May 17, 2016 — WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) — Today, Meghan Lapp, the Fisheries Liaison for Seafreeze Ltd, criticized what she described as an opaque and “top down” ocean management process at a hearing of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Power, and Oceans, titled “The Implications of President Obama’s National Ocean Policy”.

In her testimony, Ms. Lapp – whose company, Seafreeze, is the largest producer and trader of sea-frozen fish on the East Coast – described the difficulties she faced dealing with ocean planning agencies, specifically the Northeast Regional Planning Body (RPB). Her testimony detailed how the RPB appeared committed to establishing new environmental protections at all costs, without sufficient regard to their potential impact on fishing communities. 

“It was very apparent from the discussion that the push was to get the RPB Plan done at all costs by 2016,” she said.

Ms. Lapp also highlighted how new regulatory processes have frequently excluded stakeholder engagement – with a prominent example being the potential designation of deep sea canyons as marine national monuments.

“No one at NOAA could tell me how long the comment period would remain open. Neither could anyone at the agency inform me how or why this discussion was initiated, if there was any specific process being followed, who would be reviewing our comments, who would be presenting them, and to whom.”

Ms. Lapp summed up the opaque nature of the process as such: “It was like a black hole; we had no idea what was going on.”

Read Ms. Lapp’s full testimony here