Saving Seafood

Fed-up fishermen slap Biden admin with lawsuit, say regulations sinking business

June 22, 2023 — Two fishermen slapped the Biden administration with a lawsuit that says Congress and several unelected councils are unconstitutionally regulating and overseeing fisheries.

Commercial fishermen George Arnesen of Louisiana and Ryan Bradley of Mississippi argue that Congress has placed regulatory authority in the hands of an “unconstitutional regime” that puts local fisherman “at the mercy of unaccountable bureaucrats who answers only to themselves.”

The lawsuit specifically cites the 1976 Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the primary law that governs marine fisheries management located within U.S. federal waters, with the plaintiffs calling it “Congress’s first comprehensive attempt to regulate fishing in federal waters.”

Read the full article at Fox News

US government watchdog to investigate impacts of offshore wind development

June 21, 2023 — A U.S. government watchdog agency will investigate the impact of offshore wind development on the fishing industry and the environment at the behest of congressional Republicans.

In March 2023, Republicans began a push for more federal scrutiny of efforts by the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden to advance offshore wind projects along the U.S. East Coast, culminating in a request to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) – an independent agency that conducts investigations and audits for Congress – to conduct a study on the sufficiency of the environmental review processes for offshore wind projects.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Biden administration moves to restore endangered species protections dropped by Trump

June 21, 2o23 — The Biden administration proposed bringing back rules to protect imperiled plants and animals on Wednesday as officials moved to reverse changes under former President Donald Trump that weakened the Endangered Species Act.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it would reinstate a decades-old regulation that mandates blanket protections for species newly classified as threatened.

The blanket protections regulation was dropped in 2019 as part of a suite of changes to the application of the species law that were encouraged by industry, even as extinctions accelerate globally due to habitat loss and other pressures.

Officials also would no longer consider economic impacts when deciding if animals and plants need protection. And the rules make it easier to designate areas as critical for a species’ survival, even if it is no longer found in those locations.

That could help with the recovery of imperiled fish and freshwater mussels in the Southeast, where the aquatic animals in many cases are absent from portions of their historical range, said Fish and Wildlife Service Assistant Director Gary Frazer.

Read the full article at ABC News

OREGON: Oregon governor, members of Congress call for pause on offshore wind turbines

June 14, 2023 — Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek is joining a chorus of voices — including tribes and commercial fishermen — urging the Biden administration to slow down its push for floating wind farms in the Pacific Ocean off the state’s southern coast.

In a letter sent June 9 to Elizabeth Klein, director of the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, Kotek asked the agency to pause identifying and leasing offshore wind areas in order to fully evaluate impacts on the environment and economy.

The letter was also signed by U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, and Reps. Val Hoyle and Suzanne Bonamici, all Democrats.

Read the full article at Capital Press

Biden administration announces $2.6 billion toward coastal climate resilience

June 6, 2023 — The Commerce Department has announced it will put $2.6 billion toward coastal climate resilience in funds from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

The funds, announced on a Monday call with the press, will include about $400 million for tribal communities in support of habitat restoration, fish hatcheries and Pacific salmon, and those in the direct path of climate change.

Another $349 million will go specifically to climate resilience in fisheries, while another $60 million will go toward climate-resilience job placement and training.

Read the full at The Hill

Biden admin advances first-ever wind leasing in Gulf of Mexico amid calls for moratorium

May 31 2023 — The Biden administration inched closer to green-lighting offshore wind energy lease sales spanning about 682,000 acres in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) published a final environmental assessment which it described as a “key milestone” as part of the Biden administration’s goal of holding the first-ever offshore wind lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico. The assessment, which analyzed impacts leasing would have on the environment and wildlife, was coincided with a finding of no significant impacts.

“The completion of our environmental review is an important step forward to advance clean energy development in a responsible manner while promoting economic vitality and well-paying jobs in the Gulf of Mexico region,” BOEM Director Liz Klein said in a statement.

Read the full article at Fox News

In Rose Garden address, Biden celebrates with Alaskans opposed to Pebble mine

May 14, 2023 — President Joe Biden celebrated his conservation achievements Thursday with a Rose Garden address. The No. 1 item on his list? Blocking the Pebble mine, a proposed open-pit gold and copper mine upstream from the sockeye-rich waters of Bristol Bay.

“Bristol Bay is an extraordinary place, unlike anywhere in the world,” the president said. “Six rivers meet there, traveling through 40,000 miles of tundra, wetlands and lakes, collecting freshwater and salmon along the way … making this the largest sockeye salmon fishery on all the earth.”

Biden announced no new developments in the ongoing Pebble saga. His speech cited scores of sanctuaries and safeguards his administration created, from the mountains of Nevada to the Pacific Ocean. But the primacy he gave to this one part of Southwest Alaska shows how committed Biden is to stopping Pebble, and how he sees it as a centerpiece of his environmental record.

United Tribes of Bristol Bay Executive Director Alannah Hurley was invited to Washington, D.C., to introduce the president. In a blue print kuspuk, she spoke of how her salmon-centered community has lived with a threat looming over them for 20 years.

Read the full article at Alaska Public Media

Biden admin is rushing to industrialize US oceans to stop climate change: ‘Environmental wrecking ball’

April 25, 2023 — The Biden administration is pushing full steam ahead to massively expand offshore wind development across millions of acres of federal waters, actions that critics warn would have dire ecological and economic impacts.

Days after taking office, President Biden issued an executive action ordering his administration to expand opportunities for the offshore wind industry as part of his aggressive climate agenda to curb greenhouse gas emissions and stop global warming. Months later, he outlined goals to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030, the most ambitious goal of its kind worldwide.

“Two years ago, President Biden issued a bold challenge to move America towards a clean energy future,” Deb Haaland, the secretary of the Department of the Interior (DOI), said earlier this month. “The Interior Department answered that call and is moving rapidly to create a robust and sustainable clean energy economy with good-paying union jobs.”

In May 2021, the DOI’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) approved the 800-megawatt Vineyard Wind project 12 miles off the coast of Massachusetts, marking the first ever large-scale offshore wind approval. Then, in November 2021, the agency approved the 130-megawatt Southfork Wind project off the coast of Long Island, New York, the second commercial-scale offshore project.

Read the full article at Fox News

NOAA begins process for Biden’s proposed marine sanctuary

April 21, 2023 — NOAA has started the process to designate a massive area in the Pacific Ocean a marine sanctuary, following up on a proposal by the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden.

The proposal, made in late March, would create a new marine sanctuary using the National Marine Sanctuaries Act around the Pacific Remote Islands area, a set of islands in the central Pacific Ocean. The proposal would include the existing Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument and currently unprotected areas of land and water, covering the full extent of the U.S.’s exclusive economic zone.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Companies bid $264M in Gulf oil sale mandated by climate law

March 30, 2023 — Oil companies offered a combined $264 million for drilling rights in federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday in a sale mandated by last year’s climate bill compromise.

The auction was the first in the Gulf in more than a year and drew strong interest from industry giants including Chevron, BP and ExxonMobil. But it could further test the loyalty of environmentalists and young voters who backed President Joe Biden in 2020 and were frustrated by this month’s approval of a huge drilling project in Alaska.

Developing the Gulf leases would produce up to 1.1 billion barrels of oil and more than 4 trillion cubic feet (113 billion cubic meters) of natural gas over 50 years, according to a government analysis. Burning that oil would increase planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions by tens of millions of tons, the analysis found.

A legal challenge to the sale from environmental groups is pending in federal court.

Read the full article at the Associated Press