Saving Seafood

Scientists worry that the Chesapeake’s natural shoreline is turning into a wall

December 26, 2015 — On the banks of the Potomac River, construction cranes that look like metal dinosaurs tower over Southwest Washington. They swivel in all directions, delivering concrete and other heavy material to workers building a large development behind a steel-and-concrete wall that holds back the water.

Within two years, the Wharf will begin emerging as a playground of trendy apartments, shops and entertainment venues. But below the river’s surface, animals that depend on vegetation in the water may continue to struggle, marine scientists say.

The Wharf is part of the great wall of the Chesapeake Bay. Because of development along the bay and its rivers, vast swaths of soft shorelines have been turned into stone. The spread of what scientists call “the armored shore” is depriving young fish, crabs and other organisms of food and shelter. And it is yet another reason why life in the bay is disappearing, according to new research funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Houses, offices, bike paths, marinas — and walls built to protect them from erosion and rising sea levels — are replacing marshy shores, uprooting plants that young fish, crabs and other organisms use for food.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

 

MASSACHUSETTS: Fisheries Center Might Move Out Of Woods Hole

December 23, 2015 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is exploring the possibility of relocating the Northeast Fisheries Science Center to a new facility outside of Woods Hole.

NOAA’s chief of research communications Teri Frady said Monday that the United States Department of Commerce, which oversees the NEFSC, has been evaluating the feasibility of the existing facility for about a year. She said a report will be completed by spring 2016 outlining options for the facility, which could include moving operations to a new building outside of Woods Hole.

The fisheries center, which operates as a research division of NOAA Fisheries, was founded by Spencer Fullerton Baird upon his appointment by President Ulysses S. Grant as the country’s first fisheries commissioner in 1871. The original facility was built on Water Street in 1885. After the facility was destroyed during Hurricane Carol, the current building was constructed in the same location in 1961.

Today, the Woods Hole branch manages operations of four other fisheries laboratories in the northeast, including those in Sandy Hook, New Jersey; Milford, Connecticut; Narragansett, Rhode Island; and Orono, Maine.

Ms. Frady said NOAA sees relocating as a way of possibly bringing all the fisheries operations together. In addition to its headquarters on Water Street, the fisheries houses its observer program on Carlson Lane, while its social sciences department operates out of leased space in the Falmouth Technology Park. The organization also operates a warehouse in Pocasset.

Read the full story at The Falmouth Enterprise

Water, Power and Oceans: A Year in Review – Protecting and Promoting Fishing Access

December 21, 2015 — The following was released by the House Subcommittee on Water, Power, and Oceans:

Through conducting oversight of the Obama Administration’s actions and through key marine resource management reforms, Subcommittee Republicans remain dedicated to preserving American’s access to our domestic offshore waters.

In June, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 1335, the “Strengthening Fishing Communities and Increasing Flexibility in Fisheries Management Act.” This bill, introduced by Rep. Don Young (AK-At Large), makes key reforms to the Magnuson- Stevens Act – the primary law regulating federal fisheries management. H.R. 1335 increases transparency in federal fisheries agency decisions, empowers regional decision-making, and improves recreational fishing data and access through requiring state data into federal assessments. The bill also ensures access to marine resources by affirming that the Magnuson-Stevens Act shall remain the ultimate authority over federal fisheries management even within the bounds of a Marine National Monument or Marine Sanctuary. Hundreds of organizations support the bill, which is pending in the Senate.

Despite National Park Service estimates on low fish availability, Chairman Bishop and his crew caught 48 fish in 70 minutes in Biscayne Bay, Florida. Source: House Natural Resources Republicans

Gaps in fisheries science and management decisions are not the only issues impacting access to marine resources. This past year alone, the Administration has entertained a series of executive actions and agency rules that inhibit fishing access, often without even securing the support of local entities or states.

This was apparent in June when the National Park Service released the final General Management Plan for Biscayne National Park in Florida, which included 10,502 acres in state waters that would be closed to all commercial and recreational fishing – despite opposition from the State of Florida and others. In August, the House Committees on Natural Resources and Small Business held a joint oversight field hearing in Homestead, Florida to review the plan.

Highlighted in this hearing was H.R. 3310, a bill introduced by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL- 27) that aims to avoid future situations like the one in Biscayne National Park by preserving a state’s right to manage the lands and waters within their jurisdiction. The text of H.R. 3310 was incorporated into H.R. 2406 in October by an amendment offered by Rep. Amata Radewagen (American Samoa). A number of fisheries organizations supported the amendment and H.R. 3310. You can find more information about this amendment and the markup here.

The Administration is considering additional ideas to close off further access. In September, the Subcommittee held an oversight hearing on a proposal being considered by the Administration to create the first Marine National Monument in the Atlantic, off of the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. During this hearing, Subcommittee members heard of a September 15 Town Hall meeting hosted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which one witness characterized as a “charade,” as so few details regarding Representatives Lee Zeldin and Tom the proposal  had been made public at that time. Full Committee Chairman Bishop and Subcommittee Chairman Fleming and others subsequently sent a letter to NOAA and the Council on Environmental Quality echoing bipartisan requests for additional information regarding the proposal as well as additional opportunities for local input. Three months after the Town Hall meeting, the Administration has yet to release any additional information, including coordinates or maps, of the designation under consideration.

Representatives Lee Zeldin and Tom MacArthur and Chairman Rob Bishop in Long Island, New York. Source: House Natural Resources Republicans

The economic impacts of the potential Marine National Monument were also discussed at a December oversight field hearing in Long Island, New York, where the Natural Resources Committee and Rep. Lee Zeldin (NY-01) heard firsthand about the impacts of federal decision-making on public access and regional economies. This hearing highlighted the crucial reforms to federal fisheries management made by H.R. 1335 and the assurances that these provisions would give to the recreational and commercial fishing industries. Witnesses from the local commercial, recreational, and charter-for-hire industries expressed their support for reforms within the bill that increase transparency in federal decision-making and require greater incorporation of state and regional input.

The Subcommittee has also held hearings on specific bills aimed at regional fisheries issues in 2015. During a July 23 legislative hearing, the Subcommittee heard from fishermen, tribes, and the Administration about two necessary bills introduced by Rep. Jamie Herrera Beutler (WA-3) to preserve fishing access on the west coast: H.R. 564, the Endangered Salmon and Fisheries Predation Prevention Act of 2015, and H.R. 2168, the Dungeness Crab Management Act. To assist the recovery of Endangered Species Act (ESA) listed salmon in the Columbia River watershed and to protect tribal ceremonial, subsistence and commercial fisheries, H.R. 564 authorizes the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to issue expedited permits authorizing states and tribes to lethally take non-ESA listed sea lions under certain conditions. Fishermen and tribal leaders testified that this additional authority was necessary as sea lions have inhabited the lower Columbia River and have been ravaging ESA listed species of chinook, steelhead, coho, and chum salmon. During this hearing, the Subcommittee also heard unanimous support from the panel of witnesses for H.R. 2168, a bill to make permanent the long standing tri-state (Washington, Oregon and California) Dungeness crab management authority in place since 1980. H.R. 2168 passed the House of Representatives on October 6 and is pending in the Senate.

Sea Lion eating ESA listed Salmon in the Lower Columbia River. Source: Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission

The Subcommittee also held a hearing on H.R. 3094. As introduced by Rep. Garret Graves (LA-06) and others, the bill transfers the management authority of the red snapper fishery in federal waters from NOAA to a new authority comprised of a representative of each of the five Gulf of Mexico States in response to concerns over federal accountability, decisionmaking and access. The Subcommittee heard from a wide array of witnesses representing different user groups, including States, recreational industry, commercial and charter fishermen, and restaurants.

View a PDF of the newsletter

Gulf Congressional Delegation Teams for Big Win for Gulf Reef Fish Accountability in 2016 Omnibus Appropriations Act

December 19, 2015 — The Fiscal Year 2016 Omnibus Appropriations Act heading to the White House for a Presidential signature includes $10 million for Gulf of Mexico fisheries data collection, stock assessments and research due to the tireless efforts led by Alabama’s Senator Richard Shelby, Chairman of the Senate’s Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, and Florida’s 13th District Representative David Jolly, who sits on the House’s Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science.

Additionally, the bill directs NOAA to count fish on artificial reefs and offshore energy exploration infrastructure, and incorporate those counts into future stock assessments and management decisions for reef fish in the Gulf of Mexico.  It provides continued support for electronic monitoring and reporting to collect real-time data that is more economical and efficient than current management processes. According to Senator Shelby, who authored the provisions for red snapper in the legislation, the 2016 omnibus provides up to $5 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Sea Grant College program to support external research and development through its network of academic institutions for a red snapper tagging study in the Gulf of Mexico.  In addition, it provides $5 million for independent, non-NOAA stock assessments for Gulf reef fish, including red snapper.

“Commercial and recreational anglers across the Gulf Coast depend on the red snapper fishery, which is not only a key economic driver, but also integral to their way of life,” Senator Shelby told Gulf Seafood News. “That is why I pushed to include common-sense reforms in this year’s omnibus bill to ensure that both commercial and recreational fishermen have increased access to the red snapper population in the Gulf.”

Read the full story at Gulf Seafood Institute

URI researchers to study climate change effect on fisheries

December 19, 2015 — PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Researchers at the University of Rhode Island have been awarded a federal grant to study the effects of climate change on Atlantic fisheries.

The state’s congressional delegation says the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is giving the researchers $227,850.

Jeremy Collie, at the URI Graduate School of Oceanography, is leading the team. Scientists are participating from NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center, Narragansett Laboratory, located on URI’s Bay Campus.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at ABC6 News

 

Costs for at-sea monitors will force many fishermen out of business.

December 18, 2015 — The following was released by the Center for Sustainable Fisheries:

The Center for Sustainable Fisheries fully supports the lawsuit filed in New Hampshire last week by Cause of Action. The Washington-based watchdog group, which focuses its attention on government overreach, is suing the federal government on behalf of our commercial fishermen in New England.

The case is crystal clear. It stems from the high cost for at-sea monitors and the insistence, by NOAA’s intransigent National Marine Fisheries Service, that fishermen must now foot the bill for monitors because the agency has run out of money. This is simply outrageous. The regional administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service is former New Bedford mayor John Bullard.

Beginning January 1, fishermen who are required to bring monitors on groundfish trips will be billed an estimated $710 daily for their services, an expense previously borne by our government regulators. This mandate comes down at a time that the groundfishery in New England has been declared a disaster, with landings and revenue down and fewer boats fishing. To now burden struggling fishermen with what is undoubtedly a function of government is simply unjust. Furthermore, NOAA has conducted its own study on the costs of monitoring and concluded that upwards of 60 percent of active groundfish vessels would be rendered unprofitable if forced to pay for at-sea monitors. ‘Unprofitable’ in this case meaning fishermen going out of business; deprived not only of income but a way of life.

The plaintiffs in this important case are Dave Goethel, a CSF board member and owner of the Ellen Diane, a 44-foot dayboat out of Hampton, N.H., along with Northeast Fishery Sector XIII, comprising thirty-two East Coast fishermen and managed by John Haran in New Bedford. The controversial issue has been simmering for some time. It is now in the hands of the judiciary. In arguing the case Cause of Action will present a number of legal arguments, primarily that NOAA has no authority to compel funding. It does not take a legal scholar to see which way this case should be resolved. Let us hope that justice will prevail.

View a PDF of the release

How whaling logs from the 1800s might help us solve climate change

December 16, 2015 — NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — Maritime historians, climate scientists and ordinary citizens are coming together on a project to study the logbooks of 19th-century whaling ships to better understand modern-day climate change and Arctic weather patterns.

Whaling ships kept meticulous daily logbooks of weather conditions during their often yearslong voyages searching the globe for whales, valued for their light-giving oil, said Michael Dyer, senior maritime historian at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, which is supplying much of the data.

Some logs include information about life on board, such as sailors falling overboard, or being disciplined for stealing or other transgressions, and of course, notations whenever whales are spotted. More important for this project, they include precise longitude and latitude measurements, weather conditions, the presence of icebergs and the edge of the ice shelf.

“If they’re cruising in the Bering Strait and there’s ice, there will be a notation in the logbook that ice fields are present,” Dyer said.

The project, called Old Weather: Whaling, is led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The whaling museum is transcribing and digitizing its own logbooks, as well as original data sources from the Nantucket Historical Association, Martha’s Vineyard Museum, Mystic Seaport in Connecticut, and the New Bedford Free Public Library.“If they’re cruising in the Bering Strait and there’s ice, there will be a notation in the logbook that ice fields are present,” Dyer said.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New York Post

 

Cause of Action’s Stephen Schwartz Discusses At-Sea Monitoring Lawsuit on WBSM

December 16, 2015 — WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) — Last Saturday, December 12, on the Ken Pittman Show on WBSM in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Cause of Action Counselor Stephen Schwartz, discussed a lawsuit that the organization filed against NOAA for their at-sea monitoring program. During the interview, Mr. Schwartz explained that the federal requirement that fishermen fund at-sea-monitors is overly intrusive and too burdensome for the fishing industry.

“The federal government is making a huge imposition even when top agencies and regional administrators agree that fishermen can’t afford to fund the observers, and more than half of them would go out of business,” he said.

Mr. Schwartz said that most federal observers do not have the same expertise that fishermen do – fishermen who have made their living on New England waters often in inclement conditions – and present a danger to the fishermen by taking up space on the boats, and preventing them from efficiently collecting data on fish stocks.

“If fishermen were left to their own devices, they would actually protect fish stocks and be more productive,” he said.

Mr. Schwartz and Cause of Action are arguing that NOAA does not have the power to require that the industry fund the observer program, and that the principles of constitutional law involved have the potential to restructure fishing industry regulations in order to not place the burden solely on fishermen.

Listen to the interview here

Gulf of Maine Research Institute to study fishing communities’ climate vulnerability

December 16, 2015 (AP) — The Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland will get $1.3 million in federal money to investigate fishing communities’ vulnerability to climate change in the Northeast.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced the award Tuesday. Researchers from the institute will examine ecological, social and economic impacts of climate change on fishing communities.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Portland Press Herald

Gulf Seafood Institute’s President Harlon Pearce Appointed to NOAA’s Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee

December 15, 2015 — Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker has appointed Gulf Seafood Institute’s President Harlon Pearce, along with three other new advisors, to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee. The Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee (MAFAC) advises the Secretary on all living marine resource matters currently the responsibility of the Department of Commerce.

According to NOAA, the expertise of MAFAC members is used to evaluate and recommend priorities and needed changes in national programs and policies, including the periodic reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act. The members represent a wide spectrum of fishing, aquaculture, protected resources, environmental, academic, tribal, state, consumer, and other related national interests from across the U.S., and ensure the nation’s living marine resource policies and programs meet the needs of these stakeholders.

As owner and operator of Harlon’s LA Fish in New Orleans, a seafood processing and distribution company, Pearce has more than 46 years of experience in the seafood industry.  He has been an advocate for developing strong and viable seafood industries, a “go to” source for the media and seafood events, and a guest speaker and lecturer.

A tireless spokesperson for Gulf seafood, he was instrumental in the foundation of the Gulf Seafood Institute, which advocates on behalf of the entire Gulf seafood community. Pearce previously served for nine years as the Louisiana Representative on Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council and for 11-years was Chairman of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board, a tenure which spanned both the devastating hurricane season of 2005 and the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.

Read the full story at the Gulf Seafood Institute