Saving Seafood

FLORIDA: Fishermen come together to feed the unemployed

May 15, 2020 — There’s no study of rocket science in making the statement that fishing has a long, illustrious history in Port St. Joe.

And it continues to this day: what is a fundraiser in Port St. Joe without some fresh mullet supplied by local fish houses?

Now, a group of commercial fishermen are taking that concept to another level, pledging a percentage of every mullet catch to those who have lost their jobs to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The group is undertaking incorporation as Fishermen for Florida, Inc. with the stated mission of providing disaster relief to the county’s unemployed due to coronavirus.

“It is really the people’s natural resource,” said J. Pat Floyd, attorney and representative of the new organization.

The board includes the folks at St. Joe Shrimp Co., Mark Moore, Clint Moore, Eckley Sander and their staff and fishermen; and Harold, Eugene, Joey and Randy Raffield and the folks at Raffield Fisheries.

Read the full story at The Star

Plan to Establish Aquaculture in Offshore Waters Challenged by U.S. Conservation/Environmental Groups

New Orleans, LA — February 17, 2016 — Center for Food Safety has filed a new lawsuit challenging the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) new federal regulations permitting, for the first time, industrial aquaculture offshore in U.S. federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico. The plaintiff coalition CFS is representing in the case make up a broad array of significant interests in the Gulf of Mexico, including commercial, economic, recreational, and conservation purposes: the Gulf Fishermen’s Association; Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance; Charter Fishermen’s Association; Destin Charter Boat Association; Clearwater Marine Association; Alabama Charter Fishing Association; Fish for America, USA, Inc.; Florida Wildlife Federation; Gulf Restoration Network; Recirculating Farms Coalition; and Food & Water Watch.

“Offshore industrial aquaculture will cause irreparable harm to the Gulf ecosystems and coastal communities,” said George Kimbrell, senior attorney for CFS and counsel for the plaintiffs. “We need to better manage and protect our native fisheries, not adopt destructive industrial food practices that put them at risk. This lawsuit, brought by a range of concerned stakeholders, aims to halt these shortsighted plans.”

“Our intention in being a part of this lawsuit is to not only help protect our members and commercial fishermen but to also help protect the fishing and non fishing public who depend on the wild fish stocks from damage that may occur from a numerous amount of various dangers from farm raising fish in open ocean pens in the Gulf of Mexico,” said Glen Brooks of the Gulf Fishermen’s Association.

The questionable federal permitting scheme, more than ten years in the making, is NOAA’s attempt to do an end-run around the United States Congress: multiple national bills that would have allowed and regulated industrial aquaculture never made it into law in the past decade. In an effort to push offshore aquaculture forward without a new law permitting it, NOAA exceeded its authority to regulate fishing under the Magnuson-Stevens Act and now plans to permit offshore aquaculture as a “fishing” activity.

Read the full story from The Fishing Wire