Saving Seafood

LoBiondo, NJ officials blast Trump’s offshore drilling proposal

June 19, 2017 — U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-2nd, called a move by the Trump administration to conduct seismic testing in the Atlantic Ocean “barbaric” and “insane” during a press conference Monday.

Seismic air guns are used to find gas and oil pockets deep beneath the ocean floor. President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order in April aimed at expanding offshore drilling near the East Coast, and, earlier this month, five companies applied to conduct seismic testing — including in an area just south of Cape May.

Environmentalists, local politicians and tourism officials gathered Monday afternoon near the 30th Street beach in Avalon to signal their opposition to seismic testing and offshore drilling.

“We in Cape May County have a $6.3 billion tourism business,” Cape May County Freeholder Director Gerald Thornton said. “Now I want you to imagine an oil spill out there today, with this wind blowing on the beach.

“We can’t afford that, ladies and gentlemen,” he added.

During seismic testing, air is blasted into the ocean floor every 10 seconds for an extended period of time. LoBiondo said he attended an air-gun demonstration last year.

“The decibel level for this seismic air gun is up to 250 decibels.” LoBiondo said. “That would blow a human ear out.”

Industry groups say seismic surveys have been conducted in the United States and around the world for decades, with little adverse impacts. The National Marine Fisheries Service, or NMFS, the agency seeking the seismic testing permits, has said that air-gun operations would include measures to monitor and mitigate any harm to marine mammals.

Read the full story at The Press of Atlantic City

DENNIS NIXON: Cuts in grants, programs would hurt oceans

June 17, 2017 — On May 31, President Donald Trump proclaimed June 2017 “National Oceans Month,” in recognition of “the mighty oceans and their extraordinary resources.”

His declaration calls U.S. fisheries resources “among the most valuable in the world,” and calls for more fully exploring the ocean and developing its economy. He cites the importance of expanding offshore energy resources — traditional as well as renewable — and increasing seafood exports to reduce America’s $13 billion seafood trade deficit.

This announcement is stunning to those of us involved in marine research and education, coming as it does a week after the administration’s budget proposal to slash the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration by 16 percent, or nearly $1 billion. NOAA, as its name implies, is responsible for the research, management, and support for the ocean exploration and economic development that the president calls for, and many of the areas specifically targeted for cuts would reduce U.S. capacity in offshore energy and seafood production.

Speaking from personal experience as the director of Rhode Island Sea Grant — which, as part of the NOAA budget, would be “terminated” along with the $73 million National Sea Grant College Program that encompasses 33 state programs — I can say that one such example is the development of the nation’s first offshore wind farm in the waters off Block Island.

At the behest of the state, and with partners at the Coastal Resources Management Council and with research and outreach efforts at the University of Rhode Island, Roger Williams University and beyond, Rhode Island Sea Grant and the URI Coastal Resources Center helped lead a team that amassed seafloor mapping, scientific and engineering studies and stakeholder input to determine the best location for the turbines.

Without programs like Sea Grant and the coastal council — also targeted for cuts — the nation’s ambitious proposals for offshore wind farms would still be in the blueprint stage, marred by controversies over siting and user conflicts.

In a recent House Appropriations Committee hearing, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross echoed the president’s concern regarding the seafood trade deficit. “The whole fishing scene is very intriguing to me in that I’m obsessed with the problem that we have a $13 billion trade deficit in fish and fish products. … With all the water surrounding us and all the lakes and rivers, it seems weird that we should have a deficit, so that’s one of the areas we’re going to be focusing very much on,” Ross said, according to a report in E&E News.

Read the full story at the Providence Journal

SEAN HORGAN: Interior Secretary visits, talks lobsters, monuments

June 18, 2017 — It certainly was a happening time in Boston this past weekend, what with the Sail Boston 2017 spectacle out in the harbor and beyond, as well as Dead & Company doing two nights at Fenway Park, Father’s Day and the royal visit by new Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Friday.

The visit by Zinke, who was on a four-day New England jaunt that included a tour of the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument in Maine, merely ratcheted up the already incendiary debate over the means used to designate the monuments and the value of the monuments themselves.

The Obama administration earlier removed Cashes Ledge, which sits about 80 miles off of Gloucester, from consideration as a possible site for the new national marine monument, so the local debate now centers on the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument.

The monument, which encompasses roughly 4,900 square miles in an area south of Cape Cod, was designated last year by the Obama administration through the use of the Antiquities Act.

Now the Trump administration is reviewing all of the national monument designations since 1996 that cover more than 100,000 acres with an eye toward potentially reversing some or all.

On Friday, Zinke met with U.S Fish and Wildlife Service officials and officials from the New England Aquarium about marine wildlife around the monument. He then held a listening session with lobstermen and fishermen about the impact of the monument designation on their industry.

Meanwhile, a coalition of environmental groups held a rally at the Statehouse supporting the monument designations and urging the current administration to retain the protected areas.

This has evolved into an absolute zero-sum game and the divisions in this debate seem almost insurmountable. It’s hard to imagine anyone on either side willing to drop their swords in the name of compromise. They’re just too dug in.

Read the full opinion piece at the Gloucester Times

Interior secretary visits Mass. to review marine monument

June 19, 2017 — Editor’s Note: At the request of the Department of the Interior, Saving Seafood’s National Coalition for Fishing Communities helped facilitate a meeting between Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and over 20 representatives of the commercial fishing industry. The meeting also included staff members from the offices of Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Ed Markey (D-MA), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI):

Capping off a four-day New England tour, US Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke visited Boston Friday to meet with local scientists and fishermen in his review of the East Coast’s only — and highly controversial — marine monument.

The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, located approximately 130 miles off the coast of Cape Cod, covers more than 4,000 square miles. It includes three underwater canyons and four seamounts — mountains rising from the ocean floor —housing dozens of deep-sea corals and several species of endangered whales.

Former president Barack Obama proclaimed the area the country’s first marine national monument in the Atlantic Ocean in September 2016. The Antiquities Act, signed into law in 1906 by national parks champion Theodore Roosevelt, grants presidents unilateral authority to establish national monuments on federal land.

But now, under President Trump, the fate of the underwater zone is in doubt.

Trump signed an executive order in April directing Zinke to review all national monuments designated over the past 21 years, calling the practice of using executive authority to designate such monuments an “abusive practice.”

Zinke met with scientists from the New England Aquarium and the Massachusetts marine monument’s superintendent from the US Fish and Wildlife Service in the morning, before heading to a roundtable with local fishermen.

“Right now, I’m in the information collection stage, so everything is on the table,” Zinke said.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

Interior secretary set to visit Boston as enviros launch marine monument campaign

June 16, 2017 — When Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke visits the Boston area on Friday, environmentalists plan to greet him by rallying for the preservation of national monuments that are under review by the Trump administration.

The former Montana congressman has an 11 a.m. press event at a Legal Sea Foods location, according to his office. The Bay State visit could also afford the interior secretary a chance to meet with the state’s top Republican, Gov. Charlie Baker, although nothing has been announced.

The fishing industry opposed President Barack Obama’s 2016 designation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument on a roughly 4,900 square-mile area south of Cape Cod. The Obama administration had earlier removed Cashes Ledge, which sits about 80 miles off of Gloucester, from consideration as a possible site for the new national marine monument.

State Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Matt Beaton told the News Service in May that he hopes there will be modifications to the Seamounts monument, which restricts fishing in the area about 150 miles off the coast of Cape Cod, but did not specify his preferences.

Environmentalists worry the review ordered by President Donald Trump in April could be a precursor to rolling back restrictions on natural lands and waters.

According to a Zinke press aide, the secretary on Friday will meet with a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials and officials from the New England Aquarium about marine wildlife around the monument. The secretary will then attend a roundtable meeting with lobstermen and fishermen about the impact of the monument designation on their industry.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Members of Congress Call on Trump to Allow Fishing in Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Monument

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) — June 14, 2017 — Yesterday, nine Members of Congress wrote to President Trump, urging the Administration to lift restrictions on fishing in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Monument and to return fisheries management to the regional fishery management councils. The monument, designated via Executive order by President Obama last September, has prohibited commercial fishing in more than 4,900 square miles of ocean off the coast of New England.

According to the letter, this misuse of executive power will not only put commercial fishermen out of business, but will also harm many ocean communities that depend on a strong fishing economy. The letter calls for fisheries in the area to once again be managed under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which has long ensured the United States has one of the most sustainable and environmentally friendly fisheries management systems in the world.

The letter was co-signed by members Tom MacArthur (R-RJ), Andy Harris (R-MD), Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ), Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen (R-AS), David Rouzer (R-NC), Lee Zeldin (R-NY), and Walter B. Jones (R-NC).

Read the letter here

Compromise solution floated on red snapper season

June 12, 2017 — A possible extension of the federal red snapper season could be coming soon, according to the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

Acting Commissioner Chris Blankenship has taken part in talks with federal officials to possibly extend the federal season for recreational fishing to Labor Day weekend.

The negotiations have included leaders from across the state and other officials in Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida and Texas, as well as officials from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Each state is working out how a compromise could work for its waters.

For Alabama, the current proposal would create a 27-day season that could begin as soon as June 17 to allow fishing in federal waters every Saturday and Sunday until after Labor Day weekend. The newly proposed season would also include July 3 and 4.

In order to get that deal, state officials would have to give up allowed days of fishing in state waters. Fishermen are allowed in Alabama waters, that extend nine nautical miles from the shore, to fish until July 31.

Under the proposed compromise, the state would give up the ability for fishermen to fish within their waters Monday through Friday.

Baldwin County Commissioner Chris Elliott said he and other elected officials across the county had asked for a similar season extension in letters they sent to President Trump and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, and added he felt this compromise might be a possible solution.

Read the full story at The Islander

Every single N.J. lawmaker in D.C. is against Trump on this one

June 13, 2017 — All 14 New Jersey lawmakers in D.C. have asked President Donald Trump‘s administration to reject seismic testing in the Atlantic Ocean, a step that could lead to allowing oil drilling near the Jersey Shore.

“We are deeply concerned about the prospect of seismic testing being conducted within the Atlantic, and the damage such testing could cause to our coastal communities,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Donna Wieting, an official with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service.

The fisheries service proposed earlier this month to support granting five permits for the testing, which involves airgun blasting and can harm marine life, reversing a decision made under President Barack Obama.

The agency said it would seek comments through July 7 before making a final decision on granting the permits for an area from the Delaware-New Jersey border to Florida’s Space Coast.

The delegation asked for public hearings on the permits in New Jersey and the other affected states, as well as 60 days of comments for each of the five applications.

“Coastal communities should have the opportunity to weigh in on these pending permits,” the lawmakers wrote. “Environmental groups should have an official forum to present their research into the harmful effects of seismic testing.”

One of those environmental groups, the New Jersey Sierra Club, welcomed the delegation’s action, calling it a “clear message” to Trump.

“By allowing seismic testing, Trump is actually opening up our coast to offshore drilling,”  director Jeff Tittel said in a statement.

Under the Obama administration, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in January said there was no need for the testing because the region had been placed off limits to oil and gas drilling through 2022.

In addition, Obama permanently closed off almost 6,000 square miles of ocean territory from Massachusetts to Virginia, including off New Jersey coast, to drilling.

Read the full story at NJ.com

Trump administration cancels proposed limits on marine mammals and sea turtles trapped in fishing nets

June 12, 2017 — The Trump administration announced Monday that it has canceled proposed limits on the number of endangered whales, dolphins and sea turtles that can be killed or injured by sword-fishing nets on the West Coast.

Although the restriction, proposed in 2015, was supported by both the fishing industry and environmental groups, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries division said studies show that the pending rule is not warranted because other protections have dramatically reduced the number of marine mammals and turtles trapped in long, drifting gill nets.

“The fishery has been under pressure for years to reduce its impact, and it has been very successful doing that,” said Michael Milstein, a NOAA fisheries spokesman. “The cap would have imposed a cost on the industry to solve a problem that has already been addressed.”

The decision brought immediate criticism from environmental groups that had joined the Pacific Fishery Management Council in an effort to further protect a variety of marine mammals and turtles.

The list included endangered fin, humpback, and sperm whales; short-finned pilot whales and common bottlenose dolphins; as well as endangered leatherback sea turtles, loggerhead sea turtles, olive ridley sea turtles and green sea turtles.

Read the full story at the Los Angeles Times

New Jersey Congressman Blasts Plan To Use Underwater Air Guns To Look For Oil In The Atlantic

June 9, 2017 — The Trump Administration wants to look for oil and natural gas under the Atlantic Ocean using seismic air guns, a proposal that doesn’t sit well with a South Jersey congressman.

The National Marine Fisheries Service wants permits to use those air guns from Delaware to Central Florida. Republican Congressman Frank LoBiondo is dead set against the proposal.

“This was started by President Obama while he was in office with his Department of Commerce,” LoBiondo told KYW Newsradio. “It was a dangerous and dumb idea then and it continues to be a dangerous and dumb idea now.”

The oil and gas industry is pushing for these surveys, and five companies have applied through the Interior Department to get those permits.

LoBiondo’s reasons for opposing the plan are mostly economic.

“Why would we want to take a risk on endangering our tourist season, endangering our fishing, commercial and recreational? It is beyond me, and there’s no good reason why, if they had to do this, it couldn’t be done in February,” he added.

Read the full story at CBS Philly