Saving Seafood

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

Lobster amendment could win industry support for Young’s MSA update

July 16, 2018 — By adopting an amendment submitted by the US state of Maine’s two representatives Bruce Poliquin, a Republican, and Chellie Pingree, a Democrat, proponents of Alaska representative Don Young’s update to the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA) may have won over at least one seafood group: the Maine lobster industry.

Young’s bill, HR 200, cleared the House of Representatives by a 222-193 vote on Wednesday after a heated debate that involved both sides displaying lists of commercial fishing industry organizations that they said agreed with them, for and against the measure.

The bill now awaits a Senate companion, a similar circumstance faced by Young’s attempt in 2015 to update MSA. His bill that year, HR 1335, expired when the session ended, as a Senate bill never arrived. Young and others are hoping for a different outcome this time.

The amendment proposed by Poliquin and Pingree would help pave the way for lower federal inspection fees, and wait times, on lobster sales to Europe, the Portland (Maine) Press Herald reports. Though China has been growing as a more important export destination, Europe accounted for 31% of US lobster shipments abroad in 2017, the newspaper notes.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

MSA Today: House approves Magnuson reauthorization

July 13, 2018 — The House of Representatives passed its version of the latest Magnuson-Stevens Act reauthorization on Wednesday, July 11.

H.R. 200, the Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act, sponsored by Alaska Rep. Don Young, passed primarily on party lines at 222-193. Support from the industry, however, came from all coasts as well as onshore and offshore businesses.

One of the most controversial aspects of this reauthorization has been the elimination of a 10-year rebuilding timeline for rebuilding fish stocks.

The 10-year guideline, however, is an arbitrary goal. Some fisheries recover in 2 to 3 years, and some take decades, regardless of restrictions on fishing effort. Even more to the point, regional administrators always had some flexibility in forcing managers to adhere to the rebuilding guideline or allowing for some leeway. This change is critical for fisheries managed as if there were no flexibility, like East and West coast groundfish stocks. It simply spells out the flexibility that has always been implied.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Don Young’s bill to revise Magnuson-Stevens fishing law passes in the U.S. House

July 13, 2018 — A bill amending the Magnuson-Stevens Act, sponsored by Alaska Rep. Don Young, passed the U.S. House on Wednesday.

The 1976 Magnuson-Stevens bill, authored in part by Young and named for Sens. Warren Magnuson of Washington and Ted Stevens of Alaska, was created to manage and sustain fish stocks in U.S. waters and keep foreign fishermen out. It created regional management councils that still manage local waters today.

Young’s new bill eliminates limitations on the councils that were added later, which Young says the councils need to keep fisheries stocked and support fishing communities. The bill gives the management councils more control over no-fishing timeframes to rebuild fish stocks and aims to provide more input to outside groups.

The bill passed 222-193. It goes to the Senate next, where its path for passage is unclear.

But the bill is not without controversy: Some scientists and environmental groups say Young’s revisions to the law would be damaging and result in overfishing. The Natural Resources Defense Council said the bill “threatens to unravel those four decades of progress.”

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News