Saving Seafood

Sportfishing interests making late push for agenda in US Senate

November 21, 2018 — With possibly just three weeks remaining in the 2018 U.S. Congressional calendar, recreational fishing supporters are making a last-minute push in hopes of getting at least part of their agenda passed before the end of the year.

Scott Deal, president of Maverick Boat Group, wrote a guest op-ed for The Hill earlier this week urging Congress to pass legislation that he said would modernize fishing regulations and open opportunities for anglers in federal waters.

“Because federal law has never considered the fundamental differences between recreational and commercial fishing practices, federal fisheries management problems facing anglers have been snowballing for decades,” Deal wrote. “Those problems are impediments to participation in sportfishing. How can we engage the next generation of anglers when the federal rules unnecessarily stand in the way?”

Much of what Deal and others sought was included in H.R. 200, which the House passed in July. However, that bill has languished in the Senate as it has remained in the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation since then.

While recreational industry leaders, like most others, admit that chances of a Magnuson-Stevens Act reauthorization getting through the 115th Congress are next-to-none, the American Sportfishing Association and other groups have set their sights on a new bill, where they hope some provisions can be included by amendments.

“We’re optimistic that the recreational fishing community’s priorities for improving federal fisheries management, which are contained in the Modern Fish Act, could be included in a public lands bill or another package that gets signed into law before the Congress adjourns,” Mike Leonard, the ASA’s vice president of government affairs, told SeafoodSource. “We know that our legislative champions like U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker are working hard at making that happen.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

Boating group doubles PAC contribution goal in midst of MSA reauthorization fight

November 1, 2018 — The National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA), a trade group that has pushed for the passage of several controversial commercial fishing bills, has released a three-year strategic plan that would boost the amount of funds it spends on the political action committee (PAC) it supports.

NMMA says it will now seek to contribute $500,000 per year or $1 million per two-year election cycle to BoatPAC, nearly double what it was previously spending.

That would give the group more firepower to support such legislation as Alaska Republican representative Don Young’s Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA) reauthorization bill (HR 200) or Modernizing Recreational Fisheries Management Act (S. 1520), also known as the “Modern Fish Act,” a bill from senators Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican, and Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat.

The two bills could wind up not getting passed during the 115th congressional session and come back for another try in the 116th, when the BoatPAC money might help.

HR 200 was passed in the US House of Representatives, in July, by a 222-193 vote, but the clock is ticking. A companion bill is needed in the Senate, which lawmakers could act on after the Nov. 6 election, during the two abbreviated months before the beginning of the new session in January.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Federal fisheries law could see changes

July 5, 2018 — The U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote on a bill this week that has pitted sport-fishing interests against environmentalists.

It’s called the Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act, or H.R. 200. Also referred to as the Modern Fish Act, a vote on the bill was delayed about a week ago.

Its author, Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, says the measure would update and improve the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the primary law that guides federal fisheries regulators.

Young and supporters of his bill contend contend federal regulations, improper science and poor management decisions have hampered anglers’ access to U.S. fisheries.

“America’s fisheries are governed by an outdated regulatory scheme and inflexible decrees imposed by distant bureaucrats,” House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop, R-Utah, said after the panel advanced the measure in December. “Fishermen and biologists on the ground should be partners in the formation of management plans, not powerless onlookers.”

Read the full story at the Daily Comet

Scott Bennett: Modern Fish Bill Threatens Fishery Protection Policies

May 16, 2018 — Connecticut in the springtime means one thing — fishing season. The coastal communities awaken from a long winter, the energy from fishermen builds to a crescendo, the tackle shops start to buzz and the docks come alive with hopes of what the new season will bring. As a manager of a tackle shop, it is my favorite time of year.

In my 40 years in the industry, I’ve seen good fishing years and bad ones. This year is shaping up to be a good one, but there are troubling signs on the horizon. Some folks in Congress are pushing changes to the overarching legislation that governs our federally managed fisheries, and these changes threaten to undermine our prosperity and take us back to when fishing wasn’t so good. Contrary to its name, the proposed Modernizing Recreational Fisheries Management Act of 2017 or Modern Fish Act, is a big step backward and goes against what’s right for our marine resources. It would make it easier to reverse hard quotas on fishing that have helped restore stocks of species that were overfished.

Coastal communities and small businesses like mine, which are the backbone of Connecticut’s fishing industry, rely on abundant fish populations. So it is crucial that when conservation rules work well, like the policies that protect and rebuild fisheries under the existing Magnuson-Stevens Act, that we support an abundant fishery by keeping the law in place.

Read the full editorial at the Hartford Courant

 

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

 

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

 

Ryan Prewitt: Federal red snapper management is working to restore species

January 30, 2018 — As a chef and restaurant owner, I consider it an important obligation to be a responsible part of the seafood economy. Restaurants are the link between the amazing seafood of Louisiana and the consumers who travel here to enjoy it. I hope my customers and children are able to eat Gulf fish for the rest of their lives. I sincerely want all involved parties to be able to sustainably harvest more fish.

American fisheries are the most productive and well-managed in the world as a direct result of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the main law overseeing federal fisheries. The Magnuson-Stevens Act works.

In the mid-1990s, red snapper stocks were reduced to 3 percent of historic levels by decades of overfishing. We are now in the fortunate position of being able to catch and eat this fish because of successful management strategies. However, the population is far from fully recovered.

All commercial species, including red snapper, feed directly into the Louisiana restaurant industry. We are projected to have an 8.9 billion dollar financial impact in 2017 and employ more than 207,000 people.

These numbers do not include fishers, dockworkers and numerous adjacent seafood-based industries, nor those who regularly access seafood through restaurants and markets. This massive population would be harmed if MSA is weakened.

Read the full letter at the New Orleans Times-Picayune

 

Congressional Bills Would Alter National MSA to Benefit Recreational Fisheries in Gulf of Mexico

August 22, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — Two companion bills in the House and Senate, both currently in committee, would alter the Magnuson-Stevens Act in how it addresses recreational and commercial fisheries management.

Both bills call for a review of the red snapper fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico and alter the section in the MSA dealing with Gulf red snapper. Then each bill changes sections of the law that apply to all U.S. fisheries on fundamental management principals in MSA, like how regional councils will allocate access to marine resources, adopt annual catch limits requirements, and put data-poor fisheries under a less strict management than more strict.

Both versions of The Modernizing Recreational Fisheries Management Act of 2017 (S.1520 and H.2023) are an attempt to codify what is becoming a standard argument for the recreational sector: “We are different from commercial fishermen, so the fish we target should be managed differently.”

The strength of the MSA, adopted in 1976 and amended at regular intervals to address changing aspects of the nation’s fisheries, is that within its founding principles are guidelines for managing recreational as well as commercial use.

An example of this is the halibut charter management program in Alaska. Very much like red snapper, a resurgence of non-commercial interest in Pacific halibut triggered the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council to adopt a catch sharing plan (note:“shareING” is key here — this is different from a catch share program) which allows the total allowable catch (TAC) in Alaska to be shared, and in times of low abundance, allows a higher ratio to go to charter operators. That recognizes a different business model for charters compared to commercial operators.

The Alaskan catch sharing plan for halibut came after years of difficult discussions among charter operators, commercial fishermen, federal fisheries managers and state recreational fisheries managers. It is not perfect but it has worked since it was implemented in June 2011.

The charter sector in Alaska has continued to grow and recently introduced new measures that would provide more stability for their businesses, but potentially take a higher percentage of the available resource.

A continuing problem in the charter sector is accounting for all harvests and mortality. The group is working on improving data collection and accountability which will improve their chances of getting increased TAC.

These and other considerations are currently being resolved under the aegis of the Magnuson-Stevens Act and the Pacific Halibut Act, legislation that manages Pacific halibut under a treaty with Canada, within the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council.

Nationally, the recreational sector based in the Gulf of Mexico would like to see recreational fisheries removed from most fishery management plans, under the guise that recreational fishermen don’t take much fish compared to commercial fishermen. This is the purpose of the Modern Fish Act.

While this is true on an individual case by case basis, it is not true in the aggregate, where hundreds of thousands of recreational anglers can quickly decimate a stock.

In arguing for the bill  Mike Leonard, Director of Conservation of the American Sportfishing Association (ASA), told the Magazine Monga Bay that although the old MSA has been successful, it was written to regulate commercial fisheries, but was unjustifiably applied to managing recreational fishing as well. In actuality, the MSA was written to address all aspects of fisheries, spelling out rules for commercial, charter and recreational fishing in order to preserve sustainable fish stocks.

Leonard argued to Mongabay that “Much like gardening in one’s backyard is different than large scale agriculture practices, recreational and commercial fishing are very different activities.” He contends that, while commercial fishermen have a single goal (to efficiently catch as many fish as possible), recreational anglers have other motivations, such as enjoying the outdoors with family and friends, catching and often releasing trophy fish, and occasionally catching dinner.

Where recreational fishermen take fish from public waters, unless they are subject to the same accountability rules as the commercial industry, they are in effect claiming unlimited rights to keep a public resource to themselves.  The commercial industry on the other hand, serves a national interest in providing fish for American consumption regardless as to whether you go out and catch it yourself or not.

Many in the commercial industry and NGO community support some of the efforts to improve recreational catch data, but the idea of taking recreational fish out of Magnuson is a non-starter.

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