Saving Seafood

BOSTON HERALD: Drowning in regulations

November 6, 2015 — President Obama is poised to designate two large areas off the New England coast as national marine “monuments,” to the delight of conservationists who seem much more interested in protecting the ocean than they are in protecting people.

Gov. Charlie Baker has written to President Obama to express concern about the impact on the region’s fishermen if the federal government turns part of the New England coastline into a sort of undersea museum — one that only scientists are likely ever to lay eyes on. Baker in his letter raises reasonable concerns about the process — or lack thereof — that led to this point.

Yes, Obama has the authority to take this step under the Antiquities Act (and has done so for other areas in the Pacific, as did President George W. Bush). But Baker notes there has been little public input into the decision to designate areas known as Cashes Ledge and the New England Canyons and Seamounts as national monuments, making them off limits to commercial fishing and such activities as oil or gas exploration or extraction — permanently.

Read the full editorial at the Boston Herald

JON WILLIAMS: Not So Fast On Atlantic Marine Monument

WASHINGTON — November 4, 2015 — The following is an excerpt from an opinion piece written by Jon Williams, President of the Atlantic Red Crab Company of New Bedford, Massachusetts. It was originally published today by The Hill, a Washington-based publication covering Congressional policy and politics: 

An ongoing campaign led by large, well-funded environmental organizations is urging President Obama to use the 1906 Antiquities Act to designate parts of the Atlantic Ocean-such as Cashes Ledge in the Gulf of Maine and the New England Canyons and Seamounts-as marine National Monuments. In September, I had the privilege of testifying before House Natural Resources Committee Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans about the aspect of this proposal that seeks to exclude historic fisheries from the designated area.

The Antiquities Act, originally enacted to give Teddy Roosevelt authority to protect vulnerable Native American archeological sites, allows the president to act quickly, unilaterally, and without Congressional oversight to preserve sites in danger of destruction. The act, while undoubtedly created in good faith, has been misused in the case of marine monuments to a frightening extent.

In my case, the red crab fishing business I’ve been operating for twenty years is active in some of the areas under the proposal. Not only has our fishery complied with every regulation, but we have expended significant resources and time to ensure the health of the resource we fish.  We were the first U.S. Atlantic Coast fishery certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council, demonstrating we have minimal impact on the health of the species and its environment. Additionally, we are listed as “Ocean-Friendly” by the New England Aquarium Seafood Guide program. 

Although these processes took years of effort and hundreds of thousands of dollars-a significant cost for a fishery of our size-it was important that we understood how the red crab fishery impacted the environment and demonstrated that our practices were indeed sustainable. 

These efforts to both understand and minimize our impact on the environment have been so successful that after forty years of red crab fishing, our fishing grounds are described as “pristine” by the same environmental groups who seek the monument designation. If these habitats are still “pristine” after forty years of fishing, how can a serious argument be made that the area is in imminent danger and in need of immediate, unilateral protection by presidential fiat? By labeling our fishery as an imminent threat despite our ability to keep the area pristine, these environmental groups have both ignored the facts and devalued our successful efforts to operate a sustainable fishery.

In addition, those of us who have fished sustainably and responsibly in the area for decades have had our voices almost completely shut out of this process. A prime example was the September 15 “town hall” meeting held by NOAA in Providence, Rhode Island. Hastily arranged, many fishermen who would be affected by the proposals were not even aware that it took place. Those in attendance were provided no firm details on the scope of the proposal, preventing them from commenting substantively about something that could dramatically affect or even eliminate their livelihoods. There’s no guarantee that there will be any future opportunity for those affected to voice their concerns. The Antiquities Act does not require such input, and a designation could come at any time.

Read the full opinion piece at The Hill 

NOAA encourages continued engagement on possible marine protected areas in New England

October 29, 2015 — The following was released by NOAA:

We would like to thank those of you who have taken the time to engage with NOAA on possible protections for some of the most ecologically important areas in the Atlantic Ocean, including several deep sea canyons and seamounts. We are committed to evaluating opportunities to protect important marine resources and habitat, while limiting impacts to those people and businesses whose livelihoods depend on these waters.

We received a lot of valuable input at the town hall meeting and have received many helpful comments and questions submitted electronically.

Many of you have requested more details and additional opportunities for public comment, and in the coming months we intend to release additional information about the area under consideration and solicit feedback.

In the meantime, if you have more thoughts that you would like to share, please continue to send them to:  atlanticconservation@noaa.gov.

 

NPR: Conservationists Push for a National Undersea Monument

October 22, 2015 — WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) — October 22, 2015 — The following is an excerpt from a story by Heather Goldstone, originally published October 19 on NPR affiliate WCAI. It also appeared on NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday.

Editor’s Note: In the article, the Conservation Law Foundation’s Priscilla Brooks comments that the Antiquities Act is “how we’ve gotten many of our incredible national parks – the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone.” However, Yellowstone National Park predates the Antiquities Act of 1906 by 34 years, having been established in 1872 by an act of Congress. 

The ocean off New England’s coast is known for lobster and cod, but there are also lush kelp forests and rare deep-sea corals. Environmentalists want President Obama to declare those natural riches a marine national monument – the first of its kind in the Atlantic. Fishermen say the plan not only threatens their business, it silences their voices. 

…

Environmentalists are pushing President Obama to declare a marine national monument covering Cashes Ledge, the canyons, and everything in between – six thousand square miles in all. Shank agrees that some protection is needed, but he’s not convinced a monument is the way to go.

“Maybe I’m too much of a nerd scientist,” he jokes. “I just want to see us be informed about what we’re doing.”

By law, fishery managers are required to involve scientists, fishermen, and the public in crafting regulations. Fishermen don’t always like the result, but they have a say, and decisions can usually be revisited. The president, on the other hand, can declare a monument and permanently shut down fishing without any public process at all. Steve Welch of Scituate, MA, helped shape the current rules for Cashes Ledge. Standing outside a recent fishery management meeting, he says the president shouldn’t have that power.

“This is not what America is about,” Welch says. “We might as well have a dictator in the White House.”

Fishermen from twenty six states have signed a petition opposing a presidential proclamation, and the House is considering a bill that would require state and congressional approval for ocean monuments. But monument supporters point to our national parks as living proof that executive action is warranted.

“We learned a century ago that giving the President the authority to protect special areas has been a huge boon for the public,” says Priscilla Brooks, Vice President and Director of Ocean Conservation for Conservation Law Foundation. “That’s how we’ve gotten many of our incredible national parks – the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone.”

Read the full story and listen to the audio at WCAI

Mass. Senators and Congressmen Call on Obama Administration for More Public Input on Marine Monuments

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) — October 13, 2015 — Both Massachusetts Senators and three Massachusetts Congressmen have written to President Obama calling on him to further engage regional industry stakeholders before advancing any plans to use his Executive Authority to designate a marine National Monument off the coast of New England. The Monument would potentially include Cashes Ledge in the Gulf of Maine and several of the New England Canyons and Seamounts.

In the letter, Sens. Warren and Markey, and Reps. Lynch, Keating, and Moulton urge the President to “include additional opportunities for our Massachusetts constituents to express their views on the potential designations in the context of ongoing conservation efforts,” as well as “provide more information on the potential designations, especially the objectives, geographic scope, and possible limits to activities, to help inform these additional discussions.” To date there has only been one opportunity for public input, a “town hall” meeting held last month in Providence, Rhode Island.

Their letter also notes that many of the areas under consideration for a monument designation already enjoy substantial protections. Specifically, the New England Fishery Management Council “has had in place protections for Cashes Ledge for more than a decade,” and “is currently considering management actions to protect Deep Sea corals in the region.”

The text of the letter is reproduced below:

Dear Mr. President:

For centuries, the ocean has been critical to the economy and culture of Massachusetts. As Members of Congress representing Massachusetts, we are working to ensure our coastal communities continue to thrive in the 21st century. A healthy ocean is critical for healthy coastal economies. The ocean economy of Massachusetts is worth more than $6 billion, according to the most recent economic data available. Given the unprecedented challenges our fishing industry, and the shore-side businesses that depend on it, have faced in recent years, we are acutely aware of the need for collaboration with our communities, the fishing industry, and other businesses that rely on the ocean and its resources.

We understand you are considering using your authority to make national marine monument designations of a number of submarine habitats–five coral canyons, four submarine seamounts, and an underwater mountain range known as Cashes Ledge–in the New England region of the Atlantic Ocean.

As the Chairman of the New England Fisheries Management Council discussed in his statement at NOAA’ s September 15111 public listening session in Rhode Island, the Council has long recognized the unique habitats of the deep canyons, seamounts and Cashes Ledge. The Council has had in place protections for Cashes Ledge for more than a decade and ultimately supported the continuation of protections for it in the Essential Fish Habitat amendment they adopted earlier this year. The Council is also currently considering management actions to protect Deep Sea corals in the region. Stakeholders not represented on the Council also conveyed their recognition of the conservation values of these areas.

While you have clear authority under the Antiquities Act to designate national monuments, we ask that you engage stakeholders further before making a final decision. We ask you to build on last month’s listening session in Rhode Island by expanding your stakeholder engagement efforts to include additional opportunities for our Massachusetts constituents to express their views on the potential designations in the context of ongoing conservation efforts. We also ask that you provide more information on the potential designations, especially the objectives, geographic scope, and possible limits to activities, to help inform these additional discussions.

Thank you for your attention to these requests. We look forward to further discussions with you and your administration about these designations and other actions important to support the economies of our Massachusetts’s coastal communities.

Sincerely,

Edward J. Markey

United States Senator

Elizabeth Warren

United States Senator

Stephen Lynch

Member of Congress

William Keating

Member of Congress

Seth Moulton

Member of Congress

Read the letter here

 

FISHTOWN LOCAL: Something smells fishy

October 12, 2015 — Okay, here we go again. Another behind-the-scenes effort has begun behind our backs, the way it happened before. The newest NOAA effort has begun toward creating a marine national monument in the Cashes Ledge area — about 80 miles east of Gloucester — as well as the deep sea coral and seamount area south of Georges Bank, traditional catch areas for our fishermen.

Former U.S. Sen. John Kerry, now secretary of state, has been quixotic and disturbingly vague on the issue, hinting that following the model of Maryland’s sanctuaries and in the Great Lakes, “We also have plans in the works, which we are pursuing for still another significant one in the Atlantic, where we don’t have the kind of presence that we want and should.” Kerry added that the Obama administration is working with senators “engaged in that particular area in order to make that happen.” Unfortunately, current senators Markey and Warren have stayed silent on the subject.

Meanwhile, concerned by what it regards as a lack of transparency and undue influence from conservationists, a House committee on Wednesday sought more answers from the Obama administration on potential plans to create a national marine monument off the coast of New England that would be fully off limits to fishing or sea-bed harvesting.

Read the full opinion piece by Fishtown Local’s Gordon Baird at the Gloucester Daily Times

RON SMOLOWITZ: Marine Monument Plan Subverts Public Input

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) — October 8, 2015 — The following letter from Ron Smolowitz, of the Coonamessett Farm Foundation, was published today in the Cape Cod Times.

Your recent editorial endorsing a new Atlantic marine national monument (“A fitting tribute,” Sept. 27) misses the main reason a large and growing number of fishermen, coastal residents and public officials are so opposed to the proposal: It undermines the democratic process and threatens the future of public input in the management of public resources.

For many fishermen, this is not primarily an economic issue. Parts of the areas under consideration, particularly Cashes Ledge in the Gulf of Maine, have been closed to most forms of fishing for over a decade, and will remain closed under Omnibus Habitat Amendment 2, recently approved by the New England Fishery Management Council. Fishermen recognize the value of reasonable protections for these areas.

Rather, there is broad opposition to a marine monument because this proposal – and the precedent it sets – threatens the open and public process that has so far successfully preserved these areas. A national monument designation would mean that unilateral, one-time executive action will replace public input from a diverse variety of interests – including scientists, fishermen, regulators, and environmentalists – that has played an essential role in promoting conservation and successful management. This process works and needs to be respected.

Read the letter from Ron Smolowitz to the Cape Cod Times here 

NEW BEDFORD STANDARD-TIMES: Fishermen win a small victory

October 8, 2015 — Fishermen in the Northeast fisheries can celebrate a small victory in what President Obama didn’t do on Monday.

The president addressed, by video, attendees of the Our Ocean 2015 conference in Valparaiso, Chile, and announced two new marine sanctuaries, neither one of them off the coast of new England.

Commercial fishing advocates had been fighting to counter the message of environmental groups that were running a full-scale campaign to put Cashes Ledge and the New England Canyons and Seamounts on the list, along with the two announced by the president in Maryland and Lake Michigan.

New England fishermen looked at the 6,000 square miles under consideration off the coast and saw the next strategic step toward pushing them off the ocean.

The valuable cold-water kelp forests of Cashes Ledge and the coral fields in the five canyons and four seamounts are worthy of protection, but they are already off limits to fishermen.

Fishing advocates’ concern of “policy creep” can’t be dismissed as paranoia. The steady negative impact of regulation on the fishing industry is well-documented in reports on the health of the industry, and the use of various regulatory tools has left the industry reeling, wondering where the next threat will come from.

Read the full editorial from the New Bedford Standard-Times

Kerry: Obama looking to senators to make Atlantic monument happen

October 8, 2015 — Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking Tuesday from Chile, did nothing to tamp down the flames over a conservationist-led movement for President Obama to use executive decree to create a marine sanctuary or national monument off the coast of New England.

Speaking at the Our Oceans Conference in Valparaiso, Chile, Kerry followed a reference to the newly created sanctuaries off the coast of Maryland and along the Great Lakes coast of Wisconsin, by saying “We also have plans in the works which we are pursuing for still another significant one in the Atlantic, where we don’t have the kind of presence that we want and should.”

Kerry added that the Obama administration is working with senators “engaged in that particular area in order to make that happen.”

That seemed to toss the ball squarely back into the court of, among other New England senators, Elizabeth Warren and Edward J. Markey, both of whom have been silent on the issue.

Meanwhile, concerned by what it regards as a lack of transparency and undue influence from conservationists, a House committee on Wednesday sought more answers from the Obama administration on potential plans to create a national marine monument off the coast of New England that would be fully off limits to fishing or sea-bed harvesting.

In a letter to officials at NOAA and the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality, members of the Committee on Natural Resources, said witness testimony at last week’s oversight hearing on marine national monuments showed “the public input process surrounding the designation or expansion of national marine monuments has been woefully inadequate or even non-existent.”

The letter also pointedly questioned the relationship between the Obama administration and the phalanx of conservationist groups urging the president to use the Antiquities Act to create national marine monument in the vicinity of Cashes Ledge and Georges Bank.

The letter referenced a chain of emails — first obtained and reported by the Saving Seafood website — that committee members regard as raising “serious questions regarding the Administration’s plans for a new marine monument designation and the potential involvement of a number of outside interests.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

 

 

House Natural Resources Committee Demands Obama Administration Info on Marine Monument Designations

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) October 7, 2015 — In a letter signed by the full committee chairman, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans, and the chairman and vice chairman of the Subcommittee on Indian, Insular, and Alaska Native Affairs, the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee has demanded records of all meetings, correspondence and memos related to marine monument designations. 

The letter references emails that “show representatives from the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF), the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Pew Charitable Trusts warning their members to avoid talking to the ‘outside world’ about the organizations’ efforts to influence the Administration to announce a Marine National Monument off of New England during the ‘Our Ocean Conference’ in Chile.” The emails in question were originally obtained by Saving Seafood via public records requests, and were first reported by Greenwire.

The following is the text of the press release from the House Natural Resources Committee:

Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT), and Reps. John Fleming (R-LA), Don Young (R-AK), and Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen (R-AS) sent a letter today to Council on Environmental Quality Managing Director Christy Goldfuss and Assistant Administrator for the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Eileen Sobeck to request further information on the Obama Administration’s plans to designate new marine monuments or expand existing monuments. This concerns all coastal states.

In particular, the members of the Committee raised concerns about the apparent collusion and influence of environmental groups with regard to the Interior Department’s designation process, with almost no local input.

The letter stated, “[T]he day after the Subcommittee’s hearing, a chain of emails were publicly released which raise serious questions regarding the Administration’s plans for a new marine monument designation and the potential involvement of a number of outside interests. Specifically, the emails show representatives from the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF), the Natural Resources Defense Council, and Pew warning their members to avoid talking to the ‘outside world’ about the organizations’ efforts to influence the Administration to announce a Marine National Monument off of New England during the ‘Our Ocean Conference’ in Chile.”

The lack of transparency surrounding the number and scope of potential future designations was a point of emphasis for the Subcommittee on Water, Power and Ocean’s oversight hearing on September 29, 2015.

“As witnesses indicated in testimony before the Water, Power and Oceans Subcommittee hearing, the public input process surrounding the designation or expansion of national marine monuments has been woefully inadequate, or even nonexistent. The American people and those impacted by such potential designations deserve the right to know now what the federal government is or has been doing behind closed doors, given that a true public process simply does not exist under current law or practice.”

The letter requests records of all meetings regarding the designation or revision of national monuments, correspondence and memos related to national marine monument designations, and Executive branch communications including those with non-governmental organizations connected to the September 15, 2015 National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Town Hall meeting in Providence, Rhode Island.

Read the House Natural Resources Committee’s press release online

View a PDF of the House Natural Resources Committee’s letter to Christy Goldfuss and Eileen Sobeck