Saving Seafood

House Natural Resources Committee Demands Obama Administration Info on Marine Monument Designations

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) October 7, 2015 — In a letter signed by the full committee chairman, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans, and the chairman and vice chairman of the Subcommittee on Indian, Insular, and Alaska Native Affairs, the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee has demanded records of all meetings, correspondence and memos related to marine monument designations. 

The letter references emails that “show representatives from the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF), the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Pew Charitable Trusts warning their members to avoid talking to the ‘outside world’ about the organizations’ efforts to influence the Administration to announce a Marine National Monument off of New England during the ‘Our Ocean Conference’ in Chile.” The emails in question were originally obtained by Saving Seafood via public records requests, and were first reported by Greenwire.

The following is the text of the press release from the House Natural Resources Committee:

Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT), and Reps. John Fleming (R-LA), Don Young (R-AK), and Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen (R-AS) sent a letter today to Council on Environmental Quality Managing Director Christy Goldfuss and Assistant Administrator for the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Eileen Sobeck to request further information on the Obama Administration’s plans to designate new marine monuments or expand existing monuments. This concerns all coastal states.

In particular, the members of the Committee raised concerns about the apparent collusion and influence of environmental groups with regard to the Interior Department’s designation process, with almost no local input.

The letter stated, “[T]he day after the Subcommittee’s hearing, a chain of emails were publicly released which raise serious questions regarding the Administration’s plans for a new marine monument designation and the potential involvement of a number of outside interests. Specifically, the emails show representatives from the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF), the Natural Resources Defense Council, and Pew warning their members to avoid talking to the ‘outside world’ about the organizations’ efforts to influence the Administration to announce a Marine National Monument off of New England during the ‘Our Ocean Conference’ in Chile.”

The lack of transparency surrounding the number and scope of potential future designations was a point of emphasis for the Subcommittee on Water, Power and Ocean’s oversight hearing on September 29, 2015.

“As witnesses indicated in testimony before the Water, Power and Oceans Subcommittee hearing, the public input process surrounding the designation or expansion of national marine monuments has been woefully inadequate, or even nonexistent. The American people and those impacted by such potential designations deserve the right to know now what the federal government is or has been doing behind closed doors, given that a true public process simply does not exist under current law or practice.”

The letter requests records of all meetings regarding the designation or revision of national monuments, correspondence and memos related to national marine monument designations, and Executive branch communications including those with non-governmental organizations connected to the September 15, 2015 National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Town Hall meeting in Providence, Rhode Island.

Read the House Natural Resources Committee’s press release online

View a PDF of the House Natural Resources Committee’s letter to Christy Goldfuss and Eileen Sobeck

 

New Bedford crab fisherman opposes ‘National Marine Monument’ for Atlantic

September 29, 2015 — WASHINGTON — Jon Williams is hoping President Obama will think twice before establishing a National Marine Monument off the New England coast in waters where his five boats fish for Atlantic red crab.

“It’s very scary,” said Williams, owner of New Bedford’s Atlantic Red Crab Co. that employs nearly 150 people.

Should the New England Coral Canyons and Seamounts Area be named a national monument, Williams said he would be cut off from fishing grounds that account for between 20 and 40 percent of his red crab haul – an annual loss of around $5 million.

“We have to fish these areas. That’s where the red crab live – at these depths,” he said.

Williams testified Tuesday before a House Natural Resources subcommittee that was examining the issue. Some House Republicans oppose the process of designating national monuments, which essentially leaves the decision solely in the hands of the president. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, has proposed giving Congress and affected governors a say.

A number of petitions are pending with the Obama Administration to designate areas off of Alaska and Cape Cod, which would permanently protect them from commercial fishing or oil exploration. And, the entire Connecticut delegation wrote President Obama earlier this month asking that he establish the Atlantic monument to safeguard “the abundance of fish, whales, dolphins and other marine creatures found in this spectacular undersea landscape.”

Read the full story at the Taunton Daily Gazette

Read Jon Williams’ testimony here

 

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