Saving Seafood

JOHN SACKTON: Are the Big NGO’s Winning the Marine Monument Battle, But Losing the War

September 15, 2016 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Coinciding with the opening of the Our Oceans conference in Washington, DC today, President Obama announced a new 5000 square mile marine monument on the southeast corner of George’s Bank, encompassing three submarine canyons and some seamounts further off the continental shelf.

The map of the monument closely hews to the proposed map put out by Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal in a letter to Obama in July.  It follows a letter at the end of June from the six senators representing Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, along with a host of environmental NGOs.

The argument is simple:  America has created a series of national parks on land.  It should offer the same protections in the marine environment.

NGOs have been urging Obama to use executive authority to create marine monuments under the antiquities act, which are designated as areas with no human economic activity except recreational fishing. (click image for larger version)

The Oceans Conference hosted by Secretary of State John Kerry has the same goal:  to put aside large areas  of the global marine ecosystem in a series of reserves or marine protected areas.

This is not a goal opposed by fishery managers or the industry.

You might be surprised to learn that currently 32% of US marine waters are in marine protected areas.  3% of US waters are in fully protected no-take reserves, such as the monument just created today.

The State Dept. says that at the inaugural 2014 Our Ocean conference, President Obama announced our intent to expand the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.  This expansion – to over 1.2 million sq km, or about three times the size of California – was finalized September 26, 2014, creating the world’s largest MPA that is off limits to commercial extractive uses, including commercial fishing.

Last month, the US expanded this monument by five times, to an area the size of the Gulf of Mexico.

“In total, governments attending the 2014 and 2015 Our Ocean conferences announced new commitments to protect nearly 6 million square kilometers of the ocean – an area more than twice the size of India.  NGOs and philanthropies attending the conferences also announced significant commitments to help establish and implement these and other MPAs.”

“The world has agreed to a target of conserving at least 10 percent of coastal and marine areas, including through effectively managed protected areas, by 2020.  Through the Our Ocean conferences, we seek to help achieve and even surpass this goal. ”

The reason that all of the fishery management councils, most state fishery managers, and a majority of the US seafood industry recently wrote Obama pleading to stop the expansion of protected areas without scientific review is that these managers and the industry already work with large areas that are protected, and yet also allow for non-destructive economic activity.

Furthermore, the people involved in creating the protected areas often know nothing about them.  For example, the Boston Globe this morning reports “Administration officials said that a study from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration showed waters in the Northeast are projected to rise three times faster than the global average.  In addition, officials said, climate change is threatening fish stocks in the region — such as salmon, lobster, and scallops — and the monument will provide a refuge for at-risk species.”

Lets unpack this absurdity.  Global warming is causing species to move, so they will move out of the protected areas and into non-protected areas.   Second, the examples given are so uninformed.  Lobster populations are the highest in a hundred years; scallop populations have rebounded under one of the most successful fisheries management initiatives on the East Coast.  And Salmon?  Why salmon have not been fished in quantity in New England for hundreds of years, and the designation of part of the continental shelf for protection has nothing to do whatsoever with salmon habitat.  They are not there, and never have been.   It is this level of ignorance that makes the fishery councils throw up their hands in despair.

Given the ease with which the NGOs can communicate the desire for no-take reserves, they demonize the alternative, which is managed areas for protection.  This is the way most of the US protected areas have been created: through a review and nomination process that is scientifically vetted, and through use of the essential habitat laws that are part of Magnuson.  In fact, in the examples above, it is precisely managed protection that has led to a huge abundance of scallops, lobsters, and preserved salmon runs.

NGOs are winning the battle on creating no-take marine monuments.  But to do this, they have to deny the validity of the scientific and public review that has led to the dramatic changes in global fisheries sustainability over the past twenty years.  It is no mystery why many wild fish stocks are rebounding.  It is because managers imposed the correct science of harvest control and protection of spawning areas.

It is precisely when they abandon arguments based on science-driven actions to protect areas where the NGOs may lose us the war.

By encouraging their supporters to devalue the existing protections (32% of US waters) because only 10% are full no-take zones, the NGOs also deny the validity of the scientific review process which fishery managers have used to bring back global fish stocks.

Protecting marine environments should be a joint goal our entire country, including the seafood industry, environmental activists, and the public at large.  The most effective way to do that is to constantly support the application of science driven decision making to questions about marine habitats and resources.

By undermining that approach, NGOs risk advancing those who will claim their uses of the marine environment don’t have to be analyzed for impacts.

Today, the political powers broadly support more marine protection.  In the future, political powers may broadly support increased jobs in the arctic or wherever needed, without regard to the impact on marine ecosystems.

It was the North Pacific Council, who put in place a moratorium on fishing in the arctic ocean, that took one of the most dramatic steps for marine protection in a changing environment.  They did this in the context of making the best scientific decisions possible, and they set up a review process that would curtail any reckless or damaging approaches to that marine environment.

The NGO’s, by failing to recognize the strong advancement of protections already in place, may end up weakening these protections in a future of warmer waters and fisheries crisis.  That will be precisely when we may need them the most.

Abandoning a public process of scientific review is a dangerous game because we do not know what the future will bring.  Yet the NGO’s are arguing that their emotional approach leads to the strongest long-term protection.

The actual results may be the opposite.

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

Obama Closes Ocean Waters South of Cape Cod

September 15, 2016 — WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will declare the first marine national monument in the Atlantic Ocean today, barring uses including commercial fishing in nearly 5,000 square miles of waters southeast of Cape Cod.

Obama’s designation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument — in an area also known as New England Canyons and Seamounts — follows at least a year of concerns and opposition from advocates of the commercial fishing industry, including local elected officials.

Marine monument debates over the past year have involved balancing the preservation of marine life, ocean health and sustainable fisheries with potential oil and gas exploration, unsustainable fisheries, mineral mining, fishing-reliant regional economies and more.

Jon Williams, president of Atlantic Red Crab Co. on Herman Melville Boulevard, said in November 2015 that a monument designation “would be a big hit for the company,” which employs about 150 full-time workers in New Bedford and fishes several times a year in the affected areas.

Mayor Jon Mitchell acknowledged potential challenges for the commercial fishing industry Wednesday night.

“While I believe the industry generally was in a position to manage the implications of the so-called ‘seamount’ area of the monument, the inclusion of the ‘canyons’ area would have benefited from more industry input,” Mitchell said. “I appreciate that the White House sought out more input than is required, but these types of decisions should be subjected to the more robust regulatory processes under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which has successfully led to the protection of sea canyons in other parts of the Atlantic without unduly burdening the commercial fishing industry.”

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

New England Fishermen Troubled by Marine Monument Designation

September 15, 2016 — WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said Thursday that creating the Atlantic Ocean’s first marine national monument was a needed response to dangerous climate changes, ocean dead zones and unsustainable fishing practices.

The new Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument consists of nearly 5,000 square miles of underwater canyons and mountains off the New England coast. It’s the 27th time that Obama has created or enlarged a national monument.

Supporters of the new monument say protecting large swaths of ocean from human stresses can sustain important species and reduce the toll of climate change. Fishermen worry it will become harder for them to earn a living as a result of Obama’s move.

“We’ve been fishing out there for 35 years. It’s a big blow to us,” said Jon Williams, president of the Atlantic Red Crab Company in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

White House officials said the administration listened to industry’s concerns, and noted the monument is smaller than originally proposed and contains a transition period for companies like Williams’.

Williams said his company will survive, but the changes designed to address some of his concerns don’t sway him about the merits of the monument.

“I think the entire New England fishery is upside down over this,” Williams said.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Obama sections off part of Atlantic Ocean

September 15, 2016 — President Obama will designate a section of the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Cod on Thursday as a national monument, banning commercial fishing in the area by 2023 in an effort to protect the region’s ecosystem.

The move, which the president will formally announce at the Third Annual Our Ocean Conference in Washington, won praise Wednesday from environmental groups but drew condemnation from the fishing industry.

But on Wednesday, the Southern Georges Bank Coalition, which has representatives from local fisheries and industry groups including the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association, criticized the new designation off the Cape.

In a letter to Christina W. Goldfuss of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, attorneys for the coalition wrote that “millions of dollars of lost revenue are at stake” for local fisheries, and they questioned the legality of the move.

Some elected officials in Massachusetts have raised concerns about the plan, including Mayor Jon Mitchell of New Bedford, whose city is home to a commercial fishing port.

“While I believe the industry generally was in a position to manage the implications of the so-called ‘sea mount’ area of the monument, the inclusion of the ‘canyons’ area would have benefited from more industry input,” Mitchell said, adding that “these types of decisions should be subjected to the more robust regulatory processes under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which has successfully led to the protection of sea canyons . . . without unduly burdening the commercial fishing industry.”

His concerns were echoed by Senator Edward J. Markey, who called the president’s action an “important milestone” for conservation but said he was “concerned that the impacts of this marine monument designation on the fishing community in New England were not fully minimized.”

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

Obama Designates 1st Marine Monument In The Atlantic; Draws Ire of Fishermen

September 15, 2016 — During the Our Ocean conference in Washington, D.C., President Obama announced the creation of the first national marine monument in the Atlantic Ocean.

“We’re protecting fragile ecosystems off the coast of New England, including pristine underseas canyons and seamounts,” Obama said during his remarks. “We’re helping make the oceans more resilient to climate change … and we’re doing it in a way that respects the fishing industry’s unique role in New England’s economy and history.”

Opponents are already challenging the move, calling it an illegal use of presidential authority.

“We don’t normally create laws in this country by the stroke of an imperial pen,” says Bob Vanasse, a spokesman for the National Coalition for Fishing Communities.

He adds, “This is not only an end-run around Congress, it’s an end-run around the entire system the Congress created to protect these ocean resources.”

Vanasse says the move will seriously hurt the fishing industry: “We anticipate the offshore lobster industry will be affected to the tune of about $10 million per year. On top of that one of most affected industries is going to be the Atlantic red crab industry. It is going to be very significantly impacted.”

Senior administration officials say to mitigate the financial harm, they’re designating a smaller area than planned, and lobster and red crab fisheries have been given a seven-year grace period before they have to comply.

Jon Williams, president of the Atlantic Red Crab Company in Massachusetts, says his company will survive, but he tells The Associated Press, “It’s a big blow to us.”

Read and listen to the full story at NPR

New England Fishery Managment Council Sept. 20-22 meeting, live streaming information

September 14, 2016 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council: 

The New England Fishery Management Council will hold a three-day meeting that begins Tuesday, Sept. 20 and runs through Thursday, Sept. 22, 2016.  The public is invited to listen-in via webinar or telephone.  Here are the details.

MEETING LOCATION:  DoubleTree by Hilton, 50 Ferncroft Road, Danvers, MA 01923

START TIME:  The webinar will be activated at 8 a.m. each day.  The meeting is scheduled to begin at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, and 8:30 p.m. on Thursday.  The webinar will end at approximately 6:00 p.m. EST or shortly after the Council adjourns each day.

WEBINAR REGISTRATION:  Online access to the meeting is available at:

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1829856006168371714

There is no charge to access the meeting through this webinar.

CALL-IN OPTION:  To listen by telephone, dial +1 (415) 655-0060.

The access code is 112-403-988.

Please be aware that if you dial in, your regular phone charges will apply.

AGENDA:  The agenda and all meeting materials are available on the Council’s website at September 20-22, 2016 Meeting.

THREE MEETING OUTLOOK:  A copy of the New England Council’s Three Meeting Outlook is available here.

QUESTIONS:  If you have questions prior to or during the meeting, call or email Janice Plante at (607) 592-4817, jplante@nefmc.org.

MASSACHUSETTS: Bluefin tuna seized for size violation donated to homeless shelter

September 14, 2016 — A bluefin tuna was donated to a local homeless shelter after it was seized for a size violation during a routine inspection on Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, the Massachusetts Environmental Police said in a Facebook post.

Police were inspecting a fleet of more than 100 tuna ships on the sanctuary Tuesday when officers located a vessel with a 55-inch bluefin tuna onboard, according to police.

The fish was about 18 inches under the required size limit for the ship’s fishing permit category, police said. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) asked that officers seize the tuna because of the violation.

Police transported the fish to Boston, where a NOAA officer took possession of it, according to police. The tuna was then donated to a homeless shelter in the area.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

JOEANN HART: CO2 and feeling blue

September 14, 2016 — When we swim in the sea there is no visible footprint left behind so it easy to believe we make no mark. But all of us leave a carbon footprint in the ocean. Every time we use fossil fuels to drive our cars, charge our phones and heat and light our homes, we add heat and carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere, more than 1.5 trillion tons of it since the Industrial Revolution. The last time so much CO2 was pumped into the air was 250 million years ago, when volcanic eruptions almost wiped out life on Earth. Humanity has survived the current environmental assault so far because of the oceans, which have absorbed about a third of the CO2 and much of the heat. The price we pay for that favor is rising sea levels, ocean acidification, and the destruction of fisheries throughout the world.

We are all at risk, but most especially for a fishing town like Gloucester. Coastal erosion from rising seas threaten not just our homes, but fragile wetlands, the nursery of many marine species. Other dangers from CO2 are not so visible but even more catastrophic. When the CO2 we’ve released into the air falls into the ocean it turns the water acidic, which weakens phytoplankton, the bedrock of the ocean’s food chain. No fish, no fishing industry. Reduced calcification from a lower pH also makes it difficult for shellfish to build their shells. No shells, no clams, no lobsters. Many marine animals can only live at a specific temperature, and as the water warms those populations decline or migrate. Again, no fish, no industry, and for people around the globe who rely on fish as their major source of protein, no food. The World Wildlife Fund believes that climate change is one of the main reasons for the decline of marine species in the last 30 years. Yet fisheries managers are not mandated to address the impact of non-fishing activities such as climate change, oil spills and water pollution. Instead, they focus on catch quotas.

Fishermen shouldn’t have to shoulder alone the consequences of a problem that all of us are responsible for creating. Since we cannot wait for nations to act, it is up to local communities to lower their carbon footprint. Unlike volcanoes, we can control the amount of CO2 we pump into the atmosphere, but to do that we need to restrict our use of fossil fuels. As a community, we already have wind turbines thanks to Gloucester’s Clean Energy Commission. Future options could include offshore wind farms, tidal energy systems and solar parking lots but there is plenty that individuals can do as well. Request a free energy audit from the Mass Save Program (masssave.com), which comes with help in replacing old appliances and insulating homes. Walk more, bike more, then lobby for bike lanes and better public transportation. Buy an electric or hybrid vehicle and take advantage of federal tax credits; install some solar panels and get Massachusetts incentives and rebates. Consider the carbon footprint of groceries. Eating seasonally and locally helps reduce the amount of fuel needed to get food to the table. Even using less plastic can help lower one’s carbon footprint, because plastic is a petroleum product. And in a coastal community like Gloucester, balloons and single-use bags often blow into the ocean where they can become death traps for whales, sea turtles and dolphins, all of whom mistake floating plastic for a dinner of jellyfish. We’re doing enough damage to them as it is with the CO2.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

CHRISTIAN PUTNAM: Balancing good news with bad

September 13, 2016 — Due to budgetary constraints and other factors, in recent years the federal surveys of fish stocks have been reduced and carried out by a single vessel, the Fisheries Survey Vessel (FSV) Henry B. Bigelow. The way a survey is done is like regular commercial fishing in that the survey vessel tows gear similar to commercial fishing gear in order to determine how many fish are in the area and what species. The reduced surveys and limited areas surveyed have been the subject of considerable criticism by the commercial fishing industry and local politicians.

Taking a page from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts fisheries regulators, last month NOAA Fisheries announced the agency is looking for one to three trawler-type fishing vessels to handle “part or all” of the spring and fall surveys for the next five years.

NOAA Fisheries states this action is to get more consistent and expansive results from the surveys. Perhaps this will avoid recurrence of the disastrous quota reductions, such as the nearly 90 percent reduction in cod quota over the past couple years. This action also shows that NOAA Fisheries is beginning to listen to the criticism of the stakeholders that suffer the results of their decisions and wishes to build some trust in the science and processes used to make quota decisions.

It also makes sense to allow the under-utilized fishing fleet to operate for these purposes so that the fishermen can create revenue through survey research, as they are not able to fish on a consistent basis these days. It is encouraging to see what appears to be a change toward better policy and perhaps a more rational approach to gathering the information needed to make important decisions about the natural resources that belong to the public and are relied up by many of our neighbors to make a living.

Read the full story from the Scituate Mariner

Discovery Channel Acquires Worldwide Rights to Revealing Documentary ‘Sacred Cod’

September 12, 2016 (NEW YORK) — SACRED COD will make its premiere on Sept. 17 at the Camden International Film Festival in Maine. Tickets can be found here. It will also be screened at 7 p.m. on Oct. 2 at the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, as part of the GlobeDocs Film Festival. Tickets are available here. For more information, visit the SACRED COD website. The following was released by Discovery Communications:

Discovery Channel announced the purchase of global rights of the revealing documentary SACRED COD. The film will make its world premiere at the 2016 Camden International Film Festival and debut on Discovery in 2017 under the Discovery Impact banner.

An official selection of the 2016 Camden Film Festival, SACRED COD chronicles the collapse of the historic cod fishery in the waters off New England in the United States. Scientists and environmental advocates have attributed the collapse to overfishing, climate change, and government mismanagement. Many of the fishermen — who are losing their livelihoods and way of life as the species have declined — have argued that the science is wrong and have protested government policies that have banned them in recent years from fishing for cod. SACRED COD features interviews with fishermen and their families, along with scientists, advocates, and federal officials who warn about the risks of overfishing and climate change and say that the plight of cod could be a harbinger for fish around the world. The film tells a complex story that shows how one of the greatest fisheries on the planet has been driven to the edge of commercial extinction, while providing suggestions about how consumers can help support sustainable fisheries.

“For centuries, cod was like gold. Wars were waged over it. Settlers sailed across oceans in search of it. And early America used it to finance a revolution,” said David Abel, one of the filmmakers and a Boston Globe reporter who has covered the fishing industry for years. “Cod were so abundant in the waters off New England that fishermen used to say they could walk across the Atlantic on the backs of them, and generations of men from places like Gloucester and Cape Cod spent their entire lives chasing the coveted fish. Cod played such an important role in the early history of New England that a carved replica of the fish has hung for centuries in the Massachusetts State House. It’s called the Sacred Cod.”

“Unfortunately, what is happening in New England is being seen in many fisheries and fishing communities across the world,” said John Hoffman, EVP Documentaries and Specials, Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and Science Channel. “The decline or collapse of fish stocks is a complex issue rooted in climate change, overfishing and shifting legislative policies, which together have destroyed many once thriving communities. SACRED COD is an epic tale of our times about a collapsing ocean ecosystem, which threatens a community’s livelihood, and the scientists who are working to rescue a species and way of life.”

SACRED COD is directed and produced by Steve Liss, Andy Laub and David Abel. The film is presented by Discovery Channel in association with Endicott College, The Boston Globe, In Our Own Backyard, and As It Happens Creative. For Discovery: Ryan Harrington is Supervising Producer and John Hoffman is executive producer.

Read the release at Discovery Communications