Saving Seafood

Aleutians monument fought as threat, derided as ‘straw man’

September 29, 2015 — Alaska Congressman Don Young and other Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee this morning attacked the idea that President Obama might create a marine national monument around the Aleutian Islands, with unknown effects on the fishing industry. But the administration has given no sign it’s considering the notion.

At a subcommittee hearing, Congressman Young said a marine national monument around the Aleutians would be terrible for the fishing industry.

“I’ve watched this over and over: The creeping cancer of the federal government overreaching,” Young said. “The worst managers of any resource is the federal government. They do not manage. They preclude.”

The idea of protecting the waters of the Aleutian Chain came from environmentalist and retired UAA professor Rick Steiner. Last year, he proposed a massive marine sanctuary, covering all the federal waters of Bristol Bay and thousands of miles of the Bering Sea. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration killed the idea, saying it lacked local support. That seemed to be the end of it, except that Steiner launched an online petition telling President Obama he should create an Aleutian national monument instead. (Under the Antiquities Act, the president can just declare a monument on his own.) Steiner’s plea to Obama, on thepetitionsite.com, has attracted more than 100,000 supporters, many from foreign countries. Steiner was not invited to the hearing to defend his idea.

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

 

House Subcommittee Considers Atlantic Marine Monument

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) – September 28, 2015 – The House Natural Resources Committee’s Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans will convene Tuesday, September 29, to consider “The Potential Implications of Pending Marine National Monument Designations.” This hearing comes in the wake of a campaign from environmental organizations seeking to enact a marine national monument off the coast of New England via direct Executive order from President Obama. The campaign has been sharply criticized by industry members and prominent elected officials as overstepping transparent, public management processes and existing protections for the areas in questions. Included below is an excerpt from the Hearing Memo released by the House Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans.

Hearing Overview 

On Tuesday, September 29, 2015 at 10:00 a.m., in 1324 hearing room in the Longworth House Office Building, the Water, Power and Oceans Subcommittee will hold a one-panel oversight hearing on “The Potential Implications of Pending Marine National Monument Designations.” 

Policy Overview 

  • The Antiquities Act of 1906 authorizes the President to reserve lands and waters of the United States as National Monuments. While National Monuments have been designated under sixteen Democratic and Republican Administrations, President Obama has expanded or created nineteen national monuments totaling over 260 million acres.
  • These designations are more than any other previous President. While so far he has not designated any Marine National Monuments, he has expanded existing ones by more than 403,000 total square miles – an area larger than the states of Texas and New Mexico combined. While lauded by some groups, the expansions have been criticized for cutting off commercial fishing access and undermining domestic seafood supplies and associated jobs and harming the environment.
  • A number of petitions are pending with the Obama Administration to designate areas off of Alaska and Cape Cod in New England. This hearing will primarily focus on the impacts of existing national marine monuments and these proposals. 

Read Saving Seafood’s analysis of this proposal here

Read the full Hearing Notice

Read the full Hearing Memorandum

US House steps into marine monument fray

September 23, 2015 — A House subcommittee will convene in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday to discuss the implications of pending marine national monument designations, including conservationist efforts to create the Atlantic seaboard’s first marine national monument off the coast of Massachusetts.

The hearing, scheduled by the House Natural Resources Committee’s subcommittee on water, power and the oceans, comes in the midst of an expanding dispute between fishing stakeholders and the conservationists who want President Obama to use executive decree to designate Cashes Ledge and an area of deep-water canyons and seamounts south of Georges Bank as a marine natural monument, off limits to all fishing.

The conservationists, led by the Conservation Law Foundation, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Pew Charitable Trusts, are imploring President Obama to use the federal Antiquities Act to unilaterally create the national monument as a means of protecting the two areas from commercial fishing and future sea-floor development.

The proposal is being opposed by fishing stakeholder and advocacy groups, such as the Gloucester-based Northeast Seafood Coalition, who insist the current restrictions to fishing in both areas contained in existing habitat regulations established by the New England and Mid-Atlantic fishery management councils, and approved by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service, afford the necessary protections.

The opponents also charge that the conservationist effort is nothing short of an end-run around the nation’s current fishery management system, which provides for more public comment and participation, as well as a greater measure of transparency and scientific basis.

The New England Fishery Management Council has not adopted a formal position on the monument proposal, but council Chairman Terry Stockwell last week pointed out that the council in April reinforced the existing protections of Cashes Ledge — which sits about 80 miles east of Cape Ann — by continuing its approximately 530 square-mile closure to fishing.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Learn more about the subcommittee hearing here

 

 

House Natural Resources Committee Convenes Hearing to consider “The Potential Implications of Pending Marine National Monument Designations”

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) — September 22, 2015 — The House Natural Resources Committee’s Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans will convene next Tuesday, September 29, to consider “The Potential Implications of Pending Marine National Monument Designations.” This hearing comes in the wake of a major campaign from environmental organizations seeking to enact a marine national monument off the coast of New England via direct Executive order from President Obama. While strongly supported by many environmentalists, the campaign has been sharply criticized by industry members and prominent elected officials as overstepping transparent, public management processes and existing protections for the areas in questions.

The hearing will begin at 10am EST in the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.

Read Saving Seafood’s analysis of this proposal here

Read the meeting notice from the House Natural Resources Committee

Read more about the hearing

Bill Allowing Killing of Sea Lions Moving Ahead in Congress

July 27, 2015 — A bill that would allow the killing of sea lions along the Columbia River because they’re eating all the fish is moving ahead in Congress. It’s sponsored by Republican Congresswoman Jaime Herrera-Butler, who testified yesterday before a House Natural Resources subcommittee.

This Spring around 24-hundred barking sea lions were counted in and around Astoria, shattering the previous years record by nearly a thousand.

Read the full story at KGMI Radio