Saving Seafood

Feds allocate $200M in disaster relief funds for Gulf, Alaska and West Coast fisheries

June 22, 2018 — Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced the allocation of $200 million in fishery disaster relief funds appropriated by Congress on Wednesday to assist fishermen affected by hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria in 2017 and disasters that devastated the West Coast and Alaska fishermen from 2014 to 2017.

“Last year, American fishing communities across the Gulf and Caribbean were devastated by some of the most destructive hurricanes in recent memory, while Pacific fisheries have suffered from years of hardship,” said Ross, according to a NOAA press release. “This Administration stands shoulder to shoulder with these communities as they prove their strength and resilience in the face of adversity.”

The government has allocated $25.8 million in disaster assistance to those affected by the 2015-2016 closure of California’s commercial Dungeness and rock crab fisheries and another $3.9 million to the Yurok Tribe stemming from the collapse of the fall Chinook fishery in 2016.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Trump rescinds Obama-era ocean policy

June 22, 2018 — In another strike at his predecessor’s legacy, and one that could have long-term consequences for New England, President Trump this week rescinded an executive order by President Obama that established the first national ocean policy, which made protecting coastal waters and the Great Lakes a priority.

Trump said his executive order would cut bureaucracy and benefit business, while environmental advocates denounced his decision, saying it strongly favors commercial interests over conservation.

Trump’s order could alter New England’s plans to protect the Gulf of Maine and other waters in the region. It replaces the National Ocean Council, which brought together a host of federal departments and committees that work on ocean issues, with a new “streamlined” committee that will focus on science and technology and resource management.

It will also eliminate nine regional planning bodies around the country, which the White House called “unnecessary.”

“Claims that the ocean is being abandoned are not supported by the facts,” said Drew Minkiewicz, an attorney at the Fisheries Survival Fund in Washington, D.C., which represents the scallops industry.

He supported the elimination of the regional planning bodies, which he argued had failed in its mission to bring together competing interests, such as offshore wind-farm developers and fishermen, who have been at odds over plans to build turbines off Martha’s Vineyard.

Eliminating the groups “will not lead to less coordination amongst the federal government because they were not doing their stated job,” he said.

Officials at the National Ocean Industries Association, which represents offshore drilling and wind companies, praised Trump’s order, saying Obama’s policies were “uber-bureaucratic” and “caused consternation, uncertainty, and concern for the offshore energy industry.”

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

MASSACHUSETTS: GOP Senate candidate Geoff Diehl outlines plan to help fishermen

June 22, 2018 — Geoff Diehl made his second visit to New Bedford this week to speak with fishermen.

The state representative and candidate running for U.S. Senate against Elizabeth Warren spoke to about five people within the fishing industry at Pier 3 on Thursday. It came just days after he attended a fishing roundtable discussion at the Whaling Museum, which discussed the groundfishing ban affecting the industry.

This second trip of the week was to unveil a set of guidelines he plans to follow to help fishermen if elected.

They involved repealing the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument Status, keeping Carlos Rafael’s fishing licenses in New Bedford and reducing the regulatory burden.

Diehl suggested establishing a NOAA headquarters in New Bedford to better facilitate discussions between the agency and fishermen in the nation’s most valuable seaport.

“They should at least have a satellite if not maybe move their main offices here,” Diehl said. “I think that would make a lot of sense to have them interact with the actual fishermen.”

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

New Bedford Standard-Times: Time for NOAA to let Sector IX fish again

June 21, 2018 — Seventy-two thousand pounds of grey sole.

That’s the amount of fish that NOAA calculates Carlos Rafael misreported in his illegal groundfish scheme.

Multiple people at a Monday meeting of the New Bedford fishing community cited the number. So after months of NOAA saying it could not let Sector IX fishermen back on the water because it didn’t know how much overfishing took place in the sector dominated by Rafael, now the federal agency knows.

We don’t officially know it from NOAA, however, because the oversight group remains silent, even as the ban on the groundfish sector drags on into its eighth month. We know it because the members of the New Bedford fishing community — the fishermen, the fuel depot owners, the gear suppliers, the settlement houses — are all struggling because of the lost fishing. And they cited the number publicly Monday, based on information from NOAA itself.

“Everyone knows (the money in) the account is overdrawn. How do we get the money back in the bank,” asked Sector 9 attorney Andrew Saunders.

That’s the conundrum. The sector is ready to deduct the 72,000 pounds of grey sole from its fishing effort. But it needs NOAA to tell them to go ahead, and the agency remains silent. As it has for months.

The inaction has caused an estimated 240 jobs lost across the Northeast, estimated SMAST professor Dan Georgianna.

Richard Canastra, the co-owner of the New Bedford Seafood Display Auction, estimated it will take a long time to bring the groundfish industry back in New Bedford after so many months without fishing. It was not a very profitable industry to begin with, but it played a key role in keeping many of the New Bedford waterfront support industries active.

Read the full opinion piece at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Extension of an Interim Rule to Reduce Golden Tilefish Catch Limits in Federal Waters of the South Atlantic Region

June 21, 2018 — The following was released by NOAA:

KEY MESSAGE:

  • In response to a request from the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council, NOAA Fisheries published a final interim rule on January 2, 2018, which temporarily reduces golden tilefish catch limits through July 1, 2018. The purpose of the action is to reduce overfishing (rate of removal is too high) of golden tilefish, based on the most recent population assessment, while management measures are being developed to end overfishing. NOAA Fisheries is extending the interim measures for an additional 186 days beginning July 2, 2018. The interim measures will remain in effect through January 3, 2019.
  • The commercial longline component for golden tilefish in federal waters of the South Atlantic closed on March 25, 2018, as landings reached the temporary 2018 commercial catch limit for the longline component. As a reminder, the commercial longline component will open on January 1, 2019
SUMMARY OF CHANGES:
  • The final interim rule temporarily reduced the total catch limit for golden tilefish from 558,036 to 323,000 pounds gutted weight. Using the existing allocations, the temporary catch limits are 313,310 pounds gutted weight for the commercial sector and 2,187 fish for the recreational sector. For commercial fishermen, the hook-and-line catch limit is 78,328 pounds gutted weight and the longline catch limit is 234,982 pounds gutted weight.
  • The interim measures are being extended for an additional 186 days while the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council develops Regulatory Amendment 28 to the Fishery Management Plan for the Snapper-Grouper Fishery in the South Atlantic Region (Regulatory Amendment 28).
This bulletin serves as a Small Entity Compliance Guide, complying with section 212 of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996.
See the complete Fishery Bulletin for additional information, including a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).

New Bedford fishermen, businesses losing out while waiting on NOAA

June 20, 2018 — The wall of windows within the Harborview Room on the top floor of the Whaling Museum provided a look of serenity across the waterfront as the sun shined down on countless fishing vessels.

The conversation within the walls painted a much different picture as those from the fishing industry described the suffocating effects that NOAA’s groundfishing ban has imposed on fishermen and shoreside businesses.

“If something doesn’t happen with groundfishing soon, it’s gone,” general manager of Hercules SLR John Reardon said.

NOAA implemented the ban Nov. 20 and has continued because of an overage calculated at 72,000 pounds of grey sole, according to multiple people who spoke Monday evening.

The overage represents the amount of fish calculated by NOAA that Carlos Rafael misreported. He is serving a 46-month prison sentence, but the NOAA punishment aspect has held many along the waterfront hostage.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

AIS awarded $47m contract to monitor fishing in Northeast US

June 19, 2018 — The US National Marine Fisheries Service, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has tapped AIS Inc., a Marion, Massachusetts-based company, to monitor fishing in the Northeast US for the next five years, the company said in a press release. The contract is worth $47 million.

The job will entail employing 80 to 100 observers riding on commercial fishing vessels all along the northeastern coast of the US, from Maine to North Carolina, covering 10,000 sea days per year, the company said. All observers must have a bachelor of science degree in biological or ecological services and pass a three-week training to test before becoming certified.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

HAWAII: Federal money coming for ocean management

June 18, 2018 — The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee this week passed the Commerce, Science, and Justice Appropriations Bill for fiscal year 2019.

U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) worked to include $1 million to preserve Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, more than $36 million to improve tsunami warnings, and nearly $30 million to protect coral reefs in Hawaii and across the country.

“We were successful at including more federal funding to help us manage Papahanaumokuakea and protect our coral reefs,” said Schatz, a member of the Appropriations Committee. “This bill also funds our tsunami warning system so that we can strengthen tsunami forecasting and better protect Hawaii’s coastal communities.”

Key funding in the Commerce, Science, and Justice Appropriations Bill sought by Schatz includes:

  • $1 million for Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. The bill authorizes NOAA to make a competitive grant of up to $1 million for research and management activities in Papahanaumokuakea. The funding is subject to a 100 percent non-federal match, and will bring new resources to keep our Hawaiian archipelago healthy and productive.
  • $31.6 million for the NOAA Tsunami Program. The program provides funding to coastal states for preparedness activities such as inundation mapping, disaster planning, and tsunami education. Despite deep cuts proposed by President Trump, Senator Schatz helped protect funding for this critical program.

Read the full story at The Garden Island

US considers upping reporting requirements for lobster harvesters

June 18, 2018 — The US’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is seeking comment on changes that would increase reporting requirements for US lobster harvesters, including a requirement that federal lobster permit holders report on catches for each fishing trip.

The changes are part of Addendum XXVI to Amendment 3 of the Interstate Fisheries Management Plan for American Lobster, which has been approved by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, NOAA explained in a statement issued this week. They would “improve the scope and type of data collected in the lobster fishery in order to improve stock assessments, assess potential impacts of wind farms, and better assess interactions with marine mammals,” the agency said.

The changes are not yet in a proposed rule and “would be completed through a separate, future rulemaking,” the agency clarified.

Other recommendations for reporting requirements include having NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service collect data on where, when, and how long fishermen are fishing and expanding the agency’s offshore biological sampling program.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Feds weigh costly new regulation for Maine lobstermen

June 15, 2018 — The federal government is considering requiring all Maine lobstermen to report their harvests after each outing, a move that may face stiff opposition from an industry worried about the cost.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration requested comment on the proposal in a notice posted to the Federal Register on Wednesday. Maine is the only state that doesn’t require all lobstermen to report catch-level information after each haul, and the policy change is expected to receive backlash from its powerful fishery lobby.

“We’re going to get a lot of probably negative comments on this because it’s going to be a burden for people,” said Peter Burns, a lobster policy analyst with NOAA’s Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office. “The lobster industry is very strong. For the longest time, they wanted to protect their fishing information, their proprietary business information.”

The Maine Lobstermen’s Association couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

Lobsters accounted for 44 percent of Maine’s total commercial catches in 2017, the largest portion of the 254 million pounds of fish netted, and brought in nearly $434 million. The total lobster supply chain adds as much as $1 billion to Maine’s economy each year, according to a 2016 study by the Maine Lobster Dealers’ Association. The administration says only 10 percent of the state’s lobstermen currently report trip-level data.

Read the full story at the Washington Examiner