Saving Seafood

NCFC Executive Director Bob Vanasse Responds to CLF Lawsuit Over Restoring Commercial Fishing in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Monument

June 17, 2020 – The following was written by Bob Vanasse, executive director of Saving Seafood’s National Coalition for Fishing Communities, in response to CLF’s announcement that it is filing suit over a presidential proclamation restoring commercial fishing in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument:

The creation of an Atlantic Marine monument without appropriate stakeholder consultation has been a centerpiece of the Conservation Law Foundation’s (CLF) political agenda for over five years.

In 2015, a public records request filed by Saving Seafood revealed emails showing that the CLF was working with the Center For American Progress, the Pew Charitable Trusts, Earth Justice, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the National Geographic Society in an attempt to convince President Obama to announce the monument plan at the Our Ocean Conference in Chile in October 2015. In the emails, CLF’s Peter Shelley wrote, “I hope no one is talking about Chile to the outside world. It’s one of the few advantages we may have to know that it could happen sooner rather than later.” The email discussion included Monica Medina, who had served as Principal Deputy Undersecretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere during President Obama’s first term.

In a subsequent interview with E&E News, Mr. Shelley made clear that the effort was aimed at getting the monument proclaimed before the fishing industry could fully engage in the public process. “The time was pretty short to pull it off. We thought there might be an opportunity we could get them to think about these areas for an announcement in conjunction with the Our Ocean Conference,” Mr. Shelley said. “We were trying to keep that quiet because we didn’t want to give the opposition more of an advantage. The more time they had, the more opportunity they would have to lobby, to fight it, to organize against it.”

The inclusion of prohibitions against commercial fishing was controversial throughout the process of creating the monument. A NOAA internal document in 2015 noted that the Atlantic deep-sea red crab and commercial and recreational pelagic fisheries for highly migratory species “have a substantial portion of their landings from within the proposed area.” The same document noted that “any designation within the jurisdiction of the New England or Mid Atlantic Fishery Management Councils, as well as the Secretary of Commerce as delegated to NMFS/HMS Management Division, that restricts fishing activities will be seen as usurping their authorities. These processes are rigorous and provide for significant public input which this process does not.”

Managing commercial fishing sustainably under the Magnuson-Stevens Act is not controversial. CLF falsely states that President Trump “eliminated critical natural resource protections” in the monument. In fact, the Presidential proclamation explicitly states that commercial fishing inside the monument will be managed under Magnuson-Stevens. The proclamation “does not modify the monument in any other respect.”

On the occasion of the 40th Anniversary of Magnuson-Stevens in 2016, CLF praised fisheries management under the Act, stating that Magnuson-Stevens is “the primary reason why the United States can say that it has the most sustainable fisheries in the world,” and “it has traditionally represented a bipartisan effort toward responsible management of our fishery resources, economically and environmentally.”

CLF was correct in noting that fisheries management has traditionally been bipartisan, and opposition to the prohibition of commercial fishing inside the monument was not a partisan issue. The commercial fishing industry is deeply grateful to Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey for the work he did with the Obama White House to ensure that the offshore lobster industry and the red crab industry – the first Atlantic fishery to be certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council – received a seven-year moratorium before fishing for those species inside the monument would have been prohibited. It is because of Senator Markey’s efforts that those sustainable fisheries have been preserved. Senator Elizabeth Warren has also been a longtime champion of fisheries management under the successful Magnuson-Stevens Act.

CLF argues that President Trump’s modification of the monument created by President Obama is illegal. But President Obama exercised the power to modify monuments created by his predecessors to expand Pacific marine monuments created by President Bush. It would seem that CLF’s position is that it is legal for a president to modify monuments created by a predecessor when CLF agrees with the modification, but illegal when CLF disagrees with the modification.

CLF President Brad Campbell states that President Trump’s action puts “national monuments on the block for the highest political bidder.” The record is clear that the highest political bidder during the Obama years was the environmental community. That is why environmentalists succeeded in including a prohibition against commercial fisheries in President Obama’s monument proclamation, but not against their friends in recreational fishing. If Mr. Campbell is interested in finding the historical “highest political bidder” on the designation of marine monuments, he should look in his own office.

The environmental community had ample opportunity to create a protected area using the Marine Sanctuaries Act, and they have actively worked with both the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the New England Fishery Management Council on actions to protect those areas under the Magnuson-Stevens Act.  But, as NOAA noted, those “processes are rigorous and provide for significant public input.” Instead, they chose the politically expedient route, and used their contacts and clout in the Obama administration to circumvent the scientific and public process. What they are now discovering is that what one president might create with the stroke of a pen, another president might take away.

Stimulus includes $300 million for fisheries and aquaculture

March 26, 2020 — A $300 million earmark in the Senate’s $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill passed late Wednesday, March 25, is slated for fisheries and aquaculture. It’s aimed at supporting independent operators who are not otherwise covered by agricultural disaster assistance programs.

The Senate passed the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security (or CARES) Act late Wednesday, March 25. It returns to the House of Representatives for a vote on Thursday, March 26. The bill is designed to stimulate the economy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic that has led to widespread shutdowns intended to slow the spread of the virus.

The National Coalition for Fishing Communities made a statement thanking the industry for uniting in requesting help from federal legislators and also Sens. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) for their quick action in speaking on behalf of the industry in a letter to Senate leaders.

“The speed with which the domestic seafood industry has come together to speak with one voice is unprecedented,” said Bob Vanasse, executive director of Saving Seafood, which organized the coalition. “There are many differences in our nation’s fisheries — geography, species, gear types and management — but today our fisheries are simultaneously diverse and unified. We look forward to working together across traditional industry lines, and with elected officials and administrators, to ensure the aid the federal government is providing will flow fairly and equitably across regions and fisheries.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

NCFC Thanks Senate for Support of American Businesses and Employees, and for $300 Million in Specific Fisheries Assistance

WASHINGTON – March 25, 2020 – The compromise COVID-19 stimulus package, negotiated by the U.S. Senate Republican and Democratic leadership with the White House and passed tonight by the Senate in a 96-0 vote, includes a number of provisions that will aid small business, and provides $300 million in assistance specifically for U.S. fisheries. This assistance will help fishermen around the country struggling due to shrinking demand and disappearing markets caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Tribal, subsistence, commercial, and charter fishermen, as well as aquaculture farmers, are all eligible for the disaster assistance.

This assistance is vitally needed. In 2017, more than two-thirds of the $102.2 billion spent on fishery products in the U.S. was spent at food service establishments, with less than one-third sold in retail outlets for home consumption. Thus, domestic commercial fisheries have been hit especially hard by the closures in the nation’s restaurant and hospitality industry.

Yesterday, members of Saving Seafood’s National Coalition for Fishing Communities (NCFC) and fishing harvesters and processors from around the country made their needs known in letters to the White House and Congress. These needs include the designation of essential employee status for fishermen and processor staff, the promotion of American seafood, and direct and indirect financial relief, among many other suggestions.

“The speed with which the domestic seafood industry has come together to speak with one voice is unprecedented,” said Bob Vanasse, Saving Seafood’s Executive Director. “There are many differences in our nation’s fisheries – geography, species, gear types and management – but today our fisheries are simultaneously diverse and unified. We look forward to working together across traditional industry lines, and with elected officials and administrators, to ensure the aid the Federal Government is providing will flow fairly and equitably across regions and fisheries.”

The NCFC is especially grateful to Senators Ed Markey (D-MA), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and their staffs, who previously wrote to Senate leadership calling for urgent support for the U.S. fishing industry. The NCFC would also like to thank Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Murkowski, Sullivan, and Susan Collins (R-ME) for their work on the language included in the bill.

Additionally, the NCFC commends the work of Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby (R-AL) and Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT), and coastal members of the committee, including Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Collins, Murkowski, Jack Reed (D-RI), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Christopher Coons (D-DE), Brian Schatz (D-HI), John Kennedy (R-LA), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD).

As this legislation moves to the House, NCFC members are encouraged to contact their representatives to support this fisheries assistance and thank their Senators who voted for its passage.

The specific language in the Senate bill passed today is:

ASSISTANCE TO FISHERY PARTICIPANTS
SEC. 12005.
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Commerce is authorized to provide assistance to Tribal, subsistence, commercial, and charter fishery participants affected by the novel coronavirus (COVID–19), which may include direct relief payments.
(b) FISHERY PARTICIPANTS.—For the purposes of this section, ‘‘fishery participants’’ include Tribes, persons, fishing communities, aquaculture businesses not otherwise eligible for assistance under part 1416 of title 7 of the Code of Federal Regulations for losses related to COVID–19, processors, or other fishery-related businesses, who have incurred, as a direct or indirect result of the coronavirus pandemic—
(1) economic revenue losses greater than 35 percent as compared to the prior 5-year average revenue; or
(2) any negative impacts to subsistence, cultural, or ceremonial fisheries.
(c) ROLLING BASIS.—Funds may be awarded under this section on a rolling basis, and within a fishing season, to ensure rapid delivery of funds during the COVID–19 pandemic.
(d) APPROPRIATIONS.—In addition to funds that are otherwise made available to assist fishery participants under this Act, there are authorized to be appropriated, and there are appropriated, $300,000,000, to remain available until September 30, 2021, to carry out this section, of which up to 2 percent may be used for administration and oversight activities.
(e) EMERGENCY REQUIREMENT.—The amount provided by this section is designated by the Congress as being for an emergency requirement pursuant to section 251(b)(2)(A)(i) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985.

MPA, invasive species advisory panels killed by Trump lacked commercial fishing voice

October 2, 2019 — The US commercial fishing industry isn’t likely to shed many tears over the recent news that the president Donald Trump administration is disbanding two federal advisory boards focused on maintaining marine protected areas (MPAs) and battling invasive species, Bob Vanasse, the founder of industry advocacy group Saving Seafood, told Undercurrent News.

The panels were improperly constituted, including many representatives from ocean conservation groups and even the recreational fishing industry but none from commercial harvesters, he said.

The government will no longer fund the Marine Protected Areas Federal Advisory Committee run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) or the Department of the Interior’s (DOI’s) Invasive Species Advisory Committee, the two agencies confirmed on Tuesday. Both panels have been in operation for more than a decade.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

House flips in US elections, impact likely on MSA reauthorization

November 7, 2018 — Democrats wrestled control of the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time in eight years in Tuesday’s elections across the United States, and that change in control may have implications for the fishing industry.

As of Wednesday morning, 7 November, the Associated Press had 219 House seats going to the Democrats, with 193 going to the Republicans. Democrats needed just 218 seats to win a majority, but with 23 seats still up for grabs, they could see their caucus grow to 230 or more once all election results have been tabulated.

Where Tuesday’s results may have the most impact on the seafood community is through the reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act. Industry insiders who spoke to SeafoodSource Wednesday said they did not expect H.R. 200, a bill which passed the House earlier this year, to get a vote in the Senate before the term ends next month.

That means, the process would start over again when the new Congress convenes in January. U.S. Rep. Don Young, who sponsored the reauthorization bill in this Congress, won re-election for his seat in Alaska, but as a Republican, he’ll be in the minority starting next year.

One thing that may help the seafood industry is that many Democrats represent coastal communities reliant on fishing, according to Bob Vanasse, executive director of Saving Seafood, which conducts media and public outreach on behalf of the seafood industry. Vanasse told SeafoodSource that his group will work with Democrats to vote for the interests of their constituents. He urged them to follow in the path of former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat who worked to support fishermen, many of whom were middle-class small business owners.

“One can be a good liberal and also represent your fishing constituents,” Vanasse said. “One would think that would be a natural fit.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Young’s win in Alaska caps long US election night for seafood industry

November 7, 2018 — It wasn’t expected to be so close.

Until roughly a month ago, most pundits expected Alaska Republican Don Young — the longest-serving member of the House of Representatives, a colorful, 85-year-old personality who has an office decorated with wild game trophies, has been known to wield a walrus penis bone in order to make a point, and is also one of the commercial seafood industry’s biggest champions — to handily defeat his Democratic opponent and retain his seat, as usual, on Nov. 6.

Then, a few days before the election, it wasn’t such a given, as polls showed Young’s 53-year-old Democratic challenger, Alyse Galvin, winning by a percentage point.

In the end, Young kept his job, apparently winning a 45th term with roughly 54% of the vote, though more votes remain to be counted.

“We got more votes this time than we got before, and everybody had me down,” he reportedly told the Associated Press in the early morning hours, after Galvin gave her concession speech.

“I feel real good about our campaign, and we were able to prove that Alaskans appreciate what I’ve been able to do. I’m going to have a good two years ahead of us,” he added.

Follow the examples set by Frank and Kennedy

Young wasn’t the only congressional race of consequence to the commercial fishing industry in the 2018 election.

Representative Bill Keating, the Massachusetts Democrat whose 9th district includes New Bedford, home of the US’ most valuable commercial fishing port, is the projected winner over GOP challenger Peter Tedeschi, having secured 61.3% of the vote with 43% of the precincts reporting.

Keating, who outraised Tedeschi by about $1.2 million to $800,000 in his campaign, is one of the Democrats that Bob Vanasse, executive director of Saving Seafood, hopes will continue to represent commercial seafood harvesters in the new Congress.

“Many of our coastal communities are represented by Democrats and they have been in the minority,” said Vanasse, whose group represents pro-commercial fishing interests. “We are hopeful that they will follow the examples of such members of Congress as Barney Frank and Ted Kennedy who demonstrated unequivocally that one can be a strong Democrat and a strong liberal and also stand up for the working families in their fishing communities.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

MASSACHUSETTS: Senate hopeful Lindstrom visits the New Bedford fishing industry

August 30, 2018 — The New Bedford fishing industry rolled out the red carpet Wednesday for Beth Lindstrom, one of three Republicans locked in a primary battle to see who will go up against incumbent Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Lindstrom’s first visit to the fishing industry was arranged by Saving Seafood, a Washington, D.C.-based industry advocacy group founded by New Bedford native Bob Vanasse.

The half-day-long visit began at the BASE seafood auction on Hassey Street, owned and operated by Richard Canastra. There, buyers and the general public can watch as fish are auctioned off electronically, a far cry from the old system of chalk on a blackboard.

Lindstrom, former executive director of the Massachusetts State Lottery, mainly asked questions and listened to fishing industry representatives who told her of the difficulties they have with federal regulations.

An added concern, they said, is the pending construction of huge offshore wind energy farms that they say will keep fishing boats at bay to avoid the risk of entanglement.

The case of Carlos Rafael, known as The Codfather, was also brought up because of the hardship that the government imposed on fishing boats in sectors 7 and 9 and on-shore services who weren’t involved in Rafael’s misdeeds. Rafael is serving a 46-month federal sentence on charges including conspiracy, false labeling of fish, bulk cash smuggling, tax evasion and falsifying federal records.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Documents Released on Trump Administration Defense of National Monument Actions

July 25, 2018 — In today’s print edition, the Washington Post published an article by Juliet Eilperin on the Trump administration and national monuments. The article, based on internal documents from the Interior Department, was critical of senior officials for allegedly dismissing positive information on the benefits of national monuments.

The majority of the story focused on land-based monuments, but with regard to marine monuments, the Post reported that,“On Sept. 11, 2017, Randal Bowman, the lead staffer for the review, suggested deleting language that most fishing vessels near the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument ‘generated 5% or less of their annual landings from within the monument’ because it ‘undercuts the case for the ban being harmful.’”

Saving Seafood executive director Bob Vanasse was quoted in the article noting that “‘Trump administration officials have been more open to outside input than their predecessors.’ … ‘They had a lot of meetings with our folks but didn’t listen,’ he said of Obama officials, adding even some Massachusetts Democratic lawmakers raised concerns about the New England marine monument’s fishing restrictions.”

The article suggested that Mr. Bowman, a career Interior Department employee and not a Trump administration appointee, purposefully excised information from logbook data indicating that, on the whole, most vessels fishing near the monument generate just 5 percent of their landings from within the monument.

However, there are valid reasons to be cautious about the logbook-data driven 5 percent statistic. There are more sources available to characterize fishing activity – in addition to just logbooks, formally known as “vessel trip reports”, which was the sole source cited in the email referenced in the Post story. While, as the material references states, the information comes from NOAA and the fishery management councils so it can be presumed accurate, the context is missing.

An Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) survey identified recent (2014-2015) fishing activity within the boundaries of the National Monument that, if the Obama executive order is not reversed, will be closed to the fishery in the future. The results indicate that 12-14 percent of the offshore lobster fishery effort and 13-14 percent of revenue ($2.4-2.8 million annually) for the lobster and Jonah crab fishery comes from the area of the National Monument. This revenue is significantly higher than that derived from the vessel trip report (logbook) analysis, which is only about $0.7 million annually.

The document cited in the Post story correctly cites the $2.4-$2.8 million annual revenue in those fisheries, but it does not make clear the significant percentage of offshore revenue that comes from the monument area. Similarly, when the document cites $1.8 million from the Monument region annually (2010-2015), that includes only the $0.7 million lobster trap revenues derived from vessel trip reports, not the total indicated by the ASMFC survey for more recent years.

While it is generally accurate, if one looks at the entire fishing industry in the region, to make the statement that only a small number of vessels derive more than 5 percent of their revenue from the Monument area, for those vessels and fisheries that conduct significant portions of their operations in the monument area, the economic harm is significant.

Also, in a document attached to the story, a margin comment erroneously states that NOAA advised the Interior Department that the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification for red crab was “revoked.” That is not the case. In 2009, the red crab fishery became the first MSC-certified fishery on the East Coast. The certification was never revoked. The certification expired because the participants in the fishery determined that the cost to pursue renewal of the certification exceeded the financial benefits they anticipated would arise from maintaining it, and they decided voluntarily to allow it to lapse.

Read the full Washington Post story

Read further coverage of this story from E&E News

Interior wrote proclamations scuttling ocean sites — emails

July 24, 2018 — Senior Interior Department officials prepared last fall to eliminate the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument — even as they had yet to agree on the public justifications for doing so, according to newly disclosed internal documents.

Interior last week accidentally released thousands of pages of unredacted internal emails in response to Freedom of Information Act requests.

Copies of those emails, provided to E&E News by the Center for Western Priorities, detail Interior’s strategy — including a focus on timber harvesting, mineral rights, and oil and gas extraction — as it reviewed the boundaries of more than two dozen national monuments under an executive order from President Trump.

The documents also disclose internal deliberations over the future of some marine monuments, including reintroducing commercial fishing to some sites and reducing the boundaries of others.

In [a] September email, [Interior official Randy Bowman] advised that Interior strike data on commercial fishing in the [Northeast Canyons and Seamounts monument]. A deleted sentence states that four vessels in 2014-15 relied on the monument area for more than 25 percent of their annual revenues, while the majority of ships generated less than 5 percent of their revenues from the area.

“This section, while accurate (except for one sentence) seems to me to undercut the case for the commercial fishing closure being harmful. I suggest in the attached deleting most of it for that reason,” Bowman wrote.

Saving Seafood Executive Director Bob Vanasse disputed the idea that data didn’t support the repeal of the commercial fishing ban but said it instead was removed because it could be taken out of context.

“While it is generally accurate, if one looks at the entire fishing industry in the region, to make the statement that only a small number of vessels derive more than 5 percent of their revenue from the Monument area, for those vessels and fisheries that conduct significant portions of their operations in the monument area, the economic harm is significant,” Vanasse said in a statement.

He added in an interview: “The suggestion is that the administration is hiding the facts, and I don’t think that’s the case.”

Read the full story at E&E News