Saving Seafood

At “Our Oceans” Conference in Chile, Obama announces the first new marine sanctuaries in 15 years

“Several advocacy groups have been pressing the administration to declare two new national marine monuments off New England’s coast: Cashes Ledge and the New England Canyons and Seamounts, which are home to a major kelp forest and network of deepwater corals, respectively. But some local fishing operators raised objections to the designations of the two areas in the run up to the global conference, and the president did not use his executive authority to put them off limits.”

The following is an excerpt from a Washington Post story, written by Chelsea Harvey with contributions from Juliet Eilperin: 

WASHINGTON (The Washington Post) October 5, 2015 — In a video message to conference attendees, President Obama announced plans for two new marine sanctuaries, one off the coast of Maryland, and the other in Lake Michigan. They’ll be the first new national marine sanctuaries designated by the federal government in the past 15 years.

One of these sanctuaries will be an 875-square mile section of Lake Michigan off the shore of Wisconsin, which is recognized for its collection of nearly 40 known shipwrecks, some of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The other sanctuary is a 14-square mile area of the Potomac River, which includes Maryland’s Mallows Bay – an area known for its ecological significance, according to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, and home to bald eagles, herons, beavers, river otters and numerous species of fish.

…

Several advocacy groups have been pressing the administration to declare two new national marine monuments off New England’s coast: Cashes Ledge and the New England Canyons and Seamounts, which are home to a major kelp forest and network of deepwater corals, respectively. But some local fishing operators raised objections to the designations of the two areas in the run up to the global conference, and the president did not use his executive authority to put them off limits.

Marine national monuments differ from marine sanctuaries in that they can be established by presidential proclamation, whereas sanctuaries are designated by NOAA and require extensive public input – however, they can offer similar protections and human use restrictions over marine ecosystems.

The United States is also announcing several other plans aimed at protecting marine resources. In Chile for the conference, Secretary of State John F. Kerry announced the launch of Sea Scout, a global initiative targeting illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing by uniting world leaders, expanding technology and information-sharing and identifying illegal fishing hot spots. NOAA also has plans to expand the development of a technology known as the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite, which detects boats and may help alert nations to illegal fishing activities. The technology will be implemented in several nations in 2016, including Indonesia and the Philippines.

The Sea Scout initiative “provides a real opportunity to improve coordination and information sharing around the world as a way to combat illegal fishing,” said Beth Lowell, senior campaign director for Oceana, in a statement to The Post. According to Lowell, the biggest challenges to combating illegal fishing are an untraceable global seafood supply chain and a lack of enforcement. And on these fronts, there’s still more to be done.

“The first step to effectively stop IUU fishing and seafood fraud is to require catch documentation for all seafood sold in the U.S.,” Lowell said. “While Oceana applauds the president’s task force for taking great steps in the right direction, full-chain traceability is ultimately needed for all U.S. seafood to ensure that it’s safe, legally caught and honestly labeled.”

Read the full story from the Washington Post

Read Secretary of State John Kerry’s remarks here

 

GLOUCESTER DAILY TIMES: Cooler heads needed on marine monument plan

September 24, 2015 — Everyone — from fishermen to environmentalists — agrees on the need to preserve Cashes Ledge and the swath of deepwater canyons and seabeds south of Georges Bank.

There is a deep distrust, however, over the method several environmental groups — including the Conservation Law Foundation, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Pew Charitable Trusts — are using to make that happen.

Their heavy-handed, autocratic attempt to create a so-called “marine national monument” off the coast of Cape Ann is creating a political quagmire, with Democrats and Republicans weighing in on the issue alongside fishermen and environmentalists. The resulting scrum could lead to a situation no one wants, namely fewer protections for one of the more stunning underwater regions in the Atlantic Ocean.

We are hoping cooler heads — including U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Salem — can prevail on the interested parties to collaborate on a preservation plan, bypassing a proposed presidential fiat.

The fight centers on conservationists’ push to create the national monument at Cashes Ledge and south of Georges Bank. President Obama, they note, can use his executive powers — through the Antiquities Act — to make it happen with little or no public input.

The move would make the areas, located between 80 and 100 miles off Cape Ann, permanently off limits to activities such as drilling and fishing (though that’s not happening there now).

No one is arguing the areas shouldn’t be protected. The spot south of Georges Bank, parallel to Cape Cod, for example, is made up of stunning seamounts and canyons that rise and plunge thousands of feet from the sea floor.

Somehow, however, the conservation groups decided they were the sole arbiters of the best way to manage the area, and have moved to shut out other stakeholders, including the region’s fishermen. That’s not only wrong, it’s anti-democratic. The Gulf of Maine is a shared resource, which by definition means the decisions about how to manage it must also be shared. Fishermen and other groups deserve a voice.

Read the full editorial at the Gloucester Daily Times

 

 

Over 1,500 Coastal Residents Join Federal, State, and Congressional Leaders in Opposing Atlantic Marine Monument

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) – September 25, 2015 – A letter delivered this week to the President and other top Federal officials has been signed by more than 1,500 fishermen and other residents from coastal communities opposing recent calls to create a marine national monument along America’s Atlantic Coast. The letter’s signers join a growing list of citizens, stakeholders, governors, Senators, Members of Congress, and local leaders speaking out publicly against the monument campaign. The letter’s signers call the measure an unnecessary use of Executive authority that undermines the public management of natural resources, which are being successfully managed through public processes.

READ THE LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT AND TOP FEDERAL OFFICIALS

Saving Seafood has published the letter online today, which was produced jointly by the Fisheries Survival Fund (FSF) and the Northeast Seafood Coalition (NSC). In addition to President Obama, the letter was also delivered to Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere Dr. Kathryn Sullivan, and NOAA Assistant Administrator for Fisheries Eileen Sobeck.

According to the letter, a recent campaign to designate an Atlantic marine national monument, specifically in the Cashes Ledge area of the Gulf of Maine and around the New England Canyons and Seamounts, circumvents and diminishes the public management procedures that currently manage these areas. In the view of the signers, a process that is open and collaborative, and considers the input of scientific experts, fishermen, and other stakeholders, is best way to successfully manage marine resources.

The signers also contend that these proposals do not properly take into account the existing protections already in place in many of these areas. They note that Cashes Ledge has been closed to most forms of commercial fishing for over a decade, and that the New England Fishery Management Council recently took steps to extend these protections into the future with the approval of Omnibus Habitat Amendment 2. The Council is set to further examine additional habitat protections for the region when it considers the Deep Sea Coral Amendment later this year. To the signers of the letter, these are clear signs that the current management process is working.

The letter joins increasingly vocal opposition to a national monument designation. Maine Governor Paul LePage, as well as Maine Senator Susan Collins and Congressman Bruce Poliquin, have all written to the Obama Administration opposing any monument in the Gulf of Maine. Sefatia Romeo Theken, the Mayor of Gloucester, Massachusetts, home to the nation’s oldest fishing port and its historic groundfish fishery, has also written a letter in opposition. Jon Mitchell, the Mayor of New Bedford, Massachusetts, the nation’s most valuable port and home to the Atlantic scallop fishery, is one of the signers of this week’s letter. Legislatively, Congressmen Don Young and Walter Jones recently introduced the Marine Access and State Transparency Act, which would prevent the President from declaring offshore national monuments.

 

Maine Sen. Collins, Rep. Poliquin write to NOAA on Marine Monument

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) — September 24, 2015 — Maine Senator Susan Collins and Congressman Bruce Poliquin have written a letter to NOAA Assistant Administrator for Fisheries Eileen Sobeck expressing concern over proposals to designate marine National Monuments in the Atlantic Ocean, and calling for a “thorough, open” public process before such a proposal is implemented.

The letter, dated September 14, notes that the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC), which currently is responsible for managing many of the areas under discussion, “has been proactive in its stewardship” of the area, particularly the Cashes Ledge region of the Gulf of Maine. It notes that the “deliberative and democratic” process that consults “scientists, public officials, fishermen, regulators, and other stakeholders” has allowed Cashes Ledge to “flourish.”

A National Monument designation in these areas, the letter states, “could well undermine the NEFMC’s longstanding, cooperative, and effective management systems and its years of hard work to develop balanced management plans in the region.” To prevent this, the letter calls for additional public hearings hosted by NOAA before any monument plan is implemented.

Read the letter here

 

MASSACHUSETTS: Letter from Gloucester Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) — September 24, 2015 — Gloucester, Mass. Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken has written to top officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in opposition to a recent proposal to designate Cashes Ledge, three deep sea canyons and four seamounts off the Atlantic Coast as national monuments. Gloucester, one of nation’s oldest fishing ports, is also noted for its relation to New England’s historic groundfish fishery.

Read the letter from Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken

 

Congress wary of marine monument plan

September 23, 2015 — Congressional opposition seems to be growing against the method — if not necessarily the intent — of the conservationist effort to create the first marine national monument on the Atlantic seaboard.

The conservationists’ proposal, which implores President Obama to use executive decree in the form of the Antiquities Act to unilaterally create a marine national monument off the coast of Massachusetts in the Gulf of Maine seems to have raised some populist hackles.

A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton said the Salem Democrat believes “any decisions about the future of the Gulf of Maine need to be reached in a collaborative process that includes all stakeholders, including the commonwealth’s fishermen.”

Spokesman Andy Flick said Moulton has not yet decided whether he will testify at Tuesday’s scheduled hearing by a subcommittee of the House Natural Resource Committee on the issue, but that “our staff is working to ensure all stakeholders will have an opportunity to be heard.”

The monument proposal, initially generated by the Conservation Law Foundation, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Pew Charitable Trusts, would have President Obama designate Cashes Ledge — which is about 80 miles east of Gloucester — and an area of deep-water canyons and seamounts south of Georges Bank as a marine national monument that would be off limits to all fishing and future sea-floor development.

Read the full story at Gloucester Daily Times

US House steps into marine monument fray

September 23, 2015 — A House subcommittee will convene in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday to discuss the implications of pending marine national monument designations, including conservationist efforts to create the Atlantic seaboard’s first marine national monument off the coast of Massachusetts.

The hearing, scheduled by the House Natural Resources Committee’s subcommittee on water, power and the oceans, comes in the midst of an expanding dispute between fishing stakeholders and the conservationists who want President Obama to use executive decree to designate Cashes Ledge and an area of deep-water canyons and seamounts south of Georges Bank as a marine natural monument, off limits to all fishing.

The conservationists, led by the Conservation Law Foundation, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Pew Charitable Trusts, are imploring President Obama to use the federal Antiquities Act to unilaterally create the national monument as a means of protecting the two areas from commercial fishing and future sea-floor development.

The proposal is being opposed by fishing stakeholder and advocacy groups, such as the Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition, who insist the current restrictions to fishing in both areas contained in existing habitat regulations established by the New England and Mid-Atlantic fishery management councils, and approved by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service, afford the necessary protections.

The opponents also charge that the conservationist effort is nothing short of an end-run around the nation’s current fishery management system, which provides for more public comment and participation, as well as a greater measure of transparency and scientific basis.

The New England Fishery Management Council has not adopted a formal position on the monument proposal, but council Chairman Terry Stockwell last week pointed out that the council in April reinforced the existing protections of Cashes Ledge — which sits about 80 miles east of Cape Ann — by continuing its approximately 530 square-mile closure to fishing.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Learn more about the subcommittee hearing here

 

 

Congressmen Jones & Young File Bill to Prevent Marine Monument Designations Without Congressional Consent

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) – September 23, 2015 – The following was released by the Office of Congressman Walter Jones:

Congressman Walter B. Jones (R-North Carolina) and Congressman Don Young (R-Alaska) have cosponsored H.R. 330, the Marine Access and State Transparency (MAST) Act.  The bill would prevent President Barack Obama, or any future president, from unilaterally designating offshore areas as “national monuments” and restricting the public’s ability to fish there.  Instead, the bill would require a president to get the approval of Congress and the legislature of each state within 100 nautical miles of the monument before any “monument” designation could take effect.

The bill comes in response to increasing speculation that President Obama may follow the example of his predecessor George W. Bush and unilaterally designate large swaths of coastal America as “national monuments.”  In 2006, President Bush short circuited the established process of public consultation and input and unilaterally designated 84 million acres off the coast of the Northwest Hawaiian Islands as a national monument. The new monument, which is larger than 46 of America’s 50 states, was then closed to fishing.    

“Presidents from both parties have abused their monument designation authority for far too long,” said Congressman Jones.  “No president should be allowed to just lock up millions of acres of fishing grounds by fiat, with no public input whatsoever.  Frankly, it’s un-American, and it must be stopped.  I am proud to be the first member of Congress to join my friend Don Young in fighting for this legislation, and I urge the rest of my colleagues to get behind it.” 

For additional information, please contact Maria Jeffrey in Congressman Jones’ office at (202) 225-3415 or at maria.jeffrey@mail.house.gov.

Read the release from Congressman Jones online

Massachusetts: Gloucester joins fight against marine monument plan

September 18, 2015 — The City of Gloucester has joined fishing stakeholders opposing conservationist efforts to permanently restrict fishing access to Cashes Ledge and an area south of Georges Bank that includes three deep canyons and four seamounts to create the Atlantic seaboard’s first marine national monument.

In her letter read into the record Tuesday night at a NOAA-hosted town meeting in Providence to discuss the issue, Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken stated the city’s objections to designate the deep sea canyons and seamounts — and Cashes Ledge — as a national monument.

“We have learned over the years to take a balanced perspective on issues, to make sure to have researched all the facts, and to include the public in our decisions,” Romeo Theken wrote. “It is from this perspective that I write in opposition to the Conservation Law Foundation-organized proposal for a national monument.”

Romeo Theken, as many other fishing stakeholders, decried the initiative by the CLF, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Pew Charitable Trusts — which are imploring President Obama to use the federal Antiquities Act to unilaterally create the national monument —- as a blatant end-run around the existing fisheries management system and wholly unnecessary given the protections already in place.

“This CLF request undermines the democratic process established for fisheries management and replaces science with pure politics,” Romeo Theken wrote.

Romeo Theken’s letter parallels much of the opposition generated by the national monument proposal for an area that is about 100 miles southeast of Cape Cod and is home to some of the true wonders of the ocean, including seamounts and canyons that respectively rise and plunge thousands of feet from the ocean floor.

It also objected to a similar protective designation for Cashes Ledge, which sits about 80 miles east of Cape Ann.

Read the full story at Gloucester Daily Times

DAVE MONTI: Balancing fishing and marine conservation a delicate act

September 17, 2015 — NOAA is exploring permanent protections for three deep sea canyons — Oceanographer, Gilbert, and Lydonia Canyons — and four seamounts 130 to 200 miles off New England’s coast.

Deep sea canyons, which plunge to depths greater than 7,000 feet, and seamounts, which rise thousands of feet above the sea floor, create unique habitats supporting tremendous biodiversity and fragile ecosystems that are home to corals, fish, marine mammals, turtles, and more. These habitats are well worth preserving.

I thought the public meeting and proposed process was good, although many fishermen and fish policy makers felt it circumvented the New England Fishery Management Council’s authority. They believe the council is charged with regulating fishing via the Magnuson Stevens Act in this area.

I understand that it is not all about fishing, but I believe recreational and commercial fishermen should continue to be granted access to fishing grounds in and near the proposed monument areas, as long as they are not affecting the area in a negative way. For example, when recreational fishermen target tuna they are pretty much on the surface, not down to the sea floor where protections are needed.

I do believe drilling, mining, laying cable and certain types of fishing should be restricted.

If fishing can continue to be conducted respectfully in the proposed monument areas, and this is written into the law while restricting disruptive and harmful uses, I am all for designating national monument areas.

Read the full opinion piece at the Providence Journal