January 27, 2021 — 30×30, a major provision in the Ocean-Based Climate Solutions Act that would ban all commercial fishing in at least 30 percent of U.S. oceans by 2030, has drawn widespread opposition by fishermen and fisheries scientists since it was introduced in the House of Representatives last year. In a letter to Congress last November, over 800 participants in the U.S. seafood economy wrote that 30×30 “would undermine our nation’s world-class system of fisheries management.”
In an open letter to Congress last December, a group of fisheries scientists wrote that 30×30 “is not based on the best scientific information available” and “will decrease flexibility of the fishery management system to adapt to climate change.”
The following is excerpted from an article by Doreen Leggett, communications officer at the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance, published by Wicked Local:
Commercial fishermen rely on the sea and are often more aware of the changing ocean environment than anyone else.
Take fisherman Kurt Martin of Orleans. For close to three decades he has kept daily logs of everything from where he fishes to weather conditions, water temperatures and depth.
A few things stand out: Fog that was virtually synonymous with Chatham is becoming a rarity, summer ocean temperatures have increased about 10 degrees and walking around an iced-in Pleasant Bay come Christmas is a distant memory.
Meanwhile, the lobster fishery south of the Cape is much diminished while Canada’s is growing as warmer water pushes north. Martin said the lobster fishery on the Cape is “stable” now.
“But we are basically on the edge of disaster. We can definitely see the trend of the shift being made.”
Climate change has pushed commercial fishermen to change their business plans, the way they fish, what they fish for, even their home ports. But when far-reaching climate legislation was drafted and filed in the House of Representatives last year (by a representative from Arizona), fishermen were shut out of the conversations. They may be shut out of their fishing grounds as well.
There are many positives in the 300-page bill, but one section would harm fishing communities across the nation, hamstring buy-local movements, increase seafood imports, and complicate efforts to combat climate change.
The initiative, dubbed 30×30, a focal point in the House version of the Ocean-Based Climate Solutions Act, would require “protection” of at least 30 percent of U.S. oceans by 2030 by banning “all commercial extractive use” in broad swaths of the ocean, circumventing the country’s sustainable fishery management process. (Specific areas have not yet been identified.)