Saving Seafood

Federal fishing monitoring program needs overhaul, GAO says

July 11, 2024 — Only days after the Supreme Court dealt a blow to the federal government’s program placing human observers on commercial fishing boats, a federal watchdog said NOAA Fisheries should do a better job monitoring the industry.

A report released Wednesday by the Government Accountability Office said NOAA Fisheries — also known as the National Marine Fisheries Service — has failed to execute its program as Congress intended under law.

NOAA has long relied on independent observers to ensure compliance with regulations and collect data to guide fisheries management decisions. In recent years, as critical fish stocks have declined due to overfishing and climate change, regulators have placed greater emphasis in particular on reducing the accidental taking of unwanted species, which is called bycatch.

Such species — including marine mammals, sea turtles, seabirds and juvenile fish — are usually unnetted and released, but they can suffer injuries that lead to death.

GAO found that not all fisheries have sufficient observers and that NOAA Fisheries hasn’t gathered the information on what resources are needed for the programs or told Congress what is needed. In the Gulf of Mexico, only two percent of shrimp trawl fishing trips included an observer.

Read the full article at E&E News

Conservation groups sue NOAA over tope shark protections

July 11, 2024 — Conservations groups have sued NOAA Fisheries, claiming that the agency has failed to meet the legal deadline for determining whether tope sharks should be protected under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and Defend Them All Foundation first filed a petition to have tope sharks ESA-listed in February 2022. NOAA Fisheries responded with a 90-day preliminary finding acknowledging that the sharks may warrant protections in April of that year, triggering a full investigation due February 2023. The agency has still not issued a determination.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Council appointments delayed until ‘later this summer’

July 3, 2024 — Alaskan and West Coast fishery stakeholders are still in the dark as to who will represent them on their regional fishery management councils.

The appointments of 22 new and returning members to six of eight of the nation’s councils were announced on June 28 by the US Dept. of Commerce. The Secretary of Commerce appoints council seats from state governors’ lists of nominees. Each serves three-year terms.

“Appointments to the Pacific and North Pacific fishery management councils will be announced later this summer,” the Commerce press release said.

“My understanding is that the decision on those appointments have not yet been finalized,” said Julie Fair, Public Affairs Officer at NOAA’s Alaska Regional Office. “The appointments for Pacific and North Pacific Fishery Management Councils will be forthcoming later this summer, and we do not anticipate any lapse in voting during their September/October Council meetings,” Fair added. 

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

How the Supreme Court rescued my NJ fishing firm that bureaucrats almost sank

July 2, 2024 — Wayne Reichle is president and owner of Lund’s Fisheries in Cape May, New Jersey. He was one of the small business owners who sued the federal government in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which resulted in the Supreme Court overturning Chevron deference. Wayne is the third generation in the seafood business. His grandfather was a fishing vessel owner and operator in Cape May, and he was followed by Wayne’s father, Jeff Reichle, who had a vision for expanding the business and helped pioneer several fisheries through his investments in shoreside processing and distribution.

The following excerpt was published by the New York Post:

The Supreme Court just sided with my New Jersey-based, family-owned fishing business — and may have even saved it.

That’s the reality of the court’s June 28 decision in a case called Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which overturned the “Chevron doctrine” that gave unchecked power to federal bureaucrats.

I was one of the small business owners who sued the federal government in this case.

I didn’t know my lawsuit would go all the way to the Supreme Court, or that the justices would tackle a huge question like bureaucratic accountability and how our laws should be read.

I just wanted to stop a federal agency that threatened my ability to keep my family business afloat.

In early 2020, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration decided that herring boats like mine had to start paying for the federal monitors who sometimes ride along during fishing trips.

These monitors check to make sure we’re not catching more fish than we’re allowed to, and observe our fishing methods to confirm we’re following the rules.

I’m glad we have a federal law that empowered NOAA to create a monitoring program: That law helps keep fishing sustainable.

But nowhere in the law does it say that fishermen like me have to pay for the monitors.

It was long understood that the government should pay for them, since the government requires them.

Only the government can afford them, too: The monitors cost about $700 a day.

For our two fishing boats, this mandate could have forced us to pay for over 100 days of monitoring a year, totaling more than $70,000 — a huge expense for a small fishing business and the fishermen we work with.

What gives federal bureaucrats the right to rewrite federal law?

They say the law is “unclear,” which gives them authority to interpret it.

But common sense says that if the law doesn’t say it, the government can’t do it.

Read the full op-ed at the New York Post

Rep. Peltola pushing bill to modernize, stabilize fishing industry

July 2, 2024 — Experts say the seafood industry is facing unprecedented global challenges. As a result, one lawmaker is looking to enhance and modernize fisheries policies.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, the seafood industry generates more than $70 billion a year for the U.S. and employs more than a million people. But Alaska fishers say it is getting tougher to drop a line in the water.

“Pretty tough time for people in the seafood industry,” said Alaska Longline Fisherman’s Association Director Linda Behnken.

Behnken said as fishing season begins, fishers are reeling from increasing operating costs and decreasing fish prices.

Read the full article at KWQC

The Little Boats that Could: Supreme Court Rules for Fishermen in Observer Case

July 1, 2024 — William Bright, Wayne Reichle, and Stefan Axelsson manage commercial fishing businesses in New Jersey, targeting Atlantic herring. For many years, fishermen like Bill, Wayne, and Stefan have been required to carry federal observers on their vessels when venturing into the Atlantic to catch herring. These observers are mandated to ensure that the fishermen comply with legal catch limits, aiming to prevent overfishing.

However, in 2020, NOAA Fisheries overreached the authority granted to the agency by law, and decided that herring fishermen should directly pay the observers’ salaries, potentially costing them up to $700 per day. According to estimates, the cost of the observers could amount to over 20 percent of the revenue from their catch.

Consequently, Reichle, Bright, and Axelsson filed a lawsuit against the federal government in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo.

“From the beginning, the most important thing for us was the ability to continue fishing and continue operating the way we’ve operated for a number of years,” Wayne Reichle told Scripps News.

Meghan Lapp, fisheries liaison at Seafreeze Ltd. in Point Judith, Rhode Island, homeport of the fishing vessel Relentless, faced similar issues. Ms. Lapp noted that their complaints went through fisheries council meetings and NOAA officials, but to no avail.

“I was ignored the entirety of the time because the agency knew it would have deference if it ever got to court,” Ms. Lapp told National Fisherman. Thus, they filed Relentless, Inc. v. Department of Commerce.

The implications of these cases extend far beyond the shores of New Jersey and Rhode Island. 

Today, in its decision on Loper Bright and Relentless, the Supreme Court has overturned “Chevron deference,” a 40-year-old legal precedent. 

“If the intent of Congress is clear, that is the end of the matter; for the court, as well as the agency, must give effect to the unambiguously expressed intent of Congress,” Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for a 6-0 court in the 1984 Chevron opinion. But “if the statute is silent or ambiguous with respect to the specific issue,” the Chevron precedent dictated that courts should defer to interpretations by the agency charged with implementing the law.

Chevron has long been criticized by some, particularly conservatives, for granting excessive power to federal agencies and unelected officials. By this decision, the Court significantly limits the authority of agencies to interpret ambiguity in statutes, and use that ambiguity to create regulations that can affect extensive areas of American life and commerce. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts stated, “Chevron is overruled. Courts must exercise their independent judgment in deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority.

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, expressed disappointment, telling the Wall Street Journal that “Federal agencies use the latest scientific analyses and expert opinions to implement widely popular programs that ensure safe food and medications, clean air and water, stable financial markets, fair working conditions, and more.”

If Federal agencies always used the latest science appropriately, never overstepped their bounds, and never allowed appointed or unelected career officials to enact their own agendas, Senator Durbin would be 100 percent correct. But that is not always the case. If James Madison were alive today, he might say, “If regulators were angels, no limit on judicial deference would be necessary.”

As the ramifications of this decision propagate through the lower courts and agencies, perhaps it will become increasingly incumbent upon Congress to do its job, and write clear, detailed legislation. It may be optimistic, but if this ruling diminishes the habit of our elected officials to pass last-minute ambiguous legislation that leaves important details to unelected officials in agencies, it will be a good thing.

Congratulations to the owners, operators, and crew of these “little boats that could,” and to the attorneys who believed in them, and the merits of their case.

The decision is being covered extensively in the press.  Here are links to some of that coverage.

CNN: Supreme Court overturns 1984 Chevron precedent, curbing power of federal government

Associated Press: The Supreme Court weakens federal regulators, overturning decades-old Chevron decision

Washington Post: Supreme Court curbs federal agency power, overturning Chevron precedent

Wall Street Journal: Supreme Court Pares Back Federal Regulatory Power

Bluefin tuna make triumphant rebound a decade earlier than expected, scientists say

July 1, 2024 — Pacific bluefin tuna have beat decades of overfishing and fully rebounded — 10 years earlier than expected, experts said.

This milestone is a surprise and triumph for scientists worldwide who were tasked with helping to revive the species.

“This is an amazingly resilient fish and the new assessment is showing us that,” Dr. Huihua Lee, a research mathematical statistician at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said in a June 25 news release from the administration.

The fish’s restoration can be seen in the latest stock assessment detailed in the news release.

Bluefin populations are measured based on their “unfished spawning stock biomass,” which is the hypothetical number of fish there would be in the absence of fishing.

Read the full article at the Merced Sun-Star

Fishery management council: Lack of consultation shows ‘disrespect’

July 1, 2024 — Members of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council are dismayed over the continued lack of federal government consultation with U.S. territories on the Endangered Species Act, including matters involving green sea turtles, giant clams and oceanic whitetip sharks, the council said in a press release.

“The lack of consultation with the governors of the U.S. territories for federal initiatives shows disrespect – the governors are our leaders, and we look to them for guidance,” Guam Council member Judith Guthertz stated in the release.

She expressed frustration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service not responding to October 2023 letters from U.S. Pacific territorial governors, which requested an extension to the comment period for a proposed designation of green sea turtle critical habitat, the council said in the release.

Read the full article at The Guam Daily Post

US Supreme Court overturns Chevron in blow to NOAA’s regulatory authority

June 28, 2024 — A lawsuit filed by New Jersey herring fishermen has struck a massive blow to the authority of U.S. regulators.

On 28 June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiff fishermen in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, overturning the long-standing Chevron deference – a legal precedent that gave federal agencies wide latitude in interpreting congressional statutes – and limiting the authority of NOAA Fisheries to implement regulations without clear guidance from lawmakers.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NOAA Fisheries Extends Comment Period on Gulf of Alaska Chinook Salmon Listing

June 27, 2024 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries announces the extension of the public comment period on our May 24, 2024, 90-day finding on a petition to list Gulf of Alaska (GOA) Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), or any evolutionarily significant unit (ESU) that may exist in the petitioned area, as a threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

As part of that finding, we solicited scientific and commercial information about the status of this population and announced a 60-day public comment period to end on July 23, 2024.

Today, we extend the public comment period until September 6, 2024.

Although we have extended the comment period by 45 days, we are unable to extend the statutory deadline for completing the status review and publishing a 12-month finding under the ESA. As such, we urge interested parties to submit their comments and data as soon as possible to allow us more time to review and incorporate the information where appropriate.