Saving Seafood

Report finds most ships breaking U.S. right whale speed limits

July 23, 2021 — An analysis of automated ship tracking data shows that nearly 90 percent of vessels transiting mandatory speed zones to protect endangered northern right whales are violating the speed limits, according to a new report.

The highest level of compliance — with about one-third of vessels obeying the 10-knot limit — was documented in the Off Race Point seasonal management area, near Cape Cod, Mass., where NOAA regularly announces speed restrictions to protect migrating whales.

The lowest levels of compliance — with nearly 90 percent of vessels busting the 10-knot limit — was off the coast between Wilmington, N.C., and Brunswick, Ga. That reach includes approaches to the burgeoning ports of Charleston, S.C., and Savannah, Ga., where cargo traffic and container ship sizes are growing.

“If NOAA is serious about its mandate to save North Atlantic right whales from extinction, speed zones must be designated in the areas where whales currently are, and they must be enforced,” said Whitney Webber, campaign director at the environmental group Oceana, which compiled the analysis using Automatic Identification System data from 2017 to 2020. “Until speed zone rules are mandatory and violators held accountable, North Atlantic right whales will continue to die on NOAA’s watch.”

The AIS data comes via Global Fishing Watch, an international nonprofit organization founded by Oceana in partnership with Google and SkyTruth. That database recently yielded another report about foreign squid fishing vessels mounting possible incursions into Argentina’s exclusive economic zone.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Regional Ocean Plan Likely to Be Approved by Thanksgiving — Maine to Benefit

November 3, 2016 — The Northeast Ocean Plan will be the first coordinated ocean strategy of its kind in the country when it is adopted by the National Ocean Council. That is likely to happen before Thanksgiving.

The Ocean Plan will not create new laws, regulations or penalties, but it will increase oversight of the area between the high-tide zone to 200 miles out to sea while coordinating 140 federal laws that regulate ocean activities in the Northeast.

That sounds overwhelming. It isn’t. The heart of the new plan is an easy-to-use data mapping tool that shows which laws apply to an activity or location and which agencies oversee them. Different uses, habitats, shipping lanes, infrastructure and more can be layered on one map to identify jurisdiction and potential conflicts.

The regional plan was developed in response to the 2010 Executive Order on Ocean Policy which requires better coastal and ocean management. Members from six Northeastern states, ten federal agencies, ten tribes and the New England Fisheries Management Council formed the Northeast Regional Planning Body (RPB) to help craft it.

The goal is to coordinate planning based on regional information, even as the ocean environment and marine uses change. Improving and understanding marine life and habitats and ecosystem-based management are important guiding principles.

The Northeast states, which already have a history of working together on fisheries issues, started work on the ocean plan in 2012. The final draft was released for review October 19, making the Northeast Region the first in the country to complete a regional plan.

The Northeast RPB sought public and scientific input through hundreds of informal gatherings and public meetings over the past four years while drafting the plan. Part of their research included going to fishing wharves and small towns to get input. Planners incorporated the public comments and their responses into the final plan.

If the Northeast Ocean Plan is approved later this month as expected, implementation will soon follow. The Northeast Ocean Data Portal, which allows instant mapping of different ocean values and uses based on peer-reviewed data, makes it easy to identify where interests overlap and which agency has jurisdiction.

Read the full story at The Free Press

House Water, Power and Oceans Newsletter August 2016

September 6, 2016 — The following was released by the House Committee on Natural Resources’ Subcommittee on Water, Power, and Oceans:

Over the past few months, the House Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans worked towards enhancing water and power supplies, instilling federal transparency and accountability and promoting fishing access in domestic and international waters. In the final months of the 114th Congress, the Subcommittee will continue these efforts through legislative and oversight activities. For additional information about the Subcommittee please visit our website.

PROTECTING FISHING ACCESS

NATIONAL OCEAN POLICY HAS FISHING AND FARMING INTERESTS CONCERNED

The Subcommittee held a May hearing on President Obama’s National Ocean Policy. Following unsuccessful efforts to pass major national ocean policy legislation during three successive Congresses under both Democrat and Republican majorities, the Administration initiated the development of a sweeping multi-agency federal management plan for oceans, which culminated in July 2010 when President Obama issued Executive Order 13547. This Executive Order created the National Ocean Council, which includes the heads of 27 different federal agencies. The National Ocean Policy imposes a new governance structure over agencies to ensure to the fullest extent that all agency actions are consistent with the objectives laid out in the Executive Order, including marine spatial planning and ecosystem-based management.

The Subcommittee heard from witnesses representing fishing interests in the Northeast and Gulf of Mexico and a western farming and ranching witness. The Administration refused to provide a witness for the hearing to help clear up many unanswered questions. Representative Bradley Byrne (R-AL) successfully offered an amendment preventing federal funds from being used to execute actions under the National Ocean Policy to the Fiscal Year 2017 Interior Department appropriations bill.

CHAIRMAN BISHOP VISITS NEW ENGLAND COMMERCIAL FISHERIES PORT

Following the one-year anniversary of the House passage of H.R. 1335, legislation reauthorizing the Magnuson-Stevens Act, House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop spent June 2, 2016 touring one of the Nation’s leading commercial fishing ports in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Accompanied by New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell, Representative Bill Keating, and fishing industry leaders, Bishop spent the day touring the harbor and shore-side facilities that support this robust working waterfront.

Chairman Bishop also participated in a roundtable discussion with dozens of industry representatives at the historic New Bedford Whaling Museum. While the roundtable initially focused on the work of the Committee and efforts to reauthorize the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the conversation quickly turned to the proposed Marine National Monument off the coast of Massachusetts currently under consideration by President Obama. During the roundtable, industry representatives noted the lack of transparency and presented an industry alternative to the proposal. This alternative mirrors the unified stance taken by state fisheries directors from Maine to Florida outlined in a May 9 letter to President Obama from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

Following this visit, Chairman Rob Bishop penned an op-ed in the Boston Herald discussing the Administration’s Marine National Monument proposal and highlighting the lack of transparency and stakeholder input in the Antiquities Act process. The Chairman’s op-ed can be found here. In response to widespread local opposition to this proposal, Representative Lee Zeldin (R-NY) successfully offered an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2017 Interior Department appropriations bill that prevents federal funds from being used to designate a Marine National Monument in U.S. federal waters (three miles from shore out to 200 miles). This followed the House’s June passage of Zeldin’s H.R. 3070, the “EEZ Zone Clarification and Access Act.” The bill allows recreational striped bass fishing in the Block Island Transit Zone and is the result of grassroots efforts by Long Island fishermen who testified at Natural Resources Committee hearings.

Read the full newsletter at the House Committee on Natural Resources