Saving Seafood

NEFMC Takes Final Action on Deep-Sea Coral Amendment; Comments on Offshore Oil and Gas Drilling in North Atlantic

January 31, 2018 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council has taken final action on its Omnibus Deep-Sea Coral Amendment and voted to submit the document to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for review and approval.

In June of 2017, the Council adopted coral protection zones for the Gulf of Maine. Yesterday, at its meeting in Portsmouth, NH, the Council, after extensive debate, approved a 600-meter minimum depth “broad zone” for the continental slope and canyons south of Georges Bank. Once the amendment is implemented, this zone – with one exception – will be closed to all bottom-tending gear, meaning both mobile gear such as trawls and dredges and fixed gear such as traps and gillnets. The Council approved an exemption for the Atlantic deep-sea red crab pot fishery.

The 600-meter minimum depth broad zone, known as Option 6 in the Coral Amendment, was the Council’s preferred alternative for the continental slope and canyons prior to public hearings. However, the Council postponed final action last June in order to consider an additional proposal put forward by environmental groups. Known as Option 7, the new proposal covered more bottom and included shallower depths, ranging between 300 meters and 550 meters. Option 7 would have prohibited mobile bottom-tending gear but not fixed gear.

The Council’s Habitat Plan Development Team, using trawl vessel monitoring system data to identify fishing grounds, edited the Option 7 boundary to reduce economic impacts.

Before making a final determination, the Council considered extensive analyses of:

  • Option 6, the 600-meter minimum zone
  • Option 7 as revised, the 300-meter to 550-meter zone
  • Option 6/7 combined with Option 7 for mobile bottom-tending gear and Option 6 for all bottom-tending gear. An exemption for the deep-sea red crab pot fishery was considered for all options.

In the end, the Council selected the 600-meter broad zone, which encompasses 25,153 square miles. This option, which also was recommended by the Habitat Committee and Advisory Panel, covers: 75% of the known coral within the zone; 75% of the areas highly or very highly suitable as habitat for soft corals; and 85% of the areas with slopes greater than 30°. It also has lower economic impacts on fishermen using mobile bottom-tending gear.

Gulf of Maine 

Here’s a recap of what the Council approved last June for the Gulf of Maine:

  • Outer Schoodic Ridge and Mt. Desert Rock – The Council adopted a discrete coral protection zone for each of these areas where mobile bottom-tending gear (trawls and dredges) will be prohibited. Other types of fishing gear will be allowed, including lobster traps/pots.
  • Jordan Basin DHRA – The Council designated a Dedicated Habitat Research Area in Jordan Basin on/around the 114 fathom bump site, which encompasses roughly 40 square miles. This designation is meant to focus attention on the coral habitats at this site. The Council believes additional research on corals and fishing gear impacts should be directed here. No fishing restrictions are proposed at this time.

The Omnibus Deep-Sea Coral Amendment also specifies that anyone conducting research activities in coral zones would be required to obtain a letter of acknowledgement from NMFS’s Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office.

Once the amendment is implemented, changes to the following provisions will be allowable through framework adjustments: (1) adding, revising, or removing coral protection zones; (2) changing fishing restrictions; and (3) adopting or changing special fishery programs.

Offshore and Oil Gas Drilling 

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is soliciting comments through March 9, 2018 on its Draft National 2019-2024 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program, which includes the North and Mid-Atlantic Planning Areas. The Council agreed to send a letter to BOEM recommending exclusion of these two areas from the five-year plan because oil and gas exploration and extraction activities in the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf involve inappropriate risks that “may harm living marine resources and the communities that depend on them.” The draft plan proposes lease sales in 2021 and 2023 for the North Atlantic area and in 2020, 2022, and 2024 for the Mid-Atlantic area.

The New England Council previously submitted oil and gas development comments to BOEM and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on June 29, 2017 and August 15, 2017. In the August letter and reiterated in this next letter, the Council broke down its concerns into five categories, which involve the following:

  • Direct displacement of fishing activities due to survey or extraction activities in offshore environments;
  • Harm to sensitive, deep-water benthic habitats, including deep-sea corals, due to extraction activities;
  • Negative impacts on living marine resources due to highdecibel sounds emitted during seismic gas surveys and drilling operations, including potential harm to some of the 28 species managed by the New England Council;
  • Negative impacts to nearshore fish habitats due to infrastructure development needed to support an Atlantic oil and gas industry; and
  • Risks associated with leaks and spills resulting from oil and gas extraction and transport.

The Council also supported developing a report to spatially document the value of fisheries on the Northeast U.S. Continental Shelf. The report will be used when developing future comments related to both renewable and non-renewable offshore energy.

More Information

View the release in its entirety here.

 

Official: Plan to Exclude Florida From Drilling Isn’t Final

An Interior Department official says the Trump administration’s promise to exempt Florida from an offshore drilling plan is not a formal action.

January 22, 2018 — WASHINGTON — The Trump administration’s promise to exempt Florida from an offshore drilling plan is not a formal action, an Interior Department official said Friday in a statement that Democrats said contradicted a high-profile announcement by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.

Zinke has proposed opening nearly all U.S. coastline to offshore oil and gas drilling, but said soon after announcing the plan that he will keep Florida “off the table” when it comes to offshore drilling.

Zinke’s Jan. 9 statement about Florida “stands on its own,” said Walter Cruickshank, the acting director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, but there’s been no formal decision on the five-year drilling plan.

“We have no formal decision yet on what’s in, or out, of the five-year program,” Cruickshank told the House Natural Resources Committee at a hearing Friday.

Zinke’s announcement about keeping Florida off the table, made during a Tallahassee news conference with Florida Gov. Rick Scott, will be part of the department’s analysis as it completes the five-year plan, Cruickshank said.

Democrats seized on the comment to accuse Zinke of playing politics by granting the Republican governor’s request to exempt Florida while ignoring nearly a dozen other states that made similar requests.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News & World Report

 

New Jersey: Local Politicians Against Offshore Drilling

January 17, 2018 — OCEAN COUNTY, N.J. — Local politicians expressed their opposition to a draft plan to open almost all of the U.S. outer continental shelf to oil and gas exploration and drilling.

Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke announced a Draft Proposed Program that initially included 47 potential lease sales to energy companies in 25 of the 26 planning areas – 19 sales off the coast of Alaska, 7 in the Pacific Region, 12 in the Gulf of Mexico, and 9 in the Atlantic Region.

County and federal elected officials representing the shore came out against this measure, sending press releases to media.

“I absolutely am opposed to any offshore drilling of any kind off the coast of New Jersey,” said Ocean County Freeholder Joseph H. Vicari, who serves as liaison to the county’s Division of Tourism and Business Development. “Drilling for oil and natural gas off our coastline would pose more problems than it would remedy.”

The Freeholders are expected to pass a resolution opposing offshore drilling at the board’s Jan. 17 meeting. It would be one of many resolutions that they have passed in opposition to drilling over the years.

Such drilling would seriously impact the county’s tourism industry, which brought $4.68 billion into the local economy in 2016, Vicari said.

“(Tourism) generates jobs, supports businesses and provides tax revenue, all of which could be endangered should offshore drilling be permitted,” Vicari said. “It doesn’t matter who proposes offshore drilling, it’s not good for New Jersey. It’s not a partisan issue.”

Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) said that New Jersey and other states with serious concerns about drilling should be exempt the same way Florida is.

“Florida is not ‘unique’ in this situation,” said Smith, who has historically been against offshore drilling here. “New Jersey—along with other coastal states—has serious concerns about the potential consequences of offshore drilling and exploration for its $8 billion commercial and recreational fishing industry and its beach tourism, which contributes significantly to its over $40 billion tourism industry.”

Since Zinke said a discussion with Florida Governor Rick Scott prompted him to leave Florida out of consideration for oil and gas, Smith said he hoped Zinke would heed similar calls from New Jersey.

Zinke said in a statement recently: “President Trump has directed me to rebuild our offshore oil and gas program in a manner that supports our national energy policy and also takes into consideration the local and state voice. I support the governor’s position that Florida is unique and its coasts are heavily reliant on tourism as an economic driver. As a result of discussion with Governor [Scott] and his leadership, I am removing Florida from consideration for any new oil and gas platforms.”

Smith said he sent a letter of opposition to Zinke signed by all members of the New Jersey Congressional Delegation.

“Economically, this proposal will impact 1.4 million jobs and over $95 billion in gross domestic product that rely on healthy Atlantic Ocean ecosystems,” the letter stated. “We urge you to reconsider opening our coast to oil and gas exploration and development. Asserting our energy independence and protecting our environment do not have to be mutually exclusive, and we must accomplish this in a way that does not compromise our coastal waters and beaches that drive our economy.”

Even a minor oil spill could wash ashore and ruin native habitats and tourism, he said. The seismic testing can be disruptive and even fatal to marine wildlife.

Read the full story at the Jersey Shore Online

 

South Carolina: Gov. McMaster makes official request for South Carolina oil drilling exemption

January 17, 2018 — South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has formally requested that federal officials take South Carolina off the list for oil and natural gas leases in the Atlantic Ocean.

This is after U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke unilaterally removed Florida from the 2019-2024 proposed plan for offshore drilling following a brief meeting with Florida Gov. Rick Scott on Jan. 9.

Zinke had announced on Jan. 4 that the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management had opened 98 percent of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas resources in federal offshore areas available to consider for future exploration and development. Zinke said Florida is exempt because it is “unique and its coasts are heavily reliant on tourism as an economic driver.”

On Jan. 10, McMaster stated during a press conference: “I am opposed to offshore drilling off the South Carolina shore. I am opposed to seismic testing off the South Carolina shore. Our tourism industry and our glorious natural resources particularly in the Lowcountry are beyond compare in the United States. They are the source of enormous economic growth and prosperity and we can’t take a chance with those resources, those industries and that economy. It’s just too important.”

On that same day, McMaster officially made the request to Zinke’s office for a meeting to discuss removing South Carolina from the list. McMaster did not respond to questions from the Georgetown Times concerning the request.

Members of a grassroots group called Stop Oil Drilling in the Atlantic, or SODA, based in Pawleys Island say they are excited about McMaster’s request. They are urging the public to contact McMaster and other U.S. elected officials to express their support for removing South Carolina from the list.

“We trust that the will of the people most impacted by this public decision will be taken very seriously and heard,” said SODA leader Rev. Jim Watkins. “That is why it is really important to get behind the governor and thank him and and urge him on.”

He also said, “I hope that the state legislature and public officials all across the state will have a united front to help us get removed from the plan. I think that the governor’s action should be a rallying point for not only public officials but everyone.”

Watkins stressed that the issue is not a partisan issue and drilling for oil and natural gas is opposed by many Republicans and Democrats. Governors of both parties from most East Coast states are opposed to offshore drilling, including New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Jew Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida, according to the Associated Press.

Read the full story at South Strand News

 

Massachusetts congressional delegation urges Gov. Charlie Baker to reject Trump administration’s offshore drilling plan

January 11, 2018 — Massachusetts congressional lawmakers called on Gov. Charlie Baker Wednesday to formally oppose the Trump administration’s plan to expand oil and gas drilling off the East Coast.

All 11 members of the state’s delegation penned a letter to Baker urging him to join other states’ governors in officially rejecting the Interior Department’s newly unveiled five-year drilling plan, which seeks to open federal waters off the California coast and areas from Florida to Maine for oil and gas exploration purposes.

The lawmakers, who have been critical of efforts to expand offshore drilling, contended that opening areas off the East Coast for such purposes “would pose a serious threat to our oceans and the economic viability of the Commonwealth’s coastal communities, tourism and shore-side businesses that rely on healthy marine resources.”

Pointing to maritime industries’ impact on Massachusetts’ economy, the delegation noted that the commercial fishing supported 83,000 jobs in the state and generated $1.9 billion income, as well as $7.3 billion in sales in 2015.

Marine-related tourism, meanwhile, generates tens of billion of dollars in economic value each yeah and supports more than 100,000 jobs in Massachusetts, they wrote.

“The economic effects of our ocean community are extensive, providing a source of income and jobs for commercial and recreational fishermen, vessel manufacturers, restaurants and other businesses throughout Massachusetts, all of which would be threatened by allowing offshore drilling and the risk of an oil spill off our coast,” the letter stated.

Read the full story at MassLive

 

N.J. leaders seek to block Trump plan for oil drilling off Jersey shore

January 10, 2018 — WASHINGTON — Three dozen Senate Democrats, including Robert Menendez and Cory Booker, asked Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to exclude the Atlantic coast from plans to expand offshore oil drilling.

New Jersey lawmakers also questioned why drilling would still be allowed off the Garden State coast while Zinke has dropped plans to allow it off the Florida coast.

Acting at the behest of President Donald Trump, Zinke proposed opening most of the area off the U.S. coasts to oil drilling, including the Atlantic coast that currently is off limits through at least 2022.

“This draft proposal is an ill-advised effort to circumvent public and scientific input, and we object to sacrificing public trust, community safety, and economic security for the interests of the oil industry,” the 36 senators wrote to Zinke. “We urge you to abandon this effort.”

Reps. Chris Smith, R-4th Dist. and Frank LoBiondo, R-2nd Dist., signed a separate letter to Zinke in opposition to Atlantic offshore drilling.

Read the full story at NJ.com

Fight Over New England Marine Monument Continues

November 27, 2017 — On April 26, President Donald Trump ordered a review of two dozen national monuments created or expanded since 1996, which includes the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts that was created in the last days of the Obama administration. The monument, the first of its kind in the Atlantic Ocean, bans fishing, and oil, gas and mineral exploration within its boundaries.

In September, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke recommended to Trump that the monument, located about 130 miles southeast of Cape Cod, be opened to commercial fishing. Zinke’s memo stated that instead of prohibiting commercial fishing, the government should allow it in the area under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, which is the primary law governing the United States’ marine fisheries and meant to prevent overfishing and guarantee a safe source of seafood.

Conservationists opposed Zinke’s recommendation, while fishing groups supported it.

“They act like this area is all pristine and never touched,” said Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association President Arthur “Sooky” Sawyer of the current protections. “Lobstermen have been fishing in those areas for the last 50-plus years with no negative effect on the marine species.”

The association is one of a handful of commercial fishing groups in an ongoing lawsuit that claims the Antiquities Act of 1906 only allows the president to create or expand monuments on land, not in the marine environment as Obama did.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Gov. Baker team swims around marine monument controversy

Trump administration may reverse Obama decision creating monument

October 5, 2017 — BOSTON — In the course of the past year, a Connecticut-sized marine area off the coast of Cape Cod has been officially designated a national monument by one president and targeted for potential changes by the next.

It became subject to a new ban on commercial fishing, and now might have that ban removed.

Throughout the ping-ponging presidential decisions that have left the future of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument somewhat murky, the same concerns Gov. Charlie Baker first raised almost two years ago remain on the mind of his top environmental official.

“I think we’ve always pointed to the process, and making sure there was enough of a process that we know the right decisions have been made,” Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Matthew Beaton said. “We weren’t definitely saying the right or wrong decision was made. We definitely think there is value in conservation of those resources, but it’s just is the management plan that’s put out as part of it the right one, and I think we would know that answer through a more robust process, and that’s what we’ve always pointed to as having not occurred.”

In September 2016, President Barack Obama declared the canyons and seamounts area, about 130 miles southeast of Massachusetts, the Atlantic Ocean’s first marine monument. When the White House changed hands this year, it was one of 27 monuments the President Donald Trump charged his interior secretary with reviewing.

Trump’s executive order called on Secretary Ryan Zinke to study certain monuments designated under the Antiquities Act, including those where the Interior Department determined the decision “was made without adequate public outreach and coordination with relevant stakeholders.”

Read the full story from State House News Service at WWLP

NCFC Member Grant Moore Joins Sen. Lee, Chairman Bishop on Antiquities Act Panel in Washington

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) – October 4, 2017 – Grant Moore, president of NCFC member the Atlantic Offshore Lobstermen’s Association, joined Utah Senator Mike Lee and House Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop in a Heritage Foundation panel today on Capitol Hill to discuss national monuments and the Antiquities Act.

At the panel, “National Monuments and the Communities They Impact: Views Beyond the Beltway,” Mr. Moore criticized last year’s designation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument by President Barack Obama, which he said lacked sufficient industry input and public deliberation. The monument designation affects fisheries worth more than $100 million, he said.

“We’re not opposed to monuments,” Mr. Moore said. “We’re opposed to the process in which it was done. It was not transparent. It was not open. If we hadn’t stumbled upon what was happening, we would have had a signature and we wouldn’t have had a say at all.”

Mr. Moore complimented Chairman Bishop for meeting with fishermen and listening to their story in a visit to New Bedford, Mass., last year arranged by Saving Seafood’s National Coalition for Fishing Communities. He also praised another meeting organized by the NCFC earlier this year in which Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke met with fishermen in Boston as part of his review of national monuments.

Secretary Zinke has reportedly recommended to President Donald Trump that commercial fishing be allowed in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Monument. The Atlantic Offshore Lobstermen’s Association, based in Newport, R.I., was one of eleven NCFC member organizations that publicly voiced its support for the Secretary’s reported recommendations. At today’s panel, Mr. Moore praised these recommendations, but called them a “Band Aid” that would not prevent the Antiquities Act from being misused to create large national monuments in the future.

“We need to reform the Antiquities Act so it’s not abused,” Mr. Moore said. “Nobody should have the power with the stroke of a pen to put people out of business. Nobody. It has to go through a public process.”

In his remarks, Senator Lee also called for changes to the Antiquities Act. “What’s needed is a wholesale reform of the Antiquities Act to return its monumental power back to where it belongs – to the people who reside closest to the proposed monuments,” he said. “Local residents must have ultimate say over whether their communities can be upended in this way.”

Chairman Bishop discussed the original intent of the Antiquities Act to save endangered antiquities while leaving the smallest footprint possible. But with national monuments now frequently encompassing hundreds of millions of acres, he argued that they are no longer leaving the smallest footprint possible.

“What started as something noble and grand turned into something far different, far less, and it is time now to reform it and make it useful again,” Chairman Bishop said. “The Antiquities Act desperately needs some kind of reform because it is being abused today.”

Watch the full panel here

The Threats Facing Deep-Sea Corals Off New England’s Coast

September 26, 2017 — About one hundred miles off the coast of Massachusetts, there are dramatic mountains and canyons, some larger than the Grand Canyon. Of course, they’re hidden under hundreds to thousands of feet of water. And they’re home to fragile and slow-growing deep-sea corals, and entire ecosystems that live on and around them.

Last September, President Obama declared nearly 5,000 square miles, encompassing three canyons and four seamounts, a marine national monument – the first on the Atlantic seaboard. The designation prohibited all commercial activity, including fishing and oil exploration.

Now, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has recommended that President Trump amend the designation to lift the ban on commercial fishing. If the president takes the advice, it doesn’t mean anything goes in that area. Instead, it returns oversight and regulation of fishing to the New England Fishery Management Council and federal officials.

Read and listen to the full story at WCAI