Saving Seafood

Senators Markey and Warren, and Reps. Moulton and Keating Urge USDA to Include East Coast Seafood in Purchase Agreements Established with Coronavirus Recovery Funding

May 1, 2020 — The following was released by The Office of Senator Edward Markey (D-MA):

Today, Senators Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Congressmen William Keating (MA-09) and Seth Moulton (MA-06) urged the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to include East Coast seafood in purchasing agreements funded by the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) and the Section 32 program. On April 17, 2020, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced that the USDA would be making $19 billion of purchases through the CFAP, $873.3 million in agricultural purchases for food banks through the Section 32 program, and $1.5 billion for food bank administrative costs and purchases. USDA announced that the CFAP would support farmers and ranchers, and maintain the integrity of the food supply chain, but did not clarify whether seafood would be included in these purchases. USDA has included seafood in past procurement programs, and the lawmakers urge it to do so again in its response to the coronavirus crisis. In their letter, the Massachusetts lawmakers ask if there are additional USDA programs that will buy seafood products to provide assistance to producers impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, and whether the USDA is currently in conversations with seafood producers from the East Coast to purchase seafood. East Coast seafood producers have been devastated by the ongoing effects of the pandemic.

“When USDA begins its purchasing programs intended to assist those whom the pandemic has affected, USDA should include domestic seafood,” write the lawmakers in their letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. “East Coast seafood producers can offer a wide variety of seafood that currently does not have a market, and which should be included in purchases made for this program.”
 
A copy of the letter can be found HERE. 
 
On April 3, the lawmakers wrote a letter urging the inclusion of domestic and East Coast seafood companies in the deployment of the $9.5 billion awarded by the Coronavirus Assistance, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act for affected agricultural producers.

Elizabeth Warren demands government sort out $300 million aid package for fisheries

April 30, 2020 — US Senators Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey on Wednesday joined a growing chorus of voices calling “for the immediate release of federal guidance” for how fishery participants can access $300 million (€276.6 million) in emergency funds promised through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES).

In their letter to US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, the Massachusetts lawmakers, both Democrats, stated “bureaucratic inefficiencies” are behind the failure to distribute the funds.

“The Commerce Department needs to issue guidance as soon as possible so that fisheries aid can reach those who desperately need it,” the letter reads.

Read the full story at IntraFish

Massachusetts lawmakers call on government to help New England fisheries during COVID-19 crisis

April 6, 2020 — Members of Massachusetts’ congressional delegation are calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to give New England fisheries a needed boost as they battle through the COVID-19 outbreak.

U.S. senators Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren, along with U.S. representatives William Keating and Seth Moulton, on 2 April sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue asking him to use part of the USD 9.5 billion (EUR 8.8 billion) earmarked for agricultural producers – from the USD 2.2 trillion (EUR 2.0 trillion) CARES Act Congress passed in late March – to help seafood processors and other companies.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Massachusetts senator talks $300m seafood relief in COVID-19 call with industry

April 1, 2020 — US senator Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat and one of the handful of lawmakers responsible for getting $300 million worth of assistance for the seafood industry in the recently passed $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill, talked to dozens of fishing industry leaders, state legislators and mayors on Saturday about the state of the crisis, the Cape Cod (Massachusetts) Times reports.

He warned them that it was going to get worse.

“These numbers are mounting, the number of cases, and it could go on potentially for a sustained period of time,” Markey said. He described the relief package as a life raft and said Congress was “fully prepared to come back as many times as it takes to make sure we keep all industries afloat in this health care crisis.”

The fishing industry responded that the $300m won’t be enough.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Markey: Aid for fishermen only the beginning

March 30, 2020 — Sen. Edward Markey warned members of the fishing community Saturday that the country was just at the beginning of the coronavirus health crisis.

“These numbers are mounting, the number of cases, and it could go on potentially for a sustained period of time,” Markey said to dozens of fishing industry leaders, state legislators and mayors on a weekend conference call.

“Three hundred million is a great start, but it’s hard to imagine it will go very far,” said Jeffrey Reichle, president of Lund’s Fisheries of Cape May, New Jersey, of the $300 million economic aid package to the fisheries, contained in the $2.2 trillion coronavirus economic stimulus bill signed Friday by President Donald Trump.

Markey said the relief package was a life raft to get them through the immediate crisis period. Congress, he said, was “fully prepared to come back as many times as it takes to make sure we keep all industries afloat in this health care crisis.”

Markey was critical of the Trump administration’s handling of the crisis and how it was affecting businesses such as the $1 billion New England fishing industry. The shortage of virus test kits, and the delay invoking wartime powers to push industries to convert to producing needed supplies such as masks and ventilators, meant they were on uncertain ground in telling them how long it might take to get back to work.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Northeast Fishermen Struggle As The Coronavirus Outbreak Halts Demand

March 26, 2020 — The coronavirus outbreak and the uncertainty surrounding it have left Northeast fishermen feeling the pressure. Across the country measures are being taken to “flatten the curve” or slow the spread of the virus. These measures include the closure of restaurants, bars and event venues. Without these markets available, fishermen have fewer opportunities to sell their fish and product is starting to pile up.

Nick Muto, a fisherman out of Saquatucket in Harwich, MA, who catches monkfish and skate is amongst the many who have had to reduce their fishing effort. “We’re feeling the pressure across the board not only the domestic – retail markets from fish markets to restaurants – but also we’re feeling it on a global scale,” Muto said. He added that a significant portion of his catch gets shipped to Europe and Asia, countries that have a more diverse seafood diet. However there is currently very little demand across the board.

Muto still has buyers to sell his fish to, but not all fishermen are in the same boat. In a letter to Senate leadership requesting aid for fishermen, Massachusetts Senators Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey, along with Alaska Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan wrote about a widespread decrease in fishing. “Some fisheries are completely shut down because there is no market for their fish,” the Senators write. “Seafood processors are struggling because closed restaurants are no longer buying fresh products. While boats sit idle in port, unable to fish, fishing captains cannot make vessel loan payments or pay crewmembers.”

Read the full story at Forbes

Senators: Without aid, fisheries may sink at dock

March 25, 2020 — Massachusetts Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey are urging the U.S. Senate leadership to include the commercial fishing and seafood industries in any economic relief packages passed by Congress or face potential bankruptcy at the docks.

Warren and Markey, working with Alaska Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, wrote in a letter to the Senate leadership that the spreading novel coronavirus has robbed fishermen of their most dependable markets and left all quadrants of the seafood industry struggling to keep businesses afloat.

“Some fisheries are completely shut down because there is no market for their fish,” the senators said in their letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. “Seafood processors are struggling because closed restaurants are no longer buying fresh products.”

“Large export markets in virus-affected countries like China have also been disrupted. Additionally, many fishermen are not eligible for unemployment benefits because they are self-employed,” the senators said.

The letter traces the dire economic chain reaction the spreading virus has foisted on the fishing and seafood industries, from harvesters and processors to retailers and wholesalers.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

US seafood industry hopes for help from USD 2 trillion stimulus package

March 25, 2020 — The United States Congress is nearing finalization of a third COVID-19 stimulus bill totaling up to USD 2 trillion (EUR 1.85 trillion) in across-the-board relief.

The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on the package on the afternoon of Wednesday, 25 March, and the House of Representatives – currently in recess – is expected to reconvene for its own vote “as soon as possible,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) told CNN. President Donald Trump has also expressed his support for the bill on Twitter.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Fishermen look to DC delegation for aid

November 25, 2019 — Former fisherman Sam Parisi appeared before the city Fisheries Commission on Thursday night to tout his campaign for national legislation to help fishermen as the federal Farm Bill helps farmers.

“We need someone to draft a fish bill like the farm bill,” Parisi told the commission members at City Hall. “The only way we can survive is with federal legislation and assistance. Farmers get paid not to grow certain crops. Why can’t we get paid not to fish certain stocks?”

Parisi requested the commission write a letter to the city’s congressional delegation in support of drafting of a bill specifically to help fishermen and fishing communities. But commission members, while appreciative of Parisi’s sentiments, also expressed concerns that a campaign to write, pass and enact federal legislation is fraught with its own perils.

“The danger is saying we’ll back a bill that doesn’t exist,” said Chairman Mark Ring. “You don’t want to back something 100% without seeing it.”

While Parisi’s concept was short on specifics beyond federal reimbursement when catch quotas are cut, his proposal led to an active discussion on the next steps for a fishery that continues to find itself under the siege of still-dormant cod quota in the Gulf of Maine, questionable stock assessments and expanding regulation — and cost — of all manner of monitoring.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

US Senators call on Canada to increase right whale protection, Maine lobstermen reject DMR plan

November 20, 2019 — The Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA) has voted not to support a Maine Department of Marine Resources whale plan intended to reduce risk to the endangered North Atlantic right whale species.

The vote not to support the plan came just before two Democratic senators from Massachusetts – Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren – sent a letter to NOAA Fisheries asking the organization to examine whether Canada’s Atlantic Fisheries marine mammal conservation standards are “doing enough to protect” the right whale. If not, the letter calls on NOAA to use its authority under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) to prohibit imports and fishery products from Canadian fisheries impacting the whales.

Read the full story at Seafood Source