Saving Seafood

CHARISE JOHNSON: The newly endangered species of the Trump era is the Endangered Species Act

July 24, 2018 — The Endangered Species Act itself is currently endangered, as a result of predation by lobbyists, conservatives in Congress and President Donald Trump.

Last week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service announced proposed revisions that would change the way the agencies implement the Endangered Species Act – actions that could lead to the destruction of essential habitat and otherwise preventable species extinctions. And President Trump’s allies in Congress are preparing their own additional attacks on the law, pushing bills in both the House and the Senate that would demolish the scientific foundations of the law.

Speaking to the New York Times, Richard Pombo – a former member of Congress notorious for his hostility to environmental laws who is now paid to lobby for mining interests – says that the Trump administration and Congress are offering “probably the best chance that we have had in 25 years to actually make any substantial changes” in the law.

Read the full opinion piece at NBC News

NMFS ends New Bedford groundfishing ban

July 23, 2018 — Nearly eight months after NMFS announced the decision to shut down Northeast Fishing Sector IX following the criminal trial of quota-skirting kingpin Carlos “the Codfather” Rafael, the agency lifted the ban that has kept at least 80 fishermen off the water and out of work.

NMFS announced the end of the ban on Thursday, approving lease-only operation plans for Sector IX and allocated quota for Sector VII.

When little headway was being made in lifting the ban this spring, 55 vessels in Sector IX, including four owned by Rafael, moved to be included in Sector VII for the 2018-19 fishing season in order to lease their quota and recoup losses from missed fishing time.

The process was slow moving, with quota remaining frozen while NMFS officials and the New England Fishery Management Council worked to review and approve a new operating plan.

NMFS’ final rule on the situation — published and opened for comment on Friday, July 20 — “determines the quota overages that Northeast Fishery Sector IX is responsible for paying back, allocates annual catch entitlements to Northeast Fishery Sectors VII and IX for the 2018 fishing year, approves a new lease-only operations plan for Northeast Fishery Sector IX, and approves a substantive amendment to Northeast Fishery Sector VII operations plan,” according to the Federal Register.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Interior Department Proposes a Vast Reworking of the Endangered Species Act

July 20, 2018 — The Interior Department on Thursday proposed the most sweeping set of changes in decades to the Endangered Species Act, the law that brought the bald eagle and the Yellowstone grizzly bear back from the edge of extinction but which Republicans say is cumbersome and restricts economic development.

The proposed revisions have far-reaching implications, potentially making it easier for roads, pipelines and other construction projects to gain approvals than under current rules. One change, for instance, would eliminate longstanding language that prohibits considering economic factors when deciding whether or not a species should be protected.

The agency also intends to make it more difficult to shield species like the Atlantic sturgeon that are considered “threatened,” which is the category one level beneath the most serious one, “endangered.”

Battles over endangered species have consumed vast swaths of the West for decades, and confrontations over protections for the spotted owl, the sage grouse and the gray wolf have shaped politics and public debate. While the changes proposed Thursday by the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service wouldn’t be retroactive, they could set the stage for new clashes over offshore drilling and also could help smooth the path for projects like oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Read the full story at The New York Times

With grocery supplies dwindling on remote Alaska island, the government opened seal harvest early

July 16, 2018 –Federal managers in June agreed to the early harvest on St. George, which is more than 200 miles from the mainland.

The decision came after a request by the tribal government, which said members needed the meat because the island’s store was running out of food, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service. Flights to the island are often canceled amid bad weather and because of what airlines say is a poorly-positioned runway.

“I don’t know how many times I’ve called ACE to say, ‘Hey, where are our groceries? Why can’t we get them?’” Mayor Pat Pletnikoff said, referring to the cargo airline that serves the island. “It happens on a regular basis.”

About 60 people live on St. George, Pletnikoff said. Passenger planes only come twice a week, and frequent flight cancellations can make it hard for residents to keep fresh food around.

One thing that’s not in short supply on the island? Meat.

St. George and nearby St. Paul both host massive populations of northern fur seals in summer and fall — about 500,000 between the two. It’s about half the world’s population, said Mike Williams, who works with the fisheries service.

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

NMFS greenlights experimental lionfish trap fishing

July 13, 2018 — Fishermen in the South Atlantic might soon be testing a new tool to fight off the growing population of invasive lionfish in the region. After years of waiting, NMFS is finally giving the green light on a permit to set out 100 cages to study whether traps can put a dent in their numbers.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission applied for the exempted fishing permit, proposing to test various modifications to wire spiny lobster traps to harvest lionfish from South Atlantic federal waters.

The study intends to examine the effectiveness and performance of modified trap designs for capturing lionfish, with the goal of identifying the best modification to maximize lionfish catch and reduce bycatch of other species. Traps would test various funnel and escape gap sizes and locations, in addition to bait types.

The Florida Keys Commercial Fishermen’s Association proposed the idea back in 2015 after they discovered their spiny lobster traps were being overrun by lionfish. But the group withdrew its application earlier this year after losing financial backing for the project because of the long delays in waiting for approval.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Marylanders warned to avoid Venezuelan crab meat after nine sickened by Vibrio bacteria

July 9, 2018 — State health officials are warning consumers to avoid unpasteurized Venezuelan crab meat because they believe it has sickened nine people in Maryland with infections of Vibrio bacteria.

They have not pinpointed a single source of the contaminated meat. Illnesses have been traced to crab dishes prepared at homes and in restaurants, and the cases are spread around the state.

Two of the people have been hospitalized, but no deaths have been reported.

Symptoms of food-borne Vibrio infection include watery diarrhea, abdominal cramping, nausea, vomiting, fever and chills.

Venezuelan crab meat was already a concern for many Maryland watermen, but not for health reasons — the imports are major competitors to local seafood. The United States has imported more than 1,000 pounds of Venezuelan crab meat so far this year, fourth-most from any country after Indonesia, China and the Philippines, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Read the full story at The Baltimore Sun

NEFMC Sends Clam Dredge Framework Back to Habitat Committee to Develop New Alternatives

July 5, 2018 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council voted on June 14 to remand its draft Clam Dredge Framework Adjustment to the Habitat Committee for further development. The Council also issued a specific request to the surfclam industry to propose additional alternatives for consideration and analysis.

The Council initially was scheduled to select the framework’s range of alternatives, which then would have been analyzed in detail over the summer by the Habitat Plan Development Team (PDT). Under this timeline, the Council potentially could have taken final action on the framework in September.

However, during the Council’s recent meeting in Portland, ME, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS, NOAA Fisheries) Regional Administrator expressed concern that all of the alternatives proposed to date in the Clam Dredge Framework appeared to include a fair amount of “sensitive habitat” and may not meet the framework’s “purpose and need for action.”

The Regional Administrator recognized that additional analyses were forthcoming and stressed that no conclusive determination had been made.

Nonetheless, the Council clearly heard the words of caution, noting that NMFS may have a challenging time approving proposed surfclam hydraulic dredge exemption areas within the Great South Channel Habitat Management Area (HMA) if the framework’s purpose and need aren’t met.

Read the full release here

Gulf’s deep-sea coral granted new protections by federal regulators

July 3, 2018 — Federal fisheries regulators have approved a plan granting new protections to some of the Gulf of Mexico’s oldest and most fragile stands of deep-sea coral.

The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council unanimously voted to designate about 480 square miles as Habitat Areas of Particular Concern, a status that would make them a priority for conservation and scientific study. The protected areas are broken up into 21 sites, most off the Louisiana coast.

The council’s designations have been submitted to the National Marine Fisheries Service for review. Final approval is expected after a two-month public comment period.

Environmental groups had been lobbying for the protections for years. The Pew Charitable Trusts, which gathered 16,000 signatures in support, called the council’s decision “a major milestone” for critically important marine habitat.

Read the full story at The Times-Picayune

Senate GOP seeks overhaul of Endangered Species Act

July 3, 2018 — Senate Republicans are embarking on an ambitious effort to overhaul the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Draft legislation due to be released Monday by Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) would give new powers and responsibilities for state officials to determine how animals and plants should be protected.

The GOP contends that its goal is not to weaken protections, but to take advantage of the experience of state regulators.

“When it comes to the Endangered Species Act, the status quo is not good enough,” Barrasso said in a statement to The Hill in advance of the unveiling. “We must do more than just keep listed species on life support — we need to see them recovered. This draft legislation will increase state and local input and improve transparency in the listing process.”Conservationists, however, say the new bill represents the most significant threat in years to the 44-year-old law, which has been credited with rescuing the bald eagle, gray wolf and grizzly bear from possible extinction.

“It’s a bill which, on a broad basis, rewrites the ESA, with a whole host of consequences — as far as we can tell, almost entirely adverse consequences — for the protection of species,” said Bob Dreher, senior vice president for conservation programs at Defenders of Wildlife.

Dreher and other critics fear the effort would tilt the balance too far toward industries while de-emphasizing the role of the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service.

“This bill is all about politics. It’s not about science. It’s especially not about better ways to conserve endangered species,” he continued. “It’s a partisan bill.”

Read the full story at The Hill

ALASKA: Kodiak May See $11.5 Million in Salmon Disaster Relief

July 2, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — A National Marine Fisheries Service internal document sent to the Kodiak Island Borough on Monday details preliminary estimates for regional allocation of the federal relief funding for the 2016 pink salmon disaster. According to the document, of the $56 million in relief funding that was allocated to the Gulf of Alaska for those affected by the 2016 pink salmon disaster, $11,477,873 might be set aside for Kodiak.

NOAA spokesperson Julie Speegle said that the numbers in the document are simply an estimate and are not set in stone.

“The $56.3 million allocation across all impacted fishing districts and gear types has not been determined. That is being worked on over the next month by PSMFC in consultation with the State of Alaska and NOAA,” Speegle wrote in an email. “Finalization occurs when the spend plan has been completed and the grant award has been approved.”

According to Speegle, the estimate of the regional allocations is based on preliminary ex-vessel losses to commercial pink salmon harvesters in 2016 and it is “difficult to predict” the likelihood of final allocation.

With regards to the rest of the $56 million, preliminary estimates for regional allocation are as follows: Southeastern – $10,030,734; Yakutat – $46,712; Lower Cook Inlet – $310,352; Prince William Sound – $32,200,363; South Alaska Peninsula – $1,752,664; Chignik – $542,635.

Another $63 million will be allocated among seven other regions for various fishery disasters in Washington and California.

At a recent Kodiak Fisheries Workgroup meeting, the City of Kodiak and the Kodiak Island Borough’s D.C. lobbyist Brad Gilman explained that NMFS and the office of the Governor have to come to a spend plan that identifies the categories of entities which could receive funding and then quantifies how much each of the categories receive within the

available funds. Gilman said that once approved, the Pacific State Marine Fisheries Commission (the entity charged with administering the funds) will likely “start cutting checks immediately.”

A spokesperson for PSMFC said that a distribution method is still pending.

“We were notified that we’ll be administering the funds,” the spokesperson said. “Currently, we don’t have a distribution method figured out.”

Rep. Louise Stutes (R-Kodiak) once again expressed her delight that Kodiak will be receiving some relief funding. Stutes said she’s been pressing the governor’s office to ensure that the funds are distributed, not just to fishermen, but to all of those who were affected.

“I want to make sure that our processor workers receive some of those dollars,” she said.

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