Saving Seafood

Trump tweet promising ‘NO POLITICS’ in Pebble mine decision echoes ad on Fox News paid for by developer

September 18, 2020 — A television ad on Fox News from the developer of the Pebble copper and gold mine in Southwest Alaska seems to have gotten the ear of President Donald Trump, who on Wednesday tweeted that politics will not play a role in whether the mine is permitted.

“Don’t worry, wonderful & beautiful Alaska, there will be NO POLITICS in the Pebble Mine Review Process. I will do what is right for Alaska and our great Country!!!” the president tweeted.

Tom Collier, chief executive of Pebble Limited, said the company decided to run the ads on Fox to reach the administration and remind officials of the president’s policy of keeping politics out of permitting procedures.

The ad features former President Barack Obama, a favorite target of Trump, when it says that the Obama administration attempted to halt the project after putting “politics over policy.”

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Maine lobstermen to harvest $50 million windfall

September 18, 2020 — A wave of government money is heading toward local fishermen hurt by trade wars and COVID-19, and officials say it will arrive sometime in November.

The Trump administration announced on September 9 that Maine lobstermen will receive $50 million because they’ve been hurt by the 25 percent tariffs China slapped on lobster in July 2018. The program pays 50 cents for every pound of lobster landed in 2019, up to $250,000 per person.

“I’m happy the boats got their relief, but the timing is suspect,” said Travis Fifield, Stonington lobster dealer, in an interview. Only fishermen, and no one else in the supply chain, will get part of that $50 million, Fifield said.

The announcement follows the European Union’s decision in late August to drop its tariff on U.S. lobsters for five years. Local seafood dealers have said that will help the lobster industry.

Another $20 million in federal money will be distributed to a broad swath of Maine’s fishing industry, including lobstermen, processors, aquaculturists and dealers. Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) Commissioner Patrick Kelliher said in a memo he hopes the checks are mailed in November. That money, which comes from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), was authorized by Congress under the CARES Act in the spring. To get the money, people have to show they’ve suffered a 35 percent drop in income because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read the full story at the Penobscot Bay Press

Eric Trump tells Maine lobstermen: ‘We will never, ever let you down’

September 18, 2020 — When Seth Dube was growing up in Camp Ellis, Saco’s gritty seaside community boasted a robust ground fishing fleet, but the draggers are mostly gone now, replaced by lobster boats like his. The sixth-generation fisherman blames government overregulation for that industry’s demise, and used to worry lobstering could be next.

That was before President Trump became a friend of the Maine fisherman, Dube said – reopening marine monuments to fishing, delaying environmental rules that would have forced some lobstermen to install greener diesel engines, inking a trade deal allowing tariff-free lobster trade with Europe and giving lobstermen trade relief for lost China sales.

“The Trump administration has become a driving force to protect the fishery,” Dube said at a “Make America Great Again” rally at Camp Ellis on Thursday. “The ground fishermen were regulated out of business along with the Maine shrimp fishery, forcing families to find other jobs and other means to make a living. We can’t let the same thing happen to lobster.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Trump says to be ‘no politics’ in Alaska mine project review

September 17, 2020 — U.S. President Donald Trump said there would be “no politics” in the review process of Alaska’s Pebble Mine project which has previously been opposed by prominent Republicans and environmentalists who say it would damage wetlands and popular fishing sites.

“Don’t worry, wonderful & beautiful Alaska, there will be NO POLITICS in the Pebble Mine Review Process. I will do what is right for Alaska and our great Country!!!,” Trump said in a tweet late on Wednesday.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency that regulates the development and dredging of wetlands, had last month placed an additional hurdle in front of the project to mine copper and gold, giving developers 90 days to explain how they would offset concerns about the environment.

Read the full story at Reuters

Cooper urges Trump administration to include North Carolina in offshore oil drilling moratorium

September 16, 2020 — Governor Roy Cooper said he’s reached out to President Donald Trump and his administration to include North Carolina in the recently announced moratorium on offshore oil drilling in the Atlantic Ocean.

Last week, Trump extended a ten-year moratorium on offshore oil drilling for South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, but did not include North Carolina in the executive order.

“I am deeply concerned and disappointed that you did not include North Carolina in the moratorium,” Cooper wrote in a letter to President Trump on Tuesday. “Offshore drilling threatens North Carolina’s coastal economy and environment and offers our state minimal economic benefit. Accepted science tells us that there is little, if any, oil worth drilling for off North Carolina’s coast, and the risks of offshore drilling far outweigh the benefits.”

Read the full story at WECT

WTO Panel: US tariffs on China violate trade rules

September 16, 2020 — A World Trade Organization panel established in January 2019 to examine U.S. tariffs on goods from China has found that the tariffs were not justifiable under WTO rules.

The tariffs, the first set of which was imposed in July 2018, covered USD 234 billion (EUR 197.8 billion) in Chinese goods, including hundreds of seafood products. Those initial tariffs sparked a trade war that has continued to this day – with some relaxations between the two countries in the wake of a “Phase One” trade deal initiated in January.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Population of prized tuna species decline as protections ease in the Gulf of Mexico

September 14, 2020 — The recent easing of tuna protections in the Gulf of Mexico and fishing restrictions elsewhere in the Atlantic Ocean may be contributing to rapid and widespread declines for one of the most highly prized but critically threatened tuna populations.

A new report by an international tuna conservation commission indicates the stock of Atlantic bluefin tuna has plummeted to just 13% of its levels 70 years ago. The fish, one of the most valuable seafoods in the world, had shown signs of recovery in recent years, thanks partly to robust protections the U.S. enacted five years ago in the Gulf – the only major spawning area for western Atlantic bluefin. Those protections were eased this year by President Donald Trump’s administration.

“These are big concerns,” said Grantly Galland, a marine biologist with Pew Charitable Trusts. “We had early signals of recovery but raising the fishing quota and now getting rid of the protections in the Gulf of Mexico means the western population of bluefin is under threat again.”

Read the full story at NOLA.com

MASSACHUSETTS: Markey in New Bedford Dumps on Trump Offshore Drilling Move

September 14, 2020 — Fresh off a Democratic primary win, Sen. Ed Markey made a stop in New Bedford Saturday where he blasted a recent Trump move to enact a 10-year ban on offshore drilling for oil and gas – but only in three Republican-controlled southern coastal states.

“He’s fishing for votes in Florida, instead of protecting the fishing industry of Massachusetts,” said Markey to those gathered near the city’s hurricane barrier and harbor walk. “He knows he is not going to win up here in Massachusetts, and as a result is willing to endanger the fishing and the tourism industry.”

President Donald Trump last Tuesday announced a new moratorium on oil and gas extraction off the coasts of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina, but did not say why he chose those three states. An existing moratorium covering Florida’s gulf coast will stay in place, and Trump extended that ban to the Atlantic coast.

“This protects your beautiful gulf and your beautiful ocean, and it will for a long time to come,” the president said during a signing ceremony in Jupiter, Florida. “Who would have thought? Trump is the great environmentalist.”

Read the full story at WBSM

NC environmentalists alarmed after Trump order bans offshore drilling in nearby states

September 10, 2020 — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday in Florida imposing a 10-year moratorium on offshore drilling in waters from Florida to South Carolina, leaving North Carolina open to potential activity.

Under the order, leases of areas along the coasts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina for the purposes of offshore exploration or development are prohibited between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2032. What is not clear is why the order omits North Carolina and Virginia, where residents have been vocally opposed to offshore drilling, often citing the potential impact to fisheries and coastal tourism.

Sierra Weaver, a senior attorney in the Southern Environmental Law Center’s Chapel Hill office, said, “There has been no explanation for why to stop at the South Carolina line, and based on what we know, there is no basis for that decision at all. We all know there is every bit as much worth protecting here in North Carolina as below.”

Read the full story at The Charlotte Observer

USDA Includes Florida’s Spiny Lobster Under Seafood Trade Relief Program

September 10, 2020 — On Wednesday, U.S. Agriculture Sec. Sonny Perdue announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will offer federal relief to the seafood industry and fishermen hurt by tariffs from other nations.

Perdue said that that the Seafood Trade Relief Program will used around $530 million from the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC), administered by USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA), to offer this relief.

“Many nations have not played by the rules for a long time, and President Trump is the first president to stand up to them and send a clear message that the United States will no longer tolerate unfair trade practices,” said Perdue. “The Seafood Trade Relief Program ensures fishermen and other U.S. producers will not stand alone in facing unjustified retaliatory tariffs while President Trump continues working to solidify better and stronger trade deals around the globe.”

Read the full story at Florida Daily