June 11, 2020 — The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) received a $150,000 grant from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to hold a symposium on current knowledge of fisheries and offshore wind interactions.
The first of its kind project, “Understanding the State of the Science,” will advance agency, fishing industry, offshore wind energy developer and public understanding of existing research on interactions between the two industries, RODA said.
June 11, 2020 — In the past few decades, particularly since the start of the 21st century, global seafood consumption has seen a steady uptick, fueled by an international boom in hatcheries and improved techniques in fish farming and aquaculture. An improvement in preservation and processing methods has also allowed for longer storage of raw fish and shellfish, boosting international trade of the same. Mounting recognition of the health benefits of seafood as compared to other forms of meat has led to a notable spike in seafood consumption in many countries, and the United States is following the same pattern, albeit a little slowly. These are some of the reasons our trade financing company keeps a close eye on the industry.
So what is the outlook for U.S.-based importers, and how have recent developments impacted the industry?
The U.S.’s Growing Love For Seafood
According to a report released by the National Maritime Fisheries Services (NOAA Fisheries) in February of this year, Americans ate an average of 16.1 pounds of seafood per capita in 2018. This number is a very slight increase from the 16 pounds per capita consumed in 2017, but is important for the United States, given the country’s traditional preference for other meats like chicken and/or beef. As more consumers include it in their diets, the demand for fresh as well as frozen seafood is going to increase. The U.S., for the most part, continues to meet this demand from overseas markets.
The NOAA Fisheries report noted that approximately 85%-95% of seafood consumed in the United States is imported from other countries, as per NOAA Fisheries chief scientist Cisco Werner. Although a study from May 2019 noted that this figure may be significantly inflated because not all of these imports are of foreign origin, there is no denying the strong contribution of imports to the United States’ seafood consumption.
June 10, 2020 — President Trump used the occasion of a visit to Maine last week to do right by an industry that hasn’t had much good news lately when he reopened to commercial fishing nearly 5,000 square miles of ocean south of New England that President Barack Obama closed in 2016.
Stay tuned. In the process of righting a wrong, Trump’s action, announced at a Bangor roundtable, has once again set hair on fire in the environmental community, tested the limits of presidential power and set the stage for litigation.
Obama created the area, known as the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, just a few months before he left office. He portrayed the monument, the only one in the Atlantic, as a hedge against climate change.
Spanning four canyons and three seamounts, the monument is home to cold-water corals, endangered whales and turtles and numerous fish species.
If Trump’s action was controversial, it should be seen as no less so than the process that created the monument. Fishing in U.S. territorial waters is managed by the National Marine Fisheries Service, which is charged with providing productive and sustainable fisheries based on the best available science. NMFS works with regional councils to ensure all stakeholders are heard and that its regulations have “ground truth.”
June 10, 2020 — The following was released by the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance:
The Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) has received a $150,000 grant from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to aggregate existing knowledge, then convene a first-of-its-kind symposium on the current science regarding fisheries and offshore wind interactions. The project, “Understanding the State of the Science,” will advance agency, fishing industry, offshore wind energy developer, and public understanding of existing research on interactions between the two industries.
“We are thrilled about the opportunity to design a forum that will bring together everything we know, and don’t know, about how fisheries and offshore wind energy development interact,” said Annie Hawkins, RODA’s Executive Director. “Fishermen provide a wealth of knowledge and expertise, and many are involved in research and science efforts. This project is a great opportunity for their participation in informing a strong research and science agenda.”
The project consists of two parts. First, RODA will develop a much-needed summary of scientific knowledge and current research and monitoring efforts. Given the rapid growth and large scope of offshore wind development in the U.S., many fishing associations, academic institutions, federal and state agencies, offshore wind developers, and others have been conducting research on the effects of offshore wind development. This part of the project results in a new resource for understanding the knowledge gaps and most important questions for further research.
Second, RODA will convene a “state of the science” symposium and workshop jointly with NMFS and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), as well as state, academic, and private and public sector science experts. At these meetings, participants will identify research and monitoring needs that the Responsible Offshore Science Alliance (ROSA) can use to develop its work.
ROSA is an independent organization that works collaboratively to advance regional research and monitoring of fisheries and offshore wind interactions in federal waters. It is intended to fill the need for broad-scale coordination on prioritizing work and on information sharing.
“Much of the work on offshore wind is occurring on a development-by-development, state-by-state basis. Yet the science and management of our fisheries, marine mammals, and marine endangered species occur at a regional-scale – North Carolina to Maine,” said Jon Hare, director of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center. “Therefore, I am excited to be able to work with RODA and BOEM to support the state-of-the-science symposium with the goal of developing a regional science plan.”
This project is a key step toward jointly building a regional fisheries and offshore science agenda. Participants in the project will include fishermen, fishing industry representatives, NMFS, BOEM, and ROSA experts, wind energy developers, relevant federal fishery management councils, states, and other expert scientists from the U.S. and Europe. The Consensus Building Institute will provide expert facilitation and coordination for the symposium. The intent is to reduce redundancies, identify knowledge gaps, and solidify opportunities for future increased coordination. Partners can then use workshop outcomes to collaborate further, refining regional science and monitoring agendas.
Examples of topics to be covered by the state of the science symposium include:
Funding for this project was made available through NMFS’ Broad Agency Announcement award process, and advances a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed in March 2019. This ten-year MOU among RODA, NMFS, and BOEM allows the groups to collaborate on the science, research, monitoring, and process of offshore wind energy development on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf. More broadly, the project will help local and regional fishing interests become better involved in the offshore wind development process, and ensure that the interests and concerns of commercial fishermen are communicated effectively.
June 1, 2020 — The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council hosted leaders from the eight regional fishery management councils this week by video conference.
The first of the Council Coordination Committee’s biannual meetings spanned time zones from New England to American Samoa as the members and NMFS representatives discussed issues relevant to all of the Councils.
May 21, 2020 — The following was released by the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council:
Leadership teams from the nation’s eight regional fishery management councils will convene by teleconference for the spring 2020 Council Coordination Committee (CCC) meeting. The CCC is comprised of the chairs, vice chairs and executive directors of the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, Mid-Atlantic, New England, North Pacific, Pacific, South Atlantic and Western Pacific Fishery Management Councils. CCC chairmanship rotates annually among the eight Councils, which have authority over fisheries seaward of state waters in the US exclusive economic zone.
The committee meets twice each year with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to discuss issues relevant to all fishery management councils. The Western Pacific Council is serving as this year’s CCC chair and will be hosting this year’s first meeting on May 27 and 28. The meeting will be held by teleconference due to COVID-19 travel and quarantine restrictions. The public is welcome to participate.
Agenda items will be discussed between 7:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. (Hawai‘i standard time) each day. Among the scheduled topics are the following:
The complete agendas and conference call-in instructions will be posted at http://www.fisherycouncils.org/ccc-meetings/may-2020.
The meeting notice is available at https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2020-05-11/pdf/2020-10023.pdf.
May 7, 2020 — The Maine Lobstermen’s Association has launched a campaign to raise $500,000 to fund its legal efforts to protect the state’s most valuable fishery from the consequences of a recent federal court ruling that calls for more government protections for the endangered right whale.
Last month, a federal judge found the National Marine Fisheries Service had violated the U.S. Endangered Species Act by its authorization of the U.S. lobster industry – including Maine’s $485 million-a-year fishery – because it failed to report the fishery’s harmful impacts on the endangered right whale.
“This case could lead to closure of the world’s most sustainable fishery,” said executive director Patrice McCarron, whose association is the oldest and biggest lobstering group in Maine. “We cannot let that happen. Right whales are not dying in Maine lobster gear.”
May 7, 2020 — The National Marine Fisheries Service notified permit holders and the public Tuesday that a waiver for observer coverage in some fisheries expired at 11:59 p.m. on Monday, May 4, 2020. As of 12 a.m. Tuesday, May 5, observer coverage was reinstated for those fisheries.
Those permitted fisheries include:
May 4, 2020 — In another shot across the bow of the lobster industry, a federal judge ruled Thursday that state regulators have violated the Endangered Species Act by licensing lobstermen to use fishing gear that entangles North Atlantic right whales.
The ruling requires Massachusetts officials to obtain a permit from the National Marine Fisheries Service to license vertical buoy lines, the ropes that connect lobster traps on the seafloor to buoys at the surface.
Those lines are vital to the fishery but have been the leading cause of death of right whales over the past decade, accounting for more than half of all known causes. In the past three years, 30 right whales have died, reducing their population to around 400.
In her ruling, Judge Indira Talwani of the US District Court in Boston said the continued use of buoy lines was likely to cause further harm to right whales, which scientists say could become functionally extinct within the next 20 years.
May 4, 2020 — At long last, some disaster relief funding is headed to the West Coast for state and tribal salmon industries and the commercial sardine industry.
NMFS notified Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., this week of a more than $18 million award, which was appropriated in 2018. It is now up to the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission to distribute the funds according to state spending plans and in accordance with NMFS guidance and terms of the awards, NMFS said when notifying congressional staff.