Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford meeting brings wind, fishing industries together

October 5, 2017 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Jim Kendall painted the city’s streets with snow when he articulated how fishermen may feel about offshore wind during a meeting Wednesday that brought both sides together.

As a child on SouthCoast, Kendall spent his snow days sledding on the streets.

“You just can’t do stuff like that anymore,” he said.

He’s seen the same influx in traffic on the ocean in his evolution from fisherman to fishermen representative for Vineyard Wind. Time has added stock limits, marine monuments and the latest is offshore wind. More traffic equates to more difficulty fishing.

“That’s part of the problem,” Kendall said. “There’s constraints now where there never were earlier.”

Both offshore wind and commercial fishing understand neither is leaving the ocean. So John Quinn chaired a New England Fisheries Management Council habitat committee meeting in New Bedford, which invited offshore wind representatives.

“My general policy view is I’m viewing wind as complementing not replacing fishing,” Quinn said. “That balance is why we’re having meetings, seminars and symposiums about it.”

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Gov. Baker team swims around marine monument controversy

Trump administration may reverse Obama decision creating monument

October 5, 2017 — BOSTON — In the course of the past year, a Connecticut-sized marine area off the coast of Cape Cod has been officially designated a national monument by one president and targeted for potential changes by the next.

It became subject to a new ban on commercial fishing, and now might have that ban removed.

Throughout the ping-ponging presidential decisions that have left the future of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument somewhat murky, the same concerns Gov. Charlie Baker first raised almost two years ago remain on the mind of his top environmental official.

“I think we’ve always pointed to the process, and making sure there was enough of a process that we know the right decisions have been made,” Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Matthew Beaton said. “We weren’t definitely saying the right or wrong decision was made. We definitely think there is value in conservation of those resources, but it’s just is the management plan that’s put out as part of it the right one, and I think we would know that answer through a more robust process, and that’s what we’ve always pointed to as having not occurred.”

In September 2016, President Barack Obama declared the canyons and seamounts area, about 130 miles southeast of Massachusetts, the Atlantic Ocean’s first marine monument. When the White House changed hands this year, it was one of 27 monuments the President Donald Trump charged his interior secretary with reviewing.

Trump’s executive order called on Secretary Ryan Zinke to study certain monuments designated under the Antiquities Act, including those where the Interior Department determined the decision “was made without adequate public outreach and coordination with relevant stakeholders.”

Read the full story from State House News Service at WWLP

NCFC Member Grant Moore Joins Sen. Lee, Chairman Bishop on Antiquities Act Panel in Washington

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) – October 4, 2017 – Grant Moore, president of NCFC member the Atlantic Offshore Lobstermen’s Association, joined Utah Senator Mike Lee and House Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop in a Heritage Foundation panel today on Capitol Hill to discuss national monuments and the Antiquities Act.

At the panel, “National Monuments and the Communities They Impact: Views Beyond the Beltway,” Mr. Moore criticized last year’s designation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument by President Barack Obama, which he said lacked sufficient industry input and public deliberation. The monument designation affects fisheries worth more than $100 million, he said.

“We’re not opposed to monuments,” Mr. Moore said. “We’re opposed to the process in which it was done. It was not transparent. It was not open. If we hadn’t stumbled upon what was happening, we would have had a signature and we wouldn’t have had a say at all.”

Mr. Moore complimented Chairman Bishop for meeting with fishermen and listening to their story in a visit to New Bedford, Mass., last year arranged by Saving Seafood’s National Coalition for Fishing Communities. He also praised another meeting organized by the NCFC earlier this year in which Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke met with fishermen in Boston as part of his review of national monuments.

Secretary Zinke has reportedly recommended to President Donald Trump that commercial fishing be allowed in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Monument. The Atlantic Offshore Lobstermen’s Association, based in Newport, R.I., was one of eleven NCFC member organizations that publicly voiced its support for the Secretary’s reported recommendations. At today’s panel, Mr. Moore praised these recommendations, but called them a “Band Aid” that would not prevent the Antiquities Act from being misused to create large national monuments in the future.

“We need to reform the Antiquities Act so it’s not abused,” Mr. Moore said. “Nobody should have the power with the stroke of a pen to put people out of business. Nobody. It has to go through a public process.”

In his remarks, Senator Lee also called for changes to the Antiquities Act. “What’s needed is a wholesale reform of the Antiquities Act to return its monumental power back to where it belongs – to the people who reside closest to the proposed monuments,” he said. “Local residents must have ultimate say over whether their communities can be upended in this way.”

Chairman Bishop discussed the original intent of the Antiquities Act to save endangered antiquities while leaving the smallest footprint possible. But with national monuments now frequently encompassing hundreds of millions of acres, he argued that they are no longer leaving the smallest footprint possible.

“What started as something noble and grand turned into something far different, far less, and it is time now to reform it and make it useful again,” Chairman Bishop said. “The Antiquities Act desperately needs some kind of reform because it is being abused today.”

Watch the full panel here

NCFC Members Bring Concerns of Commercial Fishermen to House Hearing on Fisheries Bills

WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) – September 26, 2017 – Members of Saving Seafood’s National Coalition for Fishing Communities testified this morning at a hearing of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans on four bills that would modify federal fisheries management.

Jon Mitchell, mayor of the nation’s top-grossing fishing port New Bedford, Massachusetts and head of the New Bedford Harbor Development Commission, and Mike Merrifield, Fish Section Chairman of the Southeastern Fisheries Association (SFA) testified on the needs of commercial fishermen and reforms they would like to see to the Magnuson-Stevens Act.

Mayor Mitchell and Mr. Merrifield were joined by several other witnesses, including Assistant Administrator for NOAA Fisheries Chris Oliver, who testified on the reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act and the possibility of allowing additional flexibility in stock rebuilding. Earlier this year, commercial fishermen from around the country united to support Mr. Oliver’s appointment to NOAA.

At this morning’s hearing, the subcommittee considered two bills to amend and reauthorize the Magnuson-Stevens Act, as well as bills that would alter recreational fisheries and red snapper management.

While Mayor Mitchell called the Magnuson-Stevens Act “generally speaking…a success story” that has helped make America’s fisheries “at once among the world’s largest and most sustainable,” he called for more flexibility in fisheries management to allow fishermen to catch their full scientifically justified quota. In particular, he criticized the ten-year rebuilding requirement for overfished stocks.

“The ten-year rule is arbitrary, and its establishment was at odds with the underlying premise of regional management,” Mayor Mitchell said. “Regional councils should have the flexibility to set rebuilding timelines for stocks under their jurisdiction based on the unique biological and ecological conditions, and by giving appropriate weight to the economic wellbeing of fishing communities.”

The mayor was also critical of the Antiquities Act, by which presidents can designate large national monuments with little or no input from scientists and local stakeholders. The Act was recently used to create and enlarge several marine monuments, including the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument in New England and the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in Hawaii.

“The continued use of a parallel process outside the Magnuson-Stevens Act, however well-meaning, ultimately works against the long-term interests of all stakeholders,” Mayor Mitchell said. “We all lose when the checks and balances employed in the council process are abandoned.  A decision-making process driven by the simple assertion of executive branch authority ultimately leaves ocean management decisions permanently vulnerable to short-term political considerations.”

Mr. Merrifield voiced skepticism of efforts to shift federally managed species over to state management, saying that states manage many fisheries in such a way that recreational fishermen get most or, in some cases, all of the fish.

“SFA firmly believes there should be no reward for exceeding [annual catch limits] and that all stakeholders – commercial, for-hire and private anglers – should each be held accountable for their impacts on our nation’s fish resources,” Mr. Merrifield testified. “We must resist changes to the law that could be interpreted to remove this accountability.”

Mr. Merrifield also testified about the SFA’s strong opposition to the RED SNAPPER Act, introduced by Rep. Garret Graves of Louisiana, which would give states more authority over red snapper management.

“The justification [for this legislation] is built entirely on the misconception that anglers can only fish for red snapper for 3 days (now 39 days) in federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico,” Mr. Merrifield said. “This is a false narrative. Anglers can fish 365-days per year for red snapper and all of the other 38 species in the Gulf reef fish complex. They can only kill red snapper on 3 (or 39) of those days. To be clear, there is unlimited fishing opportunity for recreational anglers in the federal waters of the Gulf which calls into question the actual need for, and defense of, this legislation.”

Read Mayor Mitchell’s full testimony here

Read Mr. Merrifield’s full testimony here

New Bedford Standard-Times: Fishing industry may get a win from Washington

September 25, 2017 — The unexpected re-examination of the status of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument under President Trump is a welcome development for New Bedford’s commercial fisherman.

The nearly 5,000 square miles of protected waters that lie about 130 miles southeast of Cape Cod was closed off to commercial fishing last year when President Obama designated the area the first Atlantic marine national monument. The decision came despite fishing industry outcries about both the lack of public input during the process and the harm to the fishing way of life.

Several industry organizations, including the New England Fishery Management Council, rightly pointed out, at the time, that fisheries have worked with government, scientific, and environmental communities for years to create regulations and oversight procedures to protect marine resources. And that important regional stakeholders were working on an ocean management plan to preserve resources.

Most notably, fisheries have been managed for more than 40 years under the federal Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, put in place to protect marine environments, prevent overfishing, and promote biological sustainability of marine life.

Read the full editorial at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Debate Over Opening U.S. Atlantic Marine Monument To Fishing

September 22, 2017 — A leaked memo draft indicates that current Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is considering allowing fishing in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument.

The monument covers about 5,000 square miles off Cape Cod and it’s the first national monument in the U.S.’s Atlantic waters, designated last year by the Obama Administration.

When President Obama first created the monument, he said he was doing it in a way that “respects the fishing industry’s unique role in New England’s economy.” However many commercial fishing groups disagreed, as the monument designation banned most commercial fishing in the area, with red crab and lobster fishermen given seven additional years to fish there.

Read and listen to the full story at WBUR

Trump Plan to Open Up Monuments Draws Industry Praise, Environmentalists’ Ire

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is also moving to expand fishing, hunting at national monuments

September 21, 2017 — More than 100 miles off Cape Cod, a patch of the Atlantic Ocean conceals four undersea mountains, three canyons deeper than the Grand Canyon, and serves as a refuge for the world’s most endangered sea turtle.

It also supports a buffet of tuna and swordfish vital to the livelihood of New Jersey fisherman Dan Mears, whose lines have been banned from the zone since former President Barack Obama designated the area as the Atlantic’s first federal marine preserve last year.

But the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts could reopen to commercial fishing if President Donald Trump enacts the recent recommendations of his Interior Secretary to reduce protections of land and sea preserves known as national monuments.

“I couldn’t believe it when they cut that off,” said Mr. Mears, 58, of Barnegat Light, N.J., who owns the 70-foot fishing vessel Monica, and estimates he lost about one third of his catch after the area was closed to him and other types of commercial fishing last year. “It’s going to be huge if we can get that back.”

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, whose department manages federal lands, is making major moves to open up protected swaths of land and ocean to industry, recreational hunting, shooting and fishing.

In Hawaii, Mr. Zinke’s recommendation to allow fishing in the Remote Pacific islands about 300 miles south of the Hawaiian Islands could increase the catch there by about 4%, said Sean Martin, president of the Hawaii Longline Association.

“That may not sound like much, but if you cut your salary by 3% or 4% it’s a big deal to you,” Mr. Martin said. “Certainly this will have economic importance to us.”

Read the full story at the Wall Street Journal

Marine monument may be opened to fishing under Trump

September 19, 2017 — US Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has recommended that President Trump make significant changes to 10 national monuments, including proposals to allow commercial fishing in a protected expanse off Cape Cod and to open woodlands in Northern Maine to “active timber management.”

Zinke’s recommendations, first reported by the Washington Post, could have significant consequences for New England. Allowing commercial fishing in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, which encompasses nearly 5,000 square miles, would undermine the main goals of the controversial preserve, environmental advocates said.

Opponents of the marine monument, which includes most of the commercial fishing industry, hailed the recommendations. They have argued the area was protected with insufficient input from their industry.

“The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument was designated after behind-closed-door campaigns led by large, multinational, environmental lobbying firms, despite vocal opposition from local and federal officials, fisheries managers, and the fishing industry,” said Eric Reid, general manager of Seafreeze Shoreside in Narragansett, R.I. “But the reported recommendations from the Interior Department make us hopeful that we can recover the areas we have fished sustainably for decades.”

Grant Moore, president of the Atlantic Offshore Lobstermen’s Association, added: “There seems to be a huge misconception that there are limitless areas where displaced fishermen can go. Basically, with the stroke of a pen, President Obama put fishermen and their crews out of work and harmed all the shore-side businesses that support the fishing industry.”

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

Shrink at least 4 national monuments and modify a half-dozen others, Zinke tells Trump

September 17, 2017 — Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has recommended that President Trump modify 10 national monuments created by his immediate predecessors, including shrinking the boundaries of at least four western sites, according to a copy of the report obtained by The Washington Post.

The memorandum, which the White House has refused to release since Zinke submitted it late last month, does not specify exact reductions for the four protected areas Zinke would have Trump narrow — Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, Nevada’s Gold Butte, and Oregon’s Cascade-Siskiyou — or the two marine national monuments — the Pacific Remote Islands and Rose Atoll — for which he raised the same prospect. The two Utah sites encompass a total of more than 3.2 million acres, part of the reason they have aroused such intense emotions since their designation.

The secretary’s set of recommendations also would change the way all 10 targeted monuments are managed. It emphasizes the need to adjust the proclamations to address concerns of local officials or affected industries, saying the administration should permit “traditional uses” now restricted within the monuments’ boundaries, such as grazing, logging, coal mining and commercial fishing.

The memorandum, labeled “Final Report Summarizing Findings of the Review of Designations Under the Antiquities Act,” shows Zinke concluded after a nearly four-month review that both Republican and Democratic presidents went too far in recent decades in limiting commercial activities in protected areas. The act, signed into law by President Theodore Roosevelt, gives the president wide latitude to protect public lands and waters that face an imminent threat.

“It appears that certain monuments were designated to prevent economic activity such as grazing, mining and timber production rather than to protect specific objects,” the report reads, adding that while grazing is rarely banned “outright,” subsequent management decisions “can have the indirect result of hindering livestock-grazing uses.”

Read the full story at the Washington Post

 

Eagle-Tribune: Outdated Antiquities Act needs revisions

August 28, 2017 — The announcement last week that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke had wrapped up his review of 27 recently established national monuments did little to lessen the controversy surrounding their status. Zinke’s unwillingness to be transparent about his review and its results all but guarantees a legal quagmire.

While most of the attention has been focused on Utah and the newly created Bears Ears National Monument, there are also high stakes in New England, where fishermen, boaters and environmentalists are waiting to see how the Trump administration views the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine Monument.

All sides are already threatening lawsuits, so no matter the outcome, the issue will likely not be settled for years.

“The fate of these treasures shouldn’t be left hanging in the balance,” Peter Shelley, senior counsel for the Conservation Law Foundation, said in a statement last week. “Some 3 million people — more than 98 percent of the commenters — voiced their support for keeping our national monuments intact. Submitting recommendations that defy the will of the American people and then withholding these recommendations from the public is utterly unacceptable. The president has no legal authority to alter national monuments, and we will take him to court if he tries.”

If anything, the debate over Canyons and Seamounts shows the need for Congress to update the outdated Antiquities Act, which allows presidential administrations to designate and reshape national monuments with little or no oversight.

Read the full editorial at the Eagle-Tribune