Saving Seafood

Biden pitches Atlantic coast ‘Grand Canyon’ as marine sanctuary

June 8, 2022 — The White House today endorsed designating the Atlantic coast’s largest undersea canyon as one of the nation’s next underwater parks, but stopped short of enacting immediate protections that could guard the “ecological hotspot” from commercial fishing, energy development or other threats.

The Biden administration announced it will begin the process for safeguarding the Hudson Canyon — which sits 100 miles off the coasts of New York and New Jersey and rivals the Grand Canyon in scale — in a series of actions to mark today’s World Oceans Day.

In addition to kicking off the designation of a new national marine sanctuary, the White House vowed to develop a “whole-of-government Ocean Climate Action Plan” on ocean-based climate mitigation and adaptation strategies.

NOAA will oversee the designation process for the Hudson Canyon, which would become part of an existing group of 15 underwater parks that includes both freshwater and ocean sites.

But that process, which includes public comment, the drafting of environmental impact statements and management plans, and potential rulemaking, is not a swift one, with a final decision taking two to three years.

Bob Vanasse, executive director of industry group Saving Seafood, praised the decision to utilize the sanctuaries act rather than take executive action.

“I appreciate that they are using the Marine Sanctuaries Act to do this, which allows input from affected ocean users and will allow for actual science to be considered, which is exactly why we objected to and continue to object to the marine monument designation,” Vanasse said, referring to the ongoing legal battle over the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts site (E&E News PM, Oct. 8, 2021).

Last fall, Biden restored commercial fishing prohibitions to the Atlantic Ocean monument that former President Donald Trump had struck down in 2020.

Read the full story at E&E News

 

Biden named in North Atlantic commercial fishing ban lawsuit filed by fishermen

April 14, 2022 — Fishermen in Massachusetts and New Jersey are challenging a Biden administration proclamation in court.

The fishermen have filed a lawsuit, Fehily et al. v. Biden et al., in U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey alleging the proclamation that bans commercial fishing in the North Atlantic Ocean, primarily the Georges Bank area, saying it harms their ability to earn a living.

“The creation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument violated the core requirements of the Antiquities Act to limit protections to specific monuments,” Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Frank Garrison said in a news release. “Most fundamentally, the Act gives the president authority to create monuments on federally owned or controlled land. The ocean is not land. Presidential action that goes beyond laws passed by Congress undermines the democratic process and the Constitution’s separation of powers.”

Read the full story at The Center Square

US fishermen file another lawsuit challenging Northeast Seamounts monument

April 14, 2022 — Fishermen from the U.S. states of New Jersey and Massachusetts have once again filed a lawsuit challenging the creation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument.

The national monument was first established by former U.S. President Barack Obama in 2016, who created the nearly 5,000-square-mile monument in the Georges Bank area of the Northwest Atlantic Ocean via executive order. The monument effectively banned commercial fishing in the area, with only red crab and lobster fishermen allowed to use the area – with plans to phase out that fishing by 15 September, 2023.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

Fishermen from Mass., N.J., sue federal government to block ban on fishing near Gulf of Maine

April 13, 2022 — Two fishermen, one from Massachusetts and one from New Jersey, filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging a Biden administration ban on commercial fishing in the Georges Bank area of the North Atlantic Ocean.

David T. Malley of Massachusetts and Patrick Fehily of New Jersey are commercial fisherman who work near the Gulf of Maine, within the roughly 5,000 square miles that President Biden designated in October as the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, according to court documents.

Malley, a fisherman for more than 50 years, and Fehily, a fisherman for more than a decade, name Biden, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, and Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland as defendants in the suit, filed in US District Court in New Jersey, according to court documents.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

Gulf of Mexico Swordfish: Lingering covid effects, cheap imports depress market

December 22, 2021 — Low production, the ongoing covid-19 health and economic crisis, and a flood of product from Canada are depressing the U.S. commercial swordfish market in the Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic, according to some industry members.

“Production levels are the lowest they’ve been since the beginning of time,” lamented Scott Taylor, operator of Day Boat Seafood in Fort Pierce, Fla. “There have been no positive developments whatsoever. I have more boats sitting at the dock than I have fishing.”

Taylor cited a litany of hits to the fishery: Covid’s impacts on the restaurant industry which drives U.S. demand for swords; new U.S. government regulations, including gear restrictions and the possible closure by the Biden administration of New England’s fish-rich Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument; a deluge of cheaper product from Canada dumped in U.S. markets recently; rising fuel prices; and a lack of new blood entering the U.S. commercial fishing industry.

Taylor said the average boat price is about $4, which he calls “unsustainable.”

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Antiquities Act Wrong Tool For Marine Monuments, Say Dozens of Industry Sectors in Letter to Biden

December 21, 2021 — From fishermen to miners, including the American Petroleum Institute and the National Fisheries Institute, 91 individuals signed a letter to President Biden last week urging him to not use the Antiquities Act when designating marine monuments.

The group, representing more than two dozen businesses and communities across the country, cited Biden’s “calls for the administration to establish “fully and highly protected areas” in 30% of the U.S. ocean by 2030, including through marine monuments designated under the Antiquities Act.”

They said concern was heightened by recent decisions to restore a commercial fishing ban in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument and “… join the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, which commits the United States to actions that could lead to further prohibitions,” according to the letter.

“In furtherance of your efforts to unleash the full potential of the nation’s economy and address the impact of rising prices on the American people, and in recognition of your acknowledgement of the essential role that the ocean plays in our economy and livelihoods, … [we]… urge your support for using science-based and transparent processes when considering actions to manage the ocean for current and future generations,” the December 15 letter stated.

Read the full story at Seafood News

Commercial Fishing Prohibited in Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument

December 17, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

President Biden revised the prohibited activities for the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument to include a prohibition on commercial fishing. All commercial fishing, other than for American lobster and Atlantic deep-sea red crab taken with fixed gear, is prohibited within the Monument as of October 8, 2021. American lobster and red crab fisheries are exempted from this prohibition until September 15, 2023, except where restricted under the New England Fishery Management Council’s Deep-Sea Coral Amendment (see below). These prohibitions reinstate the fishing prohibitions outlined in the original Monument proclamation signed by President Obama on September 15, 2016.

The Monument covers underwater seamounts (Bear, Mytilus, Physalia, and Retriever) and submerged canyons (Oceanographer, Gilbert, and Lydonia). You can find more information about the Monument on our Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument webpage and in the Federal Register.

Since the Monument was first designated in 2016, the New England Fishery Management Council developed and NOAA Fisheries approved and implemented (86 FR 33553, June 25, 2021) an Omnibus Deep-Sea Coral Amendment to its fishery management plans. This action prohibited the use of bottom-tending commercial fishing gear (with an exception for red crab pots) within the designated Georges Bank Deep-Sea Coral Protection Area, an area along the outer continental shelf in waters no shallower than 600 m to the Exclusive Economic Zone boundary. This action closed approximately 82 percent of the Monument to fishing earlier this year. This reinstated fishing prohibition applies to the remainder of the Monument area, shown in Figure 1. Lobster fishing with fixed gear may continue in the area of the reinstated Monument fishing restrictions (red hashed area in Figure 1) until September 15, 2023. Fishing for deep-sea red crab with fixed gear may continue throughout the entire area until September 15, 2023. Check out our Frequently Asked Questions about the Monument for more information.

 

MASSACHUSETTS: Monument fishing ban will hurt New Bedford businesses

October 13, 2021 — Just over 30 days ago, the fishing vessel Eagle Eye left federal waters more than 130 miles southeast of Massachusetts to make the 15- to 20-hour trip home to New Bedford Harbor. Its sister vessel, Eagle Eye 2, returned even more recently, with each carrying thousands of pounds of fresh tuna and a bit of swordfish.

John Cafiero, captain of one of the Fairhaven-based vessels, said he and his crew sometimes take multiple trips in the summer to fish in waters that in 2016 were established as a national marine monument. Tuna and swordfish are highly migratory species so sometimes “you don’t want to be in there,” he said, but for the past few years, it has been “really good.”

Cafiero said he didn’t know it then, but that trip might have been his last in the area.

On Oct. 8, President Joe Biden issued a presidential proclamation under the Antiquities Act of 1906 prohibiting commercial fishing in an area of water the size of Connecticut.

The administration cited conservation efforts needed to preserve the “vulnerable” deep marine ecosystems and endangered marine species that inhabit or migrate through the waters. The proclamation restores the commercial fishing restrictions first established by former President Barack Obama in 2016, when he declared two areas of water from surface to seabed as the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument.

Environmental groups lauded the decision. But local fishermen, business owners and industry advocates said the closure deals yet another blow to a highly regulated industry and is unfair as recreational fishing in the monument may continue.

“These boats are more like your uncle’s pizza shop or your dad’s gas station,” said Mike Machado, lead buyer at Boston Sword & Tuna and a former New Bedford fisherman. “They’re small individual companies. They’re not like this big, evil fishing juggernaut.”

Read the full story at The New Bedford Light

 

Local Fishing Industry Upset Over Biden Restoring Marine National Monument

October 12, 2021 — President Biden re-established an area off of the coast of Cape Cod as a marine national monument Friday, a move that has the local fishing industry angry.

The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument was originally created during the Obama administration to preserve the sea life in that region. During the Trump administration, restrictions in the area were scaled back, which allowed for commercial fishing.

Under the new executive action from President Biden, commercial fishing in the area is banned but recreational fishing is allowed. The monument is more than 100 miles southeast off the shore of Cape Cod.

Bob Vanasse of Saving Seafood told WBZ’s Karyn Regal (@karynregal) the trip to the area is one only a chartered fishing boat or mega yacht could make.

“The privileged few are going to allowed to go out and spearfish on the same species that working families in the swordfish and tuna industry will not be able to do,” Vanasse said.

Read the full story at WBZ News

 

Biden’s decision to restore marine monument off Cape Cod is praised and criticized in Maine

October 12, 2021 — President Biden’s decision to restore the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument off Cape Cod got mixed reactions in Maine on Friday. 

But while the decision restores a prohibition on commercial fishing in the area, it is not expected to have much direct impact on the state’s industries because few, if any, Maine boats fish there.

Last year, President Trump opened the 5,000-square-mile area that had first been designated as a national monument by President Obama in 2016. Some Maine commercial fishing groups applauded the decision, even though the area wasn’t frequented by Maine-based fishermen and women. The monument had been seen as a symbolic affront to the industry.

Gov. Janet Mills criticized the Biden administration for taking such a major action without input from stakeholders, including the fishing industry.

“While I support environmental protection and conservation, this major action – which comes just mere weeks after advancing a right whale rule that that will seriously harm New England fishermen – is misguided and premature,” Mills said in a statement. “This decision was made without the appropriate engagement and consultation of stakeholders who deserve to have their voices heard. Fishermen are already reeling from heavy-handed Federal action and this further erodes faith that the Biden Administration will seek consensus from all stakeholders on important decisions impacting the marine environment.”

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald