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Forcing fishermen to pay for the privilege of being monitored

November 30, 2022 — Imagine you live somewhere in small-town America where residents routinely exceed the posted speed limits. To address this problem, the town council votes to require a police officer to ride along with each member of the community every time they venture out in an automobile.

The purpose of the new program is to make sure the speed limits are obeyed. Anyone caught speeding is fined to pay for the program. It sounds like a win-win for everyone, but there’s a problem: The people who designed the program underestimated how much it would cost — there being a fair number of people in the town who go places by car — but overestimated the amount of money it would bring in from fines assessed on people caught driving above the posted limits.

Read the full article at The Washington Times

MAINE: Sen. Collins continues efforts to support Maine lobster industry

February 10, 2022 — U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) recently joined a bipartisan, bicameral effort with several Maine lawmakers to continue advocating for their home state’s lobstermen and women, who are working to meet new federal requirements by May 1 that are expected to increase their financial losses.

The lawmakers expressed “renewed urgency” in requesting a delay in the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) implementation of the new Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan final rule, which requires U.S. lobster and Jonah crab fisheries to modify their gear by May 1, according to a Feb. 7 letter they sent to U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.

“The economic harm imposed by the gear conversion deadline will be severe, and the scarcity of required gear is making it difficult — if not impossible — for lobstermen to achieve timely compliance,” wrote Sen. Collins and her Maine colleagues, who included U.S. Sen. Angus King (I-ME), U.S. Reps. Chellie Pingree (D-ME) and Jared Golden (D-ME), and Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D).

Read the full story at the Ripon Advance

Rep. Graves Asks Commerce For Expedited Fishery Disaster Determination

February 7, 2022 — A recently released report detailing infrastructure, revenue and resource loss to Louisiana Fisheries have prompted a Louisiana Congressmen to ask the Department of Commerce (DOC) to expedite a Fishery Disaster Determination due to major damage related to impacts of Hurricanes Laura, Delta, Zeta and especially Ida.

Congressman Garret Graves request to to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo comes after a recent economic assessment verified the devastating impact to the state’s fishing communities.

The recently released report by Louisiana Sea Grant and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries documents extreme damage and loss of revenue over all five sectors of the industry; commercial fishermen, recreational fishing, docks, processors and marinas.

The report and supporting analysis not only confirmed the importance of the state’s fishing industry but also the massive impact of the storms. It demonstrated more than 8,500 businesses were impacted, resulting in $305 million in damage to fisheries infrastructures such as marinas, docks, seafood processors, and dealers. Combined with an additional $118 million in resource loss and $155 million revenue loss, the total estimated impact is estimated at $579 million.

Read the full story at Gulf Seafood News

NOAA Fisheries Denies Petition For Emergency Action on Bering Sea Salmon Bycatch

February 2, 2022 — Four days after the Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo approved eight fisheries in Alaska for official disaster determinations, including the 2020 Kuskokwim River salmon fishery and the 2020 and 2021 Yukon River salmon fisheries, NOAA Fisheries Assistant Administrator Janet Coit denied a petition for emergency action to lower the number of salmon caught incidentally in the Bering Sea.

The petitioners — the Association of Village Council Presidents, the Bering Sea Elders Group, Kawerak, Inc., the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission and the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, representing over 118 Alaska Tribes — saw significant salmon declines both years. The Yukon was particularly hard hit: the fishery had its lowest runs ever last summer. The commercial fishery remained closed. Yukon River families were not allowed to fish for subsistence salmon.

Th petition asked Raimondo for emergency action to eliminate Chinook salmon bycatch and set a cap on chum salmon bycatch in the Bering Sea pollock trawl fishery in the 2022 season.

Coits letter of denial reached them a few days after news of the fishery disaster approvals was reported, opening the door for relief funds. Responding to the disaster declaration, which was requested by Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy, the state’s Congressional delegation issued a joint written statement that the federal funds could help compensate “crews, seafood processors, and research initiatives in the impacted regions.”

Read the full story at Seafood News

Federal disasters declared for 14 Alaska fisheries

January 26, 2022 — Fourteen Alaska fisheries have been declared federal disasters by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce. Gina Raimondo issued the declarations last Friday, and the announcement could lead to federal funding for fishermen.

The disaster declarations include the 2020 Kuskokwim River salmon fishery and the 2020 and 2021 Yukon River salmon fisheries. These fisheries saw significant salmon declines both years, with the Yukon salmon fishery seeing its lowest runs ever in the summer of 2021. Yukon River families were not allowed to fish for subsistence, and the commercial fishery remained closed.

Executive director for the Yukon River Drainage Fisheries Association, Serena Fitka, helped lead a group of Yukon River tribal and fishing organizations to campaign for the Yukon disaster declarations.

“I give the credit to the Yukon River communities, everyone that pulled together to make their voices heard that we are in crisis mode right now,” Fitka said.

Read the full story at KTOO

Disaster declarations approved for Alaska fisheries

January 21, 2022 — U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo announced Friday, 21 January, 2022, her office has approved disaster declarations for eight Alaska fisheries.

The rulings means those fisheries are now eligible to federal assistance through NOAA. No funding total was mentioned in the NOAA release, with the amounts to be determined at a later date.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

Statement from U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross on Earl Comstock

March 4, 2020 — The following was released by the U.S. Department of Commerce:

I would like to thank Earl Comstock for honoring his commitment to serve for three years as Director of Policy and Strategic Planning at the Department of Commerce. I value his wise counsel, his deep policy expertise, his innovative thinking and leadership, and I thank him for his service to the American people. I know he will excel in whatever new role he takes on and wish him the very best.

Read the statement here

Herring Fishermen Challenge Rule Requiring At-Sea Monitors

February 20, 2020 — The U.S. Department of Commerce violated federal administrative law by requiring at-sea monitors for herring fishing and making the industry pay for them, a group of New Jersey fishermen say in a new federal lawsuit.

The Secretary of Commerce’s approval of a final rule, and a related omnibus amendment, is arbitrary and capricious, according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday by the fishing company Loper Bright Enterprises Inc. and others in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Read the full story at Bloomberg Environment

NEW YORK: Cuomo requests federal disaster declaration, aid for scallop die-off

December 6, 2019 — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Friday requested the U.S. Department of Commerce issue a disaster declaration for the Peconic Bay scallop fishery, following a catastrophic die-off of scallops in East End waterways.

An immediate declaration of a disaster is needed, he said, to provide “direct economic relief for the New York fishing industry.”

In a letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Cuomo requested that the federal government formally declare a fishery failure in the bay scallop fishery in the Peconic Bay Estuary due to a “fishery resource disaster.”

Cuomo did not site a figure for economic losses or impacts tied to the die-off.

The move comes as researchers and biologists from the state, Suffolk County, Cornell University and Stony Brook University gathered Friday night at Stony Brook’s Southampton campus to detail the latest information about the die-off, which was first recognized as the scallop season opened Nov. 5.

Read the full story at Newsday

Gulf Oysters Are Dying, Putting a Southern Tradition at Risk

November 14, 2019 — For the people who harvest, sell, shuck and serve the bivalves, that’s a worrisome prospect: Oysters, traditionally cheap and plentiful, are more central to the restaurant and cooking culture of the Gulf Coast than to that of any other region.

“Oysters are part of who we are,” said Mr. Sunseri, whose ancestors founded P & J in 1876. His family is hoping to rent part of its production house here to a restaurant in an effort to stay afloat. If not for his good health and lack of debt, Mr. Sunseri said, “We’d be closed.”

In September, the United States Department of Commerce determined that Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi were suffering “a catastrophic regional fishery disaster,” making businesses in those states eligible for federal assistance.

Louisiana normally accounts for a third of the nation’s annual oyster harvest. The current season isn’t over, but losses reported so far are so severe “that we’re likely to not remain the largest oyster producer in the United States,” said Patrick Banks, an assistant secretary in the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

Heavy rain and snow in the Midwest caused the Army Corps of Engineers to open the Bonnet Carré Spillway, about 33 miles northwest of New Orleans, for a record 118 days last winter and spring. The spillway protects communities near the Mississippi’s mouth from flooding by releasing water from the river and reducing pressure on the flood-control system.

But it also reduces the salinity of surrounding waters, endangering oysters, which can tolerate brackish water but can die if the salt content is too low.

The river was so high that even areas unaffected by the openings were flushed with freshwater.

Read the full story at The New York Times

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