Saving Seafood

ALABAMA: Proposed Alabama bill would require restaurants, stores to display seafood origin

February 6, 2024 — A lawmaker in the U.S. state of Alabama has introduced a bill that would require grocery stores and restaurants to show where seafood sold in their stores came from.

“The seafood industry is essential to the economy throughout Alabama’s Gulf Coast region, and with foreign-caught products flooding the U.S. market, we must take every step to both support it and protect it,” State Representative Chip Brown (R-Hollingers Island) said, according to the Alabama Daily News. “By requiring disclosure of the country of origin for seafood, we can encourage the use of products caught in Alabama while ensuring that consumers are better informed about the food they consume.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Biden-Harris Administration announces $20 million to boost red snapper science in the Southeast as part of Investing in America agenda

October 26, 2023 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Today, the Department of Commerce and NOAA announced plans for $20 million in funding to address the impacts of climate change on red snapper and other reef fish in the Gulf of Mexico, as part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda. These funds will support the efforts of NOAA and the Gulf of Mexico states to determine the best tools to collect reliable recreational fishing data that support science and management decision-making for red snapper. 

The funding is from the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest climate investment in history. It will strengthen NOAA’s efforts to share and exchange standardized state and federal data, harness the power of advanced technology and artificial intelligence to improve timeliness of data collection, and enhance state recreational data management systems for estimating landings, discards and fishing effort. 

“Red snapper is one of the Gulf of Mexico’s most iconic species and perhaps one of the region’s greatest management success stories,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “These funds, made possible by President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, a key pillar of Bidenomics, will improve NOAA’s data collection efforts and management decisions for red snapper and dozens of other species, thereby benefiting millions of anglers.” 

Distribution of these funds is underway, with NOAA Fisheries awarding the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission nearly $1.5 million through a cooperative agreement to modernize state recreational data management systems. The commission — in coordination with NOAA Fisheries — will work with state and federal partners to ensure common data standards, create and enhance certified state data systems and host workshops to improve data accuracy.

NOAA Fisheries intends to use the funding in the following three areas:

  • Develop and implement Gulf of Mexico video and acoustic camera surveys to improve reef fish data timeliness and generation of density estimates ($2 million).
  • Collaborate with Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission and state partners to increase accessibility of state survey data ($7.35 million).
  • Improve the estimates of recreational fishing effort and discards, which represent two of the greatest sources of uncertainty in managing and assessing Gulf of Mexico reef fish ($10.65 million).

“We know climate change is impacting many fish species, and these effects are not fully understood,” said Janet Coit, assistant administrator for NOAA Fisheries. “With our partners at the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission, we are working to improve state and federal recreational data collection so we can provide even more robust data and metrics to our fishing communities.”

Climate change has a specific impact on life in the ocean, as droughts, floods, rising seas, ocean acidification and warming waters change marine habitats and the behavior patterns of the wildlife in those habitats. 

This funding was first announced in June 2023 as part of the historic $3.3 billion in investments focused on ensuring America’s communities and economies are ready for and resilient to climate change.

Please visit NOAA’s Inflation Reduction Act website to learn about current and future funding opportunities.

LOUISIANA: Edwards requests emergency declaration to help Louisiana shrimping industry

September 17, 2023 — Gov. John Bel Edwards has requested an emergency declaration for disaster relief for Louisiana shrimpers amid a flood of foreign shrimp that has driven dockside prices to below $1 per pound.

Edwards made the request in late August at the behest of the Louisiana Shrimp Association, which penned a letter to the governor in August seeking the declaration, the first step in securing disaster relief funding for shrimpers from the federal government.

“Louisiana will be pursuing a federal fisheries disaster declaration from the U.S. Department of Commerce,” Edwards wrote to association president Acy Cooper.

Read the full article at The Center Square

Florida’s Big Bend coast in Hurricane Idalia’s path

August 30, 2023 — Building into a category 3 hurricane, Hurricane Idalia is moving across the Gulf of Mexico’s deep reservoir of historically warm water, with the National Hurricane Center predicting a path into the U.S. state of Florida’s northern Gulf Coast and landfall the morning of Wednesday, 30 August.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency across 46 counties statewide. Local authorities around the city Tampa Bay ordered a mandatory evacuation, and coastal towns and small fishing ports near Fort Myers, smashed by Hurricane Ian last year, were put on watch, even though forecasters are predicting Idalia will likely track farther north, close to Cedar Key, roughly 80 miles north of Tampa Bay.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

MISSISSIPPI: Mississippi accepting applications for relief for 2019 Bonnet Carre Spillway disaster

August 14, 2023 — The U.S. state of Mississippi is accepting applications for financial relief from commercial fishermen hurt by the 2019 Mississippi Bonnet Carre Spillway disaster.

The spillway is designed to divert floodwater away from the city of New Orleans and into the Mississippi Sound, but the surge of freshwater spillover into the ocean can shock oysters, crabs, and other aquatic life. When the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened the Bonnet Carre Spillway twice in 2019 – the first time it was ever opened twice in one year – it severely damaged area fisheries.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

LOUISIANA: Louisiana shrimpers, lawmakers unite to protect domestic fisheries as season begins

August 10, 2023 — The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission announced the opening dates for the fall inshore shrimp season Aug. 7.

Meanwhile, Louisiana lawmakers have called on Congress to protect the domestic seafood industry as shrimp harvesters face low prices due to large amounts of imported shrimp.

The Louisiana Shrimp Association joined in a letter that said the influx of imported shrimp has proven especially problematic for domestic harvesters. Nineteen other allied organizations and companies, representing more than 4,000 seafood businesses of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic region also signed onto the letter.

Read the full article at the Daily Advertiser

LOUISIANA: Louisiana poised to spearhead offshore wind in Gulf of Mexico

July 26, 2023 — Last week, the White House announced the first offshore wind power auction in the Gulf of Mexico will take place next month.

The Biden administration will allocate leases for a 102,480-acre area of federal waters off the coast of Lake Charles in Louisiana and two areas offshore Galveston, Texas totalling around 200,000 acres.

In May, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) found no significant environmental impact from offshore wind leasing on a 30-million-acre area, paving the way for the first lease sales that could host 3.6 GW of capacity.

A number of companies have prequalified for the sale, including oil and gas groups Shell, Equinor and TotalEnergies, but the first turbines could in fact be installed in Louisiana state waters.

Louisiana aims to install 5 GW of offshore wind by 2035 and the state’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is in talks with two offshore wind developers for projects in state waters, DNR confirmed to Reuters Events.

Read the full article at Reuters

BOEM to seek fisheries funds for Gulf of Mexico wind leases

July 25, 2023 — The first offshore wind power lease auction in the Gulf of Mexico will offer a 10 percent credit to developers who contribute of a fisheries compensation fund for commercial and charter fishermen.

The Aug. 29 auction by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will offer a 102,480-acre area offshore Lake Charles, La., and two areas off Galveston, Texas – one comprising 102,480 acres and the other 96,786 acres.

If developed to full potential, the lease areas could hold turbine arrays with nameplate ratings totaling 3.7 gigawatts of electricity, according to BOEM.

In planning the Gulf wind energy areas, BOEM excluded highly productive fishing areas after consultations with the Southern Shrimp Alliance and other fishing interests. With stipulations that BOEM has set for the bidding process, the “inclusion of a compensatory mitigation fund is a sound strategy,” the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance said Monday.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman