Saving Seafood

Five US House Democrats get behind tariff-relief bill for fishermen

July 30, 2018 — In the same week that President Donald Trump announced his plan to offer land farmers in the US $12 billion to help compensate for losses suffered as a result of his trade scuffles with China and other nations, a small group of Democrats in the House of Representatives have put forth a plan to help fishermen.

HR 6528, introduced Wednesday by Massachusetts representative Seth Moulton, would amend a provision contained in the Magnuson Stevens Act that allows for the government to make money available to harvesters in the case of a natural or man-made disaster. It would add language that clarifies that such funds can also be used in the case of “unilateral tariffs imposed by other countries on any United States seafood.”

Co-sponsors of the bill include representatives Chellie Pingree of Maine, Stephen Lynch and William Keating, both of Massachusetts, Jared Huffman of California, and Raul Grijalva of Arizona.

Pingree, an organic farmer, has been particularly vocal about the president’s tough trade stance, writing letters to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and US Trade Representative.

“Farmers haven’t been the only ones to suffer the consequences of the Trump administration’s sloppy trade actions,” she said in a statement issued this week.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

Fishing industry at odds with environmentalists over changes to U.S. fishing laws

July 30, 2018 — Fishermen and environmentalists are at odds over a suite of changes to U.S. fishing laws that was approved by the House of Representatives, and the proposal faces a new hurdle in the Senate.

The House passed changes to the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, a 42-year-old set of rules designed to protect fisheries from over-harvest, on July 11, largely along party lines. Environmental groups have derided the changes as antithetical to the purpose of the act, which many fishermen and conservationists credit with saving seafood stocks such as New England sea scallops and Bering Sea snow crab.

Supporters of the House bill and several commercial and recreational fishing groups have said the changes merely provide managers with flexibility and refocus the Magnuson-Stevens Act on sound science.

The big question is whether a bill will also pass the Senate before the midterm election. No bill has been proposed yet, and the election could bring changes that make it more difficult for such a bill to pass.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Los Angeles Times

 

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

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

Controversial fishing bill divides anglers and environmentalists

July 16, 2018 — Recreational fishermen are applauding and environmentalists are decrying a proposed overhaul to a 1976 fishing law credited with regrowing fish populations off the nation’s coasts.

Largely along a party-line vote, the House greenlit the measure seeking to amend what is known as the Magnuson-Stevens Act late last week.

Under the current law, regional councils delineate seasons and set catch limits for fishermen — all so fish stocks can be sustained from year to year.

The House bill seeks to cede more control to these local groups in developing recovery plans when populations dip too low. Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), who sponsored both this recent bill and the original 1976 law, said the update ensures “a proper balance between the biological needs of fish stocks and the economic needs of fishermen.”

For example, when a species is deemed “overfished,” current law requires the regional councils to develop a plan to rebuild the population that often involves placing new short-term and, at times, financially painful catch limits on fishermen. The law requires the plans to try to resuscitate the fishery as quickly as possible — in 10 years or fewer.

Critics of the current system say that time requirement is too unyielding. Instead, the House bill gives councils, which are part of the Commerce Department’s National Marine Fisheries Service, the discretion to base the time frame on “the biology of the stock of fish.”

The bill was commended by some regional seafood industry groups, who in a letter organized by the National Coalition for Fishing Communities last month lauded the bill for creating “flexibility without compromising conservation.” The bill is backed by many boating and sportsmen groups, too.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

Gloucester fishermen ‘desperate’ for federal bill to ease catch limits

July 16, 2018 — A bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this week is being cheered by fishermen in Gloucester who are hoping for a lifeline for the struggling industry.

“It’s desperate. We are in a desperate situation. We need a change,” said Angela Sanfilippo, president of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association. “It’s a good start.”

The new law would allow more flexibility for fish populations to be rebuilt, and give more authority to the regional fishery management councils, which may be more in touch with the local industry.

The bill, which passed the House on Wednesday, would change a decades-old fisheries law meant to restrict overfishing in a way proponents say can protect both fishermen and fishing stocks.

“My bill will update (the law) to ensure a proper balance between the biological needs of fish stocks and the economic needs of fishermen and coastal communities,” said Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska). “We know that each region works within their unique conditions, which is why I fought to ensure the management process will be improved by allowing regional fisheries to develop plans that meet their local needs.”

Read the full story at the Boston Herald