Mine proponents say the area holds about 80 billion pounds of copper and that it would help alleviate America’s need to import the mineral used for electrical wiring and other everyday needs.

In January, the EPA released a statement upholding a ruling made by the administration of then-U.S. President Barack Obama in 2014 that placed restrictions on the proposed mine, saying it would significantly impact the bay’s sockeye salmon fishery. Scott Pruitt, the agency’s current administrator under the administration of President Donald Trump, said in January the order didn’t block the proposed mine outright. However, it would give the agency time to get information and determine the mine’s potential environmental impact.

Earlier this month, three Republican congressional leaders wrote to Pruitt with concerns over that decision, saying the 2014 ruling was unprecedented under the Clean Water Act. U.S. Representatives Lamar Smith, Rob Bishop, and Paul Gosar claim agency officials involved in assessing the proposal unduly influenced the decision.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

Lawsuit against national marine monument moving forward

March 29, 2018 — A lawsuit against a national marine monument, started nearly a year ago, is moving forward once more after a U.S. District Court Judge lifted a stay placed on the case.

The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Marine Monument, established via executive order using the Antiquities Act by President Barack Obama, set aside 4,913 square miles (12,724 square kilometers) of ocean 130 miles (209 kilometers) off the coast of New England. Soon after the monument was established, several fishing groups sued the federal government arguing that the move exceeded the President’s authority.

The motivation behind the lawsuit stems from the monument’s blanket ban on all commercial fishing. While a grandfather period of seven years was given to the lobster and deep-sea red crab fisheries, all other fishing operations have been banned from the area.

Now, thanks to U.S. District Court Judge James E. Boasberg’s lift of a stay granted on 12 May 2017, the lawsuit will begin to move forward once more. The lawsuit argues that Obama did not have the authority to establish the monument based on the Antiquities Act, given that the ocean is not “land owned or controlled by the federal government.”

Secretary of the Department of the Interior Ryan Zinke recommended, in a review released in December 2017, that the proclamation of the monument be amended to allow the local fishery management council to make decisions as authorized by the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

“There is no explanation in the proclamation as to why the objects are threatened by well-regulated commercial fishing,” wrote Zinke in his recommendations. “The proclamation should be amended, through the use of appropriate authority.”

Since that recommendation, however, the Trump administration has failed to act.

“Fishermen have waited a year for the government to respond to their lawsuit challenging a clear case of Antiquities Act abuse – locking fishermen out of an area of ocean as large as Connecticut,” said Jonathan Wood, an attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation who is representing the plaintiffs. “The court’s decision to lift the stay will now require President Trump to decide whether to act on the secretary’s recommendation or defend President Obama’s unlawful monument decision in court.”

So far, said Wood, they haven’t heard whether or not the administration plans to defend the monument in court.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

April Showdown Looming for Battle Over Atlantic Ocean Monument

March 28, 2018 — WASHINGTON — Fisherman and lobstermen reeled in a temporary victory after a federal court agreed to lift a 10-month stay on a lawsuit that seeks to reverse Obama-era protections for the first national marine monument in the Atlantic Ocean.

In September 2016, former President Barack Obama used powers under the Antiquities Act to designate the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Monument.

The 5,000-square-mile monument, rich with deep coral and home to sperm whales, sea turtles and dolphins, is located just off the Georges Bank near Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

The Obama-era order closed off the area to commercial fisherman, except for a handful of crabbers who were grandfathered into the deal and allowed to continue trawling for just seven years more until fishing activity would be completely barred in the region.

The plaintiffs who originally challenged the monument designation in March 2017 include the Pacific Legal Foundation, the Atlantic Offshore Lobsterman’s Association, the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, the Rhode Island Fisherman’s Alliance and the Garden State Seafood Association.

In their original lawsuit, the groups claimed Obama “exceeded his power under the Antiquities Act” when cordoning off the ocean acreage.

They argued the sea is not “land owned or controlled by the Federal government and thus not within the president’s proclaiming authority.”

“Unless a permanent injunction is issued to forbid the implementation of the proclamation’s fishing prohibitions, plaintiffs are and will continue to be irreparably harmed … and will continue to suffer a diminution of income, reduced fishing opportunities and depletion of their investment in their boats and permits,” the March 2017 complaint states.

This March 15, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg finally agreed to allow the fisherman’s lawsuit to continue, effectively turning up  pressure on the Trump administration to act.

Read the full story at the Courthouse News Service

 

Fishermen suit against Atlantic marine monument moves ahead

March 27, 2018 — PORTLAND, Maine — Organizations suing to eliminate the first national marine monument in the Atlantic Ocean have gotten the OK to proceed with a suit designed to reopen the area to commercial fishing, which environmentalists fear could jeopardize preservation efforts.

The fishing groups sued to challenge the creation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument created by President Barack Obama in 2016. It’s a 5,000-square-mile area off of New England that contains fragile deep sea corals and vulnerable species of marine life such as right whales.

The fishermen’s lawsuit had been put on hold by a review of national monuments ordered by President Donald Trump’s administration in April 2017. Court filings at U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia say the stay was lifted in mid-March and the litigation can proceed.

Marine national monuments are underwater areas designed to protect unique or vulnerable ecosystems. There are four of them in the Pacific. The Northeast monument, the only one off the East Coast, is also an area where fishermen harvest valuable species such as lobsters and crabs.

“To lose a big area that we have historically fished has quite an impact on quite a lot of people here,” said Jon Williams, a New Bedford, Massachusetts, crabber and a member of plaintiff group Offshore Lobstermen’s Association. “It’ll raise attention to it a little bit, which it needs.”

The court ordered the federal government, which is the defendant in the case, to respond by April 16. A spokeswoman from the federal Department of Commerce declined to comment.

The lawsuit’s ability to move forward will hopefully prod the federal government to make a decision about the future of the monument, which is unpopular with commercial harvesters, Williams said. But a coalition of environmental groups is also intervening in the case in an attempt to keep the monument area preserved.

Read the full story at the AP News

 

U.S. House Republicans – minus Don Young – needle EPA on Pebble mine decision

March 23, 2018 — WASHINGTON — House Republican leaders are weighing in on the Environmental Protection Agency’s latest efforts to restrict the proposed Pebble mine project in Alaska — and they aren’t happy about it.

The chairmen of two committees, which oversee mining and the EPA, and the head of the Western Caucus wrote to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt this month to issue concern and condemnation over a surprise January announcement that left an Obama-era decision standing.

The letter came from Reps. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, chairman of the Committee on Science, Space and Technology; Rob Bishop, R-Utah, chairman of the Committee on Natural Resources, and Paul Gosar, R-Arizona, chairman of the congressional Western Caucus. But there was no signature from Alaska Rep. Don Young, though he is a top member of Bishop’s committee.

A spokeswoman for Young did not answer questions about the letter or the congressman’s position on the matter.

At the start of the year, Pruitt backed off a review of an Obama administration decision to restrict the potential scope of the proposed mining project. (The congressman did not issue a statement at the time of the EPA’s change of heart in January.)

The Pebble Partnership wants to dig a massive deposit of gold, copper and molybdenum in and around the sensitive headwaters of Bristol Bay. Pebble says it can accomplish the feat without damaging the salmon fishery. The company recently applied for an Army Corps of Engineers permit for the project.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

 

National marine monument suit moves forward

March 22, 2018 — President Barack Obama is long gone from office, but the legal fight lives on against his use of the Antiquities Act to create the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Monument off the coast of southern New England.

A federal judge in Washington D.C. has lifted a 10-month stay on the lawsuit filed against the federal government by fishing stakeholders — including the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association — seeking to roll back recent uses of the Antiquities Act and block using the statute to create new national marine monuments in the future.

The order lifting the stay by U.S. District Court Judge James E. Boasberg, who granted the stay at the request of the federal defendants last May 12, will allow the lawsuit to continue.

The lifting of the stay was greeted warmly by fishing stakeholders.

“We’re optimistically excited about the prospect of moving forward so the fishing industry can regain fishing grounds it’s lost without fear of being evicted again,” Beth Casoni, executive director of the Masssachusetts Lobstermen’s Association said Wednesday.

Also, according to one of the lawyers for fishing stakeholders, the lifting of the stay places the Trump administration in a position where it either must act on recommendations from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to reopen the area of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Monument to commercial fishing or defend Obama’s decision in court.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times