Saving Seafood

Federal Fishery Advisors Scheduled to Meet

October 17, 2018 — The following was released by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council has scheduled meetings of its Snapper Grouper Advisory Panel, System Management Plan Workgroup, and its Habitat and Ecosystem-Based Management Advisory Panel. These groups provide recommendations on a variety of federal fisheries issues for consideration by the Council as it develops fishery management plans and amendments.

Meetings are open to the public and available via webinar. Registration for the webinars is required.The Snapper Grouper Advisory Panel will meet to review amendments currently under development by the Council including those affecting red grouper rebuilding, yellowtail snapper accountability measures, and best practices. The AP will also receive updates on the Council’s Citizen Science efforts and provide input on Fishery Performance Reports for yellowtail snapper and golden tilefish. The meeting agenda, briefing book materials and webinar registration is available at: http://safmc.net/safmc-meetings/current-advisory-panel-meetings/

System Management Plan (SMP) Work Group

The System Management Plan Workgroup, consisting of fishery scientists, agency personnel, and representatives from commercial and recreational sectors, was established by the Council in March 2018 to aid in the management and evaluations of protected areas recommended by the Council. The Workgroup will review the Council’s System Management Plan, with the focus on Spawning Special Management Zones implemented in July 2017. The Workgroup meeting agenda, briefing book material, and webinar registration information is available at: http://safmc.net/safmc-meetings/other-meetings

Habitat and Ecosystem-Based Management Advisory Panel Meeting

The Council’s largest advisory panel will meet for three days to cover a long list of agenda items relative to fisheries including: Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s energy development activities; predator/prey relationships supporting the dolphin wahoo fishery; updates on fishery independent research programs; and mapping and characterization of deepwater ecosystems by NOAA’s R/V Okeanos Explorer. The meeting will also include break-out sessions to address information and regional partnerships affecting Essential Fish Habitat. A complete agenda and overview, briefing book materials and registration information for this meeting will be available October 24th from the Council’s website at: http://safmc.net/safmc-meetings/current-advisory-panel-meetings

Warren Urges Dept. of Commerce, NOAA to Ensure Carlos Rafael Fishing Permits Remain in New Bedford

October 17, 2018 — The following was released by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.):

United States Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) today sent a letter to the Department of Commerce and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to request that they do everything in their power to ensure that the 42 federal fishing permits held by disgraced fishing magnate Carlos Rafael remain in the Port of New Bedford.  The federal permits, which cover a significant portion of the ground fish industry and have an economic footprint that goes far beyond fish landings, are currently at risk of being revoked and distributed elsewhere under a civil administrative case brought by NOAA against Mr. Rafael.

Last year, Carlos Rafael, a New Bedford fishing magnate, pled guilty to 28 federal charges related to the management of his company, including falsifying fish quotas, mislabeling fish, conspiracy, and tax evasion. In a civil case filed in January 2018, NOAA called for the revocation of 42 federal fishing permits held by Mr. Rafael.

In her letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Acting NOAA Administrator Benjamin Friedman, and Chris Oliver, Assistant Administrator for Fisheries at NOAA, Senator Warren expressed serious concern about the devastating impact that removing the permits-which support many unaffiliated businesses and jobs that were not part of Mr. Rafael’s operation-from New Bedford would have on the regional economy.

“Millions of dollars of regional economic activity depend on Mr. Rafael’s permits remaining in the City of New Bedford,” wrote Senator Warren.  “An innocent community should not be collateral damage for one business’s crimes.”

The senator’s letter also emphasized the importance of the groundfish industry to the Massachusetts economy as a whole and noted that New Bedford already has the experienced workforce, infrastructure, and proud tradition to best utilize and maximize the economic benefits of the groundfish industry.

“It is critical for the city and South Coast region that these permits and allocations remain in the port of New Bedford, and in the hands of law-abiding fishing families and businesses,” Senator Warren continued. “Removing these permits from New Bedford would do lasting damage to families and businesses that have already suffered greatly through no fault of their own.”

The senator requested that the agencies take any and all available actions within their discretion to ensure that these critical fishing permits remain in New Bedford.

Read the full letter here

MASSACHUSETTS: Warren again calls for Rafael’s permits to stay in New Bedford

October 17, 2018 — Elizabeth Warren repeated a call she voiced last year by sending another letter to NOAA regarding Carlos Rafael’s federal fishing permits.

The Massachusetts senator addressed her two-page letter to Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, acting NOAA Administrator Benjamin Friedman and assistant Administrator for Fisheries Chris Oliver and asked that NOAA keep the 42 permits the agency is targeting in its civil action in New Bedford.

“These permits cover a significant portion of the ground fish industry and have an economic footprint that goes far beyond fish landings,” the letter reads.

Warren sent a letter to NOAA last October, too, echoing the same sentiment.

NOAA filed a superseding civil action last month. In it NOAA sought to revoke the operator permits of 17 of Rafael’s captains. It also listed more than $3 million in fines. The move built on a civil action first filed in January where NOAA targeted Rafael’s permits.

Warren said in the letter that the permits support many innocent third-party businesses such as fish auctions, seafood processors, gear suppliers, ice providers, welders, engine mechanics and restaurants.

“The Port of New Bedford is vital to the economic health of the region and the federal government has a duty and responsibility to not cause significant economic harm to this community,” her letter read. “Removing these permits from New Bedford would do lasting damage to families and businesses that have already suffered greatly through no fault of their own. I urge you all to do everything that is necessary to ensure that does not happen.”

Even before NOAA’s civil action, politicians and organizations have argued for the final destination of the permits. Mayor Jon Mitchell and the City Council have individually sent letters to NOAA asking that Rafael’s permits remain in New Bedford. Last week, Councilor-at-Large Brian Gomes brought a written motion on the topic to the Council Chambers.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

With right whales at risk of extinction, regulators consider drastic action that could affect lobstermen

October 16, 2018 — With North Atlantic right whales increasingly at risk of extinction, federal regulators are considering drastic protection measures that could have sweeping consequences for the region’s lucrative lobster industry.

The species is in dangerous decline, with a record 17 right whale deaths and no recorded births last year, and entanglements in fishing gear are believed to be the leading cause of premature deaths. Three have died in US waters this year, including one 35-foot-long whale found Sunday about 100 miles east of Nantucket, federal officials said.

In an effort to protect the dwindling species, regulators last week hosted a series of often emotional meetings with fishermen, environmental advocates, and other federal and state officials about what to do.

The goal is to find a way to protect the whales while limiting the impact on lobstermen, who have hundreds of thousands of fishing lines that extend from their traps on the seafloor to their buoys on the surface of the Gulf of Maine.

Read the full story at the Boston Globe

Report ‘erodes trust’ for lobstermen

October 15, 2018 — A new federal report on right whales was intended to set the stage for a weeklong meeting of groups trying to save the endangered species, but a lack of documentation for one of its central claims left the fishing industry feeling unfairly targeted.

Lobstermen accused the Northeast Fisheries Science Center of incompetence after it claimed a 2015 rule requiring fishermen to reduce the number of surface-to-seabed ropes had prompted some fishermen to start using stronger rope, which poses a bigger threat to whales.

“While this reduced the number of lines, it also meant that lines had to be stronger to accommodate the increased load of multiple traps,” the report reads. “This natural adaptation … contributed to an increase in the severity of entanglements.”

The lobster industry jumped on this sentence in the 24-page report, saying the center had no data to back it up, and knew it. Its parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, gave Maine a $700,000 grant to collect this kind of data in April.

“You have an agency who’s been managing you for over 20 years fundamentally not understanding your fishery, publishing a technical memo that, quite frankly, felt more like an opinion piece,” said Patrice McCarron, director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association.

Such mistakes make it difficult for industry leaders to persuade constituents to participate in surveys like the one Maine is conducting if they believe federal regulators already believe the Maine lobster industry is to blame for the decline of the right whale population.

Read the full story at the Sun Journal

Before Kanye visit, Trump signed bill to help reduce plastics in ocean

October 15, 2018 — Before his much publicized visit with American musician Kanye West on Thursday, US president Donald Trump helped advance efforts to remove some of the mountains of plastic floating in the ocean by signing the Save Our Seas (SOS) Act.

The law, sponsored by senators Dan Sullivan, an Alaska Republican, and Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, will allow the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to declare severe marine debris events and authorize funds to assist with cleanup and response efforts.

“Every year, over 8 million tons of garbage is dumped into our beautiful oceans by many countries of the world,” Trump said during the signing ceremony. “That includes China, that includes Japan, and that includes many, many countries.

“This waste, trash, and debris harms not only marine life, but also fishermen, coastal economies along America’s vast stretches. The bad news is it floats toward us. I’ve seen pictures recently, and some of you have seen them, where there’s — a vast, tremendous, unthinkable amount of garbage is floating right into our coast, in particular along the West Coast.

“…This dumping has happened for years and even for decades. Previous administrations did absolutely nothing to take on the foreign countries responsible. We’ve already notified most of them and we’ve notified them very strongly.”

The SOS Act was introduced in March 2017 before being passed by unanimous consent in the Senate in early August 2018 after an identical bill, sponsored by Alaska representative Don Young, a Republican, was passed by a voice vote in the House in late July.

The law, which was supported by both the plastics industry and some ocean conservation groups, also reauthorizes NOAA’s Marine Debris Program, which carries a mission of supporting research on marine debris and the authority to take action to prevent and clean it up.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

MASSACHUSETTS: Falmouth and New Bedford Battle Across Buzzards Bay for NOAA Headquarters

October 15, 2018 — A dispute across Buzzards Bay may break out between Falmouth and the City of New Bedford.

The Falmouth Board of Selectmen has been working to keep the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole.

Other elected officials in the area have also been lobbying for NOAA to keep the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole for weeks.

In late September, Falmouth selectmen teamed up with Barnstable County state representatives and state senators, area chambers of commerce, directors from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), the Marine Biological Laboratory, and the Woods Hole Research Center to pen a letter to the federal agency urging them to stay put in the small section of Falmouth.

Operations Chief of the NOAA Fisheries Science Center Garth Smelser responded to that letter, and met with Falmouth and Barnstable County officials on Friday to discuss the possible move.

“For almost 150 years we’ve been studying fish, marine mammals, sea turtles, seabirds and the marine environments that sustain them, and right here in Barnstable County we have over 300 employees and contractors that complete that work. The Fisheries Commission started right here in our community. We’ve been doing wonderful marine science for those 150 years,” Smelser told elected officials. “Yes, we are very proud of our presence in Woods Hole, but we’re much bigger than just Woods Hole. We have 225 federal staff and 165 contract staff spread around the east coast from Orono, Maine all the way down to Sandy Hook, New Jersey. The majority of our folks are centered in Woods Hole, but we’re just as proud of our other people.”

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

Advisory group grapples with right whale protection measures

October 15, 2018 — A week of meetings about how commercial fishermen could reduce harm to the imperiled North Atlantic right whales ended Friday with an immediate focus on exploring more temporary area closures with possible testing of new technologies, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries biologist Colleen Coogan, an organizer of the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team.

“There was extremes on both ends,” Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association president Arthur Sawyer said of pitches made at the monthly take reduction team meeting in Providence, Rhode Island.

Interest seemed to land on the possibilities of weaker rope, with 1,700 pounds as maximum breaking strength. That could allow right whales to break free of entanglements more easily, Sawyer said. “That was kind of middle of the road,” he said, and might be able to be put in place in the near future, although it might not be useful in deep water.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

President Trump Signs Save Our Seas Act

October 15, 2018 — The following was released by the President of the United States:

Today, I have signed into law S. 3508, the “Save Our Seas Act of 2018” (the “Act”). The Act reauthorizes the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Debris Program for 5 years, promotes increased safety in the maritime industry, and promotes interagency and international action to reduce the amount of marine debris.

The Act, however, raises constitutional concerns. Sections 206(b), 208(a)(1), and 216 of the Act purport to dictate the position of the United States in external foreign affairs, and section 208(a)(2) of the Act purports to require an update to certain congressional committees on the progress of international negotiations. My Administration will treat these provisions in a manner consistent with the President’s constitutional authority as the sole representative of the Nation in foreign affairs, and with the President’s constitutional authority to withhold information protected by executive privilege, the disclosure of which could impair foreign relations.

NOAA Fisheries approves Alabama snapper program

October 12, 2018 — The federal government has approved a system developed by the state of Alabama to count the number of red snapper caught in the Gulf of Mexico.

Gulf states, fishing groups and the NOAA Fisheries have disagreed for years about how many snapper can be caught. The decision means Alabama’s numbers can be used in the federal count.

The state’s Marine Resources director, Scott Bannon, says anglers are frustrated with short snapper seasons. He says the federal decision is a “huge step” toward managing gulf waters.

The state developed the Snapper Check program in 2014. It uses a combination of electronic reporting by anglers and dockside checks to verify the number of snapper that boats are keeping.

Read the full story from the Associated Press