Saving Seafood

Biden Expected to Permanently Ban Oil Drilling in Some Federal Waters

January 3, 2024 — President Biden is expected to permanently ban new oil and gas drilling in large sections of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, as well as other federal waters, in a way that could be difficult for the Trump administration to unwind, according to two people familiar with the plans.

Mr. Biden intends to invoke an obscure provision of a 1953 law, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, that would give him wide latitude to withdraw federal waters from future oil and gas leasing, said the people. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the policy publicly.

The ban would be a significant victory for environmental advocates who have long argued that new drilling is inconsistent with the need to sharply reduce greenhouse gas emissions from burning oil and gas that are dangerously warming the planet. The year that just ended was the hottest in recorded history.

The move would also cement Mr. Biden’s legacy on climate change as he prepares to leave the White House after a single term. President-elect Donald J. Trump has pledged to reverse virtually every law and regulation aimed at curbing carbon dioxide emissions, and to make it easier for companies to produce and burn more coal, oil and gas.

Read the full article at The New York Times

The Winding Glass: What’s in Store for U.S. Fisheries After the Election?

November 4 2024 — The U.S. government and the seafood industry are deeply intertwined.  Since the outcome of Tuesday’s election is unknown, the industry is facing significant uncertainties regarding regulatory policies and trade dynamics.

I want to call out a few areas where monumental changes may occur, depending on which candidate wins.

Of course, the seafood industry exists within the larger macro-economic environment, and things like consumer confidence, real wages, inflation, and the cost of competing proteins all impact demand for seafood. However, we are also tied to governmental agencies in very specific ways.

First is trade. America is both a leading exporter of seafood and a leading importer.  That is because some of our high-value exports are consumed abroad, and some of our major fisheries are export-oriented.  There are very few U.S. fisheries that exist entirely within the domestic market, and these are often lower-value regional products. Globally seafood was traded by 227 countries in 2020, far surpassing the number of countries trading any other food commodity.

American export-oriented fisheries by value are lobster, wild salmon, Alaska pollock and surimi, crab (king, snow, Dungeness), scallops, Pacific cod, and hake. Major disruptions of export markets for these species would affect domestic prices and cause difficulties for domestic producers.

Read the full article at SeafoodNews

Trump vows ‘day one’ executive order targeting offshore wind

May 13, 2024 — Donald Trump vowed to issue an executive order targeting offshore wind development if he wins a second term as president, making his most explicit threat yet toward the growing industry.

The presumptive Republican nominee derided offshore wind projects as lethal for birds and whales during his oceanfront rally Saturday in Wildwood, New Jersey, and committed to take action.

“We are going to make sure that that ends on day one,” he said. “I’m going to write it out in an executive order.”

While Trump has made no secret of his animus to wind power, he had adopted a mostly hands-off posture during his first term in the White House. The remarks in New Jersey suggest he may take a more aggressive stance if given a second.

Read the full article at the Boston Globe

NEW JERSEY: LoBiondo joins bipartisan group opposing Atlantic Ocean seismic testing

December 10, 2018 — U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo has joined 92 other House members from both parties in opposing the Trump administration’s decision to allow seismic airgun blasting in the Atlantic Ocean.

Critics say the constant barrage of compressed air blasts used to find gas and oil deposits under the sea floor harms marine mammals and other sea life.

LoBiondo, R-2nd, said Friday he had signed a letter sent to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, asking them not to issue final permits.

“Seismic testing is a prelude to drilling for oil and natural gas,” said LoBiondo, a longtime foe of drilling in the Atlantic.

Read the full story at The Press of Atlantic City

US fishing vessels now have permanent waiver from incidental discharge rule

December 10, 2018 — When U.S. President Donald Trump signed the Frank LoBiondo Coast Guard Authorization Act into law last week, it finally – and permanently – relieved the fishing industry from Environmental Protection Agency regulations regarding incidental discharge on their boats.

The regulation required vessel operators to get EPA permits to perform routine actions, such as using pumped ocean water to clean off the deck after harvesting. It stemmed from a 2005 federal court ruling, and the Southern Shrimp Alliance said the system was a hindrance to more than 80,000 commercial fishing boats.

“This permit requirement should never have existed,” said John Williams, SSA’s executive director. “It was lawsuit driven by environmental groups in a California court a long time ago. SSA has been working ever since with Congress and other fishing groups across the nation to put a temporary stop to it. I have to say, after working to prevent this disaster for more than a decade, it feels pretty good to finally put this one to bed, permanently.”

Read the full article at Seafood Source

Virginia Beach business owners rush to fight Trump administration’s approval of seismic testing

December 7, 2018 — When the Trump administration OK’d seismic testing along the Atlantic coast to explore the possibilities of offshore drilling, business owners in Virginia’s largest city condemned the approval and scrambled to plan how to oppose it.

The exploration carries risks, such as damage to marine life and Virginia’s coasts, and could threaten the tourism and fishing industries, the port of Hampton Roads and even the military, opponents here said.

Laura Habr is co-owner of Croc’s 19th Street Bistro in the ViBe District and a founding board member of the Business Alliance for Protecting the Atlantic Coast, an organization that represents roughly 43,000 businesses and 500,000 commercial fishing families from Maine to Florida.

For her, the next several days will be filled with meetings and conference calls, where a community on high alert will work to decide how to push back against the decision.

Read the full story at The Virginia-Pilot

 

ASMI requests federal aid to cushion losses in US-China trade war

December 7, 2018 — The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) is crossing its fingers that its request goes through for several million dollars in federal aid to defray costs of the trade war between U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration and China.

ASMI, a state-run entity, has requested USD 9 million (EUR 7.9 million) over three years as tariffs threaten to undermine the market for Alaskan seafood in China. The request was submitted to the Agricultural Trade Promotion (ATP), a U.S. Department of Agriculture program designed in part to mitigate the adverse effects of tariffs.

The organization has been getting around USD 4.25 (EUR 3.74) million a year in federal aid for over a decade, according to Jeremy Woodrow, ASMI’s communications director and current interim executive director. This new aid money would be on top of that.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

NEW YORK: A Push for Offshore Oil

December 7, 2018 — A recent move by the Trump administration could lead the way to oil and gas exploration and extraction off the Atlantic coast.

The Washington Post reported on Friday that the National Marine Fisheries Service, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has approved five requests that will allow companies to conduct seismic surveys. The “incidental take” authorizations allow companies conducting such surveys — geophysical companies working on behalf of oil and gas corporations, The Post reported — to harm marine life as long as it is unintentional.

Such surveys would be conducted using seismic air guns, which emit loud blasts on a recurring basis, 10 seconds apart for 24 hours a day, often for weeks at a time, according to the environmental group Greenpeace. The sonic blasts, or “pings,” penetrate through the ocean and miles into the seafloor and can harm whales, dolphins, sea turtles, and fish. They can result in temporary and permanent hearing loss, habitat abandonment, disruption of mating and feeding, beachings, and death, according to Greenpeace.

Read the full story at The East Hampton Star

Opponents Say Seismic Tests Could Lead To Atlantic Oil Drilling, Harming Right Whales

December 3, 2018 — The Trump administration has approved a first step toward offshore oil and gas drilling on the Atlantic coast.

The National Marine Fisheries Service issued permits Friday for five private companies to conduct offshore seismic tests from New Jersey to Florida.

The tests fire acoustic pulses into the sea floor in search of oil and gas deposits.

Such tests haven’t occurred in the Atlantic as part of hydrocarbon exploration since around the 1980s, according to federal officials, though academic seismic tests have happened more recently.

These permits, which were denied under the Obama administration in 2017, will allow the companies to disturb protected marine mammals during their surveys.

Read the full story at New England Public Radio

Trump Said to Advance Seismic Surveys for Oil in Atlantic

November 30, 2018 — The Trump administration is taking a major step toward allowing a first-in-a-generation seismic search for oil and gas under Atlantic waters, despite protests that the geological tests involve loud air gun blasts that will harm whales, dolphins and other animals.

The National Marine Fisheries Service is set to issue “incidental harassment authorizations” allowing seismic surveys proposed by five companies that permits them to disturb marine mammals that are otherwise protected by federal law, according to three people familiar with the activity who asked not to be named before a formal announcement.

The firms, including TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Co. Asa and Schlumberger Ltd. subsidiary WesternGeco Ltd., still must win individual permits from the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management before they can conduct the work, but those are widely expected under President Donald Trump, who has made “energy dominance” a signature goal.

Read the full story at Bloomberg