Saving Seafood

Fishing Industry Loses an Ally: North Caroline Rep Walter Jones Passes Away at Age 76

February 12, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — North Carolina Representative Walter Jones passed away Sunday evening at the age of 76. Congressman Jones had been in hospice care for the past few weeks after suffering from a broken hip in January. Jones had represented the people of Eastern North Carolina in Congress and the state legislature for over 34 years and was an ally to the fishing community.

During his time in office, Jones made defending fishermen one of his top priorities. He maintained that fishing was a “pillar of Eastern North Carolina’s heritage and a key component of the regional economy.” He pledged to do “everything in my power to make sure that fishermen are treated fairly by the federal government.”

Just this past July he was instrumental in passing H.R. 200, the Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act.  Jones authored two of H.R. 200’s core provisions to “improve flexibility and transparency in fisheries management.”

“Fishermen have unnecessarily sacrificed for years because of flaws in the existing law,” Congressman Jones said at the time. “If we can get more flexibility in rebuilding fisheries, and more transparency and accountability in management, everybody wins. Fishing stocks get recovered, and the jobs and economic activity associated with fishing can be restored.

You can find more information on his work for the fishing industry here.

Congressman Jones will lie in repose at St. Peter Catholic Church in Greenville, North Carolina, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, February 13. A public funeral service will be held at St. Peter Catholic Church on Thursday, February 14 at 1:30 p.m.

This story was originally published on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

Greg DiDomenico & Diane Pleschner-Steele: Senate MSA reauthorization a step back for fishing communities

August 21, 2018 — The following op-ed was originally published in The Hill and was written by Greg DiDomenico, the Executive Director of the Garden State Seafood Association, and Diane Pleschner-Steele, the Executive Director of the California Wetfish Producers Association:

In July, the House passed H.R. 200 the “Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act,” a much needed update of federal fisheries law that allows for both sustainable fisheries management and the long-term preservation of our nation’s fishing communities. Unfortunately, its counterpart bill making its way through the Senate would likely have the opposite effect.

The Senate bill, S.1520, or the “Modernizing Recreational Fisheries Management Act of 2018,” introduces changes to the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA)—the main law governing U.S. fisheries—that would impose increasingly burdensome regulations on American fishermen and undermine H.R. 200’s goal of increasing flexibility in fisheries management.

Of particular concern are provisions contained in Section 104 of the bill, “Rebuilding Overfished Fisheries.“ Rather than giving fisheries managers more flexibility in how they manage and rebuild fish stocks, these new requirements added to S.1520 make rebuilding requirements more stringent and onerous.

For example, one of the most disturbing changes is the requirement that Regional Fishery Management Councils achieve a 75 percent chance of rebuilding a stock if that stock has not rebuilt in as short a timeframe as possible. What that means in practice is that regulators will be forced to set quotas according to a rigid, predetermined timeframe, rather than one based around scientific evidence or biological necessity. This will lead to quotas that are much lower than they need to be to sustainably manage the species, and fishing communities being unnecessarily hurt in the process.

Read the full opinion piece at The Hill

 

JESSICA HATHAWAY: Bend rather than break

August 3, 2018 –The range of responses to the passage of the Magnuson-Stevens Act reauthorization in the House of Representatives on July 11 shows the diversity and breadth of this industry.

The biggest hold-up on coast-to-coast support for H.R. 200 was the inclusion of a recreational grab at snapper-grouper management in the Gulf of Mexico, which gets a leg up in the House version of the bill (a Senate version is TBD). In the end, most major South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico associations offered their support of the bill with an exception for this portion as well as the attempt to eliminate annual catch limits in recreational fisheries (see Mail Buoy on page 6).

The controversial flexibility clause has perhaps been the most talked about component of this reauthorization. The Fishing Communities Coalition — a group of small-boat fishery associations connected also by their relationships with NGO funding and catch share management — came out strongly opposed to the reauthorization largely because of the flexibility component and the hurdles the bill puts in the way of new catch share programs. These changes, they say, will erode the nation’s deep roots in science-based sustainable fishery management.

However, several provisions in the act aim to include more data points in fishery management, including cooperative data, stock assessment plans for all federally managed stocks and transparency in the council management process.

Read the full opinion piece at National Fisherman

Rhode Island Commercial Fishing Companies Support US House Changes To Magnuson-Stevens Act

July 24, 2018 — Local commercial fishing companies are part of a national coalition backing changes to federal fisheries law.

The law, known as the Magnuson-Stevens Act, has regulated marine fisheries across the country since 1976.

If a stock is being overfished, regional fishery management councils are required to rebuild the species within 10 years. However, the U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a partisan bill, H.R. 200, with largely Republican support that would scrap that rule.

“The 10-year rebuilding timeline was a completely arbitrary number; it was not based on science, it wasn’t based on biology, anything like that. It was just a random number that was picked,” Meghan Lapp, spokeswoman for Rhode Island-based Seafreeze Ltd., said.

Lapp said the company, along with others a part of the National Caolition for Fishing Communities, supports the bill because councils need more flexibility when developing rebuilding plans.

“(The councils) can take into consideration other factors, environmental factors, predator-prey relationships, etc.,” she said. “So, it’s actually more scientifically based than the previous version of Magnuson.”

Lapp said that flexibility could also help regional managers set better annual catch limits.

Read the full story at Rhode Island Public Radio

Gulf Coast lawmakers push bill on red snapper quotas

July 23, 2018 — After years of feuding with the federal government over red snapper fishing quotas, Gulf Coast lawmakers are pushing a bill to seize decision-making powers from the federal government and give them to state regulators.

Lawmakers say states know the resources best and better understand the impact of their decisions, but environmentalists worry the reforms will bypass science-based conservation methods and subject quota decisions to the whims of local politics, ultimately threatening fish stocks that fuel local economies and provide food to millions of Americans.

“This a huge economic thing as well as a question of freedom of the American people to fish in their own waters,” said Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-AL.

Byrne says he and other critics are frustrated with federal regulators, who the critics say rely on faulty science and don’t fully understand the local impact of their decisions.

Recreational fishing is a $63 billion a year industry in the United States, nearly a half million jobs. Byrne says that’s why it’s critically important to change the way conservation decisions are made.

“We’re taking control away from the federal government and giving it to state authorities who are closer to it and who we think make the better decisions,” Byrne said.

Read the full story at KXAN

House OKs overhaul of federal fishing laws, loosening limits and expanding angler access. Is the Senate next?

July 23, 2018 — Dig out the tackle box and gas up the boat. The most sweeping overhaul of federal fishing laws in more than a decade is swimming its way through Congress – and long-frustrated recreational anglers are delighted.

The reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, passed by the House this month largely along partisan lines, aims to give weekend fishermen expanded access to rebounding saltwater stocks that the decades-old law has helped rescue. A similar but more limited measure is making its way through the Senate and could be approved later this year.

Past efforts to loosen restrictions have largely died, in no small part because of  opposition by the Obama administration. But private-boat anglers and the coastal businesses that support them sense momentum on their side, pointing to steps lawmakers have taken to advance their agenda and temporary actions the Trump administration has taken during the past year to expand saltwater access.

Read the full story at USA Today

Feds could pull back on South Carolina offshore fishing rules

July 23, 2018 — Offshore fish stocks could soon be governed by better science or ravaged by loopholes in new rules, depending on which side you ask.

A contested bill to reorganize offshore fishing regulation is now in the U.S. Senate after passing the House of Representatives in a split vote. It pushes alternatives to the daily catch and season limits to restore game species.

Off South Carolina’s coast, it could dramatically change how much stock is caught of popular game and commercial fish such as snapper and grouper.

For example, under the proposed rules, any fishing restriction to rebuild the stock would be based partly on how quickly the fish reproduce, not on the standard 10-year timetable, and would have to take consumer concerns into account.

Fishing for nearly every sought-after offshore species is under a series of timetable restrictions because research indicates overfishing. Anglers have long argued their catches suggest more fish of nearly every regulated species are out there than current surveying suggests.

Federal regulators have conceded that and are working to improve the counts.

The proposed rules, a rework of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, would give anglers and regulators more line.

Read the full story at The Post and Courier

Advocacy group singles out Yamaha in fight against MSA update

July 19, 2018 — At least 154 companies, trade groups and other organizations have given their support for HR 200, the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA) reauthorization bill passed last week by the US House of Representatives, but Mighty Earth, an advocacy group started by a former member of Congress, has targeted one business in particular in its efforts to defeat the legislation: the Yamaha Corporation.

Mighty Earth hopes it will convince the international company, better known for its musical instruments than its boat motors, to change its position and denounce any policy that undermines seafood sustainability measures.

“This bill undermines science-based catch limits and rebuilding requirements in such a way that threatens to reverse the huge leaps we have made. And in Trump’s America, we can’t be surprised that it was pushed for by special interests like Yamaha Corporation, seeking to sell more boats at the expense of future generations,” said Glenn Hurowitz, Mighty Earth’s CEO, in a statement sent to Undercurrent News, following last week’s 222-193 vote.

So far, Yamaha isn’t budging.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Rhode Island Environmentalists: Proposed Changes To Fishery Management ‘Could Threaten Years Of Progress’

July 19, 2018 — A local environmental nonprofit is speaking out against proposed changes to federal fishing regulations outlined under the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

The law has regulated fisheries in the U.S. since 1976. It was amended in 1996 and 2007 to help rebuild fish populations and prevent overfishing.

The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a partisan bill with largely Republican support called H.R. 200 – Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act that could give regional fishery councils more freedom to set catch limits.

Jennifer Felt, ocean campaign director for Conservation Law Foundation, said the change could threaten years of progress.

“These new regulations established by this bill would give the (management councils) the legal flexibility to set even looser standards, and we know that this will only compound the problem for fish like Atlantic Cod that are already on the brink,” Felt said.

Read the full story at Rhode Island Public Radio

THE SALEM NEWS: Fisheries act is a chance to build trust

July 19, 2018 — There’s a little something for everyone to hate in the House’s proposed renewal of the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

Commercial fishermen feel it gives too much to recreational fishermen and environmentalists. Recreational fishermen say it goes too easy on their commercial counterparts, and the environmental lobby says the measure, which passed the House last week along largely partisan lines, will undo years of progress in restoring fish stocks.

We are left with what we have had for decades — a pitched battle among competing interests, with no end in sight. Congress must do better to help guarantee that the science behind management decisions is sound and easily understandable.

The act has been controversial since it went into effect in 1976, as the crisis in the nation’s fishing industry reached its peak. The measure established a 200-mile fishing limit off the American coastline, banned foreign factory trawlers and set up regional councils to oversee the rebuilding of depleted fish stocks. The law was modified and reauthorized in 1986, 1996 and 2006.

The most recent attempt to update the law would give the regional councils more flexibility in managing fish stocks, and not tie conservation plans so closely to stock surveys and other research carried out by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Read the full story at The Salem News