Saving Seafood

Trump says tariffs will continue on Chinese imports

March 21, 2019 — U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday, 20 March that U.S. tariffs on imported products from China would continue, even as the two countries make strides toward resolving their trade issues.

Earlier this month, media reports indicated Chinese and American officials were close to a deal that would repeal the levies in exchange for China agreeing to purchase additional products. However, Trump’s comments to reporters outside the White House seemed to contradict, or at least dampen, those expectations.

“We’re talking about leaving them (on) for a substantial period of time,” Trump said. “We have to make sure that if we do the deal with China that China lives by the deal. Because they’ve had a lot of problems living by certain deals.”

The current trade war has hit the seafood industry particularly hard on both sides as China introduced a 25 percent tariff on American seafood imports last year, and the U.S. countered by hiking its tariffs on Chinese seafood imports by 10 percent.

The seafood industry has just been one of many that have suffered over the past year as a result of the tariffs. According to a report from four college economists published this month by the National Bureau for Economic Research, imports from targeted counties, not just China, dropped by nearly 32 percent, while American exports slumped by 11 percent. The end result being a USD 7.8 billion (EUR 6.9 billion) loss.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Trump administration makes another bid to slash Chesapeake cleanup funds

March 14, 2019 — The Trump administration has once again called for deep cuts in federal funding for the Chesapeake Bay cleanup, despite failing twice before to convince Congress to approve similar proposals.

The Trump administration has proposed slashing funds for the Chesapeake Bay restoration. Congress has rejected similar proposals for the past two years.

The move, announced Monday, drew immediate criticism from environmentalists and vows from lawmakers to maintain or even increase spending on the long-running restoration effort.

The fiscal year 2020 budget released by the White House would provide $7.3 million to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the Chesapeake Bay Program. That represents a 90 percent reduction from this year’s funding level of $73 million.

Read the full story at the Bay Journal 

MARYLAND: Larry Hogan presses Trump administration for visas for crab pickers

March 14, 2019 — Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan on Thursday pressed Trump administration officials to grant more work visas to immigrants, arguing seasonal laborers are a pillar of the Chesapeake Bay’s seafood industry.

Hogan, a moderate Republican weighing a 2020 primary challenge to President Trump, wrote to Cabinet secretaries that continuing to cap the seasonal visas that have been used by hundreds of migrant crab pickers for decades “could permanently damage Maryland’s seafood industry, causing . . . iconic family businesses to close and having a devastating impact on jobs in our state.”

In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, Hogan argued that each of the roughly 500 seasonal crab pickers who used to migrate to Maryland’s Eastern Shore generates 2.5 jobs for U.S. citizens. He cited a University of Maryland study and said the loss of those jobs, in turn, “threaten the livelihoods of commercial crabbers and waterman.”

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Trump’s National Monument Changes Return to Spotlight

March 13, 2019 — As Democrats in Congress prepare to scrutinize President Donald Trump’s review of 27 national monuments, most of the recommendations made by ex-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke remain unfinished as other matters consume the White House.

Trump acted quickly in December 2017 on Zinke’s recommendations to shrink two sprawling Utah monuments that had been criticized as federal government overreach by the state’s Republican leaders since their creation by Democratic Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.

But in the 15 months since Trump downsized the Utah monuments, the president has done nothing with Zinke’s proposal to shrink two more monuments, in Oregon and Nevada, and change rules at six others, including allowing commercial fishing inside three marine monuments in waters off New England, Hawaii and American Samoa.

Zinke resigned in December amid multiple ethics investigations — and has joined a Washington, D.C. lobbying firm. Trump has nominated as his replacement Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, a former lobbyist for the oil and gas industry and other corporate interests.

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

Trump Administration Shortcuts Science To Give California Farmers More Water

March 11, 2019 –When then-candidate Donald Trump swung through California in 2016, he promised Central Valley farmers he would send more water their way. Allocating water is always a fraught issue in a state plagued by drought, and where water is pumped hundreds of miles to make possible the country’s biggest agricultural economy.

Now, President Trump is following through on his promise by speeding up a key decision about the state’s water supply. Critics say that acceleration threatens the integrity of the science behind the decision, and cuts the public out of the process. At stake is irrigation for millions of acres of farmland, drinking water for two-thirds of Californians from Silicon Valley to San Diego, and the fate of endangered salmon and other fish.

Farmers will only get more water after federal biologists complete an intricate scientific analysis on how it would affect endangered species. But an investigation by KQED finds that analysis will be done under unprecedented time pressure, with less transparency, less outside scientific scrutiny, and without, say federal scientists, the resources to do it properly.

“It’s a very aggressive schedule,” says a former federal biologist familiar with the matter who did not want to be named for fear of retribution. “And I think it runs the risk of forcing them to make dangerous shortcuts in the scientific analysis that the decisions demand.”

Read the full story at NPR

A Trump official said seismic air gun tests don’t hurt whales. So a congressman blasted him with an air horn.

March 8, 2019 — A hearing on the threat seismic testing poses to North Atlantic right whales was plodding along Thursday when, seemingly out of nowhere, Rep. Joe Cunningham (D-S.C.) pulled out an air horn and politely asked if he could blast it.

Before that moment at a Natural Resources subcommittee hearing, Cunningham had listened to a Trump administration official testify, over and over, that firing commercial air guns under water every 10 seconds in search of oil and gas deposits over a period of months would have next to no effect on the endangered animals, which use echolocation to communicate, feed, mate and keep track of their babies. It’s why the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration gave five companies permission to conduct tests that could harm the whales last year, said the official, Chris Oliver, an assistant administrator for fisheries.

As committee members engaged in a predictable debate along party lines — Republicans in support of testing and President Trump’s energy agenda, Democrats against it — Cunningham reached for the air horn, put his finger on the button and turned to Oliver.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

South Carolina Isn’t Happy with Trump’s Atlantic Oil Search

February 21, 2019 — More than half the registered voters in Republican-controlled South Carolina supported Donald Trump in a poll last month, but there’s at least one area where state leaders are ditching the president to join rival Democrats: a fight against oil exploration off the Atlantic coast.

While no new drilling has been approved in U.S. Atlantic waters, the Interior Department said in 2014 the region may contain 90 billion barrels of oil and 300 trillion cubic feet of gas. The Trump administration, eager to promote new sources of domestic energy, cleared the way in November for an essential first step to future drilling: geologic surveys using sound waves to pinpoint potential oil deposits. Permits could be issued as soon as next month.

That’s sparked a legal challenge by South Carolina and nine other Atlantic states, some coastal cities and environmental groups, to block a survey method companies have used for decades to scout petroleum reserves all over the world. The plaintiffs say the sound waves are unsafe for marine life, but their goal is broader — to prevent a new energy province off the East Coast that could threaten local tourism and fishing industries.

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, a Republican, is taking “any and all actions necessary to ensure that we will never see any seismic testing or drilling” in the state’s coastal waters, Henry McMaster, the Republican governor and one of Trump’s early supporters, said in a statement. McMaster took office in 2017 when Nikki Haley was appointed by Trump to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Read the full story at Bloomberg

Trump’s signature gives 26% boost to imported seafood inspections

February 19, 2019 — Don’t be surprised to see more scrutiny by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of imported seafood over the next few months thanks to the inclusion of Senate language in the final fiscal year 2019 appropriations bills signed by president Donald Trump on Friday.

The legislation retains language earlier argued for by Louisiana Republican senators John Kennedy and William Cassidy that requires FDA spend at least $15 million on its inspections of imported seafood during the fiscal year, a $3.1m, or 26%, increase over fiscal 2018.

The US government’s fiscal year ends on Sept. 30, meaning the impact could be felt shortly.

The Senate voted, 83-16, on Thursday afternoon to approve a legislative package that included seven spending measures, and the House followed suit with a 300-128 vote later in the evening. Trump’s signature on Friday ended the months-long budget standoff tied to his efforts to secure funding for a wall on the southern border, though a battle now is expected to begin over his much-reported national emergency declaration.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Congressman calls on Trump to pull nomination of Barry Myers to head NOAA

February 14, 2019 — A high-ranking House Democrat called on Wednesday, 13 February, for the Trump administration to withdraw the nomination of Barry Myers to lead NOAA after reports showed his former company paid USD 290,000 (EUR 256,832) in a settlement of sexual harassment claims that happened during his time as its chief executive officer.

Earlier this week, the Centre Daily Times reported the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs determined AccuWeather created a hostile work environment for women. Four women, who left the company between 1 January, 2014, and 21 December, 2017, have already claimed awards. More than 30 other former employees have agreed to the settlement.

In response, U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Arizona, called on President Trump to pull Myers, citing NOAA’s own history sexual harassment and assault claims. The chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee said in a statement he hopes a new nominee would be able to “improve the agency’s troubling record” on maintaining a safe work environment.

“Federal employees have been subjected to the president’s unpopular ideas about sexual harassment and women in the workplace for the past two years,” Grijalva said. “Trump’s nomination of Mr. Myers sends the wrong message about his care for the agencies and people he oversees. He has a chance to do much better, and he should take it.”

Grijalva’s statement noted NOAA officials recently began taking steps to reduce sexual harassment and assault but the agency still continues to face claims of harassment and retaliation.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

How The Trade War With China Is Threatening America’s Largest Fishery

February 13, 2019 — Alaskan pollock is an incredibly versatile fish when it comes to cooking. The species is often referred to as a “cousin of cod” because the two species are classified in the same family, Gadidae. This means they have many shared characteristics, including how they taste. Their meat is a flaky blank slate, ready for nearly any preparation you could throw at it. Pollock’s affordability also makes it an attractive species for a variety of markets, from fast-casual to university and corporate dining.

These factors, along with the stability and health of the species’ population, helped to make Alaskan pollock the top species landed by volume in the United States in 2017. It hasn’t always been a top seller though. Back in the 1980s, there was very little demand for the species, but seafood distributors such as Trident Seafoods, based in Seattle, saw pollock’s potential as a cheaper cod alternative. Trident started a pollock revolution and became the largest vertically integrated seafood company in North America. Its founder, Chuck Bundrant, even became a billionaire, with a net worth Forbes estimates at $2.4 billion. Today, Alaskan pollock remains one of the top five most commonly eaten species in the U.S., but the fishery is at risk of being diminished by the ongoing trade war with China.

The species’ dominance could change if markets become unavailable because of shifts in global seafood processing and distribution due to an escalating international trade war. Last summer, China put in place a retaliatory tariff of 25% for seafood products. Then the U.S. proposed a 10% increase for tariffs on seafood imported from China. The issue here is that a portion of seafood caught by American fishermen is shipped to China for filleting and processing before being re-exported back in the U.S. for Americans to buy. While this seems like a wildly inefficient move, it has been, in fact, a commonly used method to cut costs. That meant when Alaskan pollock was processed in China and re-exported to America, it was included on the tariff lists.

After reports came out that the tariffs were harming the American fishing industry, particularly in Alaska, the U.S. announced that certain species of fish caught in the state would be excluded from the tariff list. Alaskan pollock is included in this group and will not be taxed when re-entering America. But the exemption doesn’t solve all problems for Alaskan fishermen and processors.

According to an FAO market report from January, Trump’s trade war “could end up favoring Russian Federation (and Chinese) exporters at the expense of Alaska processors.” This is because foreign fishing competitors can still ship pollock caught in their waters to China for lower-cost processing and then re-export to the U.S. tariff free. It seems like a bad turn of events for Alaskan fishermen and processors.

Read the full story at Forbes