Saving Seafood

Heinrich, Senate Democrats Call On Biden Administration To Undo Unlawful Changes To National Monuments

April 23, 2021 — The following was released by The Office of Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM):

U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, along with 18 of his Senate colleagues, sent a letter to U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland urging her recommend that President Biden undo any unlawful attacks on the Antiquities Act. Since 1906, sixteen presidents from both parties have used the Antiquities Act to protect places across the nation.

“From Chaco Canyon in New Mexico to Harriet Tubman’s house in Maryland, the Antiquities Act has long protected key landscapes and historical sites. National monuments protect our most precious natural, cultural, and historical resources, and threats to the integrity of any monuments established under the Antiquities Act threaten the protection of all monuments,” wrote the senators. 

President Trump eliminated 2 million acres of protections for Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments — the largest rollback of federally protected lands in American history. The previous administration took this action despite the fact that Americans across the country overwhelmingly voiced support for keeping the monuments intact.

The question of the validity of these reductions is being challenged in court, which is now on hold pending the Biden administration’s review of President Trump’s actions. Secretary Haaland visited Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument last week and is expected to make a recommendation to President Biden soon.

“During your confirmation process, you committed to undertaking a thorough review of the Antiquities Act proclamations of the previous Administration. Former President Trump illegally attempted to reduce the protections provided by proclamations that previous presidents issued. We urge you to defend the Antiquities Act and recommend that President Biden review President Trump’s actions and undo any unlawful attacks on the Antiquities Act,” continued the senators.

National monuments and America’s public lands help fuel an $887 billion outdoor recreation industry, which sustains 7.6 million jobs and creates $65.3 billion in federal tax revenue and $59.2 billion in local and state tax revenue. In New Mexico alone, the outdoor recreation economy is responsible for 99,000 jobs.

The letter, led by Senator Heinrich, was also signed by U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawai’i), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawai’i), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.)

The full text of the letter is below and available here. 

Dear Secretary Haaland:

We write in support of the Antiquities Act and the critical role it plays in protecting our nation’s most important and endangered places.

Since 1906, sixteen presidents have used the Antiquities Act to protect places across our nation. From Chaco Canyon in New Mexico to Harriet Tubman’s house in Maryland, the Antiquities Act has long protected key landscapes and historical sites. National monuments protect our most precious natural, cultural, and historical resources, and threats to the integrity of any monuments established under the Antiquities Act threaten the protection of all monuments.

During your confirmation process, you committed to undertaking a thorough review of the Antiquities Act proclamations of the previous Administration. Former President Trump illegally attempted to reduce the protections provided by proclamations that previous presidents issued. We urge you to defend the Antiquities Act and recommend that President Biden review President Trump’s actions and undo any unlawful attacks on the Antiquities Act.

We thank you for your commitment to conservation of our nation’s most important places and history.

Biden administration aims for vast offshore wind expansion

March 30, 2021 — Top Biden administration officials on Monday outlined new goals for building 30,000 megawatts off offshore wind energy generation by 2030, including another wind energy area covering nearly 800,000 acres in the New York Bight.

The Bureau of Offshore Energy Management announced it will initiate its environmental impact statement process for the Ocean Wind project, Ørsted’s planned 1,100 MW array off New Jersey, as the agency recently started an EIS for the South Fork wind development south of Rhode Island and just weeks after finalizing its analysis for the 804 MW Vineyard Wind project in southern New England waters.

Environmental reviews could start for as many as 10 more projects this year, the agency said.

The waters between the New Jersey beaches and Long Island already include federal lease held by developers intending to build the Atlantic Shores turbine array off Atlantic City, and the Empire Wind project close to the New York Harbor approaches. BOEM has been gauging potential developer interest in areas farther offshore and said it will now begin an environmental assessment of those areas.

With 20 million inhabitants in the region, it’s “the largest population center in the United States” with an enormous energy market, said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who spoke of the opportunity for U.S. shipbuilders and other industries in a new energy sector.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Top Natural Resources Republican asks Haaland for details on national monuments

March 29, 2021 — Rep. Bruce Westerman (Ark.), the top Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee, requested further information Monday from Interior Secretary Deb Haaland on the department’s review of the boundaries and protections of national monuments.

The Trump administration reduced the boundaries of two Utah sites, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante.

Biden in January ordered a review of the boundaries with a report of its findings issued within 60 days. However, the department has since announced it will publish the report after Haaland completes a visit to the monuments in April, after the 60-day window.

“While the planned visit to Utah, as well as reports of DOI [Department of the Interior] aides meeting with stakeholders, are encouraging steps, many matters remain unclear. For example, there is uncertainty whether DOI plans to initiate a formal, public comment period and how local support for the Trump administration’s decision will factor into future analysis,” Westerman wrote.

Read the full story at The Hill

Deb Haaland Becomes First Native American Cabinet Secretary

March 16, 2021 — Representative Deb Haaland of New Mexico made history on Monday when the Senate confirmed her as President Biden’s secretary of the Interior, making her the first Native American to lead a cabinet agency.

Ms. Haaland in 2018 became one of the first two Native American women elected to the House. But her new position is particularly redolent of history because the department she now leads has spent much of its history abusing or neglecting America’s Indigenous people.

Beyond the Interior Department’s responsibility for the well-being of the nation’s 1.9 million Native people, it oversees about 500 million acres of public land, federal waters off the United States coastline, a huge system of dams and reservoirs across the Western United States and the protection of thousands of endangered species.

“A voice like mine has never been a Cabinet secretary or at the head of the Department of Interior,” she wrote on Twitter before the vote. “Growing up in my mother’s Pueblo household made me fierce. I’ll be fierce for all of us, our planet, and all of our protected land.”

Read the full story at The New York Times

Saving Seafood Statement on President Biden’s National Monuments Order

January 22, 2021 — Saving Seafood members believe that the lack of benefit from a prohibition on commercial fishing in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Monument, the harm to domestic sustainable seafood production and coastal communities, the lack of scientific evidence demonstrating any harm from decades of commercial fishing in the region, and the inherent unfairness of the Obama administration’s decision to ban commercial harvesting while permitting recreational fishing have already been well-documented in the press and reviewed by appropriate government agencies.

However, we appreciate that President Biden has requested a review of the Trump administration’s actions on the monument rather than issuing an immediate reversal. Our members look forward to discussing these issues with Rep. Deb Haaland as soon as she is confirmed as Interior Secretary, just as we met with Secretary Ryan Zinke and Secretary David Bernhardt.

Contrary to the dramatic tone of some press releases and online campaigns from conservation groups, the Trump administration action last June did nothing more than create parity between recreational and commercial fishing in the monument, allowing both recreational and commercial fishermen to harvest sustainably in accordance with the Magnuson-Stevens Act. The Magnuson-Stevens Act has been hailed by U.S. conservation groups and by international bodies as one of the most successful laws in the world for managing fisheries responsibly and sustainably.

Sustainable fishing has taken place in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts area for decades. Conservation groups and proponents of the monument have described the area where fishing has taken place as “pristine.” There is no evidence that commercial fishing has ever damaged these canyons and seamounts or the corals and other marine life that exist there.

Our members have worked diligently with officials and members of Congress on both sides of the aisle since secret proposals for an Atlantic Marine Monument were revealed in emails between conservation groups and former Obama administration officials through a public records request in 2015.

The region now encompassed by the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Monument is important to the offshore lobster, red crab, and swordfish and tuna fisheries. And displacement of the offshore lobster fishery from their historic location would likely harm the highly successful and sustainable Atlantic scallop industry. We appreciated that the Obama administration recognized that an immediate closure would have serious negative consequences to the red crab and offshore lobster fisheries, and were grateful for the seven-year extension which allowed those fisheries to continue to operate. Unfortunately, no such extension was granted to commercial swordfish and tuna fishermen, who were harmed from the time the closure went into effect until last summer when parity and fairness were restored.

President Biden has vowed to make science a central theme of his administration. In an online briefing introducing his team of top five science advisors before the inauguration, he said, “As president, I’ll pay great attention” to science and scientists.

As long as the review ordered by President Biden is conducted fairly and honestly, and in accordance with science and data, we believe the results should be to continue to allow sustainable fishing, both commercial and recreational, under the Magnuson-Stevens Act.