Saving Seafood

US fishing industry issues rebuke of trawling bill

June 27, 2024 —  More than 50 U.S. seafood organizations and companies have signed a letter calling on U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola (D-Alaska) to immediately withdraw the Bottom Trawl Clarity Act – legislation she introduced in May that could block off large sections of the ocean from trawling gear.

“This bill threatens seafood sector jobs in Alaska and across the United States,” At-Sea Processors Association Executive Director Stephanie Madsen said. “More than 1.5 million Americans have jobs that depend on commercial seafood, and they deserve better than the politicization of fisheries science and management.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Alaska Congresswoman introduces bills to protect fish, ocean ecology from trawlers

May 26, 2024 — U.S. Rep. Mary Sattler Peltola, a Democrat from Alaska, introduced two bills on Wednesday that align with her long-time political, professional and personal incentives to protect marine ecosystems from industrial trawling fleets.

The Bottom Trawl Clarity Act addresses a decades-long controversy in Alaska that would require regional fishery management councils to change the regulatory definition of “midwater” trawlers’ fishing nets that have “substantial bottom contact” with the ocean floor to a more accurate definition. The current regulations allow the trawlers to fish in ecologically sensitive areas closed to bottom trawling.

“We’re very serious about it, and it’s a real bipartisan bill; it addresses a real problem with a real solution,” said the first Alaska Native to serve in Congress in an extensive interview with USA TODAY on May 22.

Read the full article at USA Today