Saving Seafood

BOB WOODARD & BEN CAHOON: No to seismic testing off North Carolina

December 17, 2018 — LAST WEEK, the administration of President Donald Trump approved requests by five companies to search for oil and gas deposits along the Atlantic coast by conducting seismic surveys.

This approval was granted despite the opposition of every governor on the East Coast except Maine’s and despite opposition from hundreds of coastal municipalities, and without holding listening sessions in the affected coastal communities.

As elected representatives of Dare County and Nags Head, we share concerns over threats to North Carolina’s coast. We are both Republicans and conservationists. We both recognize the importance of a healthy coast to maintain our prosperity and way of life. Our combined history of listening to our constituents and neighbors allows us to speak out about risks to our coastal business sector and livelihoods, and we can say with certainty: Offshore oil-drilling activities are bad for business, and North Carolinians don’t want them.

Seismic testing alone, even if it doesn’t lead to wells being drilled, will be harmful enough. Seismic surveys use  air gun arrays towed by ships to produce powerful sound waves. Sudden releases of pressurized air create the sound, with up to 20 guns fired simultaneously. Most air gun arrays can be 200 to 240 decibels in water, equivalent to about 140 to 180 decibels in air. A loud rock concert is about 120 decibels, and a jet engine from 100 feet away is about 140 decibels. And a typical seismic air gun array might fire such sound waves into the ocean five or six times a minute — more than 7,000 shots in 24 hours.

Read the full story at The Virginian-Pilot

Scientists: Offshore testing puts whales at risk

December 14, 2018 — The iconic North Atlantic right whale, a critically endangered species teetering at the brink of extinction, possibly faces a new threat, marine scientists say.

President Donald Trump wants to open the Atlantic coast to oil and gas exploration as part of a strategy to help the U.S. achieve “energy dominance” in the global market. His administration recently gave fossil-fuel exploration companies a green light to conduct seismic surveys across a stretch of ocean floor between Delaware and Florida.

While the testing won’t be conducted off the New England coast, scientists say air guns used in the testing can harm or kill marine animals far away.

“The sound from seismic testing is so loud that it can literally travel for hundreds of miles,” said Scott Kraus, vice president and chief scientist for marine mammals at the New England Aquarium. “It can disturb and kill mammals like whales, fish and even invertebrates like scallops, while displacing animals from areas of critical marine habitat.”

Air guns are towed behind ships and send loud blasts of compressed air through the water, which then create seismic waves through the seabed. The reflected waves are measured to reveal information about buried oil and gas deposits.

Blasts are repeated every 10 to 12 seconds during testing, which in some cases can continue around the clock for days, according to industry groups.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

Farm bill, with US fish requirement, passes Senate, now heads to House

December 12, 2018 — American seafood is one step closer to being served exclusively in school lunches across the country.

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday, 11 December, passed the Farm Bill, by an 87-13 margin. Now, the five-year agriculture-related appropriations and policy making bill goes to the House, which is expected to vote on this issue today, Wednesday, 12 December.

While the bill is making headlines elsewhere for legalizing hemp and increasing farm subsidies, it will also have an impact on American fishermen. That’s because the bill includes language from the “American Food for American Schools Act,” a proposal offered by U.S. Sens. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Maria Cantwell (D-Washington).

The senators’ bill called for school lunch programs, which are regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to buy U.S. commodities for student meals. While most products were already American grown or made, there were a loopholes in it that allows school districts to purchase imported products, such as bananas and fish, because they either could not be produced in sufficient quantities or could be purchased at a lower price.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Lawsuit filed over Trump plans for offshore drilling tests

December 12, 2018 — Environmental groups sued the Trump administration Tuesday over offshore drilling tests, launching a legal fight against a proposal that has drawn bipartisan opposition along the Atlantic Coast.

The lawsuit filed in federal court in Charleston, South Carolina, claims the National Marine Fisheries Service violated the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act when it issued five permits for the use of seismic air guns.

“This action is unlawful and we’re going to stop it,” Diane Hoskins, campaign director at OCEANA, said in a news release. “The Trump administration’s rash decision to harm marine mammals hundreds of thousands of times in the hope of finding oil and gas is shortsighted and dangerous.”

The coalition includes OCEANA, the Southern Environmental Law Center, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Earthjustice, Center for Biological Diversity, Surfrider Foundation, Defenders of Wildlife, One Hundred Miles and the Sierra Club, as well as the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League and the North Carolina Coastal Federation.

The blasts are conducted in preparation for potential offshore drilling, which the administration has proposed to expand from the Atlantic to the Arctic and Pacific oceans. The five-year plan would open 90 percent of the nation’s offshore reserves to private development.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at ABC News

‘Buy American’ provision survives in US Farm Bill, big win for Alaskan pollock

December 12, 2018 — Alaskan pollock harvesters and processors have scored a major victory over their Russian competitors in the waning moments of the 115th US Congress, promising to end their dominance in US school meals.

A provision championed by senator Dan Sullivan, an Alaskan Republican, to close a major loophole in the US Department of Agriculture’s “buy American” food rules for school systems, has survived and is included in the text of the final 2018 farm bill conference report released Monday night by House and Senate agriculture committee leaders, Undercurrent News has confirmed.

The legislation must still go back to the floors of both chambers for final votes before Congress concludes, which is expected to happen by Dec. 21. But those final steps are considered largely perfunctory and president Donald Trump could wind up signing the bill before the end of this week.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Fishing industry wins EPA exemption for deck wash

December 11, 2018 — Gloucester fishermen and their contemporaries across the nation, following years of uncertainty, finally caught a break in the new federal law regulating incidental deck discharges from fishing vessels.

A provision within the new Vessel Incidental Discharge Act, signed into law last week by President Donald Trump as part of an omnibus Coast Guard bill, exempts commercial fishing vessels of all sizes and other vessels up to 79 feet in length from having to obtain a permit from the Environmental Protection Agency to cover incidental deck wash.

“Specifically, discharges incidental to the normal operation, except for ballast water, from small vessels (i.e., less than 79 feet in length) and commercial fishing vessels of all sizes no longer require National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit coverage,” the EPA said in its statement about the new law. “Thus, permit coverage for any vessel covered under the (Small Vessel General Permit) is automatically terminated.”

Commercial fishermen have operated under a series of temporary exemptions since the initial regulations were enacted in 2009 for commercial non-fishing vessels. But if forced to comply with the existing regulations, fishing vessels larger than 79 feet would have faced regulations dealing with 27 different types of discharges — including routine discharges such as deck wash, fish hold effluent and greywater.

The permanent exemption, according to industry stakeholders, removes an impediment that might have economically sunk commercial fishing nationwide.

“It could have killed the industry,” said Vito Giacalone, policy director for the Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition, which worked with Washington-based consultant Glenn Delaney to help build a network of commercial fishing interests to change to obtain the permanent exemption. “It’s been a ticking time bomb for the entire fishing industry in the U.S. This is such a game-changer.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Pacific nations resist US push to lift tuna quota

December 11, 2018 — Pacific island nations have vowed to oppose US efforts to increase its catch limit in the world’s largest tuna fishery, saying the proposal does nothing to improve sustainable fishing.

The United States is expected to try to increase its quota for  at a meeting of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) taking place in Honolulu this week.

The meeting brings together 26 nations to determine fishing policy in the Pacific, which accounts for almost 60 percent of the global tuna catch, worth about $6.0 billion annually.

It is mostly made up of small island nations but also includes so-called “distant-water nations” that come from as far afield as Europe, China, the United States, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan to fish Pacific tuna.

Island nations regularly accuse them of being reluctant to curb the lucrative industry in the interests of long-term conservation.

President Donald Trump’s administration will push this year to catch more bigeye—one of the most sought after species of tuna for sashimi—as a reward for complying with the commission’s monitoring rules.

All fishing fleets are supposed to carry independent fisheries observers on at least five percent of their boats as means of ensuring quotas are not exceeded and to collect accurate data.

However, most nations aside from the United States ignore the monitoring requirement.

Read the full story at PHYS.org

Trump signs Coast Guard bill into law, includes Jones Act waiver for America’s Finest

December 6, 2018 — When Dakota Creek Industries took America’s Finest out for its first sea trial on Tuesday 4 December, it looked like the 264-foot vessel was taking a victory lap.

The Anacortes, Washington-based shipbuilder held an event that day to celebrate the Jones Act waiver elected officials were able to get for the processor-trawler. Later in the day, U.S. President Donald Trump signed the Coast Guard Authorization Act, which contained the labor provision, into law.

The process itself is not quite finished. The Coast Guard will get 30 days to review information to make sure neither Dakota Creek nor Fishermen’s Finest – the company that commissioned construction of the USD 75 million (EUR 65.9 million) vessel – committed a deliberate violation of the Jones Act in building the ship.

Coast Guard officials did not return a request for comment.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

JOHN BULLARD: Trump policies threaten New England fishermen

December 5, 2018 — The Trump Administration just approved dangerous seismic blasting to look for oil and gas in the Atlantic Ocean, a move that will threaten marine wildlife and fisheries. This announcement came on the heels of the National Climate Assessment, which the Trump Administration tried to downplay by releasing it the day after Thanksgiving. That’s right, Trump just sidestepped science — twice — to deliver a one-two punch to fishermen.

The scientific report on climate change offers a devastating look at the impact of climate change on the American economy — including fisheries in New England — if we fail to act fast. According to the report, the American economy will decline by up to 10 percent by the end of this century. Failure to reduce carbon emissions will continue to negatively impact the health of fish stocks, threatening the economic stability of our fishing industry and coastal communities.

None of this is news to New England fishermen, who already know the changes happening in their place of business: the ocean. They know warming waters have driven lobster out of southern New England towards Canada. They know that despite difficult quota cuts, cod is much harder to rebuild, and many flounder species don’t reproduce the way they used to.

Fishermen know that warming oceans have pummeled the Maine lobster industry, where revenues fell by $99 million in 2017. Some scientists warn that ocean acidification could make the scallop industry, a $500 million-dollar mainstay of New England’s fishing economy, the next to go. There’s no Plan B if this happens. And new oil and gas development could accelerate the decline of these and other species. Without action, the working waterfronts of New England could cease to work.

What was President Trump’s response when asked about the climate report from his own administration? “I don’t believe it.” Apparently his self-professed intellect is superior to more than 300 scientists from inside and outside the government who wrote the report. Because of his inability to accept the advice of his own scientists on what may be the issue of gravest importance to future generations, the president is putting our region’s fishing industry at risk.

Read the full opinion piece at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Virginia conservationists blast approval of seismic testing for oil, gas in Atlantic

December 4, 2018 — Virginia conservationists are blasting the Trump administration’s decision to reverse course and approve seismic air gun surveys along the Atlantic coast to search for buried oil and gas reserves.

The groups cite widespread public opposition to seismic blasting and offshore drilling, as well as the harm posed to marine life and coastal economies that rely on healthy waters and wetlands.

“This action flies in the face of massive opposition to offshore drilling and exploration from over 90 percent of coastal municipalities in the proposed blast zone,” said Diane Hoskins, campaign director at the D.C.-based advocacy group Oceana. “President (Donald) Trump is essentially giving these companies permission to harass, harm and possibly even kill marine life.”

“Offshore drilling in our region would pose far too many risks to the health of coastal waters and the Chesapeake Bay, fishing, aquaculture, tourism and all jobs that depend on clean water,” said Lisa Feldt, vice president for environmental protection and restoration at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. “We need to run away from offshore drilling, not move towards it.”

Read the full story at the Daily Press