Saving Seafood

Senate panel advances ‘Modern Fish Act’ against harvesters’ wishes

February 28, 2018 — A bill supported by recreational anglers but opposed by commercial harvesters and environmental groups was approved by the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation on Wednesday by a voice vote.

The Modernizing Recreational Fisheries Management Act (S. 1520), legislation its supporters have termed “the Modern Fish Act,” will now go to the Senate floor. Some of the same provisions are contained in H.R. 200, a measure sponsored by representative Don Young, an Alaska Republican, which is expected to receive a vote soon on the House floor.

“[T]his is the commerce committee at its best,” said senator Roger Wicker, the Mississippi Republican who introduced S. 1520, noting after the vote the bipartisan support his bill enjoyed. Seven Republicans and six Democrats cosponsored the legislation.

“Saltwater anglers are conservationists and this bill will help provide for healthier marine fisheries and will amend the law in such a way as to enhance saltwater fishing and build our economy,” he said.

The American Sportfishing Association, one of multiple recreational fishing groups to support S. 1520, was quick to applaud the vote, too, saying Wicker’s bill would add “more tools to the management toolbox, improving data collection techniques, and examining some fishery allocations that are based on decades-old decisions.”

However, the Seafood Harvesters of America (SHA) and Garden State Seafood Association are among no less than 30 multiple commercial fishing groups that have expressed their opposition to the bill.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

Chefs heat up red snapper debate

February 27, 2018 — Priced at $32, the pan-roasted Gulf red snapper with coconut rice and Malaysian curry sauce is among the best-sellers at Carrollton Market in New Orleans.

But chef Jason Goodenough worries that it could someday disappear from his menu, if Congress goes too far in loosening regulations and allows more overfishing of the stock.

“On the macro level, my fear is that tourism is going to drop off because less and less Gulf seafood is available to us as chefs,” said Goodenough, named the 2017 chef of the year by New Orleans Magazine. “People come to New Orleans to eat, to drink and to hear music — food tourism is a major, major part of the fabric of the economy.”

Goodenough is one of 26 chefs, most of them from New Orleans, urging Congress to put the brakes on any proposed rollbacks of federal laws that protect fish populations.

Their latest target is the “Modern Fish Act,” which is set for a vote Wednesday by the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

Backers of S. 1520, sponsored by Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and formally known as the “Modernizing Recreational Fisheries Management Act of 2017,” say it would give sports anglers more access to federal waters.

While many recreational anglers cheered the Trump administration for extending the Gulf red snapper season by 39 days last year, they regarded the move as a temporary fix. They’ve touted the “Modern Fish Act” as a permanent solution and a much-needed way to bring more flexibility to fisheries management (Greenwire, Dec. 19, 2017).

Opponents, including the chefs, say the bill would weaken federal protections and result in more overfishing, damaging stocks in the long run.

Jeff Angers, president of the Center for Sportfishing Policy in Baton Rouge, La., said it is “utter folly to think that chefs are interested in conservation.”

“I know that it’s going to be of a lot of interest that some chefs want to pick a fight — ‘bless their hearts’ is what my mother taught me to say,” he said. “But I don’t think any responsible person in America looks to chefs who profit from these fishery resources to be guiding any discussion on conservation.”

Recreational fishermen have long complained that the nation’s premier fisheries law, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, has become too bureaucratic, fixated on quotas and catch limits.

Read the full story at E&E News

 

Zero Dollars for Marine Mammals?

February 27, 2018 — The future of marine mammals is at risk in U.S. waters. President Trump’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2019 would eliminate the Marine Mammal Commission. With an annual operating budget of $3.4 million, which comes to just over one penny per American per year, the Marine Mammal Commission has for 45 years been assiduously developing science and policy to protect seals, sea lions, dolphins, whales, dugongs and walruses. Through the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), Congress charged the commission with providing independent oversight of marine mammal conservation policies and programs being carried out by federal regulatory agencies. Obviously, with a proposed budget of zero dollars, it would be impossible to execute the federally mandated objectives of fostering sustainable fisheries (through the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act [MSA]) and protecting endangered species (through the Endangered Species Act [ESA]).

Marine mammals are more than just lovable creatures. They are important components of productive marine and coastal ecosystems that overall generate $97 billion of the gross domestic product. Whales function as ecosystem engineers by cycling vital nutrients between deeper and surface waters in the oceans. Without this nutrient cycling, oceans would produce less plankton and phytoplankton, which would eventually mean less fish. Also, through complex food-web interactions, marine mammals help to regulate fish populations. For example, marine-mammal–eating killer whales (often called “transient” killer whales) will eat seals, a common predator of pelagic fish—enabling fish populations to stay high. This kind of interaction is called a trophic cascade and is very common in marine ecosystems.

Serving as an independent oversight body, the commission has the critical task of assessing the scientific validity and effectiveness of research conducted to meet the federal mandates of the MMPA, ESA and MSA. If we as a country can’t even protect the charismatic species, I worry for all the less adorable parts of nature. So we need to draw a line in the sand. In this era of “fake news,” maintaining this entity to guard against encroachments to science-based policymaking on is more valuable than ever.

Read the full story at the Scientific American

 

Seafood group wants next Magnuson-Stevens Act to do away with “overfishing”

February 16, 2018 — A consortium of groups with ties to the seafood industry is calling for the U.S. Congress to pass a Magnuson-Stevens Act reauthorization bill that gives the Regional Fishery Management Councils greater flexibility to achieve their objectives, but they also looking for federal officials to change how a couple of items are termed.

Saving Seafood’s National Coalition for Fishing Communities is asking Congress to do away with the term “overfishing,” claiming it’s not accurate to base a stock’s condition on just its fishing mortality. In its place, the 24-member group wants to new MSA law to call fishstocks “depleted.” They made their recommendation in a letter to U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska).

“The term ‘overfished’ is perceived negatively and can unfairly implicate the industry for stock conditions resulting from other factors,” the group wrote.

Gib Brogan, a campaign manager with Oceana, said the effort behind depleted is an attempt by commercial fishing interests to escape a “negative perception and culpability for the state” of stocks.

“Modern fisheries science already accounts for the ‘other factors’ that may decrease the abundance of fish in the oceans,” Brogan said.  “When these ‘other factors’ have been accounted for in the underlying science, fishing remains as the source of mortality and it is entirely appropriate to keep the focus on fishing by using ‘overfished.’  If these other factors are not being appropriately considered, that should be resolved through the assessment for affected fish stocks, not a blanket change in terminology.”

Along with several other commercial fishing groups, the coalition is also calling for the new act to do away with the 10-year rebuilding requirement and giving the regional councils more flexibility in determining the timeframe needed to bolster stocks. The group also suggests moving from “possible” to “practicable” when it comes to those rebuilding periods.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

After turbulent 2017, states want to control snapper fishery

February 14, 2018 — A year after the Trump administration likely broke the law by allowing overfishing of red snapper, five Gulf of Mexico states now want special power to manage the species in federal waters in 2018 and 2019.

They’re likely to get their way, too.

Unlike last year, the new plan would not allow sports anglers in Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama to exceed federal quotas, but the states would get the authority to call the shots in setting their own fishing seasons in federal waters.

Daryl Carpenter, the owner of Reel Screamers Guide Service in Grand Isle, La., and president of the Louisiana Charter Boat Association, can’t wait, saying the federal management system is broken and “has failed to come up with any type of fix.”

“It’s too dominated by non-interested groups, by your green groups who want to hug and cherish the fish,” he said. “You can get nothing done in the federal system. … I’m 100 percent in favor. The states need to take control of this and get the federal government out of our damn life.”

Critics say that ceding control to the states would be a mistake, arguing that federal officials long have led the way in rebuilding the red snapper population and remain the most qualified to do the job.

“The federal management process is the most open and transparent, no matter how frustrating,” said Shane Cantrell, executive director of the Charter Fisherman’s Association and the owner of Galveston Sea Ventures in Galveston, Texas.

All five states are pushing the idea as an experiment that would be allowed under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976, the nation’s premier fishing law.

They want NOAA Fisheries to give them “exempted fishing permits.” Those permits allow fishing that would normally be banned under federal law, usually as pilot projects done in the name of research.

“It allows us to exempt certain fishing activities from the regulations,” said Roy Crabtree, administrator for the NOAA Fisheries Southeast Region in St. Petersburg, Fla.

“How well will it work? Well, time will tell,” Crabtree said. “But I think a lot of people will argue that we’ve had some quota overruns in the past and we’ve had a lot of dissatisfied customers, so I think we do need to try something different.”

Many state officials say that NOAA is all but certain to sign off on the exempted fishing permits, after Alabama Republican Sen. Richard Shelby got Congress to include language in a fiscal 2017 appropriations bill that directed the agency to come up with a pilot program to give states more control.

After the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council voted on Feb. 1 to approve the plans, Alabama officials said they were one step closer to taking over management of the red snapper.

Read the full story at E&E News

 

Secretary of Commerce Declares Fisheries Disasters in Three Areas Due to Hurricanes Irma and Maria

February 13, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross on Friday declared catastrophic fishery disasters in Florida, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico due to impacts from Hurricanes Irma and Maria in August and September of 2017. The governors of those areas requested the declarations after the hurricanes made landfall last year.

Under the Interjurisdictional Fisheries Act and the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the governors asked the Secretary of Commerce to determine whether a commercial fishery failure occurred due to a fishery resource disaster, in these cases caused by destructive hurricanes.

“The Department of Commerce and NOAA support the rebuilding efforts of communities across the Gulf which were devastated by hurricanes in the past year,” Ross said in a statement. “This declaration provides a path forward to helping fishermen and businesses recover and grow.”

Through these fishery disaster declarations, participants in the fisheries are now eligible for Small Business Administration disaster loans. Additionally, because these fisheries are in areas declared a presidential disaster, public fishery infrastructure-related losses are eligible for Federal Emergency Management Agency Public Assistance. Economic Development Administration grants and Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery funds are another potential source of assistance for fisheries pending allocations and grantee Action Plans.

Similar fishery failure declarations in the Southeast region were made in the past, following Hurricane Isaac in 2012, Louisiana; Hurricanes Gustav and Ike in 2008, Gulf of Mexico; Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, Gulf of Mexico; and more.

“These determinations provide the basis for Congress to appropriate disaster relief funding under the MSA and IFA,” Ross wrote in a letter to Florida Gov. Rick Scott. “Should Congress appropriate disaster relief funding, NMFS will work with your state to develop a spend plan to assist with the recovery of Florida’ s fishing industry and fishing communities.” Similar letters were sent to U.S. Virgin Islands Governor Kenneth E. Mapp and Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello Nevares.

The governors’ letters detailed expected fisheries-related losses due to the hurricanes. Gov. Scott said Florida’s recreational fishing had an impact of $7.6 billion and the dockside value of commercial fisheries is estimated at $244 million.

Gov. Mapp noted the value of recreational fisheries to the U.S. Virgin Islands has not been calculated but a signification portion of the 3 million tourists who visit annually participate in sport fishing activities. The Virgin Islands’ commercial fishery is composed of artisanal fishermen using small nets and commercial fishermen who use traditional gears such as spears, hooks and lines and traps. They landed more than 772,555 pounds of fish in 2016, sold primarily in open-air markets. The estimated value, including direct economic effects, is more than $5 million annually, the governor said in his letter.

“Although assessments have not been completed due to the substantial damage to our infrastructure and a resultant inability to move around Puerto Rico, it is expected that economic and social impacts will be significant. A conservative valuation of our fisheries economy indicates direct economic effects of $29 million dockside value from commercial fishing,” Gov. Nevares said in his letter to NOAA. Puerto Rico also had more than 600,000 recreational angler trips in 2016.

All the governors noted significant losses of infrastructure such as docks, fish houses and transportation and facilities, in addition to fishermen losing their vessels and gear.

This story originally appeared on Seafoodnews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

 

Opinion: Chefs respond to column on fisheries management

February 13, 2018 — We read David Cresson’s op-ed “Chefs push half-baked fisheries agenda” and were immediately struck with how little he seems to appreciate the real problems in Gulf fisheries.

As chefs who rely on healthy fisheries to run our businesses, we know it is possible to have fish for both the commercial and recreational sectors to catch and eat while also preserving this resource for the future. We know this because we already have a system that is doing just that: the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the primary federal law managing our nation’s fisheries.

Cresson is right when he states, “It’s time to set the record straight. The United States manages its fisheries better than anyone else in the world.” MSA has rebuilt 43 fish stocks since 2000, all while increasing their economic output.

He also correctly points out that Louisiana’s senators and congressional representatives support the proposed Modern Fish Act, a bill that would weaken fishery management and is supported by Cresson’s Coastal Conservation Association.

But it makes sense that the Louisiana congressional Delegation would stand with CCA once you follow the money.

CCA, through the lobbying firm Adams and Reese, has rewarded the Louisiana delegation handsomely. CCA paid Adams and Reese more than $110,000 each of the last three years to dole out campaign contributions to Louisiana politicians.

Cresson attempts to paint MSA defenders’ focus on red snapper as overblown, even irrational. But it is CCA’s champion, U.S. Rep. Garret Graves, R-Baton Rouge, who introduced a bill titled the Red Snapper Act that would exempt that single species from the protection of MSA, the very legislation that rebuilt the stocks.

Despite CCA’s claims that the commercial sector is taking more than its fair share, recreational fishers are allocated 49 percent of the red snapper quota. And still they have exceeded their quota 7 out of the last 10 years. Meanwhile, the commercial sector is intensely monitored to stay within its quota and the charter for-hire component of the recreational fishery (captains who take individual, paying anglers out on fishing trips) has developed separate management that is keeping them in their limit.

If Cresson is indeed interested in leading the fight for conservation, perhaps he could explain to the public why the Louisiana politicians his lobbyists influenced pushed the Commerce Department to open up the federal recreational season this summer for an extra 39 days, knowingly allowing overfishing by upwards of 50 percent, or 6 million pounds.

Read the full opinion piece at Houma Today

 

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Declares Fisheries Disasters Following Hurricanes Irma and Maria

February 12, 2018 — The following was released by the U.S. Department of Commerce:

Today, in conjunction with the requests put forward by the Governors of Florida, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross determined catastrophic fishery disasters occurred in the areas because of impacts from Hurricanes Irma and Maria that made landfall in August and September of 2017.

Under the Interjurisdictional Fisheries Act and the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the Governors asked the Secretary of Commerce to determine whether a commercial fishery failure occurred due to a fishery resource disaster, in these cases caused by destructive hurricanes.

“The Department of Commerce and NOAA support the rebuilding efforts of communities across the Gulf which were devastated by hurricanes in the past year,” said Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. “This declaration provides a path forward to helping fishermen and businesses recover and grow.”

Through these fishery disaster declarations, participants in the fisheries are now eligible for Small Business Administration disaster loans. Additionally, because these fisheries are in areas declared a Presidential disaster, public fishery infrastructure-related losses are eligible for Federal Emergency Management Agency Public Assistance. Economic Development Administration grants and Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery funds are another potential source of assistance for fisheries pending allocations and grantee Action Plans.

NOAA looks forward to working closely with Congress and Florida, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico to continue to support recovery efforts.

NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth’s environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and our other social media channels.

View the release in its entirety here.

 

Fishing Groups from Around the Nation Call for Magnuson-Stevens Act Reforms

25 Groups Express Support for HR 200

February 12, 2018 — The following was released by the National Coalition for Fishing Communities:

Twenty-five members of Saving Seafood’s National Coalition for Fishing Communities (NCFC) are calling on Congress to enact broad reforms to the Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA), including allowing for greater flexibility in how stocks are rebuilt and changes to how new management programs are implemented.

The proposals, delivered in a letter to Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan, would, according to the signers, lead to a reauthorization that “allows for both sustainable fisheries management, and the long-term preservation of our nation’s fishing communities.”

The primary proposal is the elimination of the strict requirement that all fish stocks be rebuilt within 10 years, a timeline that the letter notes “has long been considered arbitrary.” Instead, the letter calls for allowing stocks to be rebuilt according to a “biologically-based time frame,” an option that it notes has broad scientific support.

“The National Academy of Science in their 2013 report titled ‘Evaluating the Effectiveness of Fish Stock Rebuilding Plans in the U.S.’ concluded that ten years is indeed arbitrary given the vast differences in habitat, life history, and environmental conditions for fish stocks around the nation,” the letter states. “It is therefore time to replace this requirement with a more scientifically valid life-history based metric.”

Other proposed reforms to increase flexibility include regular reviews of rebuilding targets, allowing for consideration of alternative rebuilding strategies, and allowing the Regional Fishery Management Councils to consider changes in ecosystems when setting Annual Catch Limits.

The letter also calls for changes in how catch share programs are introduced to fisheries across the country, with the letter “supporting the requirement for a transparent referendum process before any new catch share program can be implemented.”

The signers of the letter note that the nation’s fishermen are invested in the long-term success and sustainability of its marine resources, and that these proposals will lead to a more effective fishery management system.

“There is no group that depends on the future of our living marine resources more than those who make their livelihoods from the ocean,” the letter concludes. “Our recommendations to the already effective MSA framework will allow us to better protect the people and communities that rely upon healthy and abundant fisheries.”

The letter was signed by a diverse group of associations and businesses from across the country, ranging from New England and the Mid-Atlantic to the Gulf Coast, California, the Pacific Northwest, Alaska and Hawaii. A full list of signers is included below.

  • American Fishermen’s Research Foundation
  • California Wetfish Producers Association
  • Delmarva Fisheries Association
  • Dock to Dish Montauk
  • Directed Sustainable Fisheries
  • Florida Keys Commercial Fishermen’s Association
  • Garden State Seafood Association
  • Gosmans Fish Market
  • Hawaii Longline Association
  • Inlet Seafood Restaurant and Pack House
  • Long Island Commercial Fishing Association
  • Montauk Fish Dock
  • New Bedford Port Authority
  • North Carolina Fisheries Association
  • Rhode Island Commercial Fisherman’s Alliance
  • Seafreeze Ltd.
  • Silver Dollar Fisheries
  • Gabby G Fisheries
  • Blue Water Fisheries
  • Offshore Fishery
  • Southeastern Fisheries Association
  • Sustainable Shark Alliance
  • Town Dock
  • West Coast Seafood Processors Association
  • Western Fishboat Owners Association

Read the letter here

 

Gulf Council recommends new pilots to test state management of recreational red snapper fishing

February 6, 2018 — The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council has recommended that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) approve pilots for all five Gulf States to test state management of recreational fishing for red snapper. The Council’s approval of the pilots, known as Exempted Fishing Permits or EFPs, came with the caveat that the decision by some states to include their federal charter/for-hire vessels (and the corresponding quota allocations that are associated with them) not result in shrinking the federal charter season for the rest of the states.

The following is a statement from Matt Tinning, Senior Director of Environmental Defense Fund’s US Oceans Program:

“EDF has long called for innovations in the way we manage recreational fishing in the Gulf of Mexico, and we applaud those who are considering new approaches. We support this two-year opportunity for the states to show that they can manage their private red snapper anglers under the conservation tenets of the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

“It is important that federal charter boats who do not wish to participate are treated fairly. These captains have worked for years to stabilize their seasons and are now close to finishing development of new federal fishery management plans.

Read the full story at the Orlando Political Observer