Saving Seafood

Massachusetts: Rep. Keating optimistic after meeting with NOAA on groundfishing ban

February 9, 2018 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — William Keating left a meeting with NOAA’s new regional administrator feeling optimistic regarding the agency’s stance on Sector IX.

The U.S. House member representing New Bedford met Tuesday night with Michael Pentony, who replaced John Bullard at NOAA and began his new role two weeks ago. Keating wanted to discuss the groundfishing ban that’s holding about 80 New Bedford fishermen off the water.

“What can I do to get people back fishing as quickly as possible?” Keating said. “That is creating my strong feelings of urgency around resolving the operations plan. That has to be done to go forward. NOAA is very clear about that.”

Neither NOAA nor Pentony would comment on the groundfishing ban placed on Sector IX.

However, Pentony also left the introduction with Keating with a feeling of optimism.

″(It was) very positive,” Pentony said. “I’m looking forward to continuing to work with the Congressman and his staff.”

Keating said his office remains in contact with NOAA on a weekly basis. The dialogue first began last spring.

The urgency, from Keating’s perspective results from the belief that the groundfishing ban established last November affects more than New Bedford.

As the most valuable fishing port in the country 17 years running, any splash in New Bedford ripples throughout Massachusetts, Keating said.

“It’s not only for our city, not only for our region, but for Massachusetts as a whole,” Keating said. “Having this cohesive industry situated the way that it is and the growth that can come from that … that is important in terms of the economic side that should be factored in.”

Because of its widespread effect on the state, Keating said he’s working with U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey on urging an immediate solution.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

 

Gloucester Times: United against offshore drilling

January 12, 2018 — If President Trump truly wants to open the nation’s coastline to drilling for oil and gas, he’ll have a battle on his hands. And in a rare moment of political unity, he’ll have to fight both Democrats and Republicans.

The administration’s plan, announced last week by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, would open 90 percent of the nation’s coastal waters to development by private companies.

Such a free-for-all could prove disastrous for the marine environment and the industries that rely on it, such as tourism and fishing. Those economies on the Gulf Coast are still struggling to recover after the Deepwater Horizon spill of 2010, the largest in American history.

Locally, the president’s proposal has once again made a target of Gloucester’s fishing industry.

America’s oldest fishing port has spent the better part of four decades fighting off attempts to turn Georges Bank into a de facto oil field, and for good reason: It’s a spectacularly bad idea.

Located about 100 miles off the coast of Cape Ann, Georges Bank, home to species ranging from cod and haddock to lobster and scallops, has long been one of the world’s richest fishing grounds. Generations of Gloucestermen have worked the waters, a tradition that continues even today in the face of heavy regulation. Georges is as much a part of Gloucester as Main Street.

Read the full editorial at the Gloucester Times

 

Massachusetts congressional delegation urges Gov. Charlie Baker to reject Trump administration’s offshore drilling plan

January 11, 2018 — Massachusetts congressional lawmakers called on Gov. Charlie Baker Wednesday to formally oppose the Trump administration’s plan to expand oil and gas drilling off the East Coast.

All 11 members of the state’s delegation penned a letter to Baker urging him to join other states’ governors in officially rejecting the Interior Department’s newly unveiled five-year drilling plan, which seeks to open federal waters off the California coast and areas from Florida to Maine for oil and gas exploration purposes.

The lawmakers, who have been critical of efforts to expand offshore drilling, contended that opening areas off the East Coast for such purposes “would pose a serious threat to our oceans and the economic viability of the Commonwealth’s coastal communities, tourism and shore-side businesses that rely on healthy marine resources.”

Pointing to maritime industries’ impact on Massachusetts’ economy, the delegation noted that the commercial fishing supported 83,000 jobs in the state and generated $1.9 billion income, as well as $7.3 billion in sales in 2015.

Marine-related tourism, meanwhile, generates tens of billion of dollars in economic value each yeah and supports more than 100,000 jobs in Massachusetts, they wrote.

“The economic effects of our ocean community are extensive, providing a source of income and jobs for commercial and recreational fishermen, vessel manufacturers, restaurants and other businesses throughout Massachusetts, all of which would be threatened by allowing offshore drilling and the risk of an oil spill off our coast,” the letter stated.

Read the full story at MassLive

 

Ed Markey: Plan will spur ‘huge fight’ over offshore energy drilling

January 9, 2018 — BOSTON — The state’s environment, tourism and fishing industry could be threatened by President Donald Trump’s plan to open up more coastal areas to offshore drilling, according to U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, who said the proposal puts “nearly every single mile of coastline in the United States in the crosshairs of an oil spill.”

“Nothing is sacred,” Markey told reporters from the Kennedy Federal Building. “All of the United States is going to be open for the oil industry to be able to drill. That is something that the American people will want to have resolved on the floor of the House and Senate, and that is something that I am going to guarantee him that he will see. This is going to be a huge fight across our country.”

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Thursday announced a proposal that would make more than 90 percent of the national outer continental shelf available for oil and gas exploration. Currently, 94 percent of federal offshore acreage is off-limits, according to the American Petroleum Institute.

The 380-page draft plan includes a note that Gov. Charlie Baker does not “support inclusion of areas adjacent to Massachusetts,” and Attorney General Maura Healey “strongly opposes opening up any of the Atlantic or any other new areas to oil and gas leasing.”

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management estimates there are 89.9 billion barrels of oil and 327.5 trillion cubic feet of gas that have yet to be discovered on the outer continental shelf, including 4.6 billion barrels of oil and 38.2 cubic feet in the Atlantic portion of the shelf.

According to the American Petroleum Institute, Atlantic oil and natural gas development could deliver $51 billion in new government revenue, nearly 280,000 jobs and 1.3 billion barrels of oil equivalent per day for domestic energy production by 2035.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

 

Massachusetts: Mitchell pleads fishermen’s case to NOAA head

December 8, 2017 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — In a meeting with one of NOAA’s top administrators in Washington D.C, Mayor Jon Mitchell made his case for easing recent sanctions that he said are harming fishermen and city businesses.

“It’s all sort of related,” Mitchell said. “The idea is that these matters should be wrapped up. I pledged to continue to bring the parties together in however I can, as I have been doing for some time now.”

New Bedford’s mayor met with Assistant Administrator of NOAA Chris Oliver on Tuesday as part of a two-day trip to the nation’s capital.

The fishermen out of work due to NOAA’s groundfish ban for Rafael’s vessels sat atop his agenda. When NOAA made its announcement on Nov. 20, Mitchell strongly condemned the decision saying it will affect innocent third parties.

It was a similar argument Mitchell conveyed in a letter to Oliver’s predecessor in June suggesting the best tool to use against Rafael was a global settlement.

Mitchell advocated for a global settlement because he’s said it would remove Rafael from the industry and prevent him from profiting from a prison cell. It would also keep the vessels in New Bedford.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times

 

Massachusetts: Mitchell ‘Will do Everything we Can’ for Fishermen’s Families

December 7, 2017 — With the search called off for the two missing fishermen from the sunken Misty Blue, New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell says the city and its residents will do all it can to offer solace to the families.

“We will do everything we can to support the families through this,” Mitchell said. “It’s going to be hard, but there are other families who have experienced it who can certainly offer a shoulder to them.”

Mitchell made the comments during his weekly appearance on WBSM, although he was calling in from Washington, DC. The mayor was in the nation’s capital to speak with officials about issues that directly affect the fishing industry in New Bedford.

The U.S. Coast Guard called off the search for 44-year-old Michael Roberts of Fairhaven and 32-year-old Jonathan Saraiva of New Bedford Tuesday evening, after rescue efforts had failed to locate them following the Misty Blue’s sinking Monday evening.

“It’s unfortunate we need these kind of reminders of just how dangerous commercial fishing is,” Mitchell said. “It’s the most dangerous profession out there, and there are way too many families in greater New Bedford who have experienced what these families are experiencing today, and it’s an awful thing.”

The Fishermen’s Tribute Monument at Pier 3 has acted as a de facto gathering place in the past for families affected by fishing tragedies, something Mayor Mitchell knows personally.

Read the full story at WBSM

Massachusetts: Mitchell a keynote speaker in Washington DC

December 5, 2017 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Jon Mitchell will be in the nation’s capital for the next two days.

The Mayor will spend his Tuesday with NOAA’s Assistant Administrator Chris Oliver and Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey in Washington DC.

The meeting with Oliver comes three days after Sector IX, one of 19 fishing divisions in the Northeast sent a letter to NOAA. The governing agency banned Sector IX, primarily made up of Carlos Rafael vessels, from groundfishing because of the fishing moguls illegal activity.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times

 

Booker Announces Landmark Environmental Justice Bill

October 24, 2017 — NEWAWK, N.J. — The following was released by the office of Senator Cory Booker:

Today, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) was joined by local community leaders and advocates from across New Jersey and the nation in announcing a landmark bill that represents a major step toward eliminating environmental injustice. The Environmental Justice Act of 2017 requires federal agencies to address environmental justice through agency actions and permitting decisions, and strengthens legal protections against environmental injustice for communities of color, low-income communities, and indigenous communities.

“Many communities across the country are facing environmental and public health threats that for too long have gone unaddressed, seemingly only noticeable to those who deal with the effects on a daily basis. These communities are often communities of color or indigenous communities, and they tend to be low-income,” said Sen. Booker.

“This is unacceptable and our bill is an important step in changing this reality. This legislation codifies and expands requirements that federal agencies mitigate impacts on vulnerable and underserved communities when making environmental decisions, and provides those communities with legal tools to protect their rights. We cannot have social justice or economic justice without environmental justice,” Sen. Booker concluded.

The bill is the culmination of a months-long process of working with dozens of grassroots organizations across the country to craft a comprehensive bill that strengthens environmental justice protections for vulnerable communities.

The bill was informed by Booker’s experience dealing with environmental injustice as Newark’s mayor and recent trips he’s made to North Carolina , Louisiana, and Alabama, where he met with communities struggling with environmental injustices, such as open-air hog waste lagoons adjacent to people’s backyards, industrial garbage dumps that pervade neighborhoods, and exceedingly high concentrations of oil and gas refineries that residents suspect are leading to a wide array of chronic illnesses.

Video to Sen. Booker’s remarks can be found here

“In the forty years since the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act became law, the country has made great strides to protect our shared resources, but minority, low-income, and indigenous communities have continued to suffer disproportionate harm.  I am proud to support the Environmental Justice Act of 2017, which will reduce racial and economic disparities in environmental policies,” said Rep. Payne.

“We must adopt substantive policies that will provide protections for communities Of Color and low-income communities from harmful pollution. This bill would help those communities and we hope everybody gives it the serious consideration it deserves,” said Dr. Nicky Sheats, Esq., New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance.

“As a Newark School Board member and a mother of 3 kids with asthma, it’s clear environmental justice is a civil right. In my city and so many other EJ communities, there’s too much lead in our drinking water, raw sewage in our waterways and diesel emissions sending kids to the ER. Those are the kind of cumulative impacts Senator Booker’s legislation takes on,” said Kim Gaddy, Clean Water Action’s Environmental Justice Organizing Director.

“For too long low income and communities of color in this country have suffered under the weight of cumulative, chronic and disproportionate pollution. This bill is a reminder of how critical it is to protect and restore these communities,” said Ana Baptista, Board Member, Ironbound Community Corporation.

The bill will be cosponsored in the Senate by U.S. Senators Tom Carper (D-DE), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Brian Schatz (D-HA), Tom Udall (D-NM), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Ed Markey. U.S. Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-CA) will introduce a companion bill in the House.

The Environmental Justice Act of 2017 is endorsed by more than 40 public health and environmental justice organizations.

A full list of endorsing organizations can be found here.

Specifically, the bill does the following:

Codifies and expands the 1994 Executive Order on Environmental Justice. Executive Order 12898 focused federal attention on environmental and human health impacts of federal actions on minority and low-income communities. The Environmental Justice Act of 2017 would codify this order into law, protecting it from being revoked by future Presidents. It would also expand the EO by improving the public’s access to information from federal agencies charged with implementing the bill and creating more opportunities for the public to participate in the agencies’ decision-making process.

 

Codifies the existing National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC) and environmental justice grant programs. The bill ensures that NEJAC will continue to convene and provide critical input on environmental justice issues to federal agencies, and that several important environmental justice grant programs, including Environmental Justice Small Grants and CARE grants, will continue to be implemented under federal law. Since these grant programs and NEJAC have never been Congressionally authorized, they are susceptible to being discontinued by future Administrations.

Establishes requirements for federal agencies to address environmental justice. The bill requires agencies to implement and update annually a strategy to address negative environmental and health impacts on communities of color, indigenous communities, and low income communities. In addition, the bill codifies CEQ (Council on Environmental Quality) guidance to assist federal agencies with their NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) procedures so that environmental justice concerns are effectively identified and addressed. The bill also codifies existing EPA guidance to enhance EPA’s consultations with Native American tribes in situations where tribal treaty rights may be affected by a proposed EPA action.

Requires consideration of cumulative impacts and persistent violations in federal or state permitting decisions under the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act. Currently, Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act permitting decisions do not take into account an area’s cumulative pollutant levels when a permit for an individual facility is being issued or renewed. This can result in an exceedingly high concentration of polluting facilities in certain areas, such as the area between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana infamously known as Cancer Alley, where Senator Booker visited this summer. The bill also requires permitting authorities to consider a facility’s history of violations when deciding to issue or renew a permit.

Clarifies that communities impacted by events like the Flint water crisis may bring statutory claims for damages and common law claims in addition to requesting injunctive relief. Under current legal precedent, environmental justice communities are often prevented from bringing claims for damages. The bill would ensure that impacted communities can assert these claims.

Reinstates a private right of action for discriminatory practices under the Civil Rights Act. The bill overrules the Supreme Court decision in Alexander v. Sandoval and restores the right for individual citizens to bring actions under the Civil Rights Act against entities engaging in discriminatory practices that have a disparate impact. Currently citizens must rely upon federal agencies to bring such actions on their behalf.

Since his time as a tenant lawyer, City Council member, and mayor of Newark, Booker has seen first-hand how low-income communities and communities of color are disproportionately affected by poor air quality, tainted drinking water, and toxic Superfund sites. For example, Newark has one of the highest rates of child asthma in the state, and half of all New Jerseyans live within three miles of a Superfund site. As Mayor, Booker championed the cleanup of the polluted Passaic River, a  federal Superfund site, and spearheaded the creation of community gardens that required planting in raised beds since the soil was too toxic to grow food for human consumption.

The following advocates also voiced their support of the Environmental Justice Act of 2017:

Cecilia Martinez, Executive Director. Center for Earth, Energy and Democracy, Minneapolis, Minnesota

“Some communities continue to bear the harmful consequences of industrial pollution.  This bill will help to ensure that all communities, especially environmental justice communities will be healthy, safe and free from environmental harm.”

Vernon Haltom, executive director, Coal River Mountain Watch, Naoma, W.Va.

“From mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia to oil refining in Texas to uranium mining in the Southwest, polluting industries devastate the health of the communities least able to take a stand. This bill will support human rights for people traditionally ignored or oppressed by polluters.”

Michele Roberts, National Co-Coordinator, Environmental Justice Health Alliance

“This bill is much needed at this critical time when both public health and the environment are under attack. It will provide protection for communities that have been permitted to suffer the disproportionate burdens of toxic pollution.”

Robert Spiegel, Executive Director of the Edison Wetlands Association, Edison, NJ

“This bill by Senator Booker is a great start in addressing decades of environmental injustices. Environmental justice, clean water, clean air, and safe places to raise our families are not Republican or Democrat issues, they are human rights issues.”

Avery Grant, Executive Director, Concerned Citizens of Long Branch, Long Branch, New Jersey

“The Concerned Citizens Coalition of Long Branch endorses The Environmental Justice Act of 2017 as we have suffered the devastating effects of a 17-acre contaminated site in our community. It is paramount that we prevent future occurrences of contamination.”

Concerns aired about marine monument

June 21, 2017 — Editor’s Note:

Fishing groups have widely criticized the Obama Administration’s marine monument designation process as opaque, and argued that administration officials did not adequately address concerns raised. Conversely, in this Cape Cod Times article, Priscilla Brooks, Vice President and Director of Ocean Conservation at the Conservation Law Foundation, claimed that the Obama administration adequately took fishermen’s concerns into account before designating the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument.

Ms. Brooks said this was evidenced by the administration’s decision to reduce the size of the monument by 60 percent from the original proposal.

However, there was never an official Atlantic marine monument proposal from the Obama administration. Fishermen, elected officials, regulators, and concerned shoreside businesses were not apprised of the specifics of the Obama Administration’s monument plan until the final shape of it was shared just days and hours before it was announced.

The environmental community, including the Conservation Law Foundation, provided a proposal to the Administration, which officials referred to at times in meetings, but always with the caveat that the environmentalist proposal was not an official Administration proposal. At no time before the announcement was imminent did the commercial fishing community have any idea of what action the Administration might take.

It is possible that Ms. Brooks was stating that the monument eventually proposed by the Obama Administration was reduced by 60 percent from the plan that CLF and other environmental groups proposed. Commercial fishermen were apprehensive about the relationship between the Administration and the environmental community with due cause, since in 2015 environmental activists attempted to push a monument designation through the Administration in secret before the Our Ocean conference in Chile.

Ms. Brooks also claimed that “there was a robust public process.”

In the lead-up to the 2016 monument designation, there was one public meeting in Rhode Island where fishermen were allowed just 2 minutes to talk.

There were a number of subsequent meetings in fishing ports, and in the White House complex. But those who attended those meeting largely felt their views were being ignored. In fact, many of them participated in the recent meeting with new Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke.

In July 2016, Eric Reid, General Manager at Seafreeze, who participated in both regional and White House meetings wrote, “No one in the Obama administration’s Council on Environmental Quality has put forward an actual, concrete proposal of what an Atlantic monument might look like.” He added, “The uncertain and opaque nature of the process that has so far surrounded the potential marine monument has left fishermen with no idea as to what areas and which fisheries will be affected, nor which activities will be prohibited.”

BOSTON — Fishing groups from around New England met with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Friday to air complaints about former President Barack Obama’s designation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument last year.

The monument, the first marine national monument in U.S. Atlantic waters, protects about 4,000 square miles of ocean 150 miles southeast of Cape Cod.

Fishermen say the protected area in which fishing is prohibited hurts their business and places an undue burden on an already heavily regulated industry. But scientists say the area, which is home to hundreds of species of marine life and fragile coral, is an important natural resource that must be protected.

In his proclamation creating the marine monument, Obama prohibited fossil fuel or mineral exploration, all commercial fishing, and other activities that could disturb the sea floor. Scientific research is allowed with a permit. Commercial red crab and lobster fishermen have to phase out their operations within the monument area over the next seven years.

During their meeting with Zinke at Legal Sea Foods on Boston Harbor, fishermen and industry representatives asked the secretary to consider dissolving the monument or changing the regulations within its boundaries and complained about the way it was originally designated.

“As an American, this brought me to tears at my desk,” said Beth Casoni, executive director of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association. “No one should have the power to sign people out of work.”

Some commercial fishermen said they felt the former administration did not take their concerns into account before designating the monument.

“Even though we were allowed minimal — and that’s an understatement — input, we received mostly lip service,” said Eric Reid, general manager of Seafreeze Shoreside in Narragansett, Rhode Island. “Small businesses like me that need stability to grow their business and invest in America are at risk. We can make America and commercial fishing great again.”

But Priscilla Brooks, vice president and director of ocean conservation at the Conservation Law Foundation, said the former administration did take fishermen’s concerns into account. Obama reduced the size of the original proposed monument by 60 percent and allowed lobster and crab fishermen a seven-year grace period to continue fishing there.

“There was a robust public process,” she said.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod 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