Saving Seafood

Oregon, California senators step up pressure on Trump administration to approve salmon emergency cash

October 5, 2017 — Oregon and California’s four senators, all Democrats, stepped up the pressure on the Trump administration Wednesday to approve disaster assistance for salmon fishermen along 200 miles of coastline.

In April, the Pacific Fishery Management Council, which manages coastal salmon seasons, recommended closing coastal and commercial salmon fishing entirely along an area equal to roughly half of Oregon’s coastline. Govs. Kate Brown of Oregon and Jerry Brown of California requested emergency funding relief in May, to no avail.

The fall chinook fun on the Klamath is the biggest and is important for recreational and tribal fisherman as well as commercial fisheries. The Yurok tribe, which has preference along the waterway, also had its allocation severely curtailed this year, to roughly 650 fish. Management officials estimated returning salmon to be roughly 12,000.

Oregon has had success in securing emergency assistance for salmon fishery disasters under both Republican and Democratic administrations. Emergency funds were approved in 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2010.

Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, and their California counterparts, Sens. Diane Feinstein and Kamala Harris, sent a letter Wednesday to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries division urging action before the end of 2017.

Read the full story at The Oregonian

Congress considers millions in West Coast fishery disaster relief funds

August 3, 2017 — Congressional appropriation committees are considering whether to provide millions of dollars in disaster relief funds to West Coast fishing fleets as part of the 2018 federal budget.

The amount of funding being considered has ranged from $20 million recommended by the House Appropriations Committee to a failed proposal to allocate $150 million to fishermen, according to officials following the proceedings.

California 2nd District Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) said last week that the $20 million proposed won’t make up for the financial losses experienced by the nine declared West Coast fishery disasters in Alaska, California and Washington. The disaster declaration made in January by then-U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker includes California’s Dungeness and rock crab fishery as well as the Yurok Tribe’s Klamath River Chinook salmon fishery.

“But it’s better than nothing and we’ll keep working on it,” Huffman said of the $20 million proposal. “… We’ll have to take a look at just how inadequate whatever comes out of Congress is. If it’s woefully inadequate to meet the needs, we may need to work on supplemental disaster relief. The Senate will have a say in this, too. I think you can look at it as good news that there is some money in the House bill.”

Huffman and other West Coast representatives had introduced a bill last year that called on Congress to appropriate $130 million to aid the West Coast fleets.

Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations Executive Director Noah Oppenheim said Wednesday that there were hopeful signs during the Senate Appropriations Committee budget review in July that the Senate would support disaster relief funds.

Oppenheim said Sens. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) in particular advocated for an amendment to the Senate committee’s 2018 budget recommendation that would have added $150 million in relief for the fleets. But Oppenheim said Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) did not support the amendment, and it did not make it into the final recommendations.

Read the full story at the Eureka Times-Standard

Port of Hueneme Opposes CA Monument in Letters to Boxer, Feinstein, and Brownley

September 14, 2016 – In letters sent yesterday to Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), as well as Congresswoman Julia Brownley (D-CA-26), leaders of the Oxnard Harbor District expressed their opposition to the proposal to declare a new California marine monument under the Antiquities Act.

The letters, which were signed by Dr. Manuel Lopez, President of the Oxnard Harbor Commission, and Kristin Decas, CEO and Port Director of the Port of Hueneme. Their opposition to a new monument was grounded in the potential economic harm of a new monument and the non-transparent way by which the proposal was developed.

Under the current proposal, the declaration of a new monument in California’s seamounts, ridges, and banks, would close off numerous areas of high value to local fisheries, including tuna, mackerel, and market squid. These fishing grounds are responsible for millions of pounds of seafood taken in each year. The loss of the squid business alone would be heavily impactful, according to the letter.

“The current squid landing operation at the Port of Hueneme supports nearly 1,400 direct, induced, and indirect jobs, generates approximately $11 million in annual state and local taxes revenues, and provides $56 million of business revenue to local businesses dependent upon existing squid operations,” the letter states.

Dr. Lopez and Ms. Decas went on to criticize the opaque nature of using the Antiquities Act to circumvent existing fishery management laws to declare a new monument. These laws, according to the letter, were passed in a bipartisan fashion and promote science-based analysis conducted fully in the public forum.

Dr. Lopez and Ms. Decas write that the existing proposal for California was done in the opposite fashion, and that the document proposing the new monument was “drafted and advanced with no science, no NEPA analysis, and virtually no public engagement nor outreach to the parties who will be most affected by this unilateral action.”

The letter instead requests that Senators Feinstein and Boxer, and Congresswoman Brownley work with the White House and appropriate regulation agencies to support fishery management under the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

Read the letter here