Saving Seafood

Statement by the President on the Modern Fish Act

January 4, 2019 — The following was released by the White House on December 31, 2018:

Today, I have signed into law S. 1520, the “Modernizing Recreational Fisheries Management Act of 2018” (the “Act”). The Act, however, further strengthens the Regional Fishery Management Councils, which were first established by the Magnuson-Stevens Act of 1976 to promulgate fishery management plans. The power of these Councils has steadily increased over time, raising constitutional concerns related to the manner of the appointment and removal of their members and of members of certain scientific and statistical committees that assist them. Keeping with past practice of the executive branch, my Administration will treat the plans promulgated by the Council as advisory only; the adoption of the plans will be subject to the discretion of the Secretary of Commerce as part of the regulatory process described in section 304 of the Magnuson‑Stevens Act.

DONALD J. TRUMP

Read the statement here

West Coast fisheries science halted by government shutdown

January 3, 2019 — The federal government shutdown has scientists nationwide locked out of their labs, and many of them study fish. It’s work that is central to fishing seasons along the west coast.

“I love my U.S. federal job at @NOAAFish_NWFSC but it’s immensely frustrating to have #shutdown be such a common disturbance,” tweeted NOAA Stock Assessment Scientist Ian Taylor. “Last time it was short, science got done, and U.S. #pacifichake catch was ~300,000 tons in 2018. Now 2019 assessment needs to happen yet here we go again.”

Taylor works at a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration facility with a now-closed entrance gate and a sign blaming the closure on the government shutdown. It’s filled with offices of scientists working on research that ranges from toxic algae to whales to analysis that sets fishing seasons, like Taylor’s work.

Read the full story at KING

Government shutdown, if it continues, could cost Alaska’s lucrative Bering Sea fisheries

January 2, 2019 — Even if the shutdown does persist, the federal government will allow the Bering Sea fisheries to start as scheduled, with an initial opening for cod Jan. 1, and a second opening for pollock and other species Jan. 20.

But the fisheries are heavily regulated, and before boats can start fishing, the federal government requires inspections of things like scales — for weighing fish — and monitoring equipment that tracks the number and types of fish being caught. And the National Marine Fisheries Service, which regulates the Bering Sea fisheries, isn’t doing those inspections during the shutdown.

Other boats need special permits before they can start fishing, and those permits aren’t being issued during the shutdown, either.

“My understanding is the vessels that have not been certified yet will not be certified until the government opens up again,” said Haukur Johannesson, whose company, Marel, provides scales to the huge factory vessels that work in the Bering Sea. “And if they don’t get certified, they cannot go fishing.”

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

A look at the federal shutdown’s potential impact on Alaska fisheries

December 27, 2018 — Hundreds of boats are gearing up for the January start of some of Alaska’s largest fisheries in waters managed by the federal government from 3 to 200 miles offshore.

Meanwhile, the government shutdown over President Donald Trump’s demand for $5 billion in funding for a border wall of “artistically designed steel slats” has sent hundreds of thousands of workers home.

Nine of the government’s 15 federal departments and several agencies were shuttered at midnight Friday, and there is no end in sight. That includes the Commerce Department, which houses NOAA Fisheries.

No one at NOAA in Juneau could speak about the impacts a government shutdown might have on upcoming fisheries. All questions were referred “to the White House.”

An emailed response from the White House Office of Management and Budget said that while “it can’t answer agency specific contingency questions,” as it stands now, Alaska’s big winter fisheries will get underway on schedule.

Fisheries management activities — including quota monitoring, observer activities and regulatory actions — are considered “essential activities” that will remain during the shutdown.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

East Coast states sue to challenge Trump’s offshore oil move

December 21, 2018 — Nine states along the East Coast have joined a lawsuit challenging a key move by the Trump administration that could allow offshore oil and natural gas drilling in the Atlantic Ocean.

The states’ Democratic attorneys general are objecting both to the possible harm to marine life from the administration-approved seismic testing and to the potential offshore drilling that could result from the testing.

The states filed a motion to join a lawsuit environmental groups filed last week in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina.

“Seismic testing will have dangerous consequences for hundreds of thousands of marine mammals, including endangered species,” Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh (D), who is leading the multistate effort, said in a statement Thursday.

“While the administration continues to place the interests of the fossil fuel industry ahead of our precious natural resources, attorneys general up and down the Atlantic coast will continue to fight these and other efforts to open the waters off our shores to drilling for oil and gas.”

Frosh announced his lawsuit at Baltimore’s National Aquarium in an effort to highlight what he says would be the damage to marine life from both the testing and any drilling.

Read the full story at The Hill

Groups: US must consider how salmon fishing hurts orcas

December 19, 2018 — The federal government is violating the Endangered Species Act by failing to consider how salmon fishing off the West Coast is affecting endangered killer whales, two conservation groups said Tuesday as they threatened a lawsuit.

The Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity and the Washington state-based Wild Fish Conservancy notified President Donald Trump’s administration they intend to file a lawsuit within 60 days unless officials reevaluate whether the fishing further jeopardizes orcas that frequent the inland waters of the Pacific Northwest.

“We can’t allow business as usual in the salmon fisheries while Southern Resident killer whales are starving to death,” Julie Teel Simmonds, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a news release.

The orcas’ plight has received much attention this year as scientists warn that they’re on the brink of extinction. There are just 74 left, the lowest number since more than 50 were captured for aquarium display in the 1970s, and no calf born in the last three years has survived. One mother whale captured attention around the world this summer when she carried her dead calf on her head for 17 days in an apparent attempt to revive it.

Last week, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced what he called a “herculean” $1.1 billion plan to help the population recover. The Democrat said the money would go toward protecting and restoring habitat for salmon, especially chinook, the orcas’ favored prey; boosting production from salmon hatcheries; storm-water cleanup; and quieting vessel traffic, which can interfere with the whales’ hunting and communication.

But conservationists say more must be done. While a federal judge has ordered the government to consider boosting salmon runs by breaching four dams on the Lower Snake River, that prospect remains highly controversial and Republicans in Congress have vowed to oppose it.

Unlike other populations of orcas, which feed on marine mammals including seals, the southern residents eat salmon — primarily chinook. The conservation groups said Tuesday that one way to help them immediately would be to catch fewer salmon off the coast, where the whales spend their winters.

Read the full story from the Associated Press

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