Saving Seafood

House committee passes act giving FWS authority over certain endangered species

May 18, 2018 — A U.S. House of Representatives committee has given its approval to a bill that proponents claim would eliminate redundancies in the Endangered Species Act and put the Fish and Wildlife Service in charge of safeguarding fish that migrate between fresh and ocean waters.

The Federally Integrated Species Health (FISH) Act passed the Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday, 16 May by a 22-14 vote. It now proceeds to the House floor.

Currently, endangered species responsibilities are shared between FWS, which resides in the Interior Department, and the National Marines Fisheries Service, which is under the purview of the Department of Commerce. U.S. Rep. Ken Calvert (R-California), the bill’s primary sponsor, said it doesn’t make sense for two agencies to share oversight.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

Wilbur Ross Calls for Seafood Trade Surplus in Press Club Speech

May 15, 2018 — Yesterday in Washington, during a nationally televised event at the National Press Club and following his speech on U.S.-China trade policy, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross discussed his concerns and plans for the U.S. domestic fishing industry. Specifically, Sec. Ross wants to focus on reducing the U.S. seafood trade deficit, noting that over 80 percent on seafood consumed in the U.S. is imported. As part of this effort, Secretary Ross expressed the need to collaborate with the commercial fishing industry and for U.S. fisheries to achieve Maximum Sustainable Yield.

The Secretary’s full remarks are below:

As to fisheries, one of the great surprises to me both in the confirmation hearing and even more so now that I’m occupying this job has been the amount of congressional attention to fishing, especially to red snappers. I’ve spent so many months about the allocation of fishing capability between the commercial fishermen and the sport fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico that for a whole month I refused to eat any red snapper – I had more than had my fill of it every day. So fisheries are a very complicated area. Many, many, many species. Each one has a whole regulatory apparatus around it.

But I have one particular axe to grind, and that is more than 80% of our seafood consumed in the US is imported, and that seems a little bit silly to me given the coastlines we have and given everything else. So one of my objectives is to try to change that trade deficit into a trade surplus. It should be a thing that we’re very good at, it is a thing we’re very good at, and so we’re going to try to fix that. So that’s a very big preoccupation and I’ve been working a lot with the fisheries group and with the private sector on how to solve that problem.

A lot of the seafood being imported here is grown in aquaculture under conditions that would never be permitted for a US company. So it’s a kind of subsidy of them. There are also some health issues with some of those imports so we’re going to try to deal with that, and we’re also going to try to deal with how do we get to the maximum sustainable harvest in our waters, and how do we bring in selected elements of aquaculture done properly on our own part. So fisheries is a very complicated question but a very, very important one.

Listen to the remarks here.

 

Alabama Snapper Season of 47 Days Approved By NOAA

April 10, 2018 — The National Marine Fisheries Service [NMFS] has officially accepted Alabama’s plan to manage its own seasons for recreational red snapper fishing — paving the way for 47-day seasons in the next two years.

As Lagniappe has previously reported, the plan manages the season lengths in state and federal waters off the Alabama coast is part of a two-year pilot program approved by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council in February.

For the first time in years, Gulf states will be able to manage recreational snapper fishing off their respective coasts through individual Exempted Fishing Permits (EFPs) submitted to NMFS.

The decision comes after years of shorter and shorter snapper seasons that frustrated anglers and commercial fisherman alike until a consortium of Gulf leaders negotiated a compromise through U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross that extended the 2017 season.

Gov. Kay Ivey announced Friday that Alabama’s plan, which will create a 47-day season, will be in place for the next two years. In 2018, it will run from June 1 to September 2 on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays and the entire week on the Fourth of July. It would run concurrently in state waters and in federal waters, which begin nine miles from the coast.

“I am very pleased that the U.S. Department of Commerce, through the National Marine Fisheries Service, has granted Alabama an Exempted Fishing Permit for the next two red snapper seasons,” Ivey said of the plan’s approval. “Following the directives from President Trump to cut down on federal regulations, this decision empowers Alabama to manage our resources instead of bureaucrats in Washington.”

Ivey also noted the EFP program was made possible by language Sen. Richard Shelby added to the FY2017 Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations bill. It directed the NMFS to develop the pilot program to allow states more control over reef fish management activities.

In a statement, Ivey said Alabama’s red snapper fishery is a big part of “the coastal culture and economy of” of the state and thanked Shelby and Rep. Bradley Byrne for their congressional efforts to give Alabama more autonomy in managing its coastal resources.

She also made a special note of the efforts Alabama is also indebted to Conservation and Natural Resources Commissioner Chris Blankenship made to push for alternatives to federal snapper seasons that had become shorter and shorter in recent years.

“The red snapper management granted by the EFP will allow Alabama to use the information from the Alabama Snapper Check Program, as well as the terabytes of fisheries data we have collected on the red snapper population in the Alabama Artificial Reef Zones, to show we can sustainably manage this fishery,” Blankenship said “I would like to thank Marine Resources Division Director Scott Bannon and Chief Biologist Kevin Anson for shepherding the permit request through the regulatory process.”

The federal charter season for red snapper is not included in Alabama’s new permit and is expected to be announced by NMFS sometime in April, though it is expected to be longer than the 2017 federal charter season, which stretched 49 days.

Ivey’s office said data collected through the Alabama Snapper Check Program the past four years was critical in securing the additional red snapper fishing days, and reminded fishermen they are still required to report their red snapper harvests through the program.

Only one report is required per vessel trip, and anglers can provide details via a smartphone app available under “Outdoor Alabama” in the iTunes or Google Play app stores; online at www.outdooralabama.com; or by paper forms available at select coastal public boat launches.

Read the full story at the Lagniappe Weekly

 

Response due from feds in lawsuit to end Atlantic monument

April 10, 2018 — PORTLAND, Maine — The federal government’s response to a lawsuit from fishermen trying to eliminate former President Barack Obama’s Atlantic Ocean monument is coming due.

The fishing groups sued to challenge the 2016 creation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument. The monument is a 5,000-square-mile area off of New England and is the first monument of its kind in the Atlantic Ocean.

A federal court ordered the U.S. Department of Commerce to respond to the lawsuit by April 16. It was filed at U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Jersey Herald

 

NOAA gives foreign fisheries 4 years to detail marine mammal protections

April 4, 2018 — The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has published a list of marine mammals at risk in 135 countries and given each foreign commercial fishery four years to report what harvesting practices are being employed to preserve the species, Mongabay, an environmental science and conservation news site, reports.

The list is born from a 2016 rule that grew out of a 2008 petition to the Department of Commerce brought by the Center for Biological Diversity and Turtle Island Restoration Network to halt the import of swordfish from countries where fishing methods put other animals in danger, the news service explains.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

Texas fisheries get disaster area declaration in wake of Hurricane Harvey

March 28, 2018 — Seven months after Hurricane Harvey devastated Texas, United States Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross has issued a national disaster declaration for the state’s commercial fishery.

The “commercial fishery disaster” designation will allow commercial fishermen in the state to receive federal funds and other assistance. The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 included USD 200 million (EUR 161 million) for fishery disasters declared by the U.S. Department of Commerce in calendar year 2017, and for fishery disasters resulting from Hurricanes Maria, Irma, and Harvey.

“The 2017 hurricane season was catastrophic for communities in Texas and for states along the Gulf of Mexico,” Ross said in a NOAA press release. “The Department of Commerce and the [p]resident are committed to working closely with Congress and the [s]tate of Texas to continue supporting recovery efforts for fishermen and local fishing businesses affected by the devastation wrought by Hurricane Harvey.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

The Trump Administration Just Got Sued Over an “Unusual Mortality Event” in the Ocean

February 23, 2018 — On January 22, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration got word of a juvenile, North Atlantic right whale carcass floating off the coast of Virginia. Later identified as whale #3893, the 39-foot, 10-year-old female was towed to shore, where researchers examined her partially-decomposed remains. A few days later, preliminary necropsy findings indicated that the whale died of “chronic entanglement,” meaning it was caught in rope or line, according to a report from NOAA.

It was the first right whale to die in 2018, but it comes on the heels of the deaths of 17 right whales in the North Atlantic in 2017—a record setting number that is more than all right whale mortalities in the five previous years combined. NOAA researchers are calling the trend an “unusual mortality event”—a particularly concerning phenomenon, as North Atlantic right whales are an endangered species. There are only about 450 left in the wild, according to NOAA, and at the current rate, scientists predict the species could be functionally extinct in fewer than 25 years.

NOAA hasn’t determined the cause of the “unusual mortality event,” but some are looking right at Washington, and at NOAA itself. A new lawsuit, filed January 18 in US District Court in Washington, D.C., argues specifically that the Trump administration is at least partly responsible for failing to adequately address this epidemic.

Between 2010 and 2016, 85 percent of diagnosed whale deaths were the result of entanglement, typically in commercial fishing gear. The plaintiffs—the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, and the Humane Society—allege that President Trump’s Department of Commerce, of which NOAA is a branch, is in violation of the 1973 Endangered Species Act and the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act over their management of the North Atlantic lobster fishery, which “frequently entangles right whales,” according to the suit. Under the Endangered Species Act, the plaintiffs point out, any action, direct or indirect, by a federal agency must not be “likely to jeopardize” any endangered or threatened species.

Read the full story at Mother Jones

 

Seafood Icon Northern Wind® Celebrates Its 30th Anniversary in Business

February 16, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — The following was released by Northern Wind: 

Northern Wind, an industry leader as a direct off-loader, processor and distributor of fresh and frozen scallops is proud to announce that the company is celebrating its 30th year in business. Since its founding in 1987 by Ken Melanson and Michael Fernandes, Northern Wind has established itself as one of America’s fastest growing seafood processing and distribution companies, providing its customers with a wide variety of premium scallops and seafood from across the globe. Northern Wind prides itself in providing their customers with the freshest seafood products that have been responsibly harvested using sustainable and environmentally friendly practices. With three decades of business relationships throughout New England and across the globe, Northern Wind is a top direct-off loader, processor and distributor of fresh and frozen scallops.

“Over the last thirty years, Northern Wind has not only remained strong throughout many economic ups and downs, but we’ve grown the business and we now serve well over 500 customers across the globe,” said Ken Melanson, Founder & Chairman of Northern Wind. “First, our expertise at delivering top quality, responsibly sourced and sustainable scallops and fresh seafood is paramount in our success. Secondly, is our employee’s hard work and dedication to providing superior customer service which has enabled us to attract and retain hundreds of loyal customers.”

Northern Wind’s seafood products include fresh and frozen scallops, Ahi tuna, North Atlantic lobster, monkfish, headfish, skate and value-added seafood offerings. Northern Wind’s 70,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility is certified by the U.S. Department of Commerce Seafood Inspection Program for packing of USDC Grade A fresh and frozen scallops. Northern Wind was the first scallop producer in the nation to receive Fair Trade™ Certification and during the 2017-18 fishing season purchased over 1 Million pounds of Fair Trade scallops. In addition, Northern Wind’s start-of-the-art processing facility is BRC and MSC certified.

The company has also launched a new line of high quality premium scallops under the Five Star Premium Scallop brand name which was introduced at last year’s Seafood Expo North America in Boston, Ma. The company has also redesigned its Captain’s Call, Mariner’s Choice and Sea Spray scallop product lines to better portray Northern Wind’s leadership position in the seafood industry.

“The first 30 years have been an incredible ride. We’ve been blessed to have employees who are dedicated to quality and providing excellent customer service. I can’t wait to see what the next 30 years bring,” stated Michael Fernandes, Founder & President of Northern Wind.

Since the beginning, the Northern Wind team has always dedicated themselves to consistently supplying their customers with the highest quality seafood products and providing them with superior customer service and competitive prices.

View the release in its entirety here.

 

Florida commercial fishers could get $200 million in aid

February 15, 2018 — Florida’s commercial fisheries, hit hard by Hurricane Irma, should pull in a $200 million boost from the two-year federal budget passed last week.

The $200 million will be included as funding for the “catastrophic regional fishery disaster for Florida” in the proposed $300 billion increase in the federal budget, Florida U.S. senators Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio announced.

Florida Keys commercial fishers were among the most affected by the Category 4 Hurricane Irma Sept. 10, the strongest storm in 57 years to make landfall in Monroe County.

“The hardworking folks in the Keys and throughout our state who rely on Florida’s bountiful marine fisheries can finally begin to rebuild their livelihoods and businesses following Hurricane Irma,” Rubio said in a Feb. 9 statement.

“When it came to securing the funding in Congress to help fishermen and communities get back on their feet, we fought hard to ensure they would be taken care of,” Nelson said in his statement.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross endorsed the fishery-disaster declaration that allows “fishermen and fishing communities to apply for Small Business Administration disaster loans, Federal Emergency Management Agency public assistance, Economic Administration Development grants and Housing and Urban Development community development block grants,” Nelson said.

“Fishermen, aquaculturists, and harvesters have suffered extensive damage or outright destruction of vessels, facilities, equipment, traps and gear,” the state’s senators wrote in a joint appeal sent in October. “Florida’s waters have provided family-owned businesses with income for generations but these businesses and people who depend on them are now at risk.”

Part of that federal money could go toward ongoing trap-recovery efforts, Florida Keys Commercial Fishermen’s Association executive director Bill Kelly said Monday.

Read the full story at the Florida Keys News

VIRGINIA: Labor Joins Business Groups In Opposition to ASMFC Menhaden Allocation

AFL-CIO, United Food & Commercial Workers, Chamber of Commerce, Manufacturers Association, Seafood Council, and Watermen Urge Virginia to Reject Commission Decision

February 7, 2018 (Saving Seafood) – WASHINGTON – Virginia business and labor groups have united in calling on Virginia’s General Assembly to reject a reduction in the state’s menhaden quota. In a letter to the Chairmen of Virginia’s Senate and House committees on Agriculture and Natural Resources, the groups argued that the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) decision to redistribute a share of Virginia’s menhaden allocation to other states is unfair and damaging to Virginia businesses and workers.

The letter, sent yesterday to Chairman Richard Stuart of the Virginia Senate Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources Committee and Chairman Danny Marshall of theVirginia House Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee was signed by the Virginia AFL-CIO, the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, the Virginia Manufacturers Association, the Virginia Seafood Council, the Virginia Waterman’s Association, and the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400.

In November, the ASMFC voted to raise the coastwide allocation of Atlantic menhaden by 8 percent but redistributed it in such a way that the two largest menhaden producing states – Virginia and New Jersey – saw their percentage of the coastwide catch reduced. Under Virginia law, the state legislature must pass legislation accepting the decision of the ASMFC before any such determination becomes effective in the Commonwealth.

“The ASMFC re-allocated the number of menhaden each state could land, giving increased shares to states with little to no menhaden fishing activity,” the groups wrote. “This plan unfairly takes from Virginia while increasing the total allowable catch on the Atlantic Coast by 16,000 metric tons.”

In their letter, the groups argued that the ASMFC could have avoided this problem by increasing the quota further; they pointed out that scientists on the Commission’s Menhaden Technical Committee previously concluded that the coastwide quota could be increased by over 40 percent without a risk of overfishing.

Virginia’s General Assembly is currently considering legislation that would accept the ASMFC’s quota and reallocation plan. The letter calls on legislators to vote against the pending bill.

“Should Virginia reject this, they will stand up for all fisheries managed by the ASMFC,” the groups wrote in their letter. “Should Virginia accede to the ASMFC on this issue, in the future other states may team up on Virginia, take our allocation of other fish, and distribute it to other states.”

The request from organized labor and business groups comes at a delicate time for the ASMFC. As their letter notes, there is recent new precedent for a state that believes its own rules provide adequate conservation to successfully appeal a decision made by the ASMFC. Last June, the Commission recommended to Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross that New Jersey be found out of compliance with new rules on recreational summer flounder fishing, known as Addendum XXVIII. However, Secretary Ross did not agree with the Commission’s determination, and ruled New Jersey to be in compliance, marking the first time the Commerce Department had rejected a noncompliance recommendation from the ASMFC.

In a letter to ASMFC Executive Director Robert Beal, Assistant Administrator for NOAA Fisheries Chris Oliver wrote, “New Jersey makes a compelling argument that the measures it implemented this year…will likely reduce total summer flounder mortality in New Jersey waters to a level consistent with the overall conservation objective…” As a result, “the Secretary has found that the measures are likely to be equivalent in total conservation as those required under Addendum XXVIII,” Administrator Oliver wrote.

According to the ASMFC, the menhaden fishery is sustainable and the stock remains healthy. The Commission’s most recent stock assessment, completed in 2017, concluded that menhaden is currently not overfished and is not experiencing overfishing.