Saving Seafood

Shutdown hooks fisheries

January 10, 2018 — The real-world implications from the partial shutdown of the federal government, which entered its 19th day on Wednesday, are starting to be felt by the fishing industry and other stakeholders.

In Gloucester, the shutdown effectively has shuttered the Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office on Great Republic Drive, impeding fishermen from dropping off documentation in person, contacting NOAA Fisheries personnel by telephone or email, and leaving other regulatory groups scrambling without essential input and participation from many NOAA Fisheries staffers.

So, while the New England Fishery Management Council remains at work, it is being hampered by lack of access to its federal management partners at GARFO and the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole.

“Since many GARFO and NEFSC scientists and fishery management specialists are key contributors to the council’s plan development teams and provide critical input and analyses during committee meetings, the council is rescheduling or modifying the agendas of several meetings where NOAA Fisheries representatives were expected to provide pivotal presentations, reports and/or analyses,” the council said in a release detailing the impact of the shutdown.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Prolonged government shutdown could spell trouble for coral reef in Gulf of Mexico

January 8, 2019 — As the days of the federal government shutdown increase, so, too, do the chances of an emergency happening on the coral reef system 100 miles off the coast of Galveston.

And if an oil spill or a major mortality event occur during the shutdown, those who work in the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary office will be powerless to mitigate it.

“If some sort of emergency occurs … the staff will have limited capacity to respond and basically the response would occur by the Coast Guard,” said Adrienne Correa, a Rice University researcher who serves on the sanctuary’s advisory council. “But the staff have a different type of knowledge of the reef … the Coast Guard lacks the tools and place-based knowledge.”

The sanctuary is a network of federally protected coral reef systems in the Gulf of Mexico. And at a time when a quarter of coral reefs worldwide are considered damaged beyond repair, it’s home to some of the healthiest reefs in the region.

Scientists say it’s because of its location: 70 to 115 miles off shore and 55 to 160 feet deep.

But the sanctuary has had problems in the past: 2016 brought the worst bleaching year for the sanctuary in more than a decade when 2 percent of the reef, inexplicably, died.

Read the full story at the Houston Chronicle

By Land And Sea, The Shutdown Takes Its Toll On Hawaii

January 8, 2019 — On New Year’s Eve, a deadly fire broke out aboard the cargo ship Sincerity Ace in remote waters about halfway between Japan and Hawaii, killing at least four of the vessel’s crew members.

The Hawaii-based U.S. Coast Guard personnel who helped rescue the survivors by dropping life rafts, rations and other supplies from two HC-130 Hercules planes did so having no idea when they’d receive their next paycheck.

They still don’t know.

“If there’s a threat to the safety of life and the environment, we’ll be there,” Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Sara Muir said Friday. “But the government shutdown does cause limitations to the service, and the longer it goes on the more impacts we’ll begin to see.”

As that partial government shutdown stretches into its third week, an analysis by the website Wallet Hub found Hawaii — and its large per-capita share of federal employees — among the states most heavily hit.

Read the full story at the Honolulu Civil Beat

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

Coast Guard crews in Maine to be paid Monday after all, despite shutdown

December 31, 2018 –After a last-minute intervention by Sen. Susan Collins, employees of the Coast Guard, including hundreds in Maine, will receive their pre-shutdown pay Monday on schedule.

Previously, the employees had been told they would not be getting their second paycheck of the month because of the partial shutdown of the federal government.

A spokesman for Collins said she contacted the White House on Friday afternoon to urge an immediate fix to the payment issue, and a few hours later was told that Coast Guard members would now receive pay for their pre-shutdown work.

“Good news for the Coast Guard!” Collins, a Republican, tweeted at 8:26 p.m. Friday. “White House staff called to tell me CG members will receive their paychecks as did other federal employees. I continue to work to end the shutdown, but this will provide immediate relief to CG members & their families.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

US government shutdown ends with minimal damage to seafood industry

January 24, 2018 — The shutdown of the U.S. federal government lasted less than three days. However, the deal reached on Monday, 22 January to end it may have set up the stage for another one in less than a month.

Democrats and Republicans reached an agreement on a short-term budget resolution that included long-term funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program and a promise to bring an immigration bill up for a vote by 8 February. If that vote on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals bill doesn’t take place, or if it isn’t passed, the U.S. government might soon be in the same scenario it was on Monday.

Neither children’s health insurance nor DACA have a direct impact on the country’s seafood trade. However, if the federal government shuts down again, it could have far reaching implications for the agencies responsible for overseeing the industry.

On Monday morning, just hours before Congress passed the bill that reopened the government, the Commerce Department issued a statement indicating which of its operations would remain open even during the shutdown. That list included the National Marine Fisheries Service Seafood Inspection Program, fisheries quota management, and law enforcement activities.

Read the full story from Seafood Source